US military strength beefed up at Hormuz as nuclear talks with Iran fade

DEBKAfile   "Shortly after the announcement, senior US administration officials said the fourth round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and six world powers taking place in Istanbul Tuesday were most probably the last: Tehran has refused to give way on the key issues of the 20-percent grade enrichment of uranium and the closure of its underground nuclear facility at Fordo.

The new war drums sent oil past $100 for the first time in three weeks.

As for the Gulf buildup, US sources said counter-measures were in place in case the extra forces were targeted for Iranian aggression."

Do you somehow visualize Obama launching an attack, oh, say about the first week of November?

Jerusalem Post cartoon

The Jerusalem Post seems to lack confidence in Obama's military leadership: Obama ‘chickened out’ of confronting mullahs  "  "The White House, however, has “a systemic failure in understanding the lay of the land” when it comes to Iran. The current president is no exception, according to Reza Pahlavi.

" “Barack Obama is hell-bent on engaging the Iranian regime just to prove that he’s not George Bush. That doesn’t help the problem. That’s not what people expected in Iran,” the Iranian prince said.
" “The people of Iran are asking for help, and Obama cares about showing Khamenei that he can reason with him. That was Jimmy Carter’s mentality in 1979 and that’s still the mentality in 2012.”
Reza Pahlavi called on “Israeli friends to stand up in support of those trying to bring democracy to Iran.”
"He added: “Of course Iranians don’t hate Israel. The regime wants you to think so."

New Zimmerman Evidence Removes Any Doubt; George Zimmerman: victim of a liberal racist lynch mob.

PJ Media  "There is no doubt in my mind that Zimmerman is the main victim here and that President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Al Sharpton, special prosecutor Angela Corey, Sanford detective Chris Serino, and a host of others are prominent members of this shameful multiracial lynch mob.

"In my previous article, I pointed out that I have investigated many cases of racial violence and police brutality, and have documented, in official federal reports, that many such awful events have indeed taken place in this country. Yet Zimmerman’s case did not have any of the features of those other incidents of racial brutality."

Independence Day

Wikipedia  "During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declaring the United States independent from Great Britain. After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the wording of the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4. A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

"The 4th of July is America's birthday. That's a big deal. This brief ceremony will help you bring meaning back into this holiday. It's easy and fun. Join the party!"

The soon-to-be-gone Neal Boortz has posted these:

Phonies celebrating Independence Day "This is a day we celebrate the Declaration of Independence … proclaiming our independence from Great Britain and the heavy-handed governance King George was inflicting on the colonies".
How about an Independence Day quiz?  "I then posted the quiz on line and teachers across the country printed it out and gave it to their students as an open-book take-home test.  It also became hugely popular with home schoolers. So .. here it is, somewhat revised ….."
I'm going to miss Mr. Boortz terribly.


Americans aren't the only ones left historically, um, "challenged" by our education system

OUTRAGED Midwest Farmers Protest EPA Spy Planes Over Iowa Ranches

Gateway Pundit  " Midwest farmers were outraged to hear that the Obama EPA was spying on ranches in surveilance planes. Rep. Tom Latham sent a letter to the EPA demanding answers,

“No federal agency has the right to treat the American farmer like the Taliban.”

"To the Obama EPA – Iowa farmers are the enemy."  Original article.

Stop The Sovietization Of American Medicine

Forbes  "For me, the expanded reach of an already bloated central government brings back bad memories of being a physician in the Soviet Union, which collapsed under the weight of its own bureaucratic inefficiencies two decades ago. I was among the many Soviets cheering for its demise. Now I worry that some of the most ruinous traits of the Soviet system are taking hold of American medicine."

...."Washington has unleashed an avalanche of regulations that devour physicians’ time while disjoining us from patients. Without hard evidence of their effectiveness, these regulations are useless and, worse, harmful. "Hospitals, which now own many physician practices, are subject to multiple layers of oversight. Many establish more bureaucracy than required, at substantial cost, to ensure they appear compliant, or risk losing accreditation and funding."  Leonid Poretsky (right) is a Professor of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Our own family physician bears all this out . TD   Also here.

"Soviet" definition: " ....any similar council or assembly connected with a socialistic governmental system elsewhere."


Rick Moran: House guerrilla tactics attempt to stymie Obamacare implementation   "There's more than one way to skin a cat and the GOP in the House are looking at ways to defund, or refuse to fund implementation of Obamacare in government.

"Next week, the House will take up a bill to prevent HHS money from going to the IRS."

So much for protecting us against an ever more voracious, controlling government

Now we have nobody to stop this regime from the things it plans to do to us in their pretense of doing things for us. We have only the ballot box and the hope that Republicans we elect will have the courage to remove this heavy tax and regulatory burden being laid upon our nation.
But if the Supreme Court withered under the pressure of threats from Obama and his press, how  will members of Congress - who are much less insulated from all - that hope to do any better?  TD

WSJ; Get Ready for the New Investment Tax  "So when the court affirmed the law on Thursday, investors—and tax advisers—started scrambling.
...."Got all that? The new rules present big challenges for taxpayers. But if you start thinking about them now, at least you can minimize the damage."   More here.  And here.


MoneyNews.com; America On Board for 'Financial Train Wreck', Economist Warns    "Whether or not you agree with Peter Schiff, CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital, one thing is beyond dispute: Those whom we have trusted to fix our economy have failed."

Hat tip to Jerry Bentley, Lompoc, CA

From Charles Schwab; Q and A on Supreme Court Health-Care Decision

"This may remove an immediate uncertainty, but there's always the possibility down the road of another attempt to overturn this law. How soon do you think it will be before the politics allow for another challenge to the health-care mandate to surface?

"It all depends on the election outcome. If Republicans win the White House and both chambers of Congress, they are very likely to make a run in 2013 at repealing the entire law, or major elements of it. If the President is re-elected, or if Congress remains divided, then repeal is not likely to happen." By Michael TownsendVice President, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Charles Schwab & Co. is one of many despised Wall Street money managers that the Occupy movement hates and whose offices they have attempted to vandalize. This company has made it possible for me, a retired hourly maintenance electrician, to live my remaining years out comfortably and enjoyably because we entrusted our savings to them, not to Barack Obama, the Democrats nor to the Occupiers.

However, I might add, guess who is portrayed as the villain in most TNT ("Law & Order" for example) dramas and who they show as the good guys. I'm just sayin'. TD


Related: Wall Street gone?

Obamacare: The Final Battle/ Republicans have to explain why it’s bad — and explain it soon.

 Avik Roy at  National Review Online  "Mitt Romney said it best on Thursday. “If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we’re going to have to replace President Obama.” Those who have been sitting on the sidelines, out of complacency or loyalty to someone else from the primaries, must get out of their chairs and get to work. But while that work must end with Mitt Romney in the White House, it must begin with a Republican majority in the Senate."  ....
"Finally, we have to remind voters that conservatives stand for lowering the cost of insurance by removing costly mandates and by giving people freedom to sign up for the insurance plans of their choosing. Candidates for the Senate must bone up on these concepts and explain them as they campaign for office.

"Health care has long been outside of the Republican comfort zone. We find it easier to talk about taxes and the debt. But if we are to repeal Obamacare and gain a mandate for our own reforms, it’s not enough to say “Obamacare is a government takeover” or “I support Mitt Romney’s plan.” It’s important to explain why  Obamacare will make health care more costly, and why free-market reforms are better.

"If we don’t, we will lose. And if we lose, we will be stuck with Obamacare forever. And, even worse, we will have deserved it."   (Emphasis added)

From Politico/MSNBC; Schumer: Repeal would be a GOP disaster   "Schumer also argued that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would be hamstrung in his ability to attack President Barack Obama on health care, pointing out that he pushed an individual mandate as governor of Massachusetts.

" "Mitt Romney is in a pickle here," Schumer said."

Cartoon at right from DonkeyHotey

Coming soon: Obama’s ‘They’-Did-It Campaign

Victor Davis Hanson  "What then to expect if the race remains tight or Obama finds himself behind?" ....
"The novelty of the first African-American president has become passé. And “hope and change” has been replaced by a concrete record of three and a half years. Given those realities, if his being an unknown quantity was a reason to vote for Barack Obama in 2008, his being all too familiar will be cause for rejecting him in 2012."

Obama’s Air Force One Call to Donors Reveals Money Worries

Karl Rove; Obama's Campaign Whoppers  "The Romney campaign's challenge is to rebut Mr. Obama without lowering their candidate to the president's level or adopting his tone. Mr. Romney himself will be tempted to fact-check Mr. Obama, demanding he "stop lying about my record," in Sen. Bob Dole's immortal words to George H.W. Bush in the 1988 presidential primary. Mr. Romney must resist this."


Obama Campaign Website Plays The Ku Klux Klan Card…
"The same KKK that was part of the Democratic party."


From barackobama.com:  "President Obama has consistently stood up for our men and women who wear the uniform. His whole administration has. I’m proud to stand with him as a Democrat and I’m proud to stand with him as a veteran.  "Today I'm a grandfather, and I may be a little slower than I once was, but my will is still as strong as ever, and if President Obama needs me, I’m there. Because I’m not willing to stand down for him while our Commander-in-Chief stands up for us. Not when our vote means so much to so many.   Hat tip to Weasel Zippers

Obama, Storyteller; It appears that Obama will say and do anything, and the press shies from holding him to account.

Victor Davis Hanson  "A sign of an undisciplined mind is serial lapses into self-contradiction, or blurting out a thought only to refute it entirely on a later occasion. For a president to do that is to erode public confidence and eventually render all his public statements irrelevant. That is now unfortunately the case with Barack Obama, who has established a muddled record of confused and contradictory declarations.

From Human Events; OBAMACARE: TWICE AS EXPENSIVE AS PROMISED, AND GETTING WORSE  "One of Obama’s sleaziest tricks was front-loading revenue into ObamaCare, while deferring expenses for as long as possible.  This made it look like it would cost a lot less than it actually would". ....
Remember: the good stuff comes before election and the bad stuff afterward.

California, there she goes!

Stockton Bankrupt; Unions Pension Death Trap for Cities to Blame  

1. The immediate solution is bankruptcy. Expect to see more cities file. However, longer-term structural problems must also be addressed.

1. Untenable pension contracts need to be tossed out by the courts and benefits reduced. Every taxpayer not on the public dole should cheer bankruptcy, not resist it.

1. End defined benefit pension plans for public union workers.

1. End collective bargaining for public union workers. Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin has proven that can be done.

1. Scrap Davis-Bacon and all state prevailing wage laws.

1. Institute national right-to-work laws. 

1. Merit pay for teachers

1. More competition from accredited online schools to drive education costs way down

1. Scrap student loan programs that only benefit administrators and educators, not the kids.

California’s Fiscal Woes  ..."There are three major problems:  (Watch for the word "fairness")

(1) Stringent real estate development restrictions,
(2) High tax and regulatory burden, and
(3) The power of the public employees’ unions  

...."Whenever you raise taxes, you decrease investment. It’s that simple. It’s been spun as an issue of “fairness”, but that’s a flawed prism to examine the issue under. It’s not about “fairness”; it’s about the fact that you can’t create growth without investment and high taxes take money away from investment."

Arizona decision leaves U.S. naked to our enemies

Alan Keyes  "As I pointed out in 2010, in a related article posted on my blog, the concept of invasion need not involve armed violence. Unarmed incursions can threaten the life, livelihood, or moral identity of a people in ways more pervasive and damaging than armed forces. From the perspective of the Native American experience with settlers from Europe, our own history illustrates this truth in a host of ways and instances. So does ancient Rome's experience with the so-called barbarian tribes driven by the conquest of their homelands to push into territory within the jurisdiction of its Empire."

After fleeting Supreme Court victory, Obama remains the amateur

Edward Klein, author of The Amateur  "Only a rank amateur could levy a series of new taxes on America’s small businesses, under the guise of ObamaCare, that will raise unemployment and stall an already anemic recover.

"Only a rank amateur could hand his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, an electoral game changer.

"Yes, Barack Obama is still The Amateur"

Read excerpts of "The Amateur" here.
 See an interview with Edward Klein here: