PK'S NOTE: And don't forget the biggest pivot during the re-election. And, gosh, this time he means it. Yeah right.
Six Obama pivots to jobs and the economy
The talk in Washington is that President Obama, after highlighting immigration, gay marriage, gun control, global warming, and other issues in the first weeks of his second term, will “pivot” to an emphasis on jobs and the economy in his State of the Union address. That’s nothing new for Obama. Throughout his term, as he concentrated on policy initiatives, like passing a national health care scheme, that were not centered on jobs and the economy, the president and his aides have promised to “pivot” back to the public’s number-one concern. This is just one more time. Here are a few examples in headlines — by no means a comprehensive list — from the last three years:http://washingtonexaminer.com/six-obama-pivots-to-jobs-and-the-economy/article/2521125?utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20Opinion%20Digest%20-%2002/11/2013&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Opinion%20Digest
- Obama to pivot back to the economy (Washington Post, February 10, 2013)
- President Obama pivots to jobs — and dares GOP to follow (Politico, September 8, 2011)
- After bruising debt battle, Obama pivots to jobs agenda (Agence France Presse, August 3, 2011)
- Obama pivots to pocketbook (Baltimore Sun, May 7, 2011)
- Obama pivots to job creation (San Francisco Chronicle, January 28, 2010)
- Obama pivots to the economy and jobs (Christian Science Monitor, January 8, 2010)
In for a penny, in for a trillion bucks
He is going to get up before Congress, before the American people, and say with a straight face he wants to bring down the deficit while proposing new spending that will add to it.We are living in a nightmare world with no chance of waking up.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/02/in_for_a_penny_in_for_a_trillion_bucks.html#ixzz2KcAyQ1oF
Immigration Official: We Have Been Shunned by President Obama
President Obama and his administration have demonstrated some questionable judgement and gross incompetence on matters of national security. Drone strikes on American citizens, running guns to Mexican drug cartels and Syrian rebels who also just happen to include members of Al Qaeda and other extremist Islamic groups. And now the union representing the officers who lay their life on the line trying to secure the dangers Mexican-American border ridiculed union boss Richard Trumka and the Obama administration for ignoring their concerns about the dangers on the border.
Many in the media ignored Chris Crane, National Immigration Council 188 president, the American Federation of Government Employees, and his testimony last week where he blasted national union leaders and the White House.
On January 30th, he said in a press release, “We went directly to the Obama administration as well as the AFL-CIO with real matters of life and death for unionized American law enforcement officers and they shunned us…we’re talking about 50,000 AFL-CIO affiliate members. We asked both the AFL-CIO and President Obama for help with corruption within our respective Federal law enforcement agencies, climbing officer suicide rates, assaults against officers, and perhaps most alarming, offenses against pregnant female employees. Following the White House meeting, the Obama Administration cut us off. Cecilia Munoz refuses to correspond with us, and President Tumka hasn’t so much as made one public comment fighting for the safety of AFL-CIO federal law enforcement officers. He just doesn’t speak on behalf of our union workers.”
Glenn wondered why no media outlets were reporting this story, especially when President Obama has been pushing for immigration reform. He is expected to address the issue in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Human Events reported:
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka this week angered the rank and file members of the National ICE Council when the labor giant denied the contentious issue had divided many members.http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/02/11/immigration-official-we-have-been-shunned-by-president-obama/
“Unions did have at one point some differences on the [immigration] issue, but the entire labor movement is entirely behind this now. We’ll be at the table the whole time this thing is being developed to make sure it meets the needs of workers,” Trumka said in an interview with Yahoo! News.
Chris Crane, president of the ICE Council that represents 7,600 border and immigration employees, blasted Trumka and the White House for downplaying their concerns.
“We went directly to the Obama administration as well as the AFL-CIO with real matters of life and death for unionized American law enforcement officers and they shunned us,” Crane said. “We’re talking about 50,000 AFL-CIO affiliate members.”
Crane reiterated that this isn’t the first time border and immigration officials have been excluded from the process. Last February, and top Obama aide Cecilia Munoz ignored the workplace dangers they faced, Crane said.
The Hagel Democrats
Despite their doubts, Senators walk in lock-step with Obama.
Per the Constitution, a President appoints cabinet members "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate." In the matter of Chuck Hagel's move to the Pentagon, the Senate's Democratic majority is more or less waiving this clause and rolling over to President Obama's wishes.It's not that Democrats don't have serious doubts about the former Republican Senator's record and qualifications. Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin started last month's nomination hearing by enumerating them, from Mr. Hagel's long-standing opposition to sanctions on Iran to his warnings about the influence of a "Jewish lobby."
The hearing itself was a debacle without recent precedent. Obama senior campaign aide Robert Gibbs called the nominee "unimpressive and unprepared." Under the headline "Whose Terrible Idea Was It to Nominate Hagel, Anyway?", a normally pliant Obama loyalist at New York magazine blamed this "fiasco" on a "small cadre of intellectuals eager to shift the foreign-policy debate in general, and the Democratic Party's foreign-policy thinking in particular, to the left."
None of this seems to sway Senate Democrats. After the President nominated Mr. Hagel, Chuck Schumer—who calls himself the Senate's "guardian of Israel"—raised what he called "genuine concerns." Within days and before the hearing, Mr. Schumer emerged from a meeting with Mr. Hagel to declare himself unconcerned and a yes vote.
After the hearing, Missouri's Claire McCaskill offered this excuse: "Chuck Hagel is much more comfortable asking questions than answering them. That's one bad habit you get into when you've been in the Senate—you can dish it out but sometimes it's a little more difficult to take it." Now, there's an endorsement for someone taking a job to command generals.
The last-ditch rationalization is that a President deserves the advisers he picks. "Well, this is President Obama's choice," said Maryland's Ben Cardin. "It's not who I would prefer to see as secretary of defense." That isn't what Senators Joe Biden or John Kerry said when they filibustered John Bolton's nomination to be Ambassador to the U.N. in 2005.
Republicans are so far signaling that they won't filibuster Mr. Hagel, which speaks well of their confirmation consistency even with a Democrat in the White House. But Senators of either party still owe voters their independent judgment on an up or down vote. Advice and consent isn't supposed to mean partisan deference to the White House, especially when a nominee looks as unprepared as Mr. Hagel does.
It's clear that Mr. Obama chose Mr. Hagel not because he wants a strong and knowledgeable adviser but because he wants a cipher who will take orders from the White House. Mr. Hagel all but admitted this at last month's hearing when West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin noted that "you're going to be basically following policy, not making policy." Mr. Hagel replied, "I won't be in a policy-making position."
So at a time of global turmoil and growing White House pressure to gut defense, the Pentagon gets a potted plant. Imagine Don Rumsfeld or Henry Kissinger declaring that they took a policy job in which they could not make policy. Mr. Hagel is unlikely to be an effective public spokesman and he lacks the knowledge to wrestle intelligently with the Pentagon's many competing interests.
Americans deserve better than a secretary of defense who merely takes orders from political aides like Valerie Jarrett. Senate Democrats should understand that in voting to confirm Mr. Hagel despite their misgivings and despite his clear lack of qualifications, they'll share the responsibility if his tenure becomes embarrassing.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324445904578286371380015126.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
Christopher Dorner Fan Clubs Are Beyond Detestable.
Christopher Dorner wanted to exact revenge for the fact that he had been fired from the LAPD. He apparently believed that the murders of Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence were necessary, yet not sufficient to fulfill that requirement. He hadn’t exacted true revenge until he called up Monica Quan’s father, Randall Quan, and taunted him about how easy it was to shoot his daughter.What I described above tells me all I need to know about Christopher Dorner. Even in an older, more savage age, he could have been a man of honor if he were to have met Randall Quan somewhere and had it out with him man to man. Shooting the man’s daughter and then calling him up to rub it in should mark Christopher Dorner as a detestable coward, a man unfit for the role of the anti-hero. To root for Christopher Dorner is to root for genuine evil. This is America’s crappy remake of “Sympathy For The Devil.”
Yet thousands of Americans are currently doing just that. People are posting to Facebook that Dorner should run for President. One online page announces that “LAPD Cop Killer Christopher Dorner Is A Hero.”
That isn’t to say Dorner is not completely sympathetic. He clearly comes off as a lucid, intelligent man who has tried to make it in society. To his demise, he lost his job, his name was ruined and he’s forced to live with his mom. Many evil people do suffer from the slings and arrows of iniquitous fortune. Good people suffer these things as well. Good people handle them without resort to homicidal rampages. Yet that doesn’t prevent Dorner from playing the victim as he justifies his hideous deeds. RS Poster William E. Lewis offers us an excerpt from Dorner’s manifesto.
“The department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days. It has gotten worse,” wrote Dorner. “I know I will be vilified by the LAPD and the media. Unfortunately, this is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name.”Now obviously, shooting somebody’s family is not an acceptable redress to workplace unfairness. Randall Quan’s daughter was a (expletive-deleted) basketball coach. How taking out a local basketball coach will lead to glorious change and reform throughout the entire LAPD is perhaps beyond the scope of even Dorner’s 11,000-word Opus Ego.
Since I’m a fan of noir crime fiction, the part about honor and reclaiming his name struck a chord. When it comes to the concept of honor, Dorner apparently fell behind a few centuries’ worth of upgrades on his operating system. C. S. Thompson gives an apt description of how Dorner appears to perceive the concept of honor.
In 19th century America and Europe, a man who was insulted was obligated to challenge the offender to a duel of honor. The insult could be almost anything, from a failure to acknowledge the insulted party to an accusation of lying or cowardice. Insulting a woman was one of the most serious insults possible, as it implied that the men in her life were physically unable to defend her honor. None of this has anything to do with an internal sense of right and wrong. Rather, it is clear that “honor” in this context is a combination of reputation and status—to insult a man’s honor meant to insult his reputation as a man of integrity and physical prowess. Integrity itself is only part of the equation, as “honor” is mostly a question of public opinion. If your community respected you, you had “honor.” If you lost that respect somehow, you were dishonored, and to be dishonored was to be socially dead.Christopher Dorner represents an older, more primitive code of honor that makes civilized interaction increasingly tenuous. Seeing several deranged individuals immediately pick up weapons and seek to exact their retribution without any concern for the welfare of bystanders has given me a greater appreciation for an old, much-maligned piece of Christian Scripture.
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[h] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.(Matthew 5:38-42)
In conclusion, rooting for Christopher Dorner to shoot more people is no better than congratulating Anders Breivik. Both men claim would claim to differ widely in ideology, but in the end they are both equally barbaric. In the end they both are destructive to the society and to the commonweal. Rooting for either individual is to cheer for the apocalypse. Instead, pray to God that nobody like either one of these people ever gets near anyone that you love or care about.
http://www.redstate.com/2013/02/11/christopher-dorner-fan-clubs-are-beyond-detestable/dorner/
A Property Rights Revolution for 2013
A
previously apolitical organic farmer in Virginia has set off a property
rights revolution that would make Founders Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison, and author of Virginia's Declaration of Rights George Mason
proud.
Martha Boneta had a business license for her tiny farm store in scenic Paris, Virginia, yet she was threatened with fines of up to $5,000 per violation per day for selling organic tea and wool products crafted from her rescued animals, and for hosting a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls.
Officials from Fauquier County using zoning ordinances to bully Mrs. Boneta never obtained a warrant nor set foot on her property to gather actual evidence. Instead a county bureaucrat relied on unscrupulous, unlawful methods to make these charges against Mrs. Boneta. Her store remains closed out of fear of further uncertain charges carrying even criminal penalties. The bullying bureaucrat ignored due process of law and American rules of evidence because she thinks she is the law, which is a common phenomenon used to intimidate citizens into forfeiting their rights.
The county also tried to cite Martha for having a boarding facility without a permit. It appears that the county did not like the fact that she and Christian college students interning on Spring Break openly prayed over the crops and farm animals.
To cure this government lawbreaking and protect farm rights, Delegate Scott Lingamfelter introduced H.B. 1430, the Boneta Bill, to amend the Virginia Right to Farm Act. As introduced, the bill would have done three things: (1) clarify that the flawed, toothless Right to Farm Act protects farmers' commerce, (2) expressly protect constitutional rights on farms, and (3) provide remedies against local government officials who violate the Right to Farm Act.
The bill is wildly popular among small farm owners, property rights activists, Tea Partiers and even many Democrats, yet met opposition from special interests in Richmond including Farm Bureau, the insurance company that may be best described as the AARP of farming.
The Virginia legislature is controlled by the GOP, yet establishment Republicans chose special interests over principles. The bill was amended to remove the constitutional protections and remedies against lawbreaking bureaucrats.
The Virginia House passed the weakened bill, but first added another amendment that appears to be in violation of Article IV, Section 13 of the Virginia Constitution, which governs effective dates of bills passed. The amendment made the bill ineffective unless reenacted by a new legislature that is to convene in 2014. This tactic would give the special interests in Richmond a year to horse-trade God-given rights of farmers, who happen to work for a living and cannot be in Richmond to wine and dine the decision makers and powerbrokers.
Certain members of the GOP even said that the "stakeholders" need to weigh in. "Stakeholders" is a term developed by progressives for the government to give rights to some at the expense of rights for all. It's an offensive term that allows government to pick winners and losers when God-given rights are involved.
Richmond's political establishment is in a tizzy because of the grassroots pushback over the Boneta Bill, which one legislator said she'd never seen the likes of which before. As evidenced by their constitutionally questionable trick of passing the bill without an effective date, they obviously fear voter retribution if they were to outright defeat the bill to satisfy the special interests, which include county lobbyists trying to protect government lawbreaking.
The Boneta Bill has coalesced people and diverse grassroots organizations. As importantly, it has exposed a host of issues, including the hypocrisy of establishment Republicans who pay lip service to liberty and property rights, yet side with special interests against our freedoms.
Among the issues exposed are the use of government subsidies for big farms and the process of conservation easements that subvert private property rights with a smiley face. Boneta Bill champion Donna Holt of the Virginia Campaign for Liberty calls these easements "socialized capitalism for the rich," and writes:
The bill is now before the Virginia Senate. The fate of freedom for small farmers remains an amendment and a vote away. Whatever the outcome of the Boneta Bill, it has set off a national debate - even a revolution - on property rights, farm food freedom, remedies against bullying, lawbreaking bureaucrats, and a host of other issues.
Martha Boneta had a business license for her tiny farm store in scenic Paris, Virginia, yet she was threatened with fines of up to $5,000 per violation per day for selling organic tea and wool products crafted from her rescued animals, and for hosting a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls.
Officials from Fauquier County using zoning ordinances to bully Mrs. Boneta never obtained a warrant nor set foot on her property to gather actual evidence. Instead a county bureaucrat relied on unscrupulous, unlawful methods to make these charges against Mrs. Boneta. Her store remains closed out of fear of further uncertain charges carrying even criminal penalties. The bullying bureaucrat ignored due process of law and American rules of evidence because she thinks she is the law, which is a common phenomenon used to intimidate citizens into forfeiting their rights.
The county also tried to cite Martha for having a boarding facility without a permit. It appears that the county did not like the fact that she and Christian college students interning on Spring Break openly prayed over the crops and farm animals.
To cure this government lawbreaking and protect farm rights, Delegate Scott Lingamfelter introduced H.B. 1430, the Boneta Bill, to amend the Virginia Right to Farm Act. As introduced, the bill would have done three things: (1) clarify that the flawed, toothless Right to Farm Act protects farmers' commerce, (2) expressly protect constitutional rights on farms, and (3) provide remedies against local government officials who violate the Right to Farm Act.
The bill is wildly popular among small farm owners, property rights activists, Tea Partiers and even many Democrats, yet met opposition from special interests in Richmond including Farm Bureau, the insurance company that may be best described as the AARP of farming.
The Virginia legislature is controlled by the GOP, yet establishment Republicans chose special interests over principles. The bill was amended to remove the constitutional protections and remedies against lawbreaking bureaucrats.
The Virginia House passed the weakened bill, but first added another amendment that appears to be in violation of Article IV, Section 13 of the Virginia Constitution, which governs effective dates of bills passed. The amendment made the bill ineffective unless reenacted by a new legislature that is to convene in 2014. This tactic would give the special interests in Richmond a year to horse-trade God-given rights of farmers, who happen to work for a living and cannot be in Richmond to wine and dine the decision makers and powerbrokers.
Certain members of the GOP even said that the "stakeholders" need to weigh in. "Stakeholders" is a term developed by progressives for the government to give rights to some at the expense of rights for all. It's an offensive term that allows government to pick winners and losers when God-given rights are involved.
Richmond's political establishment is in a tizzy because of the grassroots pushback over the Boneta Bill, which one legislator said she'd never seen the likes of which before. As evidenced by their constitutionally questionable trick of passing the bill without an effective date, they obviously fear voter retribution if they were to outright defeat the bill to satisfy the special interests, which include county lobbyists trying to protect government lawbreaking.
The Boneta Bill has coalesced people and diverse grassroots organizations. As importantly, it has exposed a host of issues, including the hypocrisy of establishment Republicans who pay lip service to liberty and property rights, yet side with special interests against our freedoms.
Among the issues exposed are the use of government subsidies for big farms and the process of conservation easements that subvert private property rights with a smiley face. Boneta Bill champion Donna Holt of the Virginia Campaign for Liberty calls these easements "socialized capitalism for the rich," and writes:
"The farmer is most often forced to place his land into a conservation easement to save it in response to the very strict land use regulations and expensive permits for every conceivable use of land. The noose is further tightened by limiting commerce, by permit only, to only raw produce."The McDonnell administration has not taken a position on the Boneta Bill, but is actively promoting conservation easements, which use government subsidies as an anesthetic at the expense of private property rights and free markets. Just Virginia alone has up to $100 million in tax credits available for these easements.
The bill is now before the Virginia Senate. The fate of freedom for small farmers remains an amendment and a vote away. Whatever the outcome of the Boneta Bill, it has set off a national debate - even a revolution - on property rights, farm food freedom, remedies against bullying, lawbreaking bureaucrats, and a host of other issues.
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