Saudi spy chief says outraged Riyadh to 'shift away from US' over Syria, Iran

Prince Bandar slams US for failure in dealing with Mideast; initiative follows Saudi decision to reject UNSC seat.

worldink.org

Jerusalem Post  "Prince Bandar bin Sultan told European diplomats that Washington had failed to act effectively on the Syria crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was growing closer to Tehran, and had failed to back Saudi support for Bahrain when it crushed an anti-government revolt in 2011, the source said.
....
"The shift away from the US is a major one," the source close to Saudi policy said. "Saudi doesn't want to find itself any longer in a situation where it is dependent."

"The United States and Saudi Arabia have been allies since the kingdom was declared in 1932, giving Riyadh a powerful military protector and Washington secure oil supplies."

http://www.pinterest.com/

Saudi Arabia "Outraged" At Obama's Peace Overtures With Syria, Iran

Saudis now feel that the Obama administration is disregarding Saudi concerns over Iran and Syria, and will respond accordingly in ignoring "U.S. interests, U.S. wishes, U.S. issues" in Syria, said Mustafa Alani, a veteran Saudi security analyst with the Geneva-based Gulf Research Center.

"They are going to be upset—we can live with that," Mr. Alani said Sunday of the Obama administration. "We are learning from our enemies now how to treat the United States." 

Emphases in the original. This world is a much more dangerous place now due to the policies - rather the absence thereof - of Barack Obama.

Shame on those clueless fifty million who voted for this man.  TD

 

Sticker Shock: Obamacare Increases Premiums in 42 States

"And at the current rate it would take nearly 50 years to sign up the 30 million projected to be enrolled within the next five."

 

PJ Media   "Heritage Foundation analyst Drew Gonshorowski’s research showed that for most states premiums are higher compared to what was previously available before the rollout of the exchanges. For example, in the state of Oklahoma premiums increased by 60 percent for 27 year olds. Meanwhile, premiums have gone up by 175 percent for similarly aged Americans living in Arkansas. In the state of Texas, increases are even greater as premiums doubled for 27 year olds.

"Gonshorowski’s analysis shows the hardest hit by the rate increases will be young adults. The ACA increases premiums for young people in at least 11 states by more than 100 percent. Many states double or nearly triple premiums for young adults. Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, and Vermont see some of the largest increases in premiums in the nation.
“A state that exhibits this clearly is Vermont, where the increase for 27 year olds is 144 percent and the increase for 50 year olds is still 60 percent, but far less,” he writes. “All states exhibit this relationship.' ”

Consumer Misreported

Weasel Zippers

"Someone got assaulted somewhere in a woodshed.
"Via ConsumerReports:"....


Obamacare opponents have misrepresented Consumer Reports' position

"Pundits opposed to the new health care law and some media outlets have tried to suggest that our coverage of the troubled HealthCare.gov site means that Consumer Reports has turned against the Affordable Care Act.  

"Not true. Consistent with our mission to inform and protect consumers, particularly in this complicated health care market, our advice remains the same: The best place to buy coverage on your own is through the Health Insurance Marketplace in your state. That guarantees you will get comprehensive coverage, and it's the only way you can lower the cost of your premiums and possibly even your deductibles and copayments."....

 Separate_Reality commented:   

"Don't forget the light bulb fiasco......a few years back, Consumer Reports backed those morons in Congress and pimped for the curly fluorescent bulbs. Both ideas were stupid and it only accomplished running every single light bulb manufacturer from the US to China, Mexico, and other nether regions."

Obamacare's Next Bout: More Legal Challenges

Thomas P. Miller  "Obamacare is off to a bad start — and potentially greater threats to its health care exchanges are looming."

"Obamacare is off to a bad start — and potentially greater threats to its health care exchanges are looming."

 

Thomas P. Miller is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of When Obamacare Fails: The Playbook for Market-Based Reform.

Thomas Sowell on Race-Hustling Results

Thomas Sowell   "Years ago, someone said that, according to the laws of aerodynamics, bumblebees cannot fly. But the bumblebees, not knowing the laws of aerodynamics, go ahead and fly anyway.

"Something like that happens among people. There have been many ponderous academic writings and dour editorials in the mainstream media, lamenting that most people born poor cannot rise in American society any more. Meanwhile, many poor immigrants arrive here from various parts of Asia, and rise on up the ladder anyway.".... 
Below: two memorable pull-quotes from this article:

You don't hear about racial "leaders" like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson among Asians or Asian-Americans. Here and there you may see some irresponsible academics peddling that line in the classroom -- some of whom are of Asian ancestry, since no race of human beings is completely lacking in fools.

 

No one can claim that there was no anti-Semitism in America, any more than they can claim that there was never any anti-Asian discrimination. There was plenty of both. But that is very different from following "leaders" whose message would only keep them grounded, after the skies were open to them as never before.  

U.S. Foreign Policy from the Founders' Perspective

 By George Friedman at STRATFOR   "This week I thought it would be useful to consider how the founders might view foreign policy. I argued that on domestic policy they had clear principles, but unlike their ideology, those principles were never mechanistic or inflexible. For them, principles dictated that a gentleman pays his debts and does not casually increase his debts, the constitutional provision that debt is sometimes necessary notwithstanding. They feared excessive debt and abhorred nonpayment, but their principles were never completely rigid.

"Whenever there is a discussion of the guidelines laid down by the founders for American foreign policy, Thomas Jefferson's admonition to avoid foreign entanglements and alliances is seen as the founding principle." Read more.

There is much to argue against one nation being "the world's policeman", but  what does civilization do if there is a world criminal?  TD

George Friedman is the Chairman of Stratfor, a company he founded in 1996 that is now a leader in the field of global intelligence. Friedman guides Stratfor’s strategic vision and oversees the development and training of the company’s intelligence unit.

Obama Said This with a Straight Face

“Thousands of people are signing up and saving money as we speak.”

Heritage  "Yes, President Obama actually said that yesterday about Obamacare. As we all know, for the vast majority of people, the opposite is true.
"SIGNING UP? Most people have found it impossible to sign up for coverage through the Healthcare.gov website. In fact, some of the people standing behind the President during his speech—who were supposed to represent “success stories”—have not yet obtained coverage.
"SAVING MONEY? Heritage research revealed that in 43 out of 47 states with information available, premiums are higher in the Obamacare marketplaces than in the individual insurance market."....

Whose Islam?

Mark Steyn  "The "war" part of the war on terror is pretty much over, and we're now fighting it culturally, rhetorically. Which is not something we do well. Take the British prime minister and his traditional nothing-to-do-with-Islam statement, issued in the wake of the Kenyan shopping-mall carnage:"....

"....David Cameron assured us that the unfortunate incident was "a betrayal of Islam. . . . There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.' "
....
"It was a busy weekend for Nothing to Do with Islam. Among the other events that were nothing to do with Islam were the murder of over 85 Pakistani Christians at All Saints' Church in Peshawar and the beheading of Ricardo Dionio..." And on and on and on..

Dare we hope that this is true? "Hospitals face whole new world under health law"

Let us hope this is true, because I cannot imagine our government doing something that would bring about anything but mediocrity.
The question remains, at what cost?

USA Today   "One thing about the Affordable Care Act is clear: Hospitals will exist in a world where they are rewarded more for the quality of care than for the volume of patients they treat."

More on our media and the death of honest journalism

Mark down 2013 as part of the Dark Days of Journalism.
LA Times bans letters from climate skeptics;  "Paul Thornton, editor of the paper’s letters section, recently wrote a letter of his own, stating flatly that he won't publish some letters from those skeptical of man’s role in our planet’s warming climate. In Thornton’s eyes, those people are often wrong -- and he doesn’t print obviously wrong statements."  Much more on this here.
Hat tip to David N. Wagner in flyover country.

The pattern of free speech censorship by this same source   “ 'Useless Discourse”, perhaps?" was the phrase used by representatives of Jewish Voice for Peace a couple of years back when they came to the UC Irvine campus and referred to opinions of those who support the state of Israel. That meant that Israel supporters really shouldn’t  have a right to free speech nor a right to feel comfortable on college campuses."
Did they teach you about Yellow Journalism in school?

Yellow journalism, in short, is biased opinion masquerading as objective fact.

MSNBC's Matthews: Tea Party Racist by Using Word 'We'  "...Chris Matthews explained that Tea Party use of the word “we” was racist, and that Tea Partiers presumably still counted black people as “three-fifths” of a person. The leg-tingling host who last week explained that the term “black hole” was racist when applied to the city of Newark, added “we” to his hit list of bigotry..." 

Juan Williams Slams MSNBC: ‘I Don't Think They Even Have Any Pretense of Balance’

Media Ramp Up Rhetoric Against Right  "Just two years after launching the New Tone-era, media elites are now openly wishing conservatives dead while comparing them to terrorists, criminals, and segregationists."

MLK speaking in 1967 about the silencing of antiwar protestors
“Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.”
Back then it was a matter of not trusting government; today we are told to not trust anyone opposed to government's power.
Once people rebelled against government's power over us,  But today people riot in the streets, calling for government to run our lives for us. And the media have become their willing enablers.

Just words?

Even Oprah isn’t on board with ObamaCare

NY Post

"As the White House was gearing up to sell ObamaCare to the American people last summer, Valerie Jarrett, the president’s pointwoman on a host of issues, phoned Oprah Winfrey.

"She invited the Queen of All Media to join celebrities, including Amy Poehler, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys, to meet with President Obama and discuss how they could generate publicity for his health-care law.

"Oprah refused."

The Love-fest is Over--Oprah and Obama No Longer BFFs
"Apparently Oprah was promised tremendous access to the White House, and exclusive material she could use for programs on her OWN network as a reward for her campaigning during the 2008 campaign.

"Now this may surprise you, but the President didn't keep his promise."

Here's how the UK Daily Mail covers it: The President asked Oprah to help him promote Obamacare 'but she refused because she feels burned by the White House'  "According to Klein, the slight is just the talk show host's latest way of getting back at the Obama administration for failing to live up to the alleged promises that they agreed to when Winfrey campaigned for Obama in 2008."

In a move out of Orwell or the Soviet Union, television shows are being asked to include propaganda about ObamaCare  Here's a line from "Breaking Bad":

Lung cancer, am I right? Say, did you know that under the Affordable Care Act, your pre-existing health condition is no longer anything to worry about?

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