Foreign Policy Experts Urge President Obama to Take Action Against Assad

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The Foreign Policy Initiative  "The letter also responds to recent statements by the Obama administration in opposition to efforts by embattled Syrian citizens to defend themselves. “Such a position is counterproductive, especially since the protesters themselves are calling for international protection from the Assad regime’s forces,” the group said. “U.S. condemnation of their armed resistance undercuts them, and could have the effect of discouraging further Syrian military defections.” "

Obama and recess appointments (UPDATED)

Now we realize that there is nothing that stands in the way of a president openly refusing to be bound by the Constitution. Who will enforce his adherence? Congress? Not when his party rules there and supports him in this as we will see below?

WaPo:  Obama’s recess appointments are unconstitutional  "President Obama’s attempt to unilaterally appoint three people to seats on the National Labor Relations Board and Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (after the Senate blocked action on his nomination) is more than an unconstitutional attempt to circumvent the Senate’s advise-and-consent role. It is a breathtaking violation of the separation of powers and the duty of comity that the executive owes to Congress.

"Yes, some prior recess appointments have been politically unpopular, and a few have even raised legal questions. But never before has a president purported to make a “recess” appointment when the Senate is demonstrably not in recess. That is a constitutional abuse of a high order."....

"If Congress does not resist, the injury is not just to its branch but ultimately to the people. James Madison made clear that the separation of powers was not to protect government officials’ power for their sake but as a vital check on behalf of individual liberty. To prevent future tyrannical usurpations of power, Congress must act to redress this serious threat to our liberty."   By Edwin Meese III and Todd Gaziano

Obama’s Reelection Strategy: Bypass Congress  "In brief, the entire multi-trillion dollar bureaucratic apparatus of the federal government will be directed towards Obama’s reelection.  Unfortunately, these executive actions will have serious negative economic consequences in terms of compliance costs and the broad uncertainty and anxiety that comes from not knowing what arbitrary decisions will come next.  That’s terrible news for our economic recovery, and it may also mean that the Obama strategy will backfire politically with an electorate that’s desperate for job creation and economic growth." Also this:  The White House Is Wrong — The Senate Conducted Business During Its ‘Recess’

Neal Boortz says: Ceasar Obummas strikes again!   "Obama said he was going to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.”  Are you starting to understand how he intends to do that?  Let’s start with ignoring the Constitution."


Krauthammer: Obama's Recess Appointments Part Of "A Long String Of Lawless Actions"


Oops, she did it again:  "Nancy Pelosi is "glad" that President Obama ignored the Advice and Consent requirement of the Constitution on his recent appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the new bureaucratic beast, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."

Weekly Standard:  ‘A Lawless Action by the President’  "As the man vested with “The executive Power” (all of it), the president must, first and foremost, faithfully serve as the nation’s chief executive — ensuring that the laws and the Constitution are carried out as written.  The very rule of law largely depends upon his fulfillment of that trust."

Update: Obama takes victory lap  "Two days after defying Republicans and appointing Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, President Obama visited the new agency to take a little time to gloat."

Bill Ayers Apostle Appointed White House Education Initiative Director

ed.gov

Big Government  "Jose Rico has been named the new director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, a key position that could help close the achievement gap between white and minority students.  But if his history is any indication, his influence may do more harm than good.

Perhaps most troubling is Rico’s connection to unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and communist radical Mike Klonsky through the Chicago-based “Small Schools Workshop.”"....

“Klonsky stressed: ‘Chairman Mao’s brilliant teachings on the ‘three worlds’ is a scientific application of class analysis to today’s world conditions. This thesis clearly defines friends and enemies and isolates the two superpowers, while uniting the world’s peoples.’”

Speaking of keeping the oil flowing.....

http://conservativedailynews.com/2012/01/dire-straits-of-hormuz-3/

Obama’s Tyrannical Abuse of Power

Morning Bell  "Standing behind a podium on a stage just outside Cleveland, President Barack Obama delivered a speech yesterday that will reverberate throughout history. No, its lasting impact will not come because of its soaring rhetoric. Instead, it will make its mark because it was at that moment on a Wednesday afternoon in Ohio that the President announced his plans to act in total and utter disregard of the U.S. Constitution with his illegal appointment of Richard Cordray to serve as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

howthehellshouldiknow-wallyworld.blogspot.

It’s an astonishingly reckless exercise of executive authority that Heritage’s Todd Gaziano described as a “tyrannical abuse of power.” "...

Flashback: Senator Outlines Objections to ‘Unaccountable’ Consumer Czar  "At the time of his visit in October, Shelby said bluntly, “I think it would be devastating if we let [Obama] make a recess appointment.”"

Michelle Malkin: He’s baaaaack: Obama recess-appoints Dodd-Frank czar  "Refresh your memories on Cordray and the expansive new regulatory powers he will now wield here."

Obama and Iran

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/01/03/95120

Obama's Iraq withdrawal a 'snowball' of disaster in the region   "Obama knew Iraq wasn’t ready for the security handoff, but his hapless diplomacy failed to win the necessary immunity deal needed to protect any stay-behind troops.  So he ordered the troops out knowing that Iraq ’s collapse could be a disaster for American regional interests and put Iran in a dominant position, at the expense of 4,500 American lives lost and nearly $1 trillion."


How Serious Are Iran's Threats? "Simultaneous with an Iranian naval exercise in and around the Strait of Hormuz, there has beenconsiderable bluster from the Iranian side telling the United States not to send any more warships into that area. What's going on? Is there real tension in the area or is this routine polemics?"

Fareed Zakaria: Iran’s growing state of desperation  "But a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guards — Iran’s crucial power source — quickly backtracked, explaining that Tehran had no intention of blocking the straits. It would be madness to do so because Iran would suffer more than any country. Blocking the straits would result in a total shutdown of Iran’s exports and imports; with 60 percent of Iran’s economy coming from oil exports, it would bring the government to a standstill."

Saudis, Gulf states on war alert for early US-Iran clash "America's failure to rise to Iran's challenge will confirm its rulers in the conviction that the US is a paper tiger and encourage them to press their advantage for new gains.
The assessment of British military experts Thursday, Jan. 5, was that the question now is: Who will blink first? Will the US follow through on the Pentagon's assertion that the deployment of US military assets in the Persian Gulf will continue as it has for decades? Or will Iran act on its warnings and block those waters to the entry of American warships?
President Barack Obama can't afford to cave in to Iran, especially while campaigning for reelection in Nov. 2012; Tehran, for its part, has made too many threats to easily back down."

Obama Gets Engaged to the Brotherhood

Commentary Magazine:  "You would think that after wasting the first year in office on a foolish attempt to “engage” Iran, Barack Obama would have had his fill of outreach to Islamists. After the Iranians treated his overtures with contempt...."
"But apparently the president’s unfulfilled desire to make friends with Islamic extremists is still driving American foreign policy. As the New York Times reported yesterday, the administration has embarked on a full-scale effort to “engage” with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt."
....
"Comparisons of American policy toward Egypt with the Carter administration’s foolish support of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s push to oust the Shah from Iran have been largely unfair. The Mubarak government’s fall was inevitable, and nothing Obama did or didn’t do affected the outcome there. But engagement with the Brotherhood at this moment is a ghastly error on the scale of Carter’s Iran mistakes. Americans may well be looking back on this decision with regret for many years to come."


Obama Statement Means No Iran Embargo  " But given that such an embargo is the only measure short of war that would halt Iran’s nuclear program, there is no other choice. If Obama continues to waste more time by engaging in feckless diplomacy to assemble an anti-Iran coalition that has no chance of coming into existence, an Iranian bomb will be the inevitable result. If Obama thinks an oil embargo would be disruptive, what does he think the impact of an Iranian bomb on the global economy or gas prices would be?"

John Kerry thinks this is all great  But then, he IS a Democrat.

Yard Signs Tell the Tale in New Hampshire;

PJ Media  Barack Obama is in big trouble next November.   "Drive through New Hampshire in the next week, and you will see a staggering number of Republican yard signs. They’re everywhere: It seems like every third house has a sign up. They’re on front yards and in the windows of businesses. They’re in every neighborhood representing every demographic. They’re in front of homes along rural roadways, in front of suburban homes in the big southern towns, and in the conservative blue-collar neighborhoods of Manchester.

"And there are even Republican yard signs all over the capital city of Concord — a largely Democratic-leaning town in this swing state."
....

"Now count the Republican yard signs. Signs are not polling data, and they are certainly not election returns, but a yard sign is a definitive measure of three things: Support (obviously); intensity; and –  most importantly  — a voter’s willingness to make his political opinions known to his neighbors. A yard sign — especially in a “hostile” environment — is a symbol of political courage, a sign of an impending shift in public opinion.

"The early returns from the yard sign tallies are in: Voters in New Hampshire want their neighbors to know that they are voting Republican this year." 

Ann Coulter: Iowa Shows Republicans Determined to Beat Obama

donkeyhotey

Ann Coulter  "Not a professional politician, Romney has created a lot of jobs and also knows how to fire people, something heretofore untried in the federal workforce, except briefly by Reagan.

"Having spent his life turning around companies in the private sector and not sitting on some Senate committee spending money, he'll get to Washington and be as shocked as the rest of us are at how taxpayer money is wasted even by conservative senators like Santorum.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/01/04/95150

"Iowa shows that Republicans are still the party of normal people -- normal people who are determined to defeat Obama."

John McCain Endorsement: Best Man to Lead the Country is the One I Called a Serial Flip-Flopper a While Back

The Powers That Be    "John McCain has endorsed Romney, saying Mitt’s the best candidate to restore the United States of America.

"It seems like only yesterday…"

Romney and McCain bury the past   When Romney said in one debate that the troop surge in Iraq “apparently” was working, McCain upbraided him. “The surge is working, sir,” he said. “It is working.” Romney protested: “That’s just what I said.” To which McCain responded scornfully, “No, not apparently. It’s working.”


Anyone But Romney  "A group of movement conservatives has called an emergency meeting in Texas next weekend to find a "consensus" Republican presidential hopeful, Politico reports.

"The group is "concerned that a vote split between Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum among base voters could enable Mitt Romney to grab the GOP nomination. A source who shared the invitation said the meeting was about how to avoid such a possibility." "

The Donkey Whisperer

Roger Williams for Congress - The Donkey Whisperer

PJ Media  "Someone on Roger Williams’ staff is brilliant. Good for the person who thought of this, and good for Roger Williams for having the guts to go along with an unconventional ad and give us all a good laugh. Roger Williams is The Donkey Whisperer. Watch him try to turn these stubborn asses into elephants. “You’re not a victim!” "

Republicans in Iowa

Obama campaign warns of 'extremist' Republicans   "US President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign early Wednesday sought to portray the nation's first Republican nomination battle as a victory for "extremist" candidates."
Carter gives Obama advice  "Son, this is what you need to do to be a good candidate"


Neal Boortz on the Iowa Caucuses  "Nearly 60% of those who voted for Santorum said that their number ONE issue .. now we’re talking NUMBER ONE here … was abortion.  That’s right:  With Iran threatening our U.S. Navy; with the economy still in the toilet … an economy that can’t produce enough jobs to keep up with population growth; with all the problems we’re facing as a nation the NUMBER ONE issue for these voters is whether or not a woman somewhere might be making the decision to terminate a preganancy?(sp)"

donkeyhotey

Kimberly Strassel: Mr. Good Enough  "Voters aren't convinced by Mitt Romney. They're not certain of his convictions; they wonder if he is the leader for these times; they're not sold on his policies or his personality. Yet voters may be about to make the former Massachusetts governor the Republican nominee for the presidency. Mark this down as the triumph of strategy over inspiration."


Latest Republican ad using Democrat's words:



NRO Symposium:  What Iowa Means  "But the big story ought to be Romney. He has all the king’s horses and all the king’s men supporting him, the print MSM and most segments on Fox News Channel in his favor, yet for the second time in four years, 75 percent of Iowa caucus-goers rejected him. Frontrunner? Sure. Electable? Maybe. Inevitable? Not so fast."

Why Romney and Santorum Fought to a Draw in Iowa  "The big story in Iowa appears to be that Romney’s camp is getting the result it wanted despite a merely workmanlike showing for their own candidate. That’s because the Iowa results will elevate Paul and Santorum, who face the greatest hurdles in building a national campaign, while depressing Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry -- either of whom might have had more chance to emerge as a threat to Romney if they had received a boost from Iowa."

donkeyhotey

Roger L Simon:  Ron Paul’s Foreign Policy Dies in Iowa  "So Paul has had his value, though like so many “true believers” he has trouble integrating the orthodoxies of his ideology with the realities of the world. This is particularly odd since he is old enough to have grown up in the shadow of World War II and Hitler and then of the evils of Stalin and Mao. Such things do not just “go away” if you are a “good libertarian.” Paul is in a sense the anti-Reagan – peace not through strength but through ideological purity."


Is it Jon Huntsman's turn to be the 'not Romney' candidate?