|
Friday, August 26, 2011
Snopes exposed
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Disabled Vet Battles for Home
After Sgt. Eric Spalding returned from Iraq with a traumatic brain injury and a Purple Heart, his brick ranch in Ypsilanti was his cave, his only haven.
So when his lender, GMAC Mortgage, started foreclosure proceedings, Spalding wasn't going to let the company take the house.
"I didn't have anything else," said Spalding, a gunner who guarded convoys in Iraq for the Michigan National Guard and has a son, Eric. "Where am I going to live? Under a bridge?"
he asked.
Like many borrowers seeking a loan modification, Spalding almost lost his home at sheriff's sale while seeking help with his mortgage payments.
He was wounded in 2007. His troubles began when he returned home and failed to pay his 2008 property taxes. His military pay had been cut in half, a job at General Dynamics was
outsourced, and he said he didn't know he was eligible for disability until later.
GMAC paid the taxes for him to preserve its interest in the property, then rolled them into his mortgage, raising his payments from $1,100 to more than $2,300 a month.
That put him behind on his payments, said Moonson River Eninsche, a foreclosure prevention counselor with the Washtenaw County Treasurer's Office who intervened to help
Spalding.
GMAC and Spalding don't agree on what happened next.
Eninsche said GMAC offered Spalding a three-month trial modification in April, with monthly payments of about $1,430.
According to Spalding, GMAC then offered him a permanent modification. He signed the papers and said he believed his monthly payments would remain $1,430. Yet the next month,
he said, GMAC billed $2,300.
Eninsche said it appeared to him that GMAC was processing two conflicting applications at the same time.
According to GMAC spokesman Jim Olecki, Spalding did not qualify for the federal Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, because he earned too much.
GMAC described several efforts to lower Spalding's loan payments under other programs. In each case, Spalding stopped payment or failed to write a check, forcing GMAC to
cancel the deals, Olecki said.
In October, Eninsche said, GMAC hired a lawyer and began plans to sell the home at auction.
After repeated calls to GMAC, Eninsche said, GMAC called off the sheriff's sale and in November agreed to a permanent modification that lowered Spalding's monthly payment to
around $1,450, including taxes and insurance.
Deb Odom Stern, an Ann Arbor Realtor who also helped Spalding, said she made sure GMAC knew it was dealing with disabled veteran.
Spalding said the experience has resulted in the "total dismantling of my life and credit."
He said he traded one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq for a yearlong fight with GMAC.
It was a fight worth fighting, he said.
He is home for good.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Nero in the White House
Three significant historical events have been eclipsed by Obama: 1) Jimmy Carter will no longer be looked upon as the worst president in American history; 2) Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton will no longer be recognized as the greatest liars in presidential history; 3) Clinton's stain on Monica's dress, and what that did to White House in general and the office of the president specifically, will forever pale in comparison to the stain and stench of Obama.
I need not spend much time on the failure of Obama as president. His tenure has been a failure on every measurable level. So much so, in fact, that some of the staunchest, most respected liberal Democrats and Democratic supporters have not only openly criticized him - some even more harshly than this essayist - but they have called for him to step down.
Richard Nixon's words "I am not a crook," punctuated with his involvement in Watergate, and Bill Clinton's finger-wagging as he told one of the most pathetic lies in presidential history, in the aftermath of Obama, will be viewed as mere prevarications.
Mr. Nixon and Clinton lied to save their backsides. Although, I would argue there are no plausible explanations for doing what they did, I could entertain arguments pursuant to understanding their rationales for lying. But in the case of Obama, he lies because he is a liar. He doesn't only lie to cover his misdeeds - he lies to get his way. He lies to belittle others and to make himself look presentable at their expense. He lies about his faith, his associations, his mother, his father and his wife. He lies and bullies to keep his background secret. His lying is congenital and compounded by socio-psychological factors of his life.
Never in my life, inside or outside of politics, have I witnessed such dishonesty in a political leader. He is the most mendacious political figure I have ever witnessed. Even by the low standards of his presidential predecessors, his narcissistic, contumacious arrogance is unequalled. Using Obama as the bar, Nero would have to be elevated to sainthood.
As the stock markets were crashing, taking with them the remaining life saving of untold tens of thousands, Obama was hosting his own birthday celebration, which was an event of epicurean splendidness. The shamelessness of the event was that it was not a state dinner to welcome foreign dignitaries, nor was it to honor an American accomplishment - it was to honor the Pharaoh, Barack Hussein Obama. The event's sole purpose was for the Pharaoh to have his loyal subjects swill wine, indulge in gluttony and behavior unfit to take place on the property of taxpayers, as they suffer. It was of a magnitude comparable to that of Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski's $2 million birthday extravaganza for its pure lack of respect for the people.
Permit me to digress momentarily. The U.S. Capitol and the White House were built with the intent of bringing awe and respect to America and her people. They were also built with the intent of being the greatest of equalizers. I can tell you, having personally been to both, there is a moment of awe and humility associated with being in the presence of the history of those buildings. They are to be honored and inscribed into our national psyche, not treated as a Saturday night house party at Chicago's Cabrini-Green.
The people of America own that home Obama and his wife continue to debase with their pan-ghetto behavior. It is clear that Obama and family view themselves as royalty, but they're not. They are employees of "we the people," who are suffering because of his failed policies. What message does this behavior send to those who today are suffering as never before?
What message does it send to all Americans who are struggling? Has anyone stopped to think what the stock market downturn forebodes for those 80 million baby boomers who will be retiring in the next period of years? Is there a snowball's chance in the Sahara that every news program on the air would applaud this behavior if it were George W. Bush? To that point, do you remember the media thrashing Bush took for having a barbecue at the White House?
Like Nero - who was only slightly less debaucherous than Caligula - with wine on his lips Obama treated "we the people" the way Caligula treated those over whom he lorded.
Many in America wanted to be proud when the first person of color was elected president, but instead, they have been witness to a congenital liar, a woman who has been ashamed of America her entire life, failed policies, intimidation and a commonality hitherto not witnessed in political leaders. He and his wife view their life at our expense as an entitlement - while America's people go homeless, hungry and unemployed.
“One Nation Under God”
The Republic for the united States of America
Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer: Obama Acts Like He's Above Law on Immigration
Republicans are attacking President Barack Obama for acting like a “king that is above the law” in deciding to pick and choose which illegal aliens to deport.
“The Obama administration cannot get its amnesty schemes through Congress, so now it has resorted to implementing its plans via executive fiat,” said Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.
“We need to remind President Obama that we elected a president that serves beneath the law and did not anoint a king that is above the law.”
Joining her criticisms were two other border-state Republicans, Reps. Michael McCaul and Lamar Smith of Texas.
“It’s just the latest attempt by this president to bypass the intended legislative process when he does not get his way,” McCaul said.
Smith said, “The Obama administration should enforce immigration laws, not look for ways to ignore them."
And Florida Rep. Allen West jumped into the fray, too, calling for a House investigation into the guidelines. In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, he accused Obama of “shredding the Constitution” with the new guidelines. “It is a form of amnesty and it does go against our Constitution and it very much concerns me because now we are rewarding people for an illegal activity,” he said.
“Think about the strain that is going to come on the types of services and things that we have to provide,” West added, saying aliens are getting a free pass.
The plan, called Secure Communities was first announced in June in an agency memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton. But battle lines are being drawn only now following a letter Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sent Democratic senators outlining its plans.
A posting on the ICE website calls it a “simple and common sense way to carry out ICE's priorities,” as it is designed to focus deportation efforts on “criminal aliens, those who pose a threat to public safety and repeat immigration law violators.”
But critics say it is too much like the stalled DREAM Act, a Democratic plan that would have given illegals a path to U.S. citizenship.
“The plan amounts to backdoor amnesty for hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of illegal aliens,” said Brewer, who succeeded Napolitano in the governor’s office in Phoenix.
“The president is encouraging more illegal immigration at the exact moment we need federal focus on border security.”
Brewer pointed to a speech Obama made to the Hispanic civil rights group, the National Council of La Raza, in Washington on July 25, in which he rejected the idea of imposing immigration reform without reference to Congress.
“He said, ‘Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. And, believe me, right now dealing with Congress, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. But that’s not how our system works. That’s not how our democracy functions. That’s not how our Constitution is written.’
“President Obama got it right last month and got it really wrong today,” Brewer said. “Over the next 15 months I’m certain we’ll hear a lot of talk from the Obama administration about its concern for border security. Those of us who truly care about the rule of law will remember the president’s actions.”
Under the plan, Homeland Security and the Justice Department will review all deportation cases to see whether they meet 19 different criteria. About 300,000 deportation cases now under consideration will be included, she said.
Among factors that would be considered favorably are if the potential deportee has been in the United States since childhood, whether they have sought higher education or have served in the military and whether they are caregivers.
The White House insists that the plan is not a path to citizenship or permanent legal status or an amnesty. Cecilia Munoz, the White House’s intergovernmental affairs director, wrote on the White House blog that with an estimated 10 million people in the country illegally, limited resources should be focused on deporting “people who have been convicted of crimes or pose a security risk.”
Munoz said that, since 2008, there has been a 70 percent increase in the number of deportations of people with criminal records while the number of people deported who have no record has gone down.
Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, said, “The message is that as long as you keep your nose clean and do not commit a serious crime, then you don’t have to worry about immigration law enforcement. That’s a pretty strong incentive to stick around.
“It really is attempting to achieve by executive fiat what the Congress won’t do and the American people don’t want, and that really requires a lot of audacity.”
While Republicans attacked the scheme, Democrats welcomed it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said it would focus on “serious felons, gang members and individuals who are a national security threat rather than college students and veterans who have risked their lives for our country.
“I am especially pleased about the impact these new policies will have on those who would benefit from the DREAM Act. We lose a lot by sending them back to countries they do not know.”
And Jason Resnick, general counsel of Western Growers, which represents farming groups added, “We hope this is a move toward an immigration solution that works for agriculture. Even in this time of great unemployment, we are not seeing domestic workers apply for jobs.”
“The Obama administration cannot get its amnesty schemes through Congress, so now it has resorted to implementing its plans via executive fiat,” said Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.
“We need to remind President Obama that we elected a president that serves beneath the law and did not anoint a king that is above the law.”
Joining her criticisms were two other border-state Republicans, Reps. Michael McCaul and Lamar Smith of Texas.
“It’s just the latest attempt by this president to bypass the intended legislative process when he does not get his way,” McCaul said.
Smith said, “The Obama administration should enforce immigration laws, not look for ways to ignore them."
And Florida Rep. Allen West jumped into the fray, too, calling for a House investigation into the guidelines. In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, he accused Obama of “shredding the Constitution” with the new guidelines. “It is a form of amnesty and it does go against our Constitution and it very much concerns me because now we are rewarding people for an illegal activity,” he said.
“Think about the strain that is going to come on the types of services and things that we have to provide,” West added, saying aliens are getting a free pass.
The plan, called Secure Communities was first announced in June in an agency memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton. But battle lines are being drawn only now following a letter Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sent Democratic senators outlining its plans.
A posting on the ICE website calls it a “simple and common sense way to carry out ICE's priorities,” as it is designed to focus deportation efforts on “criminal aliens, those who pose a threat to public safety and repeat immigration law violators.”
But critics say it is too much like the stalled DREAM Act, a Democratic plan that would have given illegals a path to U.S. citizenship.
“The plan amounts to backdoor amnesty for hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of illegal aliens,” said Brewer, who succeeded Napolitano in the governor’s office in Phoenix.
“The president is encouraging more illegal immigration at the exact moment we need federal focus on border security.”
Brewer pointed to a speech Obama made to the Hispanic civil rights group, the National Council of La Raza, in Washington on July 25, in which he rejected the idea of imposing immigration reform without reference to Congress.
“He said, ‘Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. And, believe me, right now dealing with Congress, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. But that’s not how our system works. That’s not how our democracy functions. That’s not how our Constitution is written.’
“President Obama got it right last month and got it really wrong today,” Brewer said. “Over the next 15 months I’m certain we’ll hear a lot of talk from the Obama administration about its concern for border security. Those of us who truly care about the rule of law will remember the president’s actions.”
Under the plan, Homeland Security and the Justice Department will review all deportation cases to see whether they meet 19 different criteria. About 300,000 deportation cases now under consideration will be included, she said.
Among factors that would be considered favorably are if the potential deportee has been in the United States since childhood, whether they have sought higher education or have served in the military and whether they are caregivers.
The White House insists that the plan is not a path to citizenship or permanent legal status or an amnesty. Cecilia Munoz, the White House’s intergovernmental affairs director, wrote on the White House blog that with an estimated 10 million people in the country illegally, limited resources should be focused on deporting “people who have been convicted of crimes or pose a security risk.”
Munoz said that, since 2008, there has been a 70 percent increase in the number of deportations of people with criminal records while the number of people deported who have no record has gone down.
Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, said, “The message is that as long as you keep your nose clean and do not commit a serious crime, then you don’t have to worry about immigration law enforcement. That’s a pretty strong incentive to stick around.
“It really is attempting to achieve by executive fiat what the Congress won’t do and the American people don’t want, and that really requires a lot of audacity.”
While Republicans attacked the scheme, Democrats welcomed it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said it would focus on “serious felons, gang members and individuals who are a national security threat rather than college students and veterans who have risked their lives for our country.
“I am especially pleased about the impact these new policies will have on those who would benefit from the DREAM Act. We lose a lot by sending them back to countries they do not know.”
And Jason Resnick, general counsel of Western Growers, which represents farming groups added, “We hope this is a move toward an immigration solution that works for agriculture. Even in this time of great unemployment, we are not seeing domestic workers apply for jobs.”
Read more on Newsmax.com: Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer: Obama Acts Like He's Above Law on Immigration
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!
IBM offered to help reduce Medicare fraud for free...
There are a lot of websites covering this and Snopes does not refute it. People, they don't want to save money. They just want government controlled health care. It is all about government control, it never was about saving money. It is about socialism. Believe it. Check it out. Educate yourself. The truth will set you free. Know what side you are on.
UNBELIEVABLE!
IBM offered to help reduce Medicare fraud for free...
The offer is true. Mort Zuckermann, US News and World Report, a Democrat, was interviewed on Fox and confirmed it. IBM has confirmed it. You won't believe it.
IBM offered to help reduce Medicare fraud for free...
What if I told you that the Chairman and CEO of IBM, Samuel J. Palmisano, approached President Obama and members of his administration before the healthcare bill debates with a plan that would reduce healthcare expenditures by $900 billion? Given the Obama Administration's adamancy that the United States of America simply had to make healthcare (read: health insurance) affordable for even the most dedicated welfare recipient, one would think he would have leaned forward in his chair, cupped his ear and said, "Tell me more!"
And what if I told you that the cost to the federal government for this program was nothing, zip, nada, zilch?
And, what if I told you that, in the end and after two meetings, President Obama and his team, instead of embracing a program that was proven to save money and one that was projected to save almost one trillion dollars - a private sector program costing the taxpayers nothing, zip, nada, zilch - said, "Thanks but no thanks" and then embarked on passing one of the most despised pieces of legislation in US history?
Well, it's all true.
Samuel J. Palmisano, the Chairman of the Board and CEO for IBM, said in a recent Wall Street Journal interview that he offered to provide the Obama Administration with a program that would curb healthcare claims fraud and abuse by almost one trillion dollars but the Obama White House turned the offer down.
Mr. Palmisano is quoted as saying during a taping of The Wall Street Journal's Viewpoints program on September 14, 2010:
IBM offered to help reduce Medicare fraud for free...
What if I told you that the Chairman and CEO of IBM, Samuel J. Palmisano, approached President Obama and members of his administration before the healthcare bill debates with a plan that would reduce healthcare expenditures by $900 billion? Given the Obama Administration's adamancy that the United States of America simply had to make healthcare (read: health insurance) affordable for even the most dedicated welfare recipient, one would think he would have leaned forward in his chair, cupped his ear and said, "Tell me more!"
And what if I told you that the cost to the federal government for this program was nothing, zip, nada, zilch?
And, what if I told you that, in the end and after two meetings, President Obama and his team, instead of embracing a program that was proven to save money and one that was projected to save almost one trillion dollars - a private sector program costing the taxpayers nothing, zip, nada, zilch - said, "Thanks but no thanks" and then embarked on passing one of the most despised pieces of legislation in US history?
Well, it's all true.
Samuel J. Palmisano, the Chairman of the Board and CEO for IBM, said in a recent Wall Street Journal interview that he offered to provide the Obama Administration with a program that would curb healthcare claims fraud and abuse by almost one trillion dollars but the Obama White House turned the offer down.
Mr. Palmisano is quoted as saying during a taping of The Wall Street Journal's Viewpoints program on September 14, 2010:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4366002/did-white-house-snub-fraud-fighter/
"We could have improved the quality and reduced the cost of the healthcare system by $900 billion....I said we would do it for free to prove that it works. They turned us down."
A second meeting between Mr. Palmisano and the Obama Administration took place two weeks later, with no change in the Obama Administration's stance. A call placed to IBM on October 8, 2010, by FOX News confirmed, via a spokesperson, that Mr. Palmisano stands by his statement.
Speaking with FOX News' Stuart Varney, Mort Zuckerman, Editor-in-Chief of US News & World Report, said,
"It's a little bit puzzling because I think there is a huge amount of both fraud and inefficiency that American business is a lot more comfortable with and more effective in trying to reduce. And this is certainly true because the IBM people have studied this very carefully. And when Palmisano went to the White House and made that proposal, it was based upon a lot of work and it was not accepted. And it's really puzzling...These are very, very responsible people and don't have a political ax to grind.
In Mr. Obama's shunning of a private sector program that would have saved our country almost $1 trillion in healthcare expenditures, presented to him as he declared a "crisis in healthcare," he proves two things beyond any doubt: that he is anti-Capitalist and anti-private sector in nature and that he can no longer be trusted to tell the truth in both his political declarations or espoused goals.
College student shoots home invader, saves 10 lives
Yet another reason to keep a gun in the house . . .
In the first days of May, 2009, in the notoriously dangerous neighborhood of College Park in Atlanta, Georgia, two armed criminals broke into a house party of students.
After confiscating the group's valuables, the invaders split the men and women up into different rooms.
Witnesses say the perpetrators then counted their rounds and discussed if they had "enough" ammunition.
The students believed the gunmen were going to rape and murder the entire group of students, who were celebrating a birthday at the end of the semester.
However, one male student, whose identity is being protected by police and local media, retrieved a handgun from his backpack and fired at the thug who was detaining the men.
(That is: One smart student had prepared for a night in College Park, Atlanta.)
The criminal fled the apartment under the threat of injury and never returned.
The student continued on into the girls' room, found the other thug, 23-year-old Calvin Lavant, preparing to rape his first victim.
The student exchanged gunfire with Lavant, lethally wounding him in the process. Lavant fled through a window and died in front of his apartment, only one building away.
One of the female students was injured during the exchange, but doctors expect a full and complete recovery.
So what's the point?
A student saved the girls from rape, and saved the whole group of 10 people (including himself) from murder . . . and he did it with a handgun.
This is a perfect example of how ludicrous "big city gun laws" are. What if this had happened in New York, Chicago, or any of the other big cities that criminalize their citizens' self defense?
Yes, we would be reading an entirely different story -- one so horrendous that we would shudder at the very words.
Either this whole group of friends would have been raped and murdered by these two sorry excuses for human beings . . . or the hero of this story would be facing prison time for firearm possession and murder.
And that's exactly how gun-grabber Michael Bloomberg and his Mayors Against Illegal Guns want it.
Thankfully, however, Atlanta hasn't outlawed self-defense yet. And since someone had a gun and was willing to use it, innocent life was preserved.
Congratulations to the unnamed hero of this story. You saved your friends' lives.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Obama’s Paradoxes
The Left’s greatest dream is becoming its worst nightmare.
We all receive impassioned fund-raising letters from our almae matres about cruel budget cuts that threaten brilliant research and inspired teaching. But we also know that universities have more drone administrators subsidized by exploited part-time teachers than ever, as the percentage of the college budget devoted to non-instruction is at an all-time high. So do we give money to save a pathological university as it is, or withhold it on the logic that only scarcity will force it to prune unnecessary spending that is not merely superfluous to learning but actually antithetical to it?
When Barack Obama won the election in 2008, he was quite right that the old system needed fixing. America’s debt, its poorly educated youth, its imbalances in trade, its counterproductive tax system, its out-of-control annual spending, its culture of entitlement and subsidies, all in perfect-storm fashion were starting to coalesce and weaken America from within and the perception of America abroad. The statesmanlike thing to do — in the manner of a once-naïve Harry Truman, who woke up to the threat of Soviet-inspired global Communism, or of a Bill Clinton, who finally addressed some of the contradictions of the welfare state and deficit spending — would have been to overhaul the tax system, recalibrate Social Security and Medicare, cut spending, lecture the citizenry on personal responsibility, and address the therapeutic curriculum in our failing schools. With a 70 percent approval rating and supermajorities in both houses of Congress, Obama could have done almost anything throughout 2009.
Instead, he chose the path of Jimmy Carter and the pre-1995 Bill Clinton — even more redistributive state programs, more stifling regulations, more petulant talk about “them,” more class warfare, more debt, and more failed big government.
As a genuine reactionary wedded to the dream of the 1960s, Obama not only rejected the idea of national renewal, but hastened by a decade or so our day of reckoning with the out-of-control welfare state. Was he naïve in thinking that the private sector could be hectored and harassed, and still create enough new wealth to fund his growing redistributive agenda? Or was he Machiavellian in seeing that only by massive new debt, government regulations, and spread-the-wealth programs would America be reduced to the status of just another indebted European-style socialist state — in itself a good and long-overdue thing?
Finally, one last paradox remains: The once-divine Obama will do more to discredit the Left than any other progressive in modern history — as its greatest dream becomes its worst nightmare.
Consider the myriad paradoxes of the Obama age. Unprecedented government borrowing is out of control, unsustainable, and finally causing financial markets to panic. Yet we are told that the necessary cutting ahead will further stall the stalled economy. We went from $9 trillion to $14 trillion in aggregate debt in order to jump-start a sluggish recovery, and failed — only to be warned that if we do not proceed to incur even more debt — from $14 trillion to $16 trillion — we will stall the stalled effort to restart the stalled economy. So more of what did not work most surely will work?
The Left insists that the real problem is not unmanageable debt, but near-record unemployment, as if the two were unrelated. Most Americans apparently once agreed, as Obama easily borrowed nearly $5 trillion in his first two and a half years in office, supposedly to stimulate employers into hiring workers. We are now told the U.S. must borrow more, and should worry less, not more, about paying the money back. The logic of the new Keynesians is that stimulus is never quite achieved because indebtedness is never quite large enough — an Achilles-and-the-tortoise paradox that only insolvency will finally dispel.We all receive impassioned fund-raising letters from our almae matres about cruel budget cuts that threaten brilliant research and inspired teaching. But we also know that universities have more drone administrators subsidized by exploited part-time teachers than ever, as the percentage of the college budget devoted to non-instruction is at an all-time high. So do we give money to save a pathological university as it is, or withhold it on the logic that only scarcity will force it to prune unnecessary spending that is not merely superfluous to learning but actually antithetical to it?
When Barack Obama won the election in 2008, he was quite right that the old system needed fixing. America’s debt, its poorly educated youth, its imbalances in trade, its counterproductive tax system, its out-of-control annual spending, its culture of entitlement and subsidies, all in perfect-storm fashion were starting to coalesce and weaken America from within and the perception of America abroad. The statesmanlike thing to do — in the manner of a once-naïve Harry Truman, who woke up to the threat of Soviet-inspired global Communism, or of a Bill Clinton, who finally addressed some of the contradictions of the welfare state and deficit spending — would have been to overhaul the tax system, recalibrate Social Security and Medicare, cut spending, lecture the citizenry on personal responsibility, and address the therapeutic curriculum in our failing schools. With a 70 percent approval rating and supermajorities in both houses of Congress, Obama could have done almost anything throughout 2009.
Instead, he chose the path of Jimmy Carter and the pre-1995 Bill Clinton — even more redistributive state programs, more stifling regulations, more petulant talk about “them,” more class warfare, more debt, and more failed big government.
As a genuine reactionary wedded to the dream of the 1960s, Obama not only rejected the idea of national renewal, but hastened by a decade or so our day of reckoning with the out-of-control welfare state. Was he naïve in thinking that the private sector could be hectored and harassed, and still create enough new wealth to fund his growing redistributive agenda? Or was he Machiavellian in seeing that only by massive new debt, government regulations, and spread-the-wealth programs would America be reduced to the status of just another indebted European-style socialist state — in itself a good and long-overdue thing?
Finally, one last paradox remains: The once-divine Obama will do more to discredit the Left than any other progressive in modern history — as its greatest dream becomes its worst nightmare.
Subject: Please Read - You Won't Like It!!
|
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Remember in November 2012
[It does not matter your party, take a few minutes to read this and just think about it.]
A few days ago President Barack Obama stated he could not guarantee Social Security checks would be mailed on August 3 if the debt ceiling was not raised. I wonder if I am the only person interested in what he did not say.
For example, what he did not say:
"I will not be able to get my monthly check for $33,333.33, Vice-President Biden will not get his check for $19,225.00, and oh by the way, Michelle will be happy to give up a vacation until we get this mess straightened out.
"Congress will not be able to get their monthly checks which average $14,500.00 per member. My Czars will not be able to receive their checks, some of which receive $14,350.00 per month and others receive $13,208.33 a month.
"My cabinet members will not receive their $15,941.66 monthly check. Their Deputy Secretaries will not be able to receive their $14,350.00 monthly check. Their Under Secretaries will not be able to receive their $13,208.33 monthly check. Their Assistant Secretaries, general counsels, and heads of minor departments will not be able to receive their $12,416.66 monthly check. My various administrators, board members, commissioners, and others will not be able to get their $11,633.33 monthly check.
"The Supreme Court will not be able to receive their $17,341.66 monthly check. The U.S. Appeals Court and Appeals Judges for the Armed Forces will not be able to receive their $14,591.66 monthly check. The U.S. District Court, Claims Court, International Trade Court, and U.S. Tax Court Judges will not be able to receive their $13,766.66 monthly check. And the Bankruptcy and Magistrate Judges will not be able to get their $12,665.33 monthly check.
"The gaggle of Washington TSA bureaucrats will not receive their $8,750.00 monthly checks. The tens of thousands of other various paper shufflers who are pigeon holed in various offices in Washington will not receive their checks which average more than $8,333.33 a month."
Instead, what I heard coming from the lips of the President was that the only folks who should be concerned were people receiving Social Security checks. Isn't it ironic that the only people he feels he cannot assure with any degree of certainty that they will get their checks are the ones who need the money the most? The national average for all Social Security beneficiaries is $1,079.00 monthly, which totals a whopping $12,948.00 yearly; the money coming from a fund that most of them have paid into their entire working lives. Or put another way, the average Social Security recipient gets a check each month that equals about 3% of what the President receives each month; and in theory, they are getting back their own money.
Never mind that the United States Constitution requires the President to pay Principal and Interest on the National Debt, and then Federal Pensions before any other funds can be obligated. It is a foregone conclusion that Mr. Obama missed his constitutional law classes at Harvard.
The mere fact that the President, any President, would threaten in any "thinly veiled" manner that the elderly would not get their pension checks is about as contemptible and fear mongering an effort as any elected official could use for expediency. This is outrageous even for this chronic avoider of the truth! Or put another way, it was really stupid of him to say to a thinking public something that was demonstrably not true. And did you notice the rush of media members to SAY it wasn't true?
All seniors should reward this Prince of Politics in November 2012 in like manner for his obvious lack of respect for our welfare, physical and mental, and his attempt to manipulate the debt ceiling discussion using senior citizens as pawns -- not to mention his ignorance of legal and financial realities. His repeated actions during this financial crisis have placed him in a position worthy of nothing less than contempt, right there beside the pandering news media.
Remember that in November.
PUT AMERICA FIRST!
Stop being a good Democrat. Stop being a good Republican. Start being a good American.
A few days ago President Barack Obama stated he could not guarantee Social Security checks would be mailed on August 3 if the debt ceiling was not raised. I wonder if I am the only person interested in what he did not say.
For example, what he did not say:
"I will not be able to get my monthly check for $33,333.33, Vice-President Biden will not get his check for $19,225.00, and oh by the way, Michelle will be happy to give up a vacation until we get this mess straightened out.
"Congress will not be able to get their monthly checks which average $14,500.00 per member. My Czars will not be able to receive their checks, some of which receive $14,350.00 per month and others receive $13,208.33 a month.
"My cabinet members will not receive their $15,941.66 monthly check. Their Deputy Secretaries will not be able to receive their $14,350.00 monthly check. Their Under Secretaries will not be able to receive their $13,208.33 monthly check. Their Assistant Secretaries, general counsels, and heads of minor departments will not be able to receive their $12,416.66 monthly check. My various administrators, board members, commissioners, and others will not be able to get their $11,633.33 monthly check.
"The Supreme Court will not be able to receive their $17,341.66 monthly check. The U.S. Appeals Court and Appeals Judges for the Armed Forces will not be able to receive their $14,591.66 monthly check. The U.S. District Court, Claims Court, International Trade Court, and U.S. Tax Court Judges will not be able to receive their $13,766.66 monthly check. And the Bankruptcy and Magistrate Judges will not be able to get their $12,665.33 monthly check.
"The gaggle of Washington TSA bureaucrats will not receive their $8,750.00 monthly checks. The tens of thousands of other various paper shufflers who are pigeon holed in various offices in Washington will not receive their checks which average more than $8,333.33 a month."
Instead, what I heard coming from the lips of the President was that the only folks who should be concerned were people receiving Social Security checks. Isn't it ironic that the only people he feels he cannot assure with any degree of certainty that they will get their checks are the ones who need the money the most? The national average for all Social Security beneficiaries is $1,079.00 monthly, which totals a whopping $12,948.00 yearly; the money coming from a fund that most of them have paid into their entire working lives. Or put another way, the average Social Security recipient gets a check each month that equals about 3% of what the President receives each month; and in theory, they are getting back their own money.
Never mind that the United States Constitution requires the President to pay Principal and Interest on the National Debt, and then Federal Pensions before any other funds can be obligated. It is a foregone conclusion that Mr. Obama missed his constitutional law classes at Harvard.
The mere fact that the President, any President, would threaten in any "thinly veiled" manner that the elderly would not get their pension checks is about as contemptible and fear mongering an effort as any elected official could use for expediency. This is outrageous even for this chronic avoider of the truth! Or put another way, it was really stupid of him to say to a thinking public something that was demonstrably not true. And did you notice the rush of media members to SAY it wasn't true?
All seniors should reward this Prince of Politics in November 2012 in like manner for his obvious lack of respect for our welfare, physical and mental, and his attempt to manipulate the debt ceiling discussion using senior citizens as pawns -- not to mention his ignorance of legal and financial realities. His repeated actions during this financial crisis have placed him in a position worthy of nothing less than contempt, right there beside the pandering news media.
Remember that in November.
PUT AMERICA FIRST!
Stop being a good Democrat. Stop being a good Republican. Start being a good American.
"BAD LUCK" BARACK
On his "listening tour" of the Midwest, President Obama can mainly listen to the sound of himself complaining about his "bad luck." In Iowa yesterday, Obama said "in the past six months, we've had a run of bad luck. He cited the Japan earthquake, the Arab Spring, and the European debt crisis. He also said, incredibly, that "we've reversed the recession, avoided a depression, and gotten the economy moving again." In our book Fleeced, we warned that "pessimism is the bodyguard of liberalism." Liberals are always saying that the consequences of their own bad decisions are just the inevitable result of factors beyond their control. Times are tough and will continue to be, they say, we had better get used to it. But Obama's bad luck (Japan excepted) is his own doing. It was his misguided and naïve welcoming of the popular rising in Egypt that triggered the chaos of the Arab Spring and is now giving rise to Islamist regimes in countries once both loyal to the U.S. and at peace with Israel. Instead of stability in this oil rich region, he has helped to usher in war, chaos, and uncertainty that are driving up the price of oil. Nor is he innocent in the Euro debt crisis. It has been his insane borrowing to fund his stimulus spending that has stretched global capital markets to the breaking point, making lenders nervous and less willing to accept debt from risky countries. If the United States had not increased its debt from $10 trillion to $14 trillion in two and a half years, the capital community might be more willing to cut Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal some slack. But it is his comments about the economy that leave one truly breathless. He has "gotten the economy moving again?" He has "reversed the recession?" On what planet is he living? Economic growth has slowed to 0.8 percent in the first half of this year. Unemployment remains at 9.1%. He actually told his Iowa audience that "the economy is better off than when I took office." Really? Back then unemployment was at 7.6%. Continuing with his litany of accomplishments, the president said that he had moved closer than ever before to universal health care. Really? Has he read the Eleventh Circuit court decision striking down the individual mandate that lies at the heart of his health care law? Written by a Democratic judge it heralds the likely overthrow of his misguided legislation by the U.S. Supreme Court. The paucity of achievements he can cite was evident to all who heard or read his remarks on the tour and who witnessed the muted reception he received. He literally has nothing to run on. Despite controlling Congress for two years - and the Senate with sixty votes for one year - he has passed no energy bill, no immigration reform, no program to cope with foreclosures, no real jobs program, no environmental legislation, and no real curbs on Wall Street excesses. His tenure is a nullity. All he has succeeded in doing is driving us further into impossible debt. It's not him. It's just bad luck!
Monday, August 15, 2011
"I'm 63 and I'm Tired"
"I'm 63 and I'm Tired"
by Robert A. Hall
I'm 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked hard since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.
I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.
I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.
I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela ....
I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.
I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.
I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.
I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and mandrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.
I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.
I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I #@*# sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.
I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What's next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I'm not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military.... Those are the citizens we need.
I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.
I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the " Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet.
I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.
Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.
I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.
Yes, I'm tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.
by Robert A. Hall
I'm 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked hard since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.
I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.
I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.
I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela ....
I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.
I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.
I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.
I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and mandrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.
I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.
I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I #@*# sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.
I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What's next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I'm not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military.... Those are the citizens we need.
I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.
I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the " Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet.
I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.
Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.
I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.
Yes, I'm tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Dream Act: Obama passes amnesty by executive order
Krauthammer: Obama Passes Dream Act by EXECUTIVE ORDER....
This just blows me away. The parents of these children are here illegally and should be punished. They are the ones at fault for not making themselves and their children legal citizens. What an insult to everyone who has worked hard to become citizens of the USA.
Last Friday, with no fanfare, no press coverage, and with every effort made to hide his actions from the American people, President Obama enacted the DREAM Act by executive order.
Opposed by a majority of the American people and twice defeated in Congress the DREAM Act grants amnesty to any illegal alien residing in the United States if she/he agrees to enlist in the U.S. military or enter college.
The Obama administration memo from the John Morton, Director of I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) directs I..C.E. agents now to use prosecutorial discretion with regard to enforcing immigration laws.
Director Morton says that Obama Administration policy directs border patrol agents not to enforce immigration laws : When ICE favorably exercises prosecutorial discretion, it essentially decides not to assert the full scope of the enforcement authority available to the agency.
You read that right. According to the Obama administration favorable enforcement means NOT enforcing the law!
According to one of the first press reports to break this important story, the new Obama policy is cut and dried: federal immigration officials do not have to deport illegal aliens if they are enrolled in any type of education
program, if their family members have volunteered for U.S. military service, or even if they are pregnant or nursing..
ALSO: Just recently Obama's Department of Justice (DOJ) blocked Arizona from enforcing its voter ID law. Arizona is one if not the biggest portal of illegal immigration in the nation with half a million illegal aliens coming through the sate annually. Arizona's Attorney General Tom Horne recently stated that he believed that blocking of the law facilitated massive voter fraud by illegal aliens.
Attorney General Tom Horne accused the Obama administration Tuesday of trying to thwart Arizona's voter-ID laws in a bid to get more illegal immigrants to the polls presumably to cast ballots for the president and Democrats.
Horne acknowledged that a brief filed by the Department of Justice in a case to be heard next month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals centers around the agency's argument that Arizona's law requiring proof of citizenship to register is pre-empted by federal law. But Horne, a Republican, told Capitol Media Services he sees something more sinister, ......The 2012 presidential elections.
First we have amnesty passed by executive order then we have President Obama's DOJ blocking voter ID in Arizona. What could possibly be the president's motive? This story has the potential to bring the Obama
Administration to its knees.The momentum can be on our side and just e-mailing it to others can create a critical mass. Don't assume you have no power. You do!
MORE:
Who needs Congressional authority when you can govern by executive fiat? A new enforcement memo handed down by the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week has some accusing the White House of
running around Congress to implement the DREAM Act and consequent amnesty for some illegal immigrants by executive fiat. The new memo, penned by ICE Director John Morton, directs ICE agents, attorneys and directors to exercise prosecutorial discretion meaning less likelihood of deportation for illegal aliens who have been students
in the U.S ., who have been in the country since childhood or who have served in the American military. Morton's excuse for the memo - not enough resources:
Specifically, the memo argues, Because the agency is confronted with more violations than its resources can address, the agency must regularly exercise prosecutorial discretion.
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer calls this maneuver a Constitutional breech pointing out that it is Congress's responsibility to enact laws: This is outright lawlessness on the part of the administration, argued
syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer on a discussion panel with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. Whatever the politics of this, we do have a Constitution. And under it, the Legislature, the Congress enacts the laws and the executive executes them. It doesn't make them up. The DREAM Act was rejected by Congress, Krauthammer continued. It is now being enacted by the executive, despite the express will of the Congress. That is lawless. It may not be an explicit executive order; it's an implicit one. The Obama administration IS explicitly running an end-run around the will of the people and their representative government. First Libya and now this.
Last Friday, with no fanfare, no press coverage, and with every effort made to hide his actions from the American people, President Obama enacted the DREAM Act by executive order.
Opposed by a majority of the American people and twice defeated in Congress the DREAM Act grants amnesty to any illegal alien residing in the United States if she/he agrees to enlist in the U.S. military or enter college.
The Obama administration memo from the John Morton, Director of I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) directs I..C.E. agents now to use prosecutorial discretion with regard to enforcing immigration laws.
Director Morton says that Obama Administration policy directs border patrol agents not to enforce immigration laws : When ICE favorably exercises prosecutorial discretion, it essentially decides not to assert the full scope of the enforcement authority available to the agency.
You read that right. According to the Obama administration favorable enforcement means NOT enforcing the law!
According to one of the first press reports to break this important story, the new Obama policy is cut and dried: federal immigration officials do not have to deport illegal aliens if they are enrolled in any type of education
program, if their family members have volunteered for U.S. military service, or even if they are pregnant or nursing..
ALSO: Just recently Obama's Department of Justice (DOJ) blocked Arizona from enforcing its voter ID law. Arizona is one if not the biggest portal of illegal immigration in the nation with half a million illegal aliens coming through the sate annually. Arizona's Attorney General Tom Horne recently stated that he believed that blocking of the law facilitated massive voter fraud by illegal aliens.
Attorney General Tom Horne accused the Obama administration Tuesday of trying to thwart Arizona's voter-ID laws in a bid to get more illegal immigrants to the polls presumably to cast ballots for the president and Democrats.
Horne acknowledged that a brief filed by the Department of Justice in a case to be heard next month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals centers around the agency's argument that Arizona's law requiring proof of citizenship to register is pre-empted by federal law. But Horne, a Republican, told Capitol Media Services he sees something more sinister, ......The 2012 presidential elections.
First we have amnesty passed by executive order then we have President Obama's DOJ blocking voter ID in Arizona. What could possibly be the president's motive? This story has the potential to bring the Obama
Administration to its knees.The momentum can be on our side and just e-mailing it to others can create a critical mass. Don't assume you have no power. You do!
MORE:
Who needs Congressional authority when you can govern by executive fiat? A new enforcement memo handed down by the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week has some accusing the White House of
running around Congress to implement the DREAM Act and consequent amnesty for some illegal immigrants by executive fiat. The new memo, penned by ICE Director John Morton, directs ICE agents, attorneys and directors to exercise prosecutorial discretion meaning less likelihood of deportation for illegal aliens who have been students
in the U.S ., who have been in the country since childhood or who have served in the American military. Morton's excuse for the memo - not enough resources:
Specifically, the memo argues, Because the agency is confronted with more violations than its resources can address, the agency must regularly exercise prosecutorial discretion.
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer calls this maneuver a Constitutional breech pointing out that it is Congress's responsibility to enact laws: This is outright lawlessness on the part of the administration, argued
syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer on a discussion panel with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. Whatever the politics of this, we do have a Constitution. And under it, the Legislature, the Congress enacts the laws and the executive executes them. It doesn't make them up. The DREAM Act was rejected by Congress, Krauthammer continued. It is now being enacted by the executive, despite the express will of the Congress. That is lawless. It may not be an explicit executive order; it's an implicit one. The Obama administration IS explicitly running an end-run around the will of the people and their representative government. First Libya and now this.
What's next Mr. President?
Update: It appears John Ransom at Townhall saw this coming. John posted this on May 12th titled Crass and Cynical on Illegal Immigration.
The guy who rushed out to get trillions for banks, big pharmaceuticals and unions, practically ignored the topic of immigration reform when his guys ran Congress for two years and could have written their own version.
Indeed one of his wise-guys from Chicago, Rep Luis Gutierrez recently noted [Obama] has the power to make things better right now without the Congress having to pass any new laws.
YES.... he can just do what he did for gays, unions, Chicago and all of his other cronies: He can ignore enforcing the old laws he doesn't like. Or maybe he can grant every illegal immigrant a waiver, like he did for his favorites under healthcare reform.
AGAIN: What could possibly be the president's motive?
This story has the potential to bring the Obama Administration to its knees.
The momentum can be on our side and just e-mailing it to others can create a critical mass. Don't assume you have no power. You do!
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/politics/article_0f8873ac-9157-11e0-b5be-001cc4c002e0.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/58465866/Prosecutorial-Discretion-Morton-Second-Memo-June-17-2011>
Update: It appears John Ransom at Townhall saw this coming. John posted this on May 12th titled Crass and Cynical on Illegal Immigration.
The guy who rushed out to get trillions for banks, big pharmaceuticals and unions, practically ignored the topic of immigration reform when his guys ran Congress for two years and could have written their own version.
Indeed one of his wise-guys from Chicago, Rep Luis Gutierrez recently noted [Obama] has the power to make things better right now without the Congress having to pass any new laws.
YES.... he can just do what he did for gays, unions, Chicago and all of his other cronies: He can ignore enforcing the old laws he doesn't like. Or maybe he can grant every illegal immigrant a waiver, like he did for his favorites under healthcare reform.
AGAIN: What could possibly be the president's motive?
This story has the potential to bring the Obama Administration to its knees.
The momentum can be on our side and just e-mailing it to others can create a critical mass. Don't assume you have no power. You do!
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/politics/article_0f8873ac-9157-11e0-b5be-001cc4c002e0.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/58465866/Prosecutorial-Discretion-Morton-Second-Memo-June-17-2011>
Friday, August 12, 2011
Profiles of Valor
Kimberly Vaughn, wife of SEAL Aaron Vaughn, who was among 30 American Patriots and seven Afghan allies killed on Aug. 6, offered these words to CNN: "There was no way -- even if you could tell him that this would have happened he would have done it anyway. All those men are like that. They're selfless. I want to tell the world that he was an amazing man, that he was a wonderful husband and a fabulous father to two wonderful children. He was a warrior for Christ and he was a warrior for our country and he wouldn't want to leave this Earth any other way than how he did." When CNN aired her comments in subsequent stories, however, "He was a warrior for Christ" was, despicably, edited out.
Commentary by Gaylon Barrow
This saddens me for the way our country has turned. It has let the atheist and unpatriotic people like our President, who will not salute the flag, even states he hates America, the flag and the National Antheum. This nation according to Obama, all need to be changed to be peaceful like the Islamic States. Can you even guess my seniments. To this young lady who lost her hero in the prime of his life and for the children of these two brave patriots. May God Bless them. I know there is still enough God Fearing Americans in this nation who feel the same as I. We need to remember at voting time to rid ouselves of the abomination, that has taken control of the Democrat Party. Rid ourselves of these people. Honer this family, and bless this wife who is now left to raise hers and our hero's children. May God reach out to her, guide her through her pain. I am a military man with a past 30 years of service. I know all veterans will join me, in saying CNN get with the program, we know your Liberal. There is no calling for you to omit God like the committee who was over Franklin D. Roosevelt's statue did. The memorial of his speech he made after the treachous attack by the Japanese. The last sentence he made was omitted from the memorial. "SO HELP ME GOD". To you young lady who so honorably gave us your husband. May God walk by your side throughout your lifetime. "SO HELP ME GOD".
Commentary by Gaylon Barrow
This saddens me for the way our country has turned. It has let the atheist and unpatriotic people like our President, who will not salute the flag, even states he hates America, the flag and the National Antheum. This nation according to Obama, all need to be changed to be peaceful like the Islamic States. Can you even guess my seniments. To this young lady who lost her hero in the prime of his life and for the children of these two brave patriots. May God Bless them. I know there is still enough God Fearing Americans in this nation who feel the same as I. We need to remember at voting time to rid ouselves of the abomination, that has taken control of the Democrat Party. Rid ourselves of these people. Honer this family, and bless this wife who is now left to raise hers and our hero's children. May God reach out to her, guide her through her pain. I am a military man with a past 30 years of service. I know all veterans will join me, in saying CNN get with the program, we know your Liberal. There is no calling for you to omit God like the committee who was over Franklin D. Roosevelt's statue did. The memorial of his speech he made after the treachous attack by the Japanese. The last sentence he made was omitted from the memorial. "SO HELP ME GOD". To you young lady who so honorably gave us your husband. May God walk by your side throughout your lifetime. "SO HELP ME GOD".
Thursday, August 11, 2011
FBI Has Mixed Views of Obama Administration
The FBI has mixed views of the Obama administration, according to candid assessments of Arthur M. “Art” Cummings II, who headed FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations until last year.
For my new book “The Secrets of the FBI,” Cummings told me that after announcing its decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City, the Justice Department asked Cummings to prepare an assessment of the security threat that such a trial would pose there.
Editor's Note: Get Ron Kessler's book. Go here now.
Cummings resisted. He figured such an assessment from the FBI would be used for political purposes by both Democrats and Republicans. In any case, he never thought the New York idea, which he believed was irresponsible, would ever be carried out.
The effort by Obama administration officials to publicly use euphemisms such as “man-caused disasters” to refer to terrorism or to avoid the terms “Islamists” or “jihadists” in describing the enemy galled Cummings.
“Terrible, terrible” is the way Cummings described those ideas. “Of course Islamists dominate the terrorism of today,” he says. Besides hunting down al-Qaida, Cummings had to contend with bureaucratic rivalries. The Department of Homeland Security could not manage its own immigration responsibilities yet tried to become involved in a range of counterterrorism decisions that were the purview of the FBI, Cummings says.
Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security, maintained that her department should have a “vote” on whether or not to Mirandize a suspect, Cummings says. “It’s the insanity of Washington when representatives of Homeland Security believe they might have a say in whether or not the FBI Mirandizes or doesn’t Mirandize somebody,” Cummings says. “They should not be getting involved in tactical CT [counterterrorism] operational decisions.”
Another agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), often got in the way and produced little of value to the bureau, he says.
While the 9/11 commission originally envisioned the office as having several hundred employees to coordinate the intelligence community, the staff has ballooned to 1,500. A small segment of those employees work for the National Counterterrorism Center, which is vital, but the rest of ODNI produces little that Cummings could see to enhance the intelligence effort.
That point was symbolized when Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. admitted in a December 2010 interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer that he was unaware of the arrests of 12 terrorists in London. It had been all over the news for most of the day. Cummings regarded Clapper as by far the most qualified DNI to have held the post. But the embarrassing lapse spotlighted the folly of creating a bureaucracy on top of operational agencies already on the alert for terror threats.
On the other hand, Cummings has no problem with the policy of both the Obama and Bush administrations that FBI agents read terrorists their rights. He believes that in most cases, the FBI can obtain the intelligence it needs to stop future plots by remaining within the framework of the legal system, including by administering Miranda warnings. The trick is to confront suspects before they are in custody, give them incentives to talk, and establish rapport.
In a rare exception, because he had to be arrested on the spot, that did not happen with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day of 2009. The 23-year-old suspect talked freely at first.
“In the first hour, he gave us really good information on the front end,” Cummings says. “‘Yep, I did this on behalf of al-Qaida. Yep, it was in Yemen.’” He gave up names, places, training camps. Then he was transported to the University of Michigan Medical Center for a medical procedure. After that, he started to clam up.
“He was under the influence of painkillers, and they’d scrubbed the skin to remove the burnt skin,” Cummings says. As the narcotics wore off, two new agents went in to see him. They were instructed to deal with conditions on the ground as they saw them.
The agents saw the Nigerian the day after his arrest. He was praying. They began by asking elementary questions he had already answered. “He either lied or didn’t give them the answer,” Cummings says. “And at that point, they were like, he’s done. So then they gave him Miranda.”
Over the next five weeks, the FBI worked on him. The focus was on finding out what he cared about. “Is it his mother, is it his family, is it his future?” Cummings says. “Is it shame upon his family? We offer them the possibility that instead of dying in an American prison, maybe sometime in their lifetime they will actually be able to go home and see their family, and they won’t be executed and die at the hands of this nation they hate so much.”
Cummings sent two agents to Nigeria to learn everything they could about Abdulmutallab’s background and family. “They engaged his family and explained this is really, really serious, and it's in the best interest of your son that we cut a deal of some sort,” Cummings says.
One agent moved in with Abdulmutallab’s uncle, then flew him to Detroit. Later, his father flew to Detroit as well. Both told Abdulmutallab it was in his interest to listen to the agent.
Five weeks after he had stopped talking, Abdulmutallab was cooperating again.
“The intelligence community operators are doing a good job,” Cummings, who was the FBI’s executive assistant director, told me. “It’s the massive bureaucracy around them that slows things down and frustrates the effort. You have this big planning machine generating endless meetings. We would walk out of the meetings shaking our heads.”
Read more on Newsmax.com: FBI Has Mixed Views of Obama Administration
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!
For my new book “The Secrets of the FBI,” Cummings told me that after announcing its decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City, the Justice Department asked Cummings to prepare an assessment of the security threat that such a trial would pose there.
Editor's Note: Get Ron Kessler's book. Go here now.
 |
| Ron Kessler's latest |
Cummings resisted. He figured such an assessment from the FBI would be used for political purposes by both Democrats and Republicans. In any case, he never thought the New York idea, which he believed was irresponsible, would ever be carried out.
The effort by Obama administration officials to publicly use euphemisms such as “man-caused disasters” to refer to terrorism or to avoid the terms “Islamists” or “jihadists” in describing the enemy galled Cummings.
“Terrible, terrible” is the way Cummings described those ideas. “Of course Islamists dominate the terrorism of today,” he says. Besides hunting down al-Qaida, Cummings had to contend with bureaucratic rivalries. The Department of Homeland Security could not manage its own immigration responsibilities yet tried to become involved in a range of counterterrorism decisions that were the purview of the FBI, Cummings says.
Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security, maintained that her department should have a “vote” on whether or not to Mirandize a suspect, Cummings says. “It’s the insanity of Washington when representatives of Homeland Security believe they might have a say in whether or not the FBI Mirandizes or doesn’t Mirandize somebody,” Cummings says. “They should not be getting involved in tactical CT [counterterrorism] operational decisions.”
Another agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), often got in the way and produced little of value to the bureau, he says.
While the 9/11 commission originally envisioned the office as having several hundred employees to coordinate the intelligence community, the staff has ballooned to 1,500. A small segment of those employees work for the National Counterterrorism Center, which is vital, but the rest of ODNI produces little that Cummings could see to enhance the intelligence effort.
That point was symbolized when Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. admitted in a December 2010 interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer that he was unaware of the arrests of 12 terrorists in London. It had been all over the news for most of the day. Cummings regarded Clapper as by far the most qualified DNI to have held the post. But the embarrassing lapse spotlighted the folly of creating a bureaucracy on top of operational agencies already on the alert for terror threats.
On the other hand, Cummings has no problem with the policy of both the Obama and Bush administrations that FBI agents read terrorists their rights. He believes that in most cases, the FBI can obtain the intelligence it needs to stop future plots by remaining within the framework of the legal system, including by administering Miranda warnings. The trick is to confront suspects before they are in custody, give them incentives to talk, and establish rapport.
In a rare exception, because he had to be arrested on the spot, that did not happen with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day of 2009. The 23-year-old suspect talked freely at first.
“In the first hour, he gave us really good information on the front end,” Cummings says. “‘Yep, I did this on behalf of al-Qaida. Yep, it was in Yemen.’” He gave up names, places, training camps. Then he was transported to the University of Michigan Medical Center for a medical procedure. After that, he started to clam up.
“He was under the influence of painkillers, and they’d scrubbed the skin to remove the burnt skin,” Cummings says. As the narcotics wore off, two new agents went in to see him. They were instructed to deal with conditions on the ground as they saw them.
The agents saw the Nigerian the day after his arrest. He was praying. They began by asking elementary questions he had already answered. “He either lied or didn’t give them the answer,” Cummings says. “And at that point, they were like, he’s done. So then they gave him Miranda.”
Over the next five weeks, the FBI worked on him. The focus was on finding out what he cared about. “Is it his mother, is it his family, is it his future?” Cummings says. “Is it shame upon his family? We offer them the possibility that instead of dying in an American prison, maybe sometime in their lifetime they will actually be able to go home and see their family, and they won’t be executed and die at the hands of this nation they hate so much.”
Cummings sent two agents to Nigeria to learn everything they could about Abdulmutallab’s background and family. “They engaged his family and explained this is really, really serious, and it's in the best interest of your son that we cut a deal of some sort,” Cummings says.
One agent moved in with Abdulmutallab’s uncle, then flew him to Detroit. Later, his father flew to Detroit as well. Both told Abdulmutallab it was in his interest to listen to the agent.
Five weeks after he had stopped talking, Abdulmutallab was cooperating again.
“The intelligence community operators are doing a good job,” Cummings, who was the FBI’s executive assistant director, told me. “It’s the massive bureaucracy around them that slows things down and frustrates the effort. You have this big planning machine generating endless meetings. We would walk out of the meetings shaking our heads.”
Read more on Newsmax.com: FBI Has Mixed Views of Obama Administration
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)