Genius!

Administrators at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, kept a secret list of patients who were

waiting for treatment while publishing a falsified list that complied with VA regulations.  As many as forty veterans died as a result of excessive delays in their care and an investigation into the practice has now spread to 42 VA hospitals across the country.

E-mails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that a senior White House advisor, Ben Rhodes, was directly involved in crafting the talking points that Ambassador Susan Rice delivered on multiple Sunday talk shows following the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on 11 September 2012.  The e-mail emphasizes a previously-unknown YouTube video critical of Islam as the cause of the attack and deflects criticism of  “a broader failure of policy,” and contradicts earlier White House denials of coordination between the President’s staff and the State Department regarding Ambassador Rice’s remarks.

E-mails subpoenaed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee indicate that IRS headquarters in Washington, DC, was directing and controlling the targeting of conservative groups seeking 501(c)3 tax-exempt status starting in March 2010, rather than a couple of “rogue agents” at the Cincinnati office. (Two hundred ninety-two conservative groups received extreme levels of scrutiny vice six liberal groups.) They also prove that Senator Carl Levin and Representative Elijah Cummings, both liberal Democrats, were pressuring the IRS to throttle conservative/TEA Party groups before the 2010 elections, proving that the United States Congress and the Executive Branch were colluding to deprive American citizens of their Constitutional rights.

In contradiction to his earlier criticism of electronic monitoring of domestic communications during the Bush 43 administration, Priest-King expanded the scope of such monitoring to include virtually every telephone call and keystroke in the United States and the permanent retention of that information by the Federal government or by its agents.  Such national-scale monitoring of private communications represents the most colossal violation of Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure in American history.

In order to determine the source of a national security leak, the Justice Department subpoenaed the telephone records of over 100 Associated Press employees, Fox News reporter James Rosen, and Mr. Rosen’s parents, even naming Mr. Rosen a “co-conspirator” in a Federal indictment.  Attorney General Eric Holder testified to Congress that he didn’t intend to arrest and prosecute Mr. Rosen and the indictment was more of a scare tactic than anything else, but this episode demonstrates the commitment of the Priest-King administration to intimidating the free press.

As a result of Priest-King’s stated “red line” in Syria, President Bashar Assad remains in power, continues to use chemical weapons against his own citizens and is invulnerable to UN sanctions.  Given Russia’s firm support, it is highly unlikely that he will be overthrown and replaced by a pro-Western democracy.

As a result of Priest-King’s “reset” with Russia, Vladimir Putin has seized Crimea, occupied eastern Ukraine, threatens to split the country in two and gives safe haven to NSA traitor and fugitive Edward Snowden.

As a result of Priest-King’s “pivot” to Asia, China’s cyberespionage activities against U.S. companies and government agencies has increased, China has claimed all of the East and South China Seas as their territory, freedom of speech, Internet access, pro-democracy reforms and Christianity are rigorously suppressed and North Korea’s psychotic behavior continues unabated.

As a result of his repeated assurances that, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan, period,” 6.2 million Americans have lost their health insurance, others have seen their deductibles, premiums and co-pays quintuple, 31% of all small businesses will drop their employees’ health coverage by 2016 and health care costs will climb $1.7 trillion between 2010-2020.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted an illegal operation called Fast and Furious in which known criminals were allowed to purchase firearms in the United States and transport them across the border to arm Mexican drug cartels.  This operation resulted in over 1700 guns being used to commit crimes on both sides of the border, the deaths of an unknown number of Mexican nationals and the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was killed in December 2010.  To date, less than half of the guns in question have been recovered and no-one has been fired or prosecuted.

You get the point.  Barack Hussein Obama, Priest-King of the Americas and Generalissimo of the People’s Revolution, presides over the most corrupt, lawless and inept administration in American history.  Crimes are committed, laws are openly ignored, flouted, disregarded or changed at his whim, people suffer and die and absolutely no-one is ever held to account.  American power and prestige, so dearly earned, is frittered away, wasted, allowed to wither and is now openly mocked abroad: Retreat and weakness are now our watchwords.  The economy sputters along on fumes, unemployment and food stamps are the “new normal,” and veterans of the nation’s armed forces, those most deserving of respect and diligent care, are allowed to die while smiling bureaucrats collect fat bonuses.  Six years ago, I warned you, fellow citizens, that electing Priest-King to the Presidency would result in this state of affairs and over 66 million of you ignored my warnings, twice, so if you have lost your job, lost your house, lost your health care, lost an elder to the VA’s tender mercies, you’re living on the government dole, none of Priest-King’s promises have been kept and you can’t understand why this has happened to you, then you’re as dumb as a bowl of soup and you deserved what you got.

The Flaccid President

 

When I last contributed my opinion in this space, I criticized Priest-King's amateurish

handling of the crisis in Syria which, as of this writing, has still not been resolved to our satisfaction: Bashar Assad is still in power and blasting the opposition with barrel bombs and long-range missiles, Syria's chemical weapons stockpile has yet to be completely controlled and destroyed and Russia continues to hold the

initiative in Syria and in the United Nations. This situation by itself would be embarrassment enough for the world's lone superpower but we must now add the ongoing humiliation in Ukraine. For about one week

in February, the Ukrainian people exulted in an historic victory, the deposition of the Russian puppet Viktor Yanukovych from the presidency, and the prospect of genuine democratic reform and closer relations with the West. The transformation of their country from Cold War satellite to modern liberal democracy and free-market economy, started in the Orange Revolution, was within reach, but then the

iron hand of Vladimir Putin slammed down hard. Russian forces overran Crimea, seized Ukrainian military bases, destroyed Ukrainian naval vessels and ensured approval of a popular referendum proposing secession of Crimea from Ukraine which led to prompt annexation by Russia, and are now massed on the Ukrainian frontier with the apparent intention of invading Ukraine proper and restoring their puppet to his former office, all in defiance of Priest-King's protests that this was "Cold War thinking" and Putin was "on the wrong side of history" and sanctions against a handful of his senior aides and exclusion - temporary exclusion, I might add - from the G8. Vladimir Putin is delivering a lesson in geopolitics that Priest-King is apparently too smart to understand, that soft warnings, half

measures and limp-wristed professors' lounge idealism are no match for men with guns.

Preventing an independent, pro-Western Georgia from integrating with the European Union and NATO was a strategic priority for Russia in 2008 so Vladimir Putin invaded that country, overwhelmed Georgia's military in five days, installed pro-Russian governments in the provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and was bombing the capital of Tbilisi before he decided to stop, demonstrating that he would act in his own interest, world opinion be damned. President George W. Bush, though he had started military cooperation with Georgia in the mid-2000's and invited Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to the White House, was too distracted by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the presidential campaign
and the burgeoning financial crisis to offer more than lip service to the embattled Georgians, which was exactly the circumstance that Putin had sought - a preoccupied America, exhausted by seven years of war and unwilling to interfere in his plans. He followed this calculus again to throttle the West's plans to stop Iran's nuclear program and again to prevent U.S. military action against his ally Assad in Syria, exploiting the West's disinclination for conflict to protect Russia's strategic interests and flex his political

muscle, because for Vladimir Putin, power is what matters. Winning is what matters. He lost heavily when President Bush withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and again when Bush invaded Iraq in 2003. He bungled an assassination attempt against pro-reform presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine in 2004, bungled rigging an election, looked foolish congratulating his stooge Yanukovych on television and is determined never to lose like that again. He wants to restore Russia's former greatness and power, he was lionized by a preening liberal media during the Sochi Winter Olympics (hello, Bob Costas) and now he owns Crimea. Who's to stop him now?

And that is the crux of it. Our European allies shrink from confronting Russia for fear of losing a major energy supplier and inviting Russian military retaliation. Priest-King himself, besides being annoyed by

Putin's open disrespect and confused by his boorish behavior, sees the Ukraine crisis as a

distraction from his goal of deconstructing America into a Scandinavian free-love commune and is disposed to hang back and let the situation play out, which means death for the Ukrainian people. Really stopping Russia would be risky, something Priest-King studiously avoids, it would alienate his base of America-hating Left-wing intellectuals, and the possibility of protecting freedom and democracy is outweighed by his craven need for popularity. In contrast to the swaggering former KGB colonel, Priest-King has amassed a nearly unbroken record of failure where foreign policy is concerned, failure to secure Russian and Chinese support for tougher sanctions against Iran, failure to secure Chinese
protections for human rights and intellectual property rights, failure to defeat AI Qaeda, failure to secure our border with Mexico, scorn from Hugo Chavez, retreat in Iraq, a reluctant, half-hearted surge and then a retreat from lithe war we have to win," indecision during the Arab Spring and the Egyptian uprising and of course, the attack on our consulate in Benghazi that left the U.S. Ambassador and three others dead. He is furiously cutting our military at the same time that Iran's nuclear program is accelerating, that North Korea continues to launch missiles, that AI Qaeda is surging across North Africa and that Russia is massing 80,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, so he has given the Russian dictator
absolutely no reason to treat him as anything besides a ridiculous weakling, so he will continue to lead from behind while Ukraine burns to cinders.

But it doesn't have to be this way. If actually deploying U.S. troops to Ukraine is off the table, there are steps we can take that will put Vladimir Putin in such a twist that he will beg us to let him quit and go home:

• Freeze all Russian assets in the United States and Europe so Putin can't get his money and neither can anyone else.

• Immediately send combat materiel to Ukraine, especially anti-tank and air defense weapons, so the Ukrainians will have the substance to defend themselves.

• Deploy strong U.S. air and naval forces to the Baltics and Eastern Europe, forces capable of

bloodying Putin's nose, and insist that our NATO allies do the same.

• Cancel the planned cuts to the Defense Department.

• Guarantee Ukraine and Europe itself that we can meet all of their energy needs at a cheaper price than Putin can, and then actually do it. Cut Putin out of his biggest market and then watch the Russian economy sputter and die.

These measures would send the strongest signal short of war that we won't tolerate Russian mischief in Ukraine or anywhere else, without losing more lives or territory. They would bolster our allies' confidence in us that we'll come through in the clutch, they would put that whiny little mobster in his place and they would demonstrate once again why the United States won the Cold War. Unfortunately, these measures would have to be implemented by a strong, determined leader and Ronald Reagan's been dead for ten years, so we're stuck with the skinny pipsqueak currently living in the White House: Ifthere were ever a situation where one of those little blue pills would come in handy, this is it.

 

 

Selective Outrage

Even a casual observer of politics and popular

culture would notice that liberals are an angry lot and usually angry about a lot of things at the same time: Saving the planet, social justice, income inequality, the “war on women,” charter schools, racial profiling and the list goes on into infinity. If it isn’t meryl Streep testifying to Congress about the dangers of alar (there weren’t any), it’s Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon protesting for the Sandinistas, for Ralph Nader, against Ralph Nader, with Cindy Sheehan and Jane Fonda  about the invasion of Iraq, against Governor Scott Walker and for Occupy Wall Street. Liberals rant and rave and storm about until, sometimes, their opinions collide with each other, which brings us to Boko Haram.

The kidnapping of 276 girls in Nigeria is rightly judged an abominable act, compounded by the threat of Boko Haram’s psychotic leader, Abubakar Sharam, to sell the girls into slavery and a life of prostitution, misery, abuse, disease and early death.  All civilized people should be shocked by this outrageous crime and everything should be done to find the girls and rescue them before it’s too late, but this situation also shines an unflattering light on liberals, who, I suspect, aren’t aware of it:

·         Non-intervention in other countries’ affairs has been a hallmark of liberal theology since the Vietnam War.  The aforesaid Ms. Sarandon and Ms. Fonda bitched about the invasion of Grenada and American support for the Contras in Nicaragua, liberals protested the deployment of American forces  to Saudi Arabia in 1990 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and Code Pink protested at George Bush’s ranch over the Global war On Terror.  However, as with the protests against apartheid in South Africa, the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos from the Philippines, the invasion of Haiti to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power and the bombing of Libya in 2011, liberals who demand American military intervention in Nigeria (#BringBackOurGirls) demonstrate that non-intervention as a principle is rather flexible when it concerns one of their pet causes, in this case, two causes: Feminism and Africa.  Thus Sheila Jackson-Lee can wave $12 in cash at the gate of the Nigerian Embassy, angrily referencing the price Boko Haram would accept for one of their victims, insists on a powerful and immediate American military response and doesn’t grasp the hypocrisy – they’re girls, they’re black, so anything is justified.

·         Abubakar Sharam’s threat, “Allah commands me to sell them,” referring to the girls he kidnapped at gunpoint, underscores that he is a psychotic Muslim thug leading an army of psychotic Muslim thugs, a stereotypical representative of the militant Islam that has waged war on Western civilization for the past forty years and the very reason we have been at war since 9/11, yet haven’t liberals like John Kerry, Dick Durbin, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Priest-King himself accused the United States of a baseless anti-Islamic hatred?  Did not Priest-King begin his reign by apologizing to the Muslim world for American “mistakes”? (A gentleman was arrested in London last week merely for quoting Winston Churchill’s remarks on Islam, the authorities charging him with making “insensitive remarks,” this in the city that was savagely bombed by Muslim terrorists in July 2005.) Demanding that the U.S. military should forcibly rescue his captives ought to bring a blush to liberals’ cheeks but they’re apparently unaware of the contradiction.

·         Many of the kidnapped girls are Christians, a fact omitted in most of the mainstream media coverage of this event.  Militant Islam has persecuted Christians for 1400 years but especially since the 1970’s – Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, East Timor, South Sudan, everywhere in the Muslim world – have we seen a committed, vengeful, robust campaign of anti-Christian hate, compassing the full range of human depravity: Kidnapping, rape and slavery are just the latest manifestations.  Usually, the Left mocks and insults Christianity, blaming the Church for every ill in the world but now liberal commentators and politicians, Michelle Obama included, urge the immediate rescue of these innocent girls, confirming what we already knew to be the truth: Christians are overwhelmingly the victims of Muslim violence and prejudice, not the other way around.

It is reported that two of the girls have died of snakebite, that another girl has escaped and that about 100 girls have been forcibly converted to Islam and exploited on Youtube.  As the days roll by and no substantive action is taken, it becomes less and less likely that the girls will ever be recovered and one of the issues that will have to be confronted in the aftermath of this tragic episode is the utter futility of liberalism as expressed in foreign policy. The fact is that we should intervene in the affairs of other countries when it is in our national interest to do so.  We fight militant Islam because it threatens us, because it is a crude, violent and repressive ideology that seeks to enslave the world and to destroy whatever it cannot enslave.  Muslims attack and kill and kidnap and torture and rape and enslave Christians because they hate their very existence and if these facts contravene every principle of liberalism known to Man, then so be it, because what is more important: Dealing with the world the way naïve liberals want it to be or dealing with the world the way it really is?