Showing posts with label Democrats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Democrats. Show all posts

Monday, July 27, 2015

Democrat on powerful Foreign Affairs Committee goes on record opposing Iran deal, but DNC head can’t make up her mind

At least one Democrat has stopped goose-stepping with Barack Obama toward a nuclear Iran.

Calling the recently announced Joint Comprehensive Plan for Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the P5+1 powers “historic … for all the wrong reasons,” Rep. Juan Vargas (D – Calif.), who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote that he will vote against the nuclear agreement in an op-ed published Saturday in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Vargas argued that instead of providing limited sanctions relief and cutting Iran’s “path to a nuclear bomb,” the deal gives Tehran a “rapid payday” of up to $150 billion and “[legitimizes] its path to nuclear-threshold status.” The congressman noted that Iran never explained its past nuclear work to international inspectors and continues defying demands to do so.

Vargas further pointed out that the JCPOA threatens to spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East by allowing Iran to become a nuclear-threshold state. In addition to failing to stem Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Vargas criticized the deal for failing “to halt Iran’s aggressive imperialism in the Middle East.” He also observed that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah, praised the deal because it “will also reinforce the position of [Iran’s] allies.”

...Declaring that the vote is “not a partisan issue,” but “an issue of national security,” Vargas urged his Congressional colleagues to oppose the deal.

Conversely, the chairperson of the Democrat National Committee, a Jewish representative named Debbie Wasserman Schultz (whose district is heavily Jewish) just can't seem to make up her mind. It's all so confusing.

BECAUSE WE’RE NOT BROKE ENOUGH: Obama Poised to Give College Education Grants to Prisoners

I have this queasy feeling in my stomach that upon leaving office, Barack Obama will mass-pardon tens of thousands of federal prisoners. The odious Slate Magazine hinted at this last year (don't click, the site is definitely not sanitized for your protection).

But I just have this strange vibe, which only grows stronger when I read something like this.

More prisoners may soon have access to federal subsidies to pay for college under a new Obama administration initiative, ending a 20-year ban on Pell grants for state and federal prisoners.

The move could come as soon as this week. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Loretta Lynch are scheduled to visit ... the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup on Friday, to make “an important announcement related to federal aid.”

On Monday, Duncan said that restoring Pell eligibility for those potential students is one way his agency hopes to "increase college affordability" [Ed: quotes added for comic effect]...

...The Obama administration has increased total federal aid available to students by more than $50 billion and increased tax benefits and credits by an additional $12 billion, part of a total of about $150 billion a year in grants and loans for higher education...

Sure, when your country is the brokest nation on Earth and the brokest nation in history, why not?

Fueled by rampant intervention into the student loan business by the government, the costs of college have exploded ("Instapundit" Glenn Reynolds wrote an outstanding book on the topic entitled The Higher Education Bubble, a startlingly ominous description of the problems surrounding a college degree that costs more than many homes).

So let's go further in debt paying for college for felons, when our kids are left high and dry, with outrageous tuition bills and a federal debt that is destined to crush them.

But that's entirely consistent if you use Obamalogic: felons and illegal aliens are more virtuous than your children; and Iran can be trusted with ballistic missiles and nukes while you shouldn't be able to own a handgun.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

30 Blocks of Government Incompetence

By Jim Quinn

There were two accidents on the Schuylkill Expressway last Monday morning. You know what this meant. I had the pleasure of traveling to work on the scenic 30 Blocks of Squalor. The 30 blocks from 69th Street in Upper Darby to 39th Street in West Philly is a tribute to government incompetence, failed government policies, shoddy union labor practices and fiscal mismanagement.

This entire thirty block trek could be completed in 5 to 10 minutes if the hundreds of union government drones in the Philadelphia Streets Department would get off their fat asses and timed the lights. The blocks are identical in distance. They don’t need advanced degrees in physics or calculus to set the lights to go green every ten seconds in order. They were timed in the 1970s and 1980s. Would smoothly flowing traffic be such a bad thing? Do they not care or are they really this incompetent? The first light at 61st Street was red when I arrived. It turned green and before you could touch the gas, it immediately turned yellow and red again. I wondered how long they’d allow this to go on. My guess would be days.

I’ve noted in previous 30 Blocks screeds that Philadelphia put a thin veneer of blacktop on the entirety of Chestnut Street about two years ago. I’ve also detailed the dozens of water main breaks that occur on a regular basis under the streets of Philadelphia, causing tens of millions in property damage. This is how corrupt incompetent government drones run the show. They gloss over the long-term real structural problems with a thin veneer of cheap half assed faux solutions that provide the false appearance of fixing something.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

The irony of the expulsions from Gaza

By Caroline Glick

Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza 10 years ago was a strategic disaster. But it could have been much more devastating if the ideologues behind it had had their way.

Formally, the withdrawal was supposed to do two things. It was supposed to strengthen Israel’s diplomatic position vis-à-vis the US and Europe by demonstrating Israel’s commitment to Palestinian statehood, and it was supposed to enhance Israel’s security by redeploying the IDF along more defensible lines.

Neither argument for the withdrawal was particularly plausible. But due to the media’s lockstep support for it, neither was seriously challenged.

The truth is, these justifications were never anything more than a smoke screen to hide the true purpose of the withdrawal from the public. The real purpose of the withdrawal from Gaza was to deal a strategic blow to Zionism and the Jewish character of the state.

The destruction of those communities – and the expulsion of the 350,000 Jews who live in them – was also not an end unto itself. For the leftist ideologues who invented the idea of unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza, destroying the settlement enterprise is a necessary precondition for destroying religious Zionism.

And religious Zionism has to be destroyed in order to destroy Zionism.

This true purpose of the Gaza withdrawal was made clear by leftist ideologues in the months that preceded the withdrawal.

THE $400 COLLEGE TEXTBOOK IS HERE: Thanks, Government Intervention into Student Loans and Higher Education!

By Mark J. Perry

A new milestone must have been established recently – we’re now officially in a new era of the $400 new college textbook and the $300 used college textbook, see accompanying graphic showing the top 15 most expensive textbooks at the University of Michigan-Flint based on a new unpublished report by Matthew Wolverton, an electronic resource management librarian at the Thompson Library (UM-Flint’s library). The graphic below shows the most expensive college textbooks by discipline at UM-Flint, based on the average price of new textbooks for each discipline in winter 2015 semester.

For business students taking five classes per semester and paying an average of $250 per textbook, their textbook bill would be $2,500 per year and $10,000 over four years! Of course, those students would be taking courses in non-business disciplines where the average textbook price is lower, but even at an average price of $200 per new textbook, students could be facing costs as high as $8,000 over four years. And even though renting textbooks is a less expensive option compared to purchasing books, rental costs per semester are running above $200 per new book and well above $100 per used textbook (and as high as $180), see top graphic above. Even if students could rent used textbooks for all of their college classes at $100 per course (which is probably on the low side), that would still amount to $1,000 per year (for ten classes) and $4,000 over four years (for 40 classes).

The graph below shows the historical increase in college textbooks (981%) between 1978 and 2014 in comparison to increases in the overall CPI (262%), the CPI for medical care (604%), and the median sales price for new homes (408%) over that 37-year period. Textbook prices seem like they are clearly on an unsustainable trajectory, especially in the face of new low-cost alternatives as discussed below.

You won’t believe this stunning and credible theory on the secret Iranian nuclear side deals

A note from a reader stuck a chord with me and I thought I'd pass it along, edited slightly for clarity:

John Kerry is lying when he claims he doesn't know what is in the Iranian side deals. He would rather pretend ignorance than admit their contents.

No one calls the ruling class on their lies. With a dysfunctional media -- that is now fully intertwined with the government -- the American people are left bereft of real news and thoughtful analysis.

We live in an alternate reality. Nothing is real, except their lies and only their lies. Lies are now the truth.

As for me, I believe the secret side deals with Iran are quite specific. Incredibly specific.

And I believe they call for an international military alliance and a protective force for Iran. An international force, sponsored by the United Nations.

And that deal is to protect Iran... from Israel.

We already knew this administration represented an existential threat to Israel, from its calls for pre-1967 "Holocaust borders" to its repeated intelligence leaks.

This sets the stage, ladies and gentlemen, for global aggression. Against Israel. And reprisals. Financial. Diplomatic. Even the boys in blue, firing their weapons for the very first time in recorded history.

Against the Jews.

It's called Armageddon.


Related: Former Marine Strike Planner on Obama's Azerbaijan Leak: "Start viewing this administration as an existential threat to Israel".
 

Saturday, July 25, 2015

FORMER SAUDI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: Obama’s Iran Deal is Far Worse Than the One With North Korea

In a recent letter to the editors of the Washington Post, the former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. blasted the Obama-Kerry-Iran nuclear deal in no uncertain terms.

Pundits are saying that President Obama’s Iran deal stirs deja vu of President Clinton’s 1994 North Korean nuclear deal [“A landmark nuclear pact with Iran,” front page, July 15]. I humbly disagree. President Clinton made his decision based on a strategic foreign policy analysis, top-secret intelligence and a desire to save the people of North Korea from starvation induced by its leadership.

It turned out that the strategic foreign policy analysis was wrong. If Mr. Clinton had known about the major intelligence failure, he would have made a different decision. Mr. Obama made his decision on the Iran nuclear deal aware that the strategic foreign policy analysis, the national intelligence information and intelligence from U.S. allies in the region predict a worse outcome than in North Korea — and Iran will have access to billions of dollars.

This deal will wreak havoc in the Middle East, which is already a disastrous environment. Iran is a major player in the destabilization of the region. Why would Mr. Obama go ahead with such a deal with Iran? It is definitely not because Mr. Obama is not smart enough, because he is. He must believe that what he is doing is right. Still, I am convinced that my good friend Henry Kissinger was correct when he said, “America’s enemies should fear America, but America’s friends should fear America more.”

People in my region now are relying on God’s will and consolidating their local capabilities and analyses with everyone except our oldest and most powerful ally.

Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia


Hat tip: Western Journalism.
 

Congress "Alarmed" by Secret Side-Deals in Iran Nuclear Pact

Writing at Bloomberg View, investigative journalists Eli Lake and Josh Rogin reveal new and crucial details of Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran. As we find out more about the nature of the deal, it is little wonder that members of Congress are growing increasingly "alarmed" (emphases mine).

As the White House campaign to persuade Congress about the wisdom of its Iran nuclear deal moves into its second week, important components of the complex agreement are emerging that will be shrouded from the public and in some cases from the U.S. government itself.

The existence of these secret clauses and interpretations could undermine the public's trust in the Barack Obama administration's presentations about the nuclear pact. Already Republicans and other critics of the deal have seized on the side agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency as a weakness in the deal closed last week in Vienna.

The controversy began on Wednesday when Secretary of State John Kerry told House lawmakers behind closed doors that he neither possessed nor had read a copy of two secret side deals between the IAEA and Iran, according to Representative Mike Pompeo, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee who was inside the session. Congress hasn't seen those side agreements either.

“Kerry told me directly that he has not read the secret side deals,” Pompeo told us in an interview. “He told us the State Department does not have possession of these documents.”

Any "agreement" with a country that has dedicated itself to your destruction is inherently insane. The legacy of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry will center around the transformation of Iran from a terror state into a nuclear terror state.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

HISTORIC: Obama administration cripples ability of Inspectors General to investigate corruption and fraud in government

By Kathryn Watson

Department of Justice officials gave official approval Thursday to the FBI’s practice of blocking access to data and documents in a decision that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said “undermines” his ability to do his job and violates the will of Congress.

“Today’s opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel undermines the IG’s independence, which is a hallmark of the Inspector General system and is essential to carrying out the IG’s oversight responsibilities under the Inspector General Act,” Horowitz said.

“The OLC’s opinion restricts the IG’s ability to independently access all records in the Justice Department’s possession that are necessary for our audits, reviews, and investigations, and is contrary to the principles and express language set forth in the Inspector General Act,” Horowitz said.

The much-anticipated OLC memorandum said the FBI can use the Patriot Act to withhold wiretapping, surveillance and credit records from the DOJ IG.

After a years-long battle with the FBI over these types of records, Horowitz and other inspectors general had hoped for a very different outcome in a decision that could have negative ripple effects for other inspectors general appointed to expose waste, fraud and abuse.

The OLC opinion also claims Section 218 of the DOJ’s current budget, which prohibits any agency within the department from using its budget to block IG access, was insufficiently clear.

But Horowitz strongly disagreed, saying “Congress meant what it said when it authorized Inspectors General to independently access ‘all’ documents necessary to conduct effective oversight. Without such access, our office’s ability to conduct its work will be significantly impaired, and it will be more difficult for us to detect and deter waste, fraud, and abuse, and to protect taxpayer dollars. We look forward to working with the Congress and the Justice Department to promptly remedy this serious situation.”

WELL, THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY: Iranian Leader Posts Picture of Obama Shooting Himself in the Head

Ah, nothing says peaceful coexistence like a prospective suicide note to a negotiating partner.


As The Right Scoop observes, "But we were told that everyone’s totally happy about the Iran deal and they love us now."

Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

Obama Trusts a Terror State, But Not the American People

By Richard Larsen

It’s disturbing to witness the collapse of logic, especially when perpetrated by our own president. After all, if we were to believe what so many of his devotees claim prima facie, he’s among the smartest on the planet. But his nuclear deal with Iran proves to the contrary; not just by its terms, but his illogic in support of it.

President Obama said this week, with regard to the agreement inked with Iran, “There really are only two alternatives here. Either the issue of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is resolved diplomatically through a negotiation or it’s resolved through force, through war. Those are—those are the options.” There are so many more options available, that even he should be aware of, yet he’s reduced to employing the common false dichotomy, or fallacy of bifurcation, in support of it. But it explains his inanity in signing a deal that all but assures a nuclear Iran in the foreseeable future, and further underscores why Obamacare was foisted upon the nation; to him, there are but two options – his way or no way at all.

Obama added that no better deal was or is possible than the one he has negotiated. Since the bargaining table was approached from a position of weakness, acquiescence, and appeasement, he’s likely correct. But if the process had been approached from a position of strength, like Reagan did with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, then the final agreement would have been much more inhibiting to Iranian nuclear ambitions, and we, and our allies, could have come away from the negotiations feeling much safer and assured.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS: Hillary Clinton Lied; Used Personal Email Server to Transmit Classified Documents


“I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material. I’m certainly aware of the classified requirements and did not send classified material.”


Try and contain your shock, but it turns out that Hillary Clinton blatantly lied to the American people about the use and nature of her illegal, personal email server. Simply operating her own server to conduct official business was in all likelihood a direct violation of federal statutes; but sending and receiving classified information using personal servers is another set of crimes entirely.

Several Inspectors General in the Obama administration have reviewed a tiny fraction of the Clinton emails and determined that 10 percent were classified SECRET or higher at the time they were transmitted.

Friday, July 24, 2015

TED CRUZ EXPOSES THE LIES, DISSEMBLING AND DECEIT OF MITCH McCONNELL: Now This is Speaking Truth to Power

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is the architect of the Republican Establishment's serial campaign of "Failure Theater", which is designed to deceive the party's base. McConnell and company pretend that real action is being taken to defend the Constitution while actually accomplishing nothing or, worse yet, conspiring with the most radical and corrupt administration in modern American history.

Failure Theater is the process by which the Establishment deliberately fails to do achieve anything, but wants credit from the Dumb Conservatives they’re playing to for allegedly “trying.”

Each of Boehner’s and McConnell’s “defeats” are in fact planned in advance. They are not trying to advance the conservative agenda; they are attempting to con conservatives into believing they have attempted to implement conservative policy, when in fact they were delivering their political deliverables to their Donor Class paymasters all along.

Uneducated, gullible, and easily led: if we stand for this, we are exactly what the Washington Post slurred us as 30 years ago.

Failure Theater has most recently embodied itself in McConnell's bogus attempts to repeal Obamacare; stop the insane deal to fund Iran will hundreds of billions of dollars and let it develop nuclear weapons; and pursue Planned Parenthood's child organ harvesting.

The one man who dares to speak truth to power -- willing to attack both parties for their lies -- is Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Today he rose to speak in the Senate of Mitch McConnell's devious machinations.

TIME IS RUNNING OUT: Will Schumer and the Democrats Finally Step Up and Defend America?

By James Soviero

Shortly after the November, 2014 Republican landslide we posted an article titled, “Wanted: Gutsy Dems to Rescue Our Constitution”. The piece went on to explain some of the rationale behind what appears an irreconcilable statement. Some excerpts:

“So given the undeniable Republican ascendancy, why would they need gutsy democrats to rescue our Constitution? One, because President Obama’s clinical narcissism will not allow him to admit to either errors in policy or judgement. Two, because this delusional thinking will have him press ahead with his extra-constitutional, “pen and phone”, assault on the “supreme law” of our land. Three, because most GOP leaders, paralyzed by the president’s pigment, will likely duck a serious, principled fight….even if the very health of the Republic is at stake.”

“Sadly, to this point, aside from some lone, outraged conservative voices, the overall reaction to Obama behaving in ways Richard Nixon never dreamt, has been marked by soft commentary from Republicans and complete silence from Democrats. But now, with the dramatic shift in D.C. power, the dynamics have changed and the stakes are much, much higher. The only way for “The One” to get what he wants is to brazenly bypass an overwhelming majority in Congress….that has been duly elected to stop him from advancing his increasingly unpopular and reckless agenda.”

Nine months later, Obama’s attack on our preeminent governing document has only accelerated. While fellow party members may have enjoyed Barack’s rewriting ObamaCare, and changing immigration laws to fit their partisan needs, his handing the Iranian Nuclear Arms Deal to the United Nations before Congress has even read it, is very, very different. It puts Democrats in an extremely tough spot on a two levels.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

FreedomWorks: We Refuse to be Silenced by the IRS

By Iris Somberg

In light of recent revelations that the IRS used donor lists to target right-leaning groups for audits and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stating that targeting of conservatives is still possible, FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon commented:

"It is completely unacceptable, and 100 percent illegal, for the IRS to target donors of right-leaning groups for audits. Even after the Lois Lerner scandal, this problem has not been fixed. This has to change now."

Brandon added, "Punishing people for their political views, no matter what they are, is a violation of our most basic freedoms. We will not be intimidated by the IRS or any government agency that wants to silence our beliefs. We stand with our 6.9 million activists in asking for basic protection of our First Amendment rights."

Click here to support FreedomWorks
 

Kill the Obama Deal. Before it Kills Us.

By Frank Gaffney

Team Obama’s sales campaign for the Obamabomb deal is running into growing concerns about myriad concessions it has made to an Iranian regime that explicitly promises to destroy our country and its people.

These include: promises to enhance and protect Iran’s nuclear program; agreeing to allow Iran to get renewed access to conventional weapons and ballistic missile technology; and removing some 300 designated Iranian terrorists and their organizations from sanctions lists.

Worst of all, Team Obama is giving our avowed enemies hundreds of billions of dollars to pursue their oft-stated promise to bring Death to America, its citizens and allies.

I was one of tens of thousands who packed New York’s Times Square yesterday to urge Congress to kill this deal before it kills us. Please do the same with your representatives.


Read more at CenterForSecurityPolicy.org
 

Yes, Beatrice, Obama Hates Our Military

By Karl Denninger

Why do we have anything to do with this clown-car crap?  When is it enough?

The White House has now reversed itself and ordered flags flown at half-mast -- but not until after they refused to do so while the Capitol (and the States) did.

How much more do you need to see when five of our servicemembers are gunned down in an act of terrorism on our soil, potentiated by a government that refuses to recognize everyone's 2nd Amendment rights, including members of our militaryand then goes even further by posting "gun free zone" signs on the door!

Oh, it doesn't stop there either.  If your grandmother has a gun for personal protection (and is not a frail older person the exact sort of person for whom that equalizer is most important) but has someone else (like you) run her bank account for her Obama wants to confiscate her gun.

Where is your limit of tolerance for this crap America?

You don't need any damn permit to write a blog or start and operate a newspaper.

You don't need any damn permit to worship as you see fit.

If anyone tried to tell you that needed a permit to write either in print or online, or before you could pray, you'd stick up the middle finger.

A right is not conditioned on any damn permit and the Second Amendment is clear in its language just as is the First Amendment -- so why is your middle finger not in the air right here and now?


Read more at Market-Ticker.org.
 

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

FAILURE THEATER REDUX: Corker, McConnell completely outraged that Obama hid Iran nuclear documents from Congress

The apogee of Republican Failure Theater -- the act of pretending to oppose radical Left policies while secretly supporting them -- was the surrender of the Senate's treaty review rights with respect to Barack Obama's secret Iran nuclear agreement. This complete abdication of Congressional power was orchestrated by the usual suspects -- John Boehner and Mitch McConnell -- along with their henchman, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN).

Iran is already in violation of the agreement. While their negotiators were busy in Munich Vienna, they were busting arms control sanctions in search of nuclear material and technology.

Corker is the man that let this happen. Corker is the man that set up the deal so Obama could do whatever he wants. Corker is the gutless puke who decided that courage was something he did not possess and allowed US alliances in the Middle East to be held hostage to Iranian threats and ensured that any future war with Iran will be nuclear.

You can see that Corker and McConnell are already using their Obamacare playbook in service of the Iran nuclear deal. They are talking about how tough they are going to be and what they are going to do but, in fact, they will do nothing. They have colluded with Obama to create a deal that CANNOT be unraveled by a future president and it will happen without a majority vote of the Congress.

Well, it turns out that Obama screwed the GOP by hiding key elements of the "Give Iran Nuclear Weapons and Set the Middle East Afire" bill (my memory could be off, but I think that's the name of the legislation). In other words, Corker and McConnell were willing to get shafted consensually, but Obama took it to next level altogether. He went medieval on their asses.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

SELF-DELUSION: The Chamberlain-Obama Comparison is Apt

By Thane Rosenbaum

There’s been a lot of talk lately proclaiming Barack Obama the second coming of Neville Chamberlain. The analogy may be facile, but it is not far-fetched. The accord just reached in Vienna, at best, only temporarily cools off Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The Iran deal will be remembered either as a masterful display of diplomacy or as a hopelessly naïve delusion.

Wishful thinking is not a sound basis for foreign policy. When it comes to Iran, the stakes are too high to gamble on good faith. Israel and Saudi Arabia have good reasons to worry. And when before have these two nations had anything in common?

Congress now readies itself for 60 days of peeking underneath the Persian carpet of this Iranian deal, while the President threatens to test his veto powers over congressional action.

Americans should be skeptical. Iran is not just a regional menace. Long-range missiles can erase complacency in an instant. The seeming vast distance on a map between Iran and the United States, in the modern world, can resemble a commuter stop. The days of trench warfare are over because there isn’t enough time to dig any of those trenches. Iran may end up convincing the United States that it needs its very own Iron Dome.

You won’t believe the letter this fifth-grader just wrote to the government

It's stuff like this that makes me hopeful for the next generation. Brian writes, "A friend from work's daughter penned this, and she just had to show me. Thought you might enjoy."


We have a budding little capitalist and liberty-loving young lady, I think.


Related: Plunder and Deceit, by Mark Levin.