The British government was left red-faced Monday after a botched attempt by special forces to make contact with opposition forces in Libya ended in the team being seized by rebels.
* IT'S THE AGE OF CARTER (WITH A BRITISH ACCENT!) ALL OVER AGAIN!
The team, reportedly made up of six soldiers from the elite SAS and two diplomats, flew into Libya by helicopter and made their way to the opposition-held city of Benghazi, But they were rounded up by lightly armed rebels soon after they arrived, reports said.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The diplomats are believed to have been officers from Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service whose mission was to contact rebel leaders and open the way for a delegation, but they succeeded only in angering Libyan opposition leaders who denied they had asked for any help and by late Sunday they had been packed off to Malta on a British naval ship.
Oil prices rose to a fresh 2-1/2 year high early Monday, climbing above $106 a barrel...
* WELL THANK GOD MY CAR RUNS ON LOVE AND KIND WORDS! THANK THE LORD MY HOME IS HEATED WITH OPTIMISM AND GOOD WILL TOWARDS MAN!
(*SPINNING THE CYLINDER OF THE REVOLVER ROUND AND ROUND*)
The benchmark U.S. contract, West Texas Intermediate, for April delivery was up $2.26, or 2.1%, to $106.68 a barrel. Oil prices are currently trading at the highest levels since September 2008.
Brent crude, the main European contract, rose $2.20 to $118.17 a barrel.
* OH... AND FOLKS... BY THE WAY...
[C]rude stockpiles in the United States and elsewhere remain relatively flush...
Last year, President Obama gave Congress an arbitrary deadline to pass his health-care takeover legislation before the Easter recess at the end of March. This forced lawmakers to hurry their votes on a deeply flawed bill that very few of them had read. Worse, many made false promises to secure final passage.
* THREE POINTS: 1) ANY SENATOR OR MEMBER OF CONGRESS WHO VOTES ON A BILL HE OR SHE HASN'T READ HAS VIOLATED HIS OATH OF OFFICE - PERIOD. 2) NO ONE CAN "FORCE" AN HONEST "LAWMAKER" TO VOTE FOR A BILL HE OR SHE HASN'T READ; THE DEMS DELIBERATELY CHOOSE TO VOTE WITHOUT HAVING READ THE BILL. THE RECORD IS 100% CLEAR ON THAT. THERE'S SIMPLY NO DEBATE. 3) YES. WE ALL KNOW SEVERAL SENATORS WERE LITERALLY BRIBED BY THE ADMINISTRATION. WE AS A NATION ARE ON THE ROAD TO RUIN. WE ARE A DEEPLY DECAYED CIVILIZATION. THE INMATES WERE RUNNING THE ASYLUM LAST YEAR... AND THIS YEAR THEY STILL CONTROL BOTH THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE SENATE.
A new study from the Senate Finance and House Energy and Commerce Committees found that as a result of ObamaCare, budget-strapped states face at least $118 billion in unfunded mandates during the first 10 years after the law takes effect.
More than half the states - 28 and counting - are challenging the law in court, saying that it violates the constitutional rights of their citizens and the sovereignty of the states.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has handed out 1,040 "waivers" to allow select companies, unions and states to escape, at least temporarily, some of the burdensome new insurance rules she has created. This is a continuation of the trend of the "Cornhusker Kickback" and the "Louisiana Purchase" that Senate Democrats used to get the law passed in the first place...
* FOLKS. THIS IS NO LONGER A NATION OF LAWS. THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION LARGELY RULES BY FIAT. (AND IF YOU THINK THIS IS AN EXAGGERATION THEN YOU SIMPLY HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION.) NOT A WEEK GOES BY WHERE NEWSBITES DOESN'T HIGHLIGHT GOVERNMENT "IRREGULARITIES" TAKING PLACE IN THIS... er... AGE OF OBAMA.
The Congressional Budget Office expects the price of a family policy in the individual market to be $2,100 higher by 2016 than it would have been had the law not passed. The former director of the CBO, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, says that the costs of ObamaCare are set to explode when employers opt to drop coverage and send their workers to the new, federally subsidized health exchanges for coverage. He estimates that this will drive up the cost of the law by $1 trillion or more in the first 10 years.
In at least 20 states, it's now impossible to buy child-only health insurance because of Ms. Sebelius's onerous new rules.
Seniors are at risk of losing access to physicians and medical care. Medicare actuaries say that the cuts built into the law will force as many as 40% of providers to eventually stop seeing Medicare patients or go bankrupt.
[T]housands of people are already losing the health insurance they have now as companies are exiting markets for individual, small group and Medicare Advantage coverage.
Al Jazeera is already comparing the West's failure to act in Libya to the slaughter of Iraq's marsh Arabs in 1991 and of the Bosnian Muslims by Serbs later that decade.
(*LONG, DEEP SIGH*)
Having loudly declared...
* BETTER LATE THAN NEVER - RECALL IT TOOK OBAMA SOME TIME TO REACH EVEN THE DECLARATION STAGE!
...that Gadhafi "needs to step down from power and leave," President Obama now seems to have retreated into a bizarre but all too typical passivity.
We say bizarre because the U.S. has already announced its preferred outcome, yet it is doing little to achieve this end.
* WELL, AS NOTED YESTERDAY, APPARENTLY WE'VE ASKED THE SAUDIS TO ARM THE REBELS... (*PAUSE*)... ONLY WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SECRET REQUEST HAS BEEN MADE PUBLIC. SCORE ANOTHER ONE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION WHICH CAN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT!
The greatest danger now to U.S. interests - and to Mr. Obama's political standing - would be for Gadhafi to regain control.
* SCREW OBAMA'S STANDING; I WANT WHAT'S GOOD FOR AMERICA AND IF OBAMA ENDS UP RECEIVING UNDESERVED CREDIT... WELL... SO BE IT.
A Libya in part or whole under the Gadhafi clan would be a failed, isolated and dangerous place ruled by a vengeful tyrant and a likely abettor of terrorists. We presume that's what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meant the other day when she said that "one of our biggest concerns is Libya . . . becoming a giant Somalia."
(*SIGH*) ANOTHER SORE SPOT FOR THE INCOMPETENCE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION. PIRATES... PIRATES...! PIRATES IN THE 21st FRIGG'N CENTURY...!!!
[N]o one is talking about introducing U.S. ground forces a la Afghanistan or Iraq. The Libyans want to liberate Libya. The issue is how the U.S. can help them do it, which includes humanitarian, diplomatic and perhaps military assistance.
Three weeks into the uprising, Mr. Obama has finally approved a humanitarian airlift.
(*HEADACHE*) THREE WEEKS...
The U.S. should also recognize the provisional government known as the National Transitional Temporary Council, which has issued a declaration of principles that is at least as enlightened as the average Arab constitution. (U.S. officials may not know these men well, but we will have more influence with them if they see us helping their cause when it matters.)
* AGREED.
The U.S. should also bar Gadhafi's agents from U.S. soil and world councils.
(*NOD*)
Gadhafi's government has requested that senior diplomat Ali Abdussalam Treki be recognized as Libya's new ambassador to the U.N. A U.N. spokesman naturally says this is Libya's right, but the U.S. ought to deny Mr. Treki a visa. If Libyan officials realize they are going to be persona non grata around the world, more of them might defect.
* WHAT PIECES OF SHIT THEY HAVE AT THE U.N., HUH?
The U.S. and U.N. may also be repeating their Bosnian mistake with their arms embargo on Libya. In the 1990s, a U.N. embargo didn't hurt the Serbs, who were already well-armed, but it crippled the Bosnians, who lacked the weapons to defend themselves. The current U.N. embargo may have been intended to apply only to Gadhafi's government, but we saw conflicting reports on the weekend that some countries may be interpreting it to apply to the opposition too.
* WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO THE WHITE HOUSE GANG WHO COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT AND THEIR ALLEGED "CONSPIRACY" WITH THE SAUDIS TO SHIP ARMS TO THE REBELS.
* WHILE THIS OF COURSE IS THE PROPER COURSE, THE FACT REMAINS, OBAMA IS PUBLICLY SAYING ONE THING - PUBLICLY QUOTING "INTERNATIONAL LAW" - WHILE APPARENTLY ENGAGING IN ACTIVITIES WHICH MIGHT VIOLATE INTERNATIONAL LAW. ANY CHANCE THE DEMS WHO STILL BRING UP IRAN-CONTRA EVERY SO OFTEN WILL COMMENT ON THE PARALLEL?
(*SMIRK*) (*SNORT*) (*SNICKER*)
[If President] Obama thinks George W. Bush was unpopular in the Arab world, he should contemplate the standing of America - and the world reputation of Barack Obama - if Gadhafi and his sons slaughter their way back to power.
When [Federal Court of Appeals Justice] Roger Vinson struck down ObamaCare as unconstitutional in January, Justice Department lawyers filed an unusual "motion of clarification," essentially claiming they were confused by the Florida federal judge's plain language.
Judge Vinson replied last week, and the government lawyers are probably wishing they hadn't pretended they couldn't read.
The [mainstream media is largely] painting the ruling as a setback for the 26 states and other plaintiffs, because Judge Vinson stayed his original ruling and allowed the law to be carried out pending appeal.
[F]act [is, Justice Vinson actually] hardened that ruling in important ways, and [Holder's] gambit gave [Judge Vinson] an opportunity to respond to his critics, which judges are rarely able to do.
Look out below. The motion to clarify, he writes, "borders on misrepresentation."
* WOW... IN POLITE JUDICIAL LANGUAGE... THE JUDGE JUST CALLED THE OBAMA/HOLDER LEGAL TEAM A BUNCH OF LIARS!
Normally, when courts void an entire statute, it is considered a de facto injunction and the government files a motion for an immediate stay.
* BUT "NORMALACY" IS OUT THE WINDOW NOW THAT WE'RE SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AGE OF OBAMA!
The Obama Administration decided to ignore the order for nearly a month and continued with implementation as if nothing had happened, and then played dumb in Judge Vinson's courtroom.
The Judge said the Administration is making bad-faith arguments that are "manifestly incorrect" and contrary to the well-established legal precedents "that they themselves had identified and specifically insisted they would honor" in earlier proceedings and motions.
The transparent political goal is to string out the legal challenges as long as possible.
(*NOD*)
Therefore, Judge Vinson decided to treat the dilatory tactics as a motion for a stay, and granted it. But he also gave the Justice Department a mere seven days - that is, this Thursday - to file an appeal and required that it seek an expedited appellate review.
[Justice Vinson] writes that "the battle lines have been drawn, the relevant case law marshaled, and the legal arguments refined." There is no reason for further delay.
(*STANDING OVATION*)
Judge Vinson has put this important case on a direct chute to the High Court.
On Wednesday two American soldiers were shot dead on a military bus at Frankfurt Airport.
Arid Uka, a 21-year-old Kosovo native, has confessed to the murders of Senior Airman Nicholas Alden, 25, and Airman First Class Zachary Cuddeback, 21.
German officials say Uka approached the airmen boarding the bus, asked for a cigarette, and struck up a conversation. After one of the soldiers confirmed they were headed for Afghanistan, Uka followed them onto the bus, cried "Allahu akbar," and began shooting.
"He was trying to stop them," said prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum, who described Uka as "Islamist influenced" and said the shootings underscored the dangers of "virtual jihad."
Though it appears Uka acted alone, the details that have emerged since his attack leave little reason to doubt his motives. On his Facebook page he expressed his approval for jihad and displayed ties to dozens of hardline Muslim people and organizations, including the deputy chairman of the Salafist "Invitation to Paradise" group, which German authorities are looking to ban.
Berlin at least appears to suffer no illusions about the threat posed by the world's Arid Ukas: "He is the type of terrorist we worry most about - the unknown threat," an intelligence official told the Journal.
By contrast, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley at a press briefing last week struggled to answer whether or not Uka's attack even constituted "terror": "Well, I mean, you know, for example, was the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords a terrorist attack?"
* YOU FOLKS DO UNDERSTAND, I HOPE, THAT CROWLEY IS A MOUTHPIECE FOR CLINTON AND ULTIMATELY OBAMA. THIS IS THEIR MINDSET; CROWLEY IS SIMPLY OF REFLECTION OF IT.
[A]ll available evidence suggests that Loughner's massacre was the product of a deranged mind with little if any coherent political leanings. A more apt comparison to Frankfurt would be the slaughter at Fort Hood in 2009, which was also reportedly preceded by a shout of "Allahu akbar" from a killer whose background showed ties to radical Islam.
* FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS MORE THAN AN "ANNOYANCE." SUCH POLICIES GET PEOPLE KILLED.
In his only comments to date on the matter, President Obama on Wednesday called the shootings in Frankfurt a "stark reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our men and women in uniform are making all around the world to keep us safe and the dangers that they face all around the world."
It is that. But the airmen were not gunned down in combat or even a theater of war; they were murdered while transiting through a civilian airport in a country at peace with the U.S., having been targeted as symbols of American foreign policy.
* R.I.P. SENIOR AIRMAN NICOLAS ALDEN, 25, AND AIRMAN FIRST CLASS ZACHARY CUDDEBACK, 21.
Frankfurt is, at its starkest, a reminder that Islamist ideology still poses a live threat to Americans, uniformed and civilian, at home and abroad. Is it too much to ask that Washington recognize that threat for what it is?
Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan Monday on an unnanounced trip and told U.S. soldiers there that the U.S. may remain in the country past a 2014 deadline.
* THE WAR THAT NEVER ENDS, PEOPLE... (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
"Obviously it would be a small fraction of the presence that we have today, but I think we're willing to do that," Gates told a group of troops, according to the Washington Post. "My sense is, they (Afghan officials) are interested in having us do that."
* IN OTHER WORDS, WE'VE WON NOTHING SINCE INVADING IN 2001 - NOTHING IN TERMS OF LONG TERM SECURITY OR STABILITY. THE MOMENT WE GET OUT AFGHANISTAN WILL DESCEND INTO (EVEN GREATER) CHAOS.
* WELL... I SAY LET IT. I SAY WE GET OUT, AND WHEN AND WHERE NEEDED KILL THOSE WHO WOULD KILL US USING DIRECTED STRIKES. FOLKS... NATION BUILDING IS A FAILURE. WE'VE PISSED AWAY OVER A TRILLION DOLLARS TRYING! WE'RE FRIGG'N BROKE!
[Afghan President] Karzai [a corrupt dictator ruling under our security umbrella,] on Sunday rejected the personal apology of Gen. David Petraeus, top commander of U.S. and NATO forces there, for the mistaken killings of nine children in Afghanistan last week when two helicopters returned fire on what they thought were insurgents, but turned out to be young boys chopping wood.
(*SIGH*)
Petraeus apologized for the incident at an Afghan National Security Council meeting Sunday in addition to his public apology last week.
"The people of Afghanistan are tired of these incidents and excuses, and condemnations cannot relieve their pain," Karzai said Sunday.
Departing members of the House of Representatives awarded millions of dollars in extra pay to aides as they closed down their offices, according to lawmakers' spending records.
Because most of the departing members were Democrats, fourth-quarter salary increases in 2010 for Democratic staffers were the largest in the decade LegiStorm has been gathering such data. (Republican staffers enjoyed a similar boost when many of their employers left office at the end of 2006.)
The 96 lawmakers paid their employees $6.7 million, or 31%, more in the fourth quarter of 2010 than they did, on average, in the first three quarters of the year. (That's about twice as much as the 16% increase awarded by lawmakers who returned to the 112th Congress, according to LegiStorm, an organization that tracks congressional salaries.)
* THE MOMENT AN ELECTED OFFICIAL IS VOTED OUT OF OFFICE HE SHOULD LOSE ALL AUTHORITY OVER HIS OFFICE BUDGET - SAID AUTHORITY REVERTING TO THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE OR SOME OTHER "IMPARTIAL" OFFICIAL.
The disparity suggests retiring or defeated members used remaining funds in their official expenses budgets to boost salaries for staffers before they left Washington, cash that might otherwise have been returned to the U.S. Treasury.
* SCUM... PURE SCUM.
Jim Marshall, a Georgia Democrat who lost his re-election bid, had the largest percentage increase in payroll of the departing members, more than doubling his spending on salaries in the fourth quarter, compared to the average for the previous three quarters.
Mr. Marshall shared an increase of $237,479 among 17 staff members, some of whom had taken leaves of absence to work on his campaign.
Mr. Marshall said that during his four terms in Congress he paid his staffers low annual salaries and returned money to the Treasury. He said this year, facing a tough race, he promised staff he would look after them if he was defeated.
* SOUNDS LIKE A CRIME TO ME! SERIOUSLY! HE BRIBED STAFF MEMBERS - USING THE CARROT OF PROMISED FUTURE FEDERAL DOLLARS - TO WORK ON HIS CAMPAIGN. HOW IS THAT NOT MALFEASANCE...???
Two departing members of Congress gave out more money in bonuses than Mr. Marshall. Marion Berry, an Arkansas Democrat who retired from Congress, shared an additional $254,634 among 18 staff members in the fourth quarter. Florida Democrat Kendrick Meek, who gave up his congressional seat for an unsuccessful Senate campaign, gave an extra $252,978.
Mr. Berry said he did what he "thought was the right thing to do."
* BUT IT WASN'T HIS FRIGG'N MONEY...!!!
Florida Republican Ginny Brown-Waite, who retired, paid her staff an extra $220,664. Neither Ms. Brown-Waite nor her former spokeswoman responded to inquiries.
President Obama on Monday ordered that military commission trials be resumed at Guantánamo Bay.
[Yes, the same Barak Obama who ran for office pledging] to close the terrorist detention facility in Cuba within one year of taking office [were he to be elected].
The president had hoped to hold trials in federal court for many of the detainees, but...
* ENDING UP FAILING TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON THIS ASSININE IDEA - THANK GOD!
The White House said Obama “remains committed” to closing the Guantánamo camp, but...
* BUT...? BUT WHAT...??? BOTTOM LINE... EVEN IF YOU'RE A LIB, YOU CAN'T TRUST A WORD OUT OF OBAMA'S MOUTH. (*SHRUG*)
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX)...said he saw the announcement as a clear step away from trying suspected terrorists in civilian courts, which the administration has heavily advocated over the past two years.
“As Republicans have been saying all along, terrorists should be treated as enemy combatants, not common criminals,” he said in a statement. “Trying foreign terrorists in civilian court makes it harder for prosecutors to obtain convictions and gives terrorists a public forum to spew their radical hate for America.”
The ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson [of Missippi,] echoed his support for civilian trials...“I take the president at his word that he still wants to close Gitmo and try detainees in civilian courts,” Thompson said in a statement.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... PUTTING ASIDE OBAMA NOT BEING A MAN OF HIS WORD - EVEN BREAKING PROMISES TO FELLOW LEFTISTS - THERE'S A CLEAR SEPARATION BETWEEN REPUBLICANS WHO WANT TO TREAT TERRORISM AS TERRORISM AND DEMOCRATS WHO WANT TO TREAT TERRORISM AS CRIME... IN OTHER WORDS, TREAT IT AS THEY DID THE FIRST ATTACK ON THE WTC IN '93, THE ATTACKS ON U.S. EMBASSIES, AND THE ATTACK ON THE U.S.S. COLE. THEIR FAILED POLICIES LED TO 9/11.
* FOLKS... PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A DANGEROUS INCOMPETENT.
11 comments:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.93280b7ec50a265e547c3fbb555a7bba.491&show_article=1
The British government was left red-faced Monday after a botched attempt by special forces to make contact with opposition forces in Libya ended in the team being seized by rebels.
* IT'S THE AGE OF CARTER (WITH A BRITISH ACCENT!) ALL OVER AGAIN!
The team, reportedly made up of six soldiers from the elite SAS and two diplomats, flew into Libya by helicopter and made their way to the opposition-held city of Benghazi, But they were rounded up by lightly armed rebels soon after they arrived, reports said.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The diplomats are believed to have been officers from Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service whose mission was to contact rebel leaders and open the way for a delegation, but they succeeded only in angering Libyan opposition leaders who denied they had asked for any help and by late Sunday they had been packed off to Malta on a British naval ship.
(*BANGING MY HEAD DOWN ON MY DESK*)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Oil-tops-106-as-Libya-crisis-cnnm-4056838505.html?x=0
Oil prices rose to a fresh 2-1/2 year high early Monday, climbing above $106 a barrel...
* WELL THANK GOD MY CAR RUNS ON LOVE AND KIND WORDS! THANK THE LORD MY HOME IS HEATED WITH OPTIMISM AND GOOD WILL TOWARDS MAN!
(*SPINNING THE CYLINDER OF THE REVOLVER ROUND AND ROUND*)
The benchmark U.S. contract, West Texas Intermediate, for April delivery was up $2.26, or 2.1%, to $106.68 a barrel. Oil prices are currently trading at the highest levels since September 2008.
Brent crude, the main European contract, rose $2.20 to $118.17 a barrel.
* OH... AND FOLKS... BY THE WAY...
[C]rude stockpiles in the United States and elsewhere remain relatively flush...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580004576180340862497026.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Last year, President Obama gave Congress an arbitrary deadline to pass his health-care takeover legislation before the Easter recess at the end of March. This forced lawmakers to hurry their votes on a deeply flawed bill that very few of them had read. Worse, many made false promises to secure final passage.
* THREE POINTS: 1) ANY SENATOR OR MEMBER OF CONGRESS WHO VOTES ON A BILL HE OR SHE HASN'T READ HAS VIOLATED HIS OATH OF OFFICE - PERIOD. 2) NO ONE CAN "FORCE" AN HONEST "LAWMAKER" TO VOTE FOR A BILL HE OR SHE HASN'T READ; THE DEMS DELIBERATELY CHOOSE TO VOTE WITHOUT HAVING READ THE BILL. THE RECORD IS 100% CLEAR ON THAT. THERE'S SIMPLY NO DEBATE. 3) YES. WE ALL KNOW SEVERAL SENATORS WERE LITERALLY BRIBED BY THE ADMINISTRATION. WE AS A NATION ARE ON THE ROAD TO RUIN. WE ARE A DEEPLY DECAYED CIVILIZATION. THE INMATES WERE RUNNING THE ASYLUM LAST YEAR... AND THIS YEAR THEY STILL CONTROL BOTH THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE SENATE.
A new study from the Senate Finance and House Energy and Commerce Committees found that as a result of ObamaCare, budget-strapped states face at least $118 billion in unfunded mandates during the first 10 years after the law takes effect.
More than half the states - 28 and counting - are challenging the law in court, saying that it violates the constitutional rights of their citizens and the sovereignty of the states.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has handed out 1,040 "waivers" to allow select companies, unions and states to escape, at least temporarily, some of the burdensome new insurance rules she has created. This is a continuation of the trend of the "Cornhusker Kickback" and the "Louisiana Purchase" that Senate Democrats used to get the law passed in the first place...
* FOLKS. THIS IS NO LONGER A NATION OF LAWS. THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION LARGELY RULES BY FIAT. (AND IF YOU THINK THIS IS AN EXAGGERATION THEN YOU SIMPLY HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION.) NOT A WEEK GOES BY WHERE NEWSBITES DOESN'T HIGHLIGHT GOVERNMENT "IRREGULARITIES" TAKING PLACE IN THIS... er... AGE OF OBAMA.
The Congressional Budget Office expects the price of a family policy in the individual market to be $2,100 higher by 2016 than it would have been had the law not passed. The former director of the CBO, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, says that the costs of ObamaCare are set to explode when employers opt to drop coverage and send their workers to the new, federally subsidized health exchanges for coverage. He estimates that this will drive up the cost of the law by $1 trillion or more in the first 10 years.
In at least 20 states, it's now impossible to buy child-only health insurance because of Ms. Sebelius's onerous new rules.
Seniors are at risk of losing access to physicians and medical care. Medicare actuaries say that the cuts built into the law will force as many as 40% of providers to eventually stop seeing Medicare patients or go bankrupt.
[T]housands of people are already losing the health insurance they have now as companies are exiting markets for individual, small group and Medicare Advantage coverage.
* FOLKS... ALL OF THIS WAS FORESEEN.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704005404576176861610325024.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
Al Jazeera is already comparing the West's failure to act in Libya to the slaughter of Iraq's marsh Arabs in 1991 and of the Bosnian Muslims by Serbs later that decade.
(*LONG, DEEP SIGH*)
Having loudly declared...
* BETTER LATE THAN NEVER - RECALL IT TOOK OBAMA SOME TIME TO REACH EVEN THE DECLARATION STAGE!
...that Gadhafi "needs to step down from power and leave," President Obama now seems to have retreated into a bizarre but all too typical passivity.
We say bizarre because the U.S. has already announced its preferred outcome, yet it is doing little to achieve this end.
* WELL, AS NOTED YESTERDAY, APPARENTLY WE'VE ASKED THE SAUDIS TO ARM THE REBELS... (*PAUSE*)... ONLY WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SECRET REQUEST HAS BEEN MADE PUBLIC. SCORE ANOTHER ONE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION WHICH CAN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT!
The greatest danger now to U.S. interests - and to Mr. Obama's political standing - would be for Gadhafi to regain control.
* SCREW OBAMA'S STANDING; I WANT WHAT'S GOOD FOR AMERICA AND IF OBAMA ENDS UP RECEIVING UNDESERVED CREDIT... WELL... SO BE IT.
A Libya in part or whole under the Gadhafi clan would be a failed, isolated and dangerous place ruled by a vengeful tyrant and a likely abettor of terrorists. We presume that's what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meant the other day when she said that "one of our biggest concerns is Libya . . . becoming a giant Somalia."
(*SIGH*) ANOTHER SORE SPOT FOR THE INCOMPETENCE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION. PIRATES... PIRATES...! PIRATES IN THE 21st FRIGG'N CENTURY...!!!
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
[N]o one is talking about introducing U.S. ground forces a la Afghanistan or Iraq. The Libyans want to liberate Libya. The issue is how the U.S. can help them do it, which includes humanitarian, diplomatic and perhaps military assistance.
Three weeks into the uprising, Mr. Obama has finally approved a humanitarian airlift.
(*HEADACHE*) THREE WEEKS...
The U.S. should also recognize the provisional government known as the National Transitional Temporary Council, which has issued a declaration of principles that is at least as enlightened as the average Arab constitution. (U.S. officials may not know these men well, but we will have more influence with them if they see us helping their cause when it matters.)
* AGREED.
The U.S. should also bar Gadhafi's agents from U.S. soil and world councils.
(*NOD*)
Gadhafi's government has requested that senior diplomat Ali Abdussalam Treki be recognized as Libya's new ambassador to the U.N. A U.N. spokesman naturally says this is Libya's right, but the U.S. ought to deny Mr. Treki a visa. If Libyan officials realize they are going to be persona non grata around the world, more of them might defect.
* WHAT PIECES OF SHIT THEY HAVE AT THE U.N., HUH?
The U.S. and U.N. may also be repeating their Bosnian mistake with their arms embargo on Libya. In the 1990s, a U.N. embargo didn't hurt the Serbs, who were already well-armed, but it crippled the Bosnians, who lacked the weapons to defend themselves. The current U.N. embargo may have been intended to apply only to Gadhafi's government, but we saw conflicting reports on the weekend that some countries may be interpreting it to apply to the opposition too.
* WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO THE WHITE HOUSE GANG WHO COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT AND THEIR ALLEGED "CONSPIRACY" WITH THE SAUDIS TO SHIP ARMS TO THE REBELS.
* WHILE THIS OF COURSE IS THE PROPER COURSE, THE FACT REMAINS, OBAMA IS PUBLICLY SAYING ONE THING - PUBLICLY QUOTING "INTERNATIONAL LAW" - WHILE APPARENTLY ENGAGING IN ACTIVITIES WHICH MIGHT VIOLATE INTERNATIONAL LAW. ANY CHANCE THE DEMS WHO STILL BRING UP IRAN-CONTRA EVERY SO OFTEN WILL COMMENT ON THE PARALLEL?
(*SMIRK*) (*SNORT*) (*SNICKER*)
[If President] Obama thinks George W. Bush was unpopular in the Arab world, he should contemplate the standing of America - and the world reputation of Barack Obama - if Gadhafi and his sons slaughter their way back to power.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580004576180552381168580.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
When [Federal Court of Appeals Justice] Roger Vinson struck down ObamaCare as unconstitutional in January, Justice Department lawyers filed an unusual "motion of clarification," essentially claiming they were confused by the Florida federal judge's plain language.
Judge Vinson replied last week, and the government lawyers are probably wishing they hadn't pretended they couldn't read.
The [mainstream media is largely] painting the ruling as a setback for the 26 states and other plaintiffs, because Judge Vinson stayed his original ruling and allowed the law to be carried out pending appeal.
[F]act [is, Justice Vinson actually] hardened that ruling in important ways, and [Holder's] gambit gave [Judge Vinson] an opportunity to respond to his critics, which judges are rarely able to do.
Look out below. The motion to clarify, he writes, "borders on misrepresentation."
* WOW... IN POLITE JUDICIAL LANGUAGE... THE JUDGE JUST CALLED THE OBAMA/HOLDER LEGAL TEAM A BUNCH OF LIARS!
Normally, when courts void an entire statute, it is considered a de facto injunction and the government files a motion for an immediate stay.
* BUT "NORMALACY" IS OUT THE WINDOW NOW THAT WE'RE SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AGE OF OBAMA!
The Obama Administration decided to ignore the order for nearly a month and continued with implementation as if nothing had happened, and then played dumb in Judge Vinson's courtroom.
The Judge said the Administration is making bad-faith arguments that are "manifestly incorrect" and contrary to the well-established legal precedents "that they themselves had identified and specifically insisted they would honor" in earlier proceedings and motions.
The transparent political goal is to string out the legal challenges as long as possible.
(*NOD*)
Therefore, Judge Vinson decided to treat the dilatory tactics as a motion for a stay, and granted it. But he also gave the Justice Department a mere seven days - that is, this Thursday - to file an appeal and required that it seek an expedited appellate review.
[Justice Vinson] writes that "the battle lines have been drawn, the relevant case law marshaled, and the legal arguments refined." There is no reason for further delay.
(*STANDING OVATION*)
Judge Vinson has put this important case on a direct chute to the High Court.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704504404576184221973179168.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopBucket
On Wednesday two American soldiers were shot dead on a military bus at Frankfurt Airport.
Arid Uka, a 21-year-old Kosovo native, has confessed to the murders of Senior Airman Nicholas Alden, 25, and Airman First Class Zachary Cuddeback, 21.
German officials say Uka approached the airmen boarding the bus, asked for a cigarette, and struck up a conversation. After one of the soldiers confirmed they were headed for Afghanistan, Uka followed them onto the bus, cried "Allahu akbar," and began shooting.
"He was trying to stop them," said prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum, who described Uka as "Islamist influenced" and said the shootings underscored the dangers of "virtual jihad."
Though it appears Uka acted alone, the details that have emerged since his attack leave little reason to doubt his motives. On his Facebook page he expressed his approval for jihad and displayed ties to dozens of hardline Muslim people and organizations, including the deputy chairman of the Salafist "Invitation to Paradise" group, which German authorities are looking to ban.
Berlin at least appears to suffer no illusions about the threat posed by the world's Arid Ukas: "He is the type of terrorist we worry most about - the unknown threat," an intelligence official told the Journal.
By contrast, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley at a press briefing last week struggled to answer whether or not Uka's attack even constituted "terror": "Well, I mean, you know, for example, was the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords a terrorist attack?"
* YOU FOLKS DO UNDERSTAND, I HOPE, THAT CROWLEY IS A MOUTHPIECE FOR CLINTON AND ULTIMATELY OBAMA. THIS IS THEIR MINDSET; CROWLEY IS SIMPLY OF REFLECTION OF IT.
[A]ll available evidence suggests that Loughner's massacre was the product of a deranged mind with little if any coherent political leanings. A more apt comparison to Frankfurt would be the slaughter at Fort Hood in 2009, which was also reportedly preceded by a shout of "Allahu akbar" from a killer whose background showed ties to radical Islam.
* FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS MORE THAN AN "ANNOYANCE." SUCH POLICIES GET PEOPLE KILLED.
In his only comments to date on the matter, President Obama on Wednesday called the shootings in Frankfurt a "stark reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our men and women in uniform are making all around the world to keep us safe and the dangers that they face all around the world."
It is that. But the airmen were not gunned down in combat or even a theater of war; they were murdered while transiting through a civilian airport in a country at peace with the U.S., having been targeted as symbols of American foreign policy.
* R.I.P. SENIOR AIRMAN NICOLAS ALDEN, 25, AND AIRMAN FIRST CLASS ZACHARY CUDDEBACK, 21.
Frankfurt is, at its starkest, a reminder that Islamist ideology still poses a live threat to Americans, uniformed and civilian, at home and abroad. Is it too much to ask that Washington recognize that threat for what it is?
http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/in-surprise-afghanistan-visit-gates-says-u-s-may-stay-past-2014-deadline-20110307
Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan Monday on an unnanounced trip and told U.S. soldiers there that the U.S. may remain in the country past a 2014 deadline.
* THE WAR THAT NEVER ENDS, PEOPLE... (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
"Obviously it would be a small fraction of the presence that we have today, but I think we're willing to do that," Gates told a group of troops, according to the Washington Post. "My sense is, they (Afghan officials) are interested in having us do that."
* IN OTHER WORDS, WE'VE WON NOTHING SINCE INVADING IN 2001 - NOTHING IN TERMS OF LONG TERM SECURITY OR STABILITY. THE MOMENT WE GET OUT AFGHANISTAN WILL DESCEND INTO (EVEN GREATER) CHAOS.
* WELL... I SAY LET IT. I SAY WE GET OUT, AND WHEN AND WHERE NEEDED KILL THOSE WHO WOULD KILL US USING DIRECTED STRIKES. FOLKS... NATION BUILDING IS A FAILURE. WE'VE PISSED AWAY OVER A TRILLION DOLLARS TRYING! WE'RE FRIGG'N BROKE!
[Afghan President] Karzai [a corrupt dictator ruling under our security umbrella,] on Sunday rejected the personal apology of Gen. David Petraeus, top commander of U.S. and NATO forces there, for the mistaken killings of nine children in Afghanistan last week when two helicopters returned fire on what they thought were insurgents, but turned out to be young boys chopping wood.
(*SIGH*)
Petraeus apologized for the incident at an Afghan National Security Council meeting Sunday in addition to his public apology last week.
"The people of Afghanistan are tired of these incidents and excuses, and condemnations cannot relieve their pain," Karzai said Sunday.
* IMAGINE IT WAS YOUR CHILD...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703362804576184903976465110.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_news
Departing members of the House of Representatives awarded millions of dollars in extra pay to aides as they closed down their offices, according to lawmakers' spending records.
Because most of the departing members were Democrats, fourth-quarter salary increases in 2010 for Democratic staffers were the largest in the decade LegiStorm has been gathering such data. (Republican staffers enjoyed a similar boost when many of their employers left office at the end of 2006.)
The 96 lawmakers paid their employees $6.7 million, or 31%, more in the fourth quarter of 2010 than they did, on average, in the first three quarters of the year. (That's about twice as much as the 16% increase awarded by lawmakers who returned to the 112th Congress, according to LegiStorm, an organization that tracks congressional salaries.)
* THE MOMENT AN ELECTED OFFICIAL IS VOTED OUT OF OFFICE HE SHOULD LOSE ALL AUTHORITY OVER HIS OFFICE BUDGET - SAID AUTHORITY REVERTING TO THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE OR SOME OTHER "IMPARTIAL" OFFICIAL.
The disparity suggests retiring or defeated members used remaining funds in their official expenses budgets to boost salaries for staffers before they left Washington, cash that might otherwise have been returned to the U.S. Treasury.
* SCUM... PURE SCUM.
Jim Marshall, a Georgia Democrat who lost his re-election bid, had the largest percentage increase in payroll of the departing members, more than doubling his spending on salaries in the fourth quarter, compared to the average for the previous three quarters.
Mr. Marshall shared an increase of $237,479 among 17 staff members, some of whom had taken leaves of absence to work on his campaign.
Mr. Marshall said that during his four terms in Congress he paid his staffers low annual salaries and returned money to the Treasury. He said this year, facing a tough race, he promised staff he would look after them if he was defeated.
* SOUNDS LIKE A CRIME TO ME! SERIOUSLY! HE BRIBED STAFF MEMBERS - USING THE CARROT OF PROMISED FUTURE FEDERAL DOLLARS - TO WORK ON HIS CAMPAIGN. HOW IS THAT NOT MALFEASANCE...???
Two departing members of Congress gave out more money in bonuses than Mr. Marshall. Marion Berry, an Arkansas Democrat who retired from Congress, shared an additional $254,634 among 18 staff members in the fourth quarter. Florida Democrat Kendrick Meek, who gave up his congressional seat for an unsuccessful Senate campaign, gave an extra $252,978.
Mr. Berry said he did what he "thought was the right thing to do."
* BUT IT WASN'T HIS FRIGG'N MONEY...!!!
Florida Republican Ginny Brown-Waite, who retired, paid her staff an extra $220,664. Neither Ms. Brown-Waite nor her former spokeswoman responded to inquiries.
* ANOTHER SCUMBAG... (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/147871-obama-military-commissions-to-resume-for-gitmo-detainees
President Obama on Monday ordered that military commission trials be resumed at Guantánamo Bay.
[Yes, the same Barak Obama who ran for office pledging] to close the terrorist detention facility in Cuba within one year of taking office [were he to be elected].
The president had hoped to hold trials in federal court for many of the detainees, but...
* ENDING UP FAILING TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON THIS ASSININE IDEA - THANK GOD!
The White House said Obama “remains committed” to closing the Guantánamo camp, but...
* BUT...? BUT WHAT...??? BOTTOM LINE... EVEN IF YOU'RE A LIB, YOU CAN'T TRUST A WORD OUT OF OBAMA'S MOUTH. (*SHRUG*)
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX)...said he saw the announcement as a clear step away from trying suspected terrorists in civilian courts, which the administration has heavily advocated over the past two years.
“As Republicans have been saying all along, terrorists should be treated as enemy combatants, not common criminals,” he said in a statement. “Trying foreign terrorists in civilian court makes it harder for prosecutors to obtain convictions and gives terrorists a public forum to spew their radical hate for America.”
The ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson [of Missippi,] echoed his support for civilian trials...“I take the president at his word that he still wants to close Gitmo and try detainees in civilian courts,” Thompson said in a statement.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... PUTTING ASIDE OBAMA NOT BEING A MAN OF HIS WORD - EVEN BREAKING PROMISES TO FELLOW LEFTISTS - THERE'S A CLEAR SEPARATION BETWEEN REPUBLICANS WHO WANT TO TREAT TERRORISM AS TERRORISM AND DEMOCRATS WHO WANT TO TREAT TERRORISM AS CRIME... IN OTHER WORDS, TREAT IT AS THEY DID THE FIRST ATTACK ON THE WTC IN '93, THE ATTACKS ON U.S. EMBASSIES, AND THE ATTACK ON THE U.S.S. COLE. THEIR FAILED POLICIES LED TO 9/11.
* FOLKS... PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A DANGEROUS INCOMPETENT.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/7/government-posts-biggest-monthly-deficit-ever/
The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February...
* FOLKS... WE'RE STILL TALKING OBAMA/REID/PELOSI SPENDING.
Last month’s federal deficit is nearly four times as large as the spending cuts House Republicans have passed in their spending bill...
* MEANING THE HOUSE REPUBLICANS NEED TO CUT SPENDING FURTHER... FAR FURTHER...
Last month’s federal deficit is...more than 30 times the size of Senate Democrats’ opening bid of $6 billion.
* WHICH SHOULD TELL YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DEMS VS. THE REPUBLICANS.
* FOLKS... THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS DOING EVERYTHING WITHIN ITS POWER TO "COLLAPSE THE SYSTEM." THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE.
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