Friday, February 14, 2014

Current Events - February 14, 2014

Obama's Valentine's Day gift to himself; dinner with royalty without Michelle

By Rick Moran
According to the New York Post, the Obamas have already had their Valentine's Day night out - on February 8. But the president decided to give himself a gift anyway - a trip to California ending up with a dinner at the posh Annenberg ranch in California with King Abudllah of Jordan.

On Friday afternoon he'll travel to Fresno, to discuss the devastating drought with farmers, and he'll finish off the day over a dinner with King Abdullah II of Jordan at Sunnylands, the Annenberg ranch in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The President will remain at the desert retreat for a weekend of golfing.
The Obama ladies have separate plans for Presidents Day Weekend.
They will be "be away on their own travels," the New York Times reported.
The first couple actually already had their Valentine's Date, on Feb. 8, with a meal at Oyamel, a José Andrés restaurant in D.C.
In 2013, President Obama traveled to Georgia for a speech on Valentine's Day but arrived home in time to take his wife to Minibar, another José Andrés restaurant, in Penn Quarter.

The Painful Irony of Michelle Obama's $12,000 Dress

By Katie Pavlich
In case you don't remember, Hollande is a full blown French socialist who deeply believes the only way to help the poor is by demonizing and soaking the rich. Hollande is currently moving forward with his plan in France to tax millionaires 75 percent after receiving approval from a court. President Obama holds similar views and has repeatedly told the rich they need to "pay their fair share" so that the rest of us can have a fair shot at life.
But it's difficult to take these positions seriously when the people taking them engage in the very lifestyles they claim to abhor. Take for example Michelle Obama, who wore a $12,000 Carolina Herrera designer gown to the state dinner earlier this week. Just a few weeks before the dinner, President Obama argued income inequality is a major problem facing our America. CNSNews noticed the cost of her dress is more than the average household income worldwide.
The blue and black designer dress that first lady Michelle Obama wore to Tuesday’s state dinner for the French president reportedly cost between $10,000 and $12,000, according to news media, which is more than the median annual household income worldwide of $9,733, and greater than the median income for households in at least 87 countries, according to data from Gallup.
Just before the dinner, Michelle Obama tweeted out this photo of her dogs at the dinner table dining on crystal and fancy china.
View image on Twitter

Let them eat cake, indeed.
When Michelle Obama walked out to greet the French President, the media swooned. NBC's Shawna Thomas declared "BOW DOWN!" on Twitter when she saw the dress.

HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THE FIRST LADY'S DRESS.

NBC is the same network that questioned Ann Romney for wearing a $900 designer shirt for an interview with CBS This Morning. The Romneys have donated more than $20 million to charity over their lifetimes and have worked for the majority of their lives in the private sector. The same cannot be said for the Obamas.
Here's my bottom line, I could care less how much Michelle Obama's gown cost. I'd love for every woman to have the opportunity to wear a gown like that in her life. Designer clothes are expensive because of the work that goes into them and I'm happy Caroline Herrera got paid for the work she did. Herrera reaped the reward of having a First Lady wear her art and product thanks to hard work. The issue is the Obamas and President Hollande lecturing the rest of us about how much money we should make, how we spend our money and how much of our money they are entitled to. People like Hollande and the Obamas are either elitist hypocrites or they don't really believe in the socialist policies they preach about and implement for the rest of us.

What is a liberal?

By Lanny Davis
“It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
These words of the late Minnesota Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey have always best defined for me what it means to be a liberal Democrat. I still believe them to govern my political philosophy.
...What would Hubert Humphrey and Robert Kennedy say if they were alive today, about a government that uses credit cards every day to pay for all its programs and plans to dump all the receipts on the laps of its children and grand-children, expecting them to pay the tab?
I believe both men would regard such a government, unwilling to raise taxes and cut spending and reform entitlements to avoid passing the tab to our children, as neither moral nor liberal.
If you are a liberal, what do you think?  
By Thomas Lifson
Did you ever wonder what inspired Nancy Pelosi and many other Democrats to spout off about the liberating freedom Obamacare provides people to escape from job drudgery and find their inner poet, photographer or musician? Is it merely aristocratic contempt for the work that lesser people provide? After all, somebody has to sweep the floors, clean the sewers, and grow the crops. Obviously, society needs unpleasant tasks performed, and we owe respect to those who do them.
Actually, the Pelosiites are pursuing a dream rooted in Karl Marx. The major work in which Marx expounded on what a communist society would look like is titled The German Ideology, written in 1845. Here is a famous passage from it in which Marx expounds on the virutes of liberation from job lock that communism supposedly would provide (courtesy of Marxists.org):

For as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic. This fixation of social activity, this consolidation of what we ourselves produce into an objective power above us, growing out of our control, thwarting our expectations, bringing to naught our calculations, is one of the chief factors in historical development up till now.

PK'S NOTE: I'm not a fan of President Bush either because he's a Progressive, but...

Stuff Bush didn't do

By Thomas Lifson
In the face of five years of Obama failure, the American Left still invokes the specter of George W. Bush as the all-purpose explanation for everything that has gone wrong. Yet the 43rd president is steadily climbing in public esteem, as his sunny disposition and serious demeanor toward the duties of office sit well in the public memory. So, too, his dignified behavior as ex-president brings credit.

One good way to force the Left to confront President Obama's own responsibility for his conduct in office is to compare his abuses of office with the record of President Bush 43, who was reviled by by his opposition as a dictator-wannabe, Constitution-abusing, moronic ogre straddling the line between simian and human. Doug Ross of Director Blue has produced an amusing comic-book approach toward explaining the differences between the two men:
By Michelle Malkin
On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama promised the sun and the moon and the stars. That was the day, five years ago, when he signed the $800 billion "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act." President Modesty called it "the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history." He promised "unprecedented transparency and accountability." He claimed the spending would lift "two million Americans from poverty." Ready for the reality smackdown? The actual cost of the $800 billion pork-laden stimulus has ballooned to nearly $2 trillion. At the time of the law's signing, the unemployment rate hovered near 8 percent. Obama's egghead economists projected that the jobless rate would never rise above 8 percent and would plunge to 5 percent by December 2013. The actual jobless rate in January was 6.6 percent, with an abysmal labor force participation rate of 63 percent (a teeny uptick from December, but still at a four-decade low).
Five years after the Recovery Act, 10.2 million people are out of work. The number of able-bodied Americans who have simply given up looking for work or are "not in the labor force (but) who currently want a job" has exploded. By some estimates, a record 90 million-plus people are hopelessly sitting on the sidelines. 
...Unprecedented transparency? Section 1513 of the Recovery Act required the White House to submit a progress report every three months. Last year, blogger Doug Powers noted: "Under their own guidelines, the administration should have released 14 of these reports by now, but they've only submitted eight of them for public review." Whatevs. 
...While the lapdogs of the Fourth Estate snicker along with the White House about their lies and cover-up, the Wreckovery Act wreckage continues to pile up. And now the White House wants more money to burn for Porkulus Redux.
Retiring Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., was right when he warned five years ago that the "morally reprehensible" stimulus represented "the worst act of generational theft in our nation's history." It's no joke. It's a $2 trillion travesty built on criminal government malpractice. Take that and shovel it.
By Mona Charen
Few have ever heard the name Debo Adegbile. He's President Barack Obama's nominee to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department. 
...Before the Reid invocation of the "nuclear option" eliminating the filibuster, Adegbile would have been considered too controversial. But now, the administration can have its head on nominations. Adegbile is a passionate advocate for racial quotas in hiring and university admissions, and also urges that employers not be permitted to do background checks on potential hires -- presumably because more African-Americans have criminal records than other applicants. He has encouraged the president to nominate judges who recognize that "ratified treaties" are the law of land. Well, no argument there, but he goes further. Adegbile wants judges who will decree that "customary international law" is the law of the United States as well, asking for God only knows what mischief. Who would decide what "customary international law" is? By what authority would it be imposed on Americans? Investor's Business Daily reports that Adegbile supports George Soros's campaign to create a new "progressive" constitution. If that doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, you're not paying attention.
It was Adegbile's role in the case of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal that incurred the wrath of Justice Department employees though. 
...Ballistics confirmed that the bullets that killed Faulkner were from Abu-Jamal's gun, found with him at the scene.
Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death, but decades of litigation and agitation on his behalf delayed the sentence. He has claimed ineffective assistance of counsel (though at one point he represented himself), racism by the judge, racism in jury selection -- the usual gamut. In 2011, prosecutors announced that they would no longer pursue the death penalty.
Every defendant deserves a defense, of course. But Abu-Jamal has had a celebrity lineup of lefty lawyers. That Adegbile wanted to join their ranks is a sign of his sympathies. That Obama believes Adegbile can get confirmed by the neutered Senate is a sign of the times. 

Message from the Political Class: All Your Money Belongs to Us

 By Daniel J Mitchell
What’s the defining characteristic of our political masters?
Going all the way back to when they ran for student council in 6th grade, is it a craven desire to say or do anything to get elected?
Is it the corrupt compulsion to trade earmarks, loopholes, and favors in exchange for campaign cash?
Or is it the knee-jerk desire to buy votes by spending other people’s money?
The answer is yes, yes, and yes, but I want to add something else to the list.
One of the most odious features of politicians is that they think they’re entitled to all of our money. But it goes beyond that. They also think they’re doing us a favor and being magnanimous if they let us keep some of what we earn.
Think I’m joking or exaggerating?
Consider the fact that the crowd in Washington says that provisions in the internal revenue code such as IRAs are “tax expenditures” and should be considered akin to government spending.
So if you save for retirement and aren’t subject to double taxation, you’re not making a prudent decision with your own money. Instead, you’re the beneficiary of kindness and mercy by politicians that graciously have decided to give you something.
And the statists at the Washington Postwill agree, writing that folks with IRAs are getting “a helping hand” from the government.
Or if you have a business and the government doesn’t impose a tax on your investment expenditures, don’t think that you’re being left alone with neutral tax policy. Instead, you should get on your knees and give thanks to politicians that have given you a less-punitive depreciation schedule.
And the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and theGovernment Accountability Office will all agree, saying that you’re benefiting from a “tax expenditure.”

Is the Tea Party's Dream an Illusion?

 By Pat Buchanan
...A clamor to pass a clean debt ceiling bill or risk a new recession would have arisen. And the House Republicans would have caved, as they finally had to cave on the budget bill last fall.
Rather than play Lord Raglan and lead his cavalry in another Charge of the Light Brigade, Boehner chose to withdraw to fight another day on another field.
Yet, the Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.
When does the Republican Party, put in power by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance? Is there any hope things will be different, should the Tea Party help produce a GOP Senate in 2014?
If the Tea Party is in some despair, is it not understandable?
For while there are countless proposals and plans to cut back on federal spending, from Simpson-Bowles on, it is impossible today to see in either party the political will to do the surgery.
Consider what would be needed to roll back Big Government.
First, the major entitlement programs Medicare and Social Security would have to be peeled back. But any effort to raise the age of eligibility, or reduce the benefits, or trim cost-of-living adjustments, would meet with ferocious resistance, led by the AARP.
Indeed, many Tea Party members are themselves among those enjoying, or about to enjoy, the benefits of these programs. Would they back cuts in either one? Democrats say these programs must be expanded, and they will resist any cuts as fiercely as the Republicans would resist any increase in payroll or income taxes.
Social Security and Medicare recipients number in the scores of millions. Four million Baby Boomers reach eligibility every year now. That is more then 10,000 every day. Is any party, even a GOP that controls the White House and Congress, going to take on this army?
Consider that other entitlement, Medicaid.
Thanks to Obamacare, the number of beneficiaries of Medicaid is soaring. And even should the GOP capture the Senate in 2016, a Democratic minority would filibuster to death any bill to cut Medicaid.
As for interest on the debt, another major element in the budget, it has only one way to go, up. For the Fed freeze that has held interest rates near zero for five years must some day end.
Defense is the other big item in the budget. But while the wind-down of our trillion-dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has made cuts possible here, most of these have already been made.
And this week the House voted 326-90 to repeal the small cut in the COLA in pensions for working-age military retirees under 62, which was part of the bipartisan budget deal last fall. Members of Congress panic at any suggestion they are shortchanging the troops.
Yet, since Y2K, the cost of military personnel has doubled, while the number of those on active duty has fallen by 10 percent.
Last December, Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray, in their budget deal, raised discretionary spending in 2014 from the $967 billion it would have been under the sequester to $1.012 trillion.
Invariably, bipartisan budget deals between Capitol Hill liberals and conservatives move the ball further toward the liberals' goal line.
The farm bill just signed by President Obama contains a tiny cut in a food stamp budget that has exploded during his days in office. But nice new subsidies are in there for peanut and corn growers and producers of maple syrup. Embarrassed at what the House went along with, not one Republican Congressman showed up at the signing ceremony.
Can it be that the Tea Party's dream of a balanced budget, and of a government that ceases to eat up ever more of the GDP, is simply an act of self-delusion?
Have the beneficiaries of Big Government become so powerful that any champion of the national interest who challenges them in fixed battle invites almost certain defeat?
For today, America appears to be maintaining speed, or even accelerating, toward that cliff that they all warn us is out there. 

Is Obama Accelerating the Collapse of America?

 By Wayne Allen Root
....Personally, I think “choice” is great. You can choose to not work anytime you want. But if you need to steal my money to do it, that’s called theft, not choice. Middle class wage earners are being ripped off to pay for free-loaders. That means middle class people are having their “choices” taken away from them. I guess in Obama’s playbook one man’s choice is another man’s slavery.
But, that was only the start of the week. Next Obama illegally re-wrote his own Obamacare law - again. Mimicking the traits of communist dictators and tin-pot tyrants, Obama obviously believes he can change any law he wants, at any given hour, of any given day.
One of the main chapters of my book was titled: “America the Banana Republic.” Just this week Charles Krauthammer said what’s happening under Obama “is the stuff you do in a banana republic.”  Welcome to the club, Charles. It’s nice to see D.C. establishment Republicans are finally seeing the light.
In America it’s a violation of the Constitution for the president to wake up on the wrong side of the bed and decide to make, arbitrarily change, or break laws. This is the behavior of Fidel Castro, or the late tyrant Hugo Chavez.
But wait, it gets far worse. As part of the new illegal Obamacare directive to postpone the law for businesses with 50 to 99 employees, Obama put the IRS in direct control of critical U.S. business decisions. He demanded that businesses must “justify” hiring and firing decisions to the IRS to qualify for the exemption. Plain and simple, putting government in charge of the decisions of a private business is the very foundation of communism. It is how communist economies like North Korea, Cuba, the old Soviet Union, and East Germany have always been run.
Still, Obama wasn’t done.
To show his total distain for Congress and the American people he unilaterally loosened the rules for citizenship to allow foreigners with only a “minor” connection to terrorism to become citizens. Dennis Miller once said on Monday Night Football, “there is no such thing as a minor groin injury.” Well there is no such thing as a “minor” terrorist either.
Why is our president desperate to open the borders and let in “minor” terrorists? It’s not like we have a surplus of jobs. What is the pressing need in a country with 92 million unemployed working-age Americans? Has corporate America put out an emergency request for “minor” terrorist employees? Or is this how Obama creates instant Democratic voters?
Much along the same lines, Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder announced this week how “unjust” it is to not allow felons to vote.
No Mr. Attorney General, the only thing “unjust” was the crimes these felons committed. What’s the emergency here? Is there a shortage of Democratic voters? Obama’s game plan is clearly to combine felons with radical Muslim terrorists in order to guarantee Democrat dominance for years to come.
This was just one week in America. The evil and terrible news is coming in waves. And it’s all coming from one man. A man no longer hiding the fact that he is a tyrant, dictator, communist, and hater of America, capitalism and Judeo Christian values.
Obama no longer cares to hide his radical Marxist ideology. It’s now clear it’s “pedal to the metal” towards the destruction of America.
The question is…Who will stop him?

No comments: