Why It's So Hard for Obama to Be Tough on Russia (For starters, it's because Obama is a typical non-serious Democrat "world leader")

"The president needs Putin as his ally to accomplish his most ambitious second-term goals."

The Atlantic Monthly  "But the harder reality is that most of the time the president will spend on foreign policy in coming months will focus on risk mitigation—trying to avoid a catastrophe more than working to create a triumph."

 

Putin playing for keeps  "The U.S. wants to threaten Russia with reprisal?  Does the U.S. (which ceded all ground under a phony Obama ‘red line’ in Syria to Putin) need Russia’s help on Syria? The Russians have answer for that.  Check."

 

Why Ukraine? Why Now?  "Meanwhile, President Obama has learned nothing from history.  With active Russian support, Iran is virtually a nuclear power. The current North Korean monster Kim has more respect for Dennis Rodman than for Barack Obama. Obama’s first big foreign policy decision was to betray our allies in Eastern Europe in order to curry favor with Putin. " ...

 

DEBKAfile: The Ukraine crisis: Russia may halt (START) strategic weapons inspections, revert to Cold War tactics  "Two years ago, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev renewed the treaty. The incumbent Russian president Vladimir Putin is now threatening to abdicate from the 23-year pact, i.e., warning the United States and the West that Moscow is prepared to revert to the belligerent posture maintained by the Soviet Union in the years of the Cold War unless they back off on punitive measures over the Ukraine dispute."

 

Hillary’s Russia Problem More Than ‘Reset’   "Where does Clinton really stand on Russia? Russia’s invasion of Crimea should be pause to consider what lessons should be learned. Alas, if her reliance on Tauscher is any indication, Clinton’s “re-set” moment was not simply a photo-op gone awry; it is symptomatic of bad judgment and a continuing self-destructive embrace."

Any reset regret yet?  "The Russians are unlikely to respect a country that doesn't respect itself. All of this brings back memories of the last U.S. administration so eager to be liked. Jimmy Carter spoke of the need to get over our “inordinate fear of communism” and its lead sponsor, the USSR. The Soviets treated that speech like a starter's pistol for a footrace. They ran rampant in Africa, Asia, and Latin America."

Whose "War on Women"?

Tony Branco cartoon

 

Krauthammer: How to stop – or slow – Putin

Charles Krauthammer   ... "The alternative to passivity is not war but a serious foreign policy. For the past five years, Obama’s fruitless accommodationism has invited the kind of aggressiveness demonstrated by Iran in Syria, China in the East China Sea and Russia in Ukraine. But what’s done is done. Put that aside. What is to be done now?" ...
....
Dr. Krauthammer long ago accurately -in my opinion - sized up President Obama, but he now sees how good Jimmy Carter looks in comparison to this current president.

"Obama is not the first president to conduct a weak foreign policy. Jimmy Carter was similarly inclined — until Russia invaded Afghanistan, at which point the scales fell from Carter’s eyes. He responded boldly: imposing the grain embargo on the Soviets, boycotting the Moscow Olympics, increasing defense spending and ostentatiously sending a machine-gun-toting Zbigniew Brzezinski to the Khyber Pass, symbolizing the massive military aid we began sending the mujahideen, whose insurgency so bled the Russians over the next decade that they not only lost Afghanistan but were fatally weakened as a global imperial power.

 

"Invasion woke Carter from his illusions. Will it wake Obama?"

Watch Trey Gowdy’s Epic Speech on the Floor of Congress That May Be a Defining Moment for America

IJ Review

"We’ve finally gotten to the point where Congress had to pass a law to make sure that the laws they pass are enforced.

"In a speech that Representative Trey Gowdy really shouldn’t have had to make, he explains angrily to the Congress what its job is, and to Obama what his job is. Members were heard to applaud as he reached the crescendo.

Five Democrats joined Republicans in passing a bill that directs Obama to follows the laws – clearing the House by a 233 to 181 vote."

Published on Mar 12, 2014

Rep. Gowdy's speech in defense of the ENFORCE the Laws Act.

The subject of Mr. Gowdy's concern made manifest: Obama, in his sole discretion  ... "I’ve always said leftists are about not compassion or treating people with sensitivity and respect, much less equally, but control and bullying, all with an arrogant, mean-spirited air of superiority.

"For Obama, there are at least two aspects to his control-freakishness. He not only pushes policies that give the federal government vastly more control over our lives but also is inordinately dictatorial in the manner in which he ramrods his agenda through, displaying utter contempt for what anyone else thinks, what he might damage with his unilateral actions and, most of all, the Constitution and the rule of law." ...David Limbaugh   

Metal stamps used to tattoo Jewish prisoners of Auschwitz discovered

 

The Jerusalem Post    "Director of the Auschwitz Museum: "We couldn't believe that original tools for tattooing prisoners could be discovered after such a long time.' "

 

.... "Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz Museum, emphasized that “it is one of the most important findings of the recent years. We couldn’t believe that original tools for tattooing prisoners could be discovered after such a long time. Even a tattooed number is rare to be seen now as the last prisoners pass away. Those stamps will greatly enrich the new main exhibition that is currently being prepared.' ”

 

The Museum: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau w Oświęcimiu    "In order to take in the grounds and exhibitions in a suitable way, visitors should set aside a minimum of about 90 minutes for the Auschwitz site and the same amount of time for Auschwitz II-Birkenau. It is essential to visit both parts of the camp, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, in order to acquire a proper sense of the place that has become the symbol of the Holocaust as well as Nazi crimes againt(sp) Poles, Romas and other groups."

 

Auschwitz 1 and 2: Virtual tour of the death camp

 

Auschwitz, Memory, World     "The exhitibion(sp) "Auschwitz, Memory, World" was prepared for the 65th anniversary of creation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. It consists of 28 large photographs from the Museum Archives of personalities from the world of politics and religion who paid homage to the victims of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz."

Karl Höcker, adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz, and SS auxiliaries relaxing at a

 recreation lodge near the camp.

 

 Smiling, Everyday Faces of the Killers at Auschwitz  "The Holocaust survivor story told by a woman named Ruth Brand in “Scrapbooks From Hell: The Auschwitz Albums” is familiar, but the context provided by this engrossing documentary on Sunday on the National Geographic Channel makes it horribly new all over again."  More here. 

Associated Press Mysteriously Deletes 2012 Story On Collapse Of Socialized Medicine In Venezuela

Weasel Zippers  "A story which previously appeared on the Associated Press’ website and web archives from November 2012 has mysteriously vanished.

 

"The story, an expose on the failing healthcare system under then-president Hugo Chavez detailing the failings of the countries beleaguered Socialist system is strange to say the least."

 

Luckily the internet is forever: 

MARACAY, Venezuela (AP) — Evelina Gonzalez was supposed to undergo cancer surgery in July following chemotherapy but wound up shuttling from hospital to hospital in search of an available operating table. On the crest of her left breast, a mocha-colored tumor doubled in size and now bulges through her white spandex tank top. 

Gonzalez is on a list of 31 breast cancer patients waiting to have tumors removed at one of Venezuela’s biggest medical facilities, Maracay’s Central Hospital. But like legions of the sick across the country, she’s been neglected by a health care system doctors say is collapsing after years of deterioration.

Doctors at the hospital sent home 300 cancer patients last month when supply shortages and overtaxed equipment made it impossible for them to perform non-emergency surgeries.

 Full article...

More Taxes than Meet the Eye in Obama’s Budget

CATO   Here are some of the tax hikes the president is proposing:

• “Buffett tax” ($53 billion): President Obama resurrected this tax idea, which would require high-income individuals to pay at least 30 percent of their incomes in taxes.
• Limiting tax deductions ($598 billion): President Obama would limit the value of itemized deductions for high-income earners.
• Changes to the “death tax” ($131 billion): The president suggests going back to the estate tax rules of 2009, which would increase the marginal tax rate on estates and lower the exemption, subjecting more assets to taxation.
• Changes to oil and gas taxation ($44 billion): Frequently criticized by the president, these tax provisions are generally not subsidies to oil and gas companies, but instead ameliorate the tax code’s improper treatment of capital expenditures.
• Changes to international taxation ($276 billion): Instead of moving the United States to a territorial tax system like most other industrialized countries, the president moves in the opposite direction and proposes further raising taxes on corporations with overseas earnings.
• Cap on 401(k) and IRA contributions ($28 billion): This provision would prohibit individuals from contributing to retirement accounts if their balances were greater than $3 million.
• Increase in tobacco taxes ($78 billion): To pay for his universal pre-K proposal, President Obama would increase the tobacco tax from $1.10/pack to $1.95/pack.
• 

Right-Wing Mobs? Say It Isn't So, Conservatives!

Ann Coulter

 

"When I wrote a book about mobs and group-think a few years ago, I could honestly say that mob behavior existed exclusively on the left in America -- unless you count Oakland Raiders tailgate parties, which I do not. As described in Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America, the distinctive characteristics of the mob mentality include: "....

 

.... "Those are facts. Here's the counter-argument from the anti-McConnell crowd: HE'S A RINO! HE'S AN ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICAN! HE'S BEEN A TERRIBLE LEADER! MITCH LIED, KIDS DIED!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, there you have all the attributes of a mob: Slogans in lieu of logic and evidence, beliefs impenetrable by facts, emotional hatred of the "enemy" and the acceptance of wild contradictions. Isn't Paul Ryan dreamy? Let's run Ted Cruz for president! We love Reagan ... But we hate McConnell for voting with Reagan!

"Nothing good has ever been accomplished by a mob."

 

We needed to know all this; thank you, MS, Coulter. 

 

Delaying Obamacare's Individual Mandate Due to 'Hardship' -- Caused by Obamacare

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Heritage   "It’s getting difficult to take any part of Obamacare seriously.

"The Obama administration has altered or delayed it so many times—who can be sure what the law is at this point?

"The individual mandate stating that every American has to purchase government-approved health coverage or pay a fine is supposed to kick in on March 31. That’s the deadline to sign up for coverage, supposedly to avoid this year’s penalty.

"But Obamacare is never “settled law,” as the president and others have called it, because Health and Human Services (HHS) keeps writing more regulations." ....

 

More than 37 significant changes already have been made to ObamaCare "at least 20 that President Obama has made unilaterally, 15 that Congress has passed and the president has signed, and 2 by the Supreme Court."  Galen Institute

Benghazi and the Politicization of Intelligence

Accuracy in Media

 

"Mike Morell, then-head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center (CTC), had the task of helping to prepare talking points for then-U.S. Ambassador to the UN "Susan Rice, who was slated to appear on five Sunday morning talk shows a few days later. Morell was personally responsible for “cutting some 50 percent of the text,” including all “references to Al Qaeda” and the many earlier terror attacks against U.S. and other Western targets in Benghazi....it was clear that Morell not only had misrepresented his own role, but also had been less than forthcoming about the close oversight role played by the White House in ensuring that all references to al-Qa’eda terrorism would be scrubbed. Morell also made sure to scrub from the talking points the honest assessment that “We cannot rule out that individuals had previously surveilled the U.S. facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks.' ”

....

"This is particularly damaging because there is the appearance of a coordinated cover-up staged to ensure the re-election of a President who’d staked his campaign on the repeated assertion that al-Qa’eda had been “decimated,” or was on “the path to defeat.' ”

Is Henninger Right about the 'Carterization' of Obama?

First, Mr. Henninger's WSJ piece:

Henninger: Putin Carterizes Obama, Totally ; The Democrats are vulnerable again on handling the world.

Candidate Reagan said of President Carter, "The response from the administration in Washington" to foreign threats, said Reagan, "has been one of weakness, inconsistency, vacillation and bluff."

"Our allies are losing confidence in us, and our adversaries no longer respect us," he said. Our partners "are confused by the lack of a coherent, principled policy from the Carter administration."

....

"...And in truth, Mr. Carter's team included sterner ballast in Defense Secretary Harold Brown and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Nothing similar exists today in the Obama administration. " (Emphasis added, TD)

....

"A realistic hope for peace, Reagan said, is possible only if the U.S. maintains "the vital margin of safety." The margin of safety wasn't about public threats of war. It is about the marginal advantage gained when an adversary negotiating with a strong U.S. believed we might act militarily. If friends and foes conclude no one in the U.S. believes this in 2014, the margin of safety is gone."

American Thinker  ... "In fact this theme, that Obama is as awful a president as Jimmy Carter, has been a thread woven through the narrative of many conservative writers (including yours truly) ever since BHO assumed the presidency.  And indeed, I believe that history will record these two naïve and unexpected presidents as among the absolutely most horrible of our chief executives. Moreover, that assessment will pertain to domestic as well as foreign policy."

Krauthammer: Arrogant Obama 'Semi-Delusional,' 'Radically Unaware' of His 'Failed Foreign Policy'    “ 'I think it’s a kind of arrogance,” Krauthammer said. “He thinks he has a good foreign policy. I think he is semi-delusional about the results of these five years. There is not a spot in the world you -- can go from Syria to Libya to Iran to China, to Russia to Ukraine where the United States is not worse off, less regarded, considered weak than it was five years ago. This is a completely failed foreign policy. And he seems radically unaware of that.' ” Via Lucianne

Video 

Another major Democrat sides with teachers unions against charter schools

 

Mona Charen; Mayor de Blasio: The defender of the powerless or of the teachers’ unions?   "Just try to envision the scene: A newly elected Republican mayor of a large American city takes steps to close down some of the best schools serving an almost exclusively minority population. You know how it would go. We’d be hearing that Republicans “hate” the poor. The words “cruel,” “vicious,” and “racist” would circle the new mayor like sharks."...

 

"It is, of course, the new Democratic mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, who is shutting down a number of highly successful public charter schools (his son attends a magnet school). Charters are public schools run by parents or others and are not constrained by the usual public-school rules, hours, or curricula." ...

 

"...it betrays the cold brutality of some Democrats who claim to speak for the poor."

 

De Blasio turning on friends in charter school, pre-K battles ... "The clarity extends to something else, too. There is no reason to believe de Blasio will limit his carpet-bombing approach to charters. New Yorkers are seeing how he intends to govern. It’s going to be a long four years." ...