Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Judicial Watch: Benghazi Documents Point to White House on Misleading Talking Points

 

The Right Planet   "Emails obtained by Judicial Watch ...have revealed that the top priority after the Benghazi terrorist attack was not national security ...No, the priority of top advisors in the earliest days after the Benghazi attack was ensuring that President Obama “looked good” prior the 2012 election.
Judicial Watch   "(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on April 18, 2014, it obtained 41 new Benghazi-related State Department documents. They include a newly declassified email showing then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes and other Obama administration public relations officials attempting to orchestrate a campaign to “reinforce” President Obama and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.”  Other documents show that State Department officials initially described the incident as an “attack” and a possible kidnap attempt.

"The documents were released Friday as result of a ... Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the Department of State ... to gain access to documents about the controversial talking points used by then-UN Ambassador Susan Rice ... Judicial Watch had been seeking these documents since October 18, 2012.

Rhodes
Ben Rhodes at center of plan to whitewash White House on Benghazi   ... "For years I have wondered why Rhodes had achieved such influence with Obama-given a clear lack of qualification to serve any role in the upper reaches of government. Now we know it is not sycophancy alone that worked for him. Nor is it just the fact that his brother heads CBS News (which recently parted company with Sharyl Attkisson following her persistent investigative reporting on Benghazi).  It goes beyond those factors: he will do his boss’s bidding, hiding information, manipulating the facts, distract people: the truth and the American people be damned.

The 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' President


Ed Lasky  ... "Very few of our presidents have ever been truly prepared to handle the rigors of the presidency, but most of them have risen to the challenge. The time period for Obama to do so expired long ago. His leadership has been consistently and willfully obtuse and oblivious to the duties and responsibilities of the presidency.
 
"He has routinely dismissed massive problems and threats to Americans as being trivial -- beneath his God-like goal to halt the rise of the oceans. Instead, he has portrayed his stewardship as being exemplary -- one of the top four presidencies in history -- and conveyed in various ways we should not worry and be happy, if not be thankful to have him."

... "Come to think of it, why shouldn’t Barack Obama be happy? He has succeeded in his goal of fundamentally transforming America. And the rest of America will be left cleaning up the mess from his party."

A Doctor's Declaration of Independence: It's time to defy health-care mandates issued by bureaucrats not in the healing profession.

Wall Street Journal   "In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I've learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship. How we interact and treat our patients is the practice of medicine. I acknowledge that there is a problem with the rising cost of health care, but there is also a problem when the individual physician in the trenches does not have a voice in the debate and is being told what to do and how to do it.
...
"So when do we say damn the mandates and requirements from bureaucrats who are not in the healing profession? When do we stand up and say we are not going to take it any more?" ...

Dr. Craviotto is an orthopedic surgeon in Santa Barbara, Calif., and a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

One such bureaucrat pictured at right.

Campus brownshirts on the march; so much for colleges being guardians of speech and ideas.

UM brownshirtCaroline Glick   "Jill Schneiderman is an unlikely warrior for Jewish rights. A professor of Earth sciences at Vassar College and a lesbian activist, Schneiderman’s political passions put her smack in the middle of the far-Left academic mainstream.
 "At least they did until she decided to organize a student trip to Israel to study water issues.
 "To get a sense of just how far to the Left Schneiderman is, when her initiative ran into trouble, she contacted fanatic anti-Israel activist Phillip Weiss to ask for his support.
 "Hers was not going to be a ZOA student mission to Israel.
 "Scheiderman needed help, because when the Vassar chapter of the anti-Semitic hate group, Students for Justice in Palestine, got wind of her initiative, their members began picketing her pre-trip seminar. They stood outside the classroom and pressured students to drop the class.'   Full article

Ms. Glick joined the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles as the Director of the Center’s Israel Security Project. "I remain the Center for Security Policy’s adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs. In both capacities, I travel regularly to Washington to brief senior officials and members of Congress on issues of joint Israeli-American concern. I also lecture widely throughout the US and Canada."

Monday, April 28, 2014

The Week Ahead in Regulation: April 28 to May 2

American Action Forum  "There is plenty afoot on the regulatory scene heading into this week. Congress is back in session after a two-week recess. More notably, there are a few significant regulations scheduled for publication."
...
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its final Tier 3 fuel standards rule. At nearly $14.5 billion in total costs, it is the most expensive rule to date in 2014. AAF reviewed its implications here.
  • Tomorrow, the Department of Energy will formally publish a proposal for new energy efficiency standards in fluorescent lamps and incandescent reflector lamps. The total regulatory cost of the rulemaking approaches $13 billion.

  • On Thursday, the Mine Safety and Health Administration will publish a rule seeking to limit exposure to coal dust. Although annualized costs are somewhat modest, at $28.1 million, the rule itself is massive. The pre-publication version is nearly 1,000 pages.
    When A Major Regulation Isn’t Major, Or Is it?   "For more than three years, the American Action Forum (AAF) has been tracking every federal rulemaking, no matter how trivial. In that time, AAF has developed a searchable database with more than 4,000 notable federal regulations, with information on costs, benefits, and paperwork hours.

    "Just as finding regulations and supporting documents can sometimes be difficult, determining whether a rulemaking is “economically significant” or “major” is not always straightforward. We at the American Action Forum have experienced this first hand."

    The submarine that SANK A TRAIN!!

    Home of Heroes  
     
     


    The story of the saboteurs of the U.S.S. Barb is one of those unique, little known stories of World War II.  It becomes increasingly important when one realizes that the 8 sailors who blew up the train at near Kashiho, Japan conducted the ONLY GROUND COMBAT OPERATION on the Japanese "homeland" of World War II. 
    fluckey_saboteurs.jpg (47349 bytes)
     The eight saboteurs were:  (L to R)
    Paul Saunders, William Hatfield, Francis Sever, Lawrence Newland, Edward Klinglesmith, James Richard, John Markuson, and William Walker.
     
    Members of the sabotage team pose with the Ships flag
    (The train mission is noted at the center bottom of the flag)
     

    Hat tip to Robert Hope; Sacramento, CA

    The VA: The military's Obamacare

    Obama: US takes VA neglect claim 'very seriously'  "Obama: US takes VA neglect claim 'very seriously' "

    Netanyahu compares Iran nuclear threat to Nazi menace

    The Times of Israel    "The world turned a blind eye to the rising Nazi threat over 75 years ago, and today Iran is being allowed to develop its nuclear program and menace Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday as the country marked Holocaust Remembrance Day."... 

    Benjamin Netanyahu         @netanyahu    
    Hamas denies the Holocaust even as it attempts to create an additional Holocaust by destroying the State of Israel.


     The Holocaust Remembered    ..."Pressman explained, “Gil’s toughest obstacle was not the Gestapo in Berlin or Vienna, but was the U.S. State Department. It was tougher for Gil to get the children into the U.S. than it was to get them out of Nazi Germany." ...
    ... "There is a need to recognize that within about ten years there will be no living eyewitnesses left.  As Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 28th is observed, readers can reflect on these powerful stories about the choices made in the course of one’s life. People should think about what is happening today and ask themselves would they have the strength and courage to take action as the heroic characters in these two books did. Every generation should hold themselves responsible for keeping the victims’ stories alive."

    A bit of Bill Maher for people who can't stand Bill Maher

    Bill Maher Hammers ‘Political Correctness Nazis’ In Scathing Rant Aimed at His Fellow Liberals   Even though I like some of his thoughts, he's still a smug, self-righteous liberal.
    "Bill Maher Hammers ‘Political Correctness Nazis’ In Scathing Rant Aimed at His Fellow Liberals."
    ...
    (content warning: vulgar language used)

     
    "Finally, Maher concluded his rousing monologue, expressing annoyance that some atheists will sue to have public displays of Christianity removed.
    “Even atheists make me roll my eyes sometimes,” he said. “Like when they sued to have a cross taken down from a building. Oh for f***s sake, we are atheists not vampires. If you can’t handle  seeing a cross now and then, you picked the wrong country.' ”

    If Cliven Bundy were a liberal...

    Nancy Pelosi would be singing his praises, I can visualize.
     
    Thank you, Mr. Terrell, for saying what needed to be said.
     

    Sunday, April 27, 2014

    Chris Hayes Wants to Kill About 5.7 Billion People (See, we can demagogue just like Democrats do)

    NRO   "MSNBC host Chris Hayes is getting an alarming amount of attention for his latest effort in The Nation, a stemwinder arguing that the abolition of fossil fuels is like the abolition of slavery."
     
    "The argument may sound forced, but Hayes has a logical premise that goes something like this: Socrates does not wear sandals; a potato kugel does not wear sandals; therefore Socrates is a potato kugel."  ...
    ...
    "The virtuous cadre of fossil-fuel “abolitionists” will have to compel these fat cats to give up their wealth. And like John Brown and Julia Ward Howe before them, they can take heart despite the immensity of the task, because the toll of human suffering is right before their . . . because the horrors of the vile institution are clear to . . . because the conscience recoils at the sight of . . . Well, it’s kind of hard to say what the actual societal gain of eliminating fossil fuels would be, because fossil fuels are the main reason modern society exists at all." ...
     

    Debbie Schlussel's posts make one wonder: what motivates these Muslims, Islam or culture?

    Mehrzad Malekzadeh: Iranian Had Bombs in Walmart Standoff; Also Caught on Railroad Tracks w Poisonous Chemical
    "Was this another dry run for a terrorist attack perpetrated by a Muslim in America? Sure sounds like it."
    MehrzadMalekzadeh
    "On Saturday, Mehrzad Malekzadeh, an Iranian Muslim, perpetrated a four-hour stand-off at Walmart in Kemah, Texas, which is in the Houston area. He had multiple devices in his boxes and taped to his body, some of them real, others fake. And, of course, the usual “mental problems”–or as I call it, “the halal Twinkie defense”–was cited as an excuse."...

    Jasim Ramadon: Iraqi Muslim Immigrant Convicted in Brutal Rectal Gang Rape of 53-Yr-Old Woman Sentenced
    ..."As I told you previously, Ramadon was brought here from Iraq as a teen after he risked his life and turned in his own father, a terrorist, and saved American soldiers lives. He also turned in about 40 Islamic terrorists and provided vital information to soldiers there. One of the soldiers was going to adopt him as his son, but it did not work out because you can take the Muslim immigrant off the Arab street, but you cannot take the Arab street and violent, depraved values out of the Muslim immigrant, as Ramadon showed in spades. I met Ramadon upon his arrival in America, as I was helping the soldiers involved, to my regret. After he came here, the soldiers and Ramadon appeared on Oprah, and he was hailed as a hero, but he’s no hero anymore."
     
    You may find this related to the above: Muslim Kills Horse By Anally Raping Him
    Muslim Kills Horse By Anally Raping Him

    Teen Stowaway on Hawaii Flight is Very Devout Somali Muslim; Likely Illegal Alien  "The much reported teen flight stowaway to Hawaii is a Somalian Muslim and likely an illegal alien. But you won’t read that anywhere (except here). While there is legitimate outcry regarding a lack of adequate airport security, there is little on the very relevant background of the unnamed 16-year-old (some reports say he’s 15), who is reportedly very devout and prays to allah(sic) “a lot.”