Obama's foreign policy credentials; can we have a do-over?

Ayotte: ‘It’s Time to Reset the Reset’  

 

... "Putin has harbored Edward Snowden, interfered in Syria, and armed the Assad regime, Ayotte said, and it seems the reset policy hasn’t worked."

 

Fewer Americans think Obama is respected in the world today Quoting Politico:

For the first time, a majority of Americans think President Barack Obama is not respected among world leaders, according to a new poll that found opinion has plunged "dramatically" in the past year.

 

.... "The Ukraine crisis showed how relevant Obama is. The EU ended up brokering the deal with precious little help from the administration. Our allies know the qualities of the president and acted accordingly.

 

"Ronald Reagan always thought that it was better for the US to be feared rather than liked. At this point in his presidency, Obama has made the US neither."

Grandmaster Putin plays chess while Obama's stuck on checkers 

... "Welcome to global disorder. You know America’s power is waning when the mullahs mock our empty threats.

"But Obama’s fecklessness offers one advantage — it’s easier to see why he keeps bullying Israel.

"The tiny Jewish state gets singled out because nobody else listens to America anymore. Once the Israelis figure that out, we’ll really be alone."

Heating up: Climate change advocates try to silence Krauthammer

Beware the left; this is what they do.

 

Howard Kurtz   "Charles Krauthammer says it right up front in his Washington Post column: “I’m not a global warming believer. I’m not a global warming denier.”

 

"He does, however, challenge the notion that the science on climate change is settled and says those who insist otherwise are engaged in “a crude attempt to silence critics and delegitimize debate.”

 

"How ironic, then, that some environmental activists launched a petition urging the Post not to publish Krauthammer’s column on Friday.

 

"Their response to opinions they disagree with is to suppress the speech.

 

"Brad Johnson ...the editor of HillHeat.com and a former Think Progress staffer, boasted on Twitter that 110,000 people had urged the newspaper “to stop publishing climate lies” like the Krauthammer piece."

Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington.

See what they do to shut this writer up:

Climate-change consensus: there is no consensus   "More bad news for the Church of Global Warming, as a new survey reported at Forbes finds support for man-made climate change falling to 52 percent in the American Meteorological Society:" ...

NY Times publishes cartoon about killing global warming 'deniers'

Thomas Lifson    "When apocalyptic cults turn murderous, they become a danger to the public. The warmist cult, frustrated by the failure of nature to back-up their prophecies of doom, apparently is turning to homicidal fantasies, and venting them in the pages of the New York Times. A truly shocking cartoon was published in the pages of that formerly august newspaper, brought to our attention by wattsupwiththat.com and climatedepot.com.  In it, the frustrations of warmists over the unusually cold winter (which US Government climatologists completely failed to predict) are channeled into the suggestion that they use "the 2014 icicle surplus" as "Self destructing sabers for climate change change deniers": "

FCC Throws In the Towel on Explosive Content Study; Intrusive media survey idea had people riled, but it was doomed from the start

 

NRO  "The Federal Communications Commission has pulled the plug on its plan to conduct an intrusive probe of newsrooms as part of a “Critical Information Needs” survey of local media markets.

"However, a revised version of the survey could raise new concerns: that it will trade its now-kiboshed news questions for a demographic survey that might justify new race-based media ownership rulemaking."....

 

‘He’s not kidding’: Brit Hume stupefied by disgusting argument for ‘after-birth abortion’

Twitchy   

 "Fox News’ Brit Hume pointed out a story that should make everybody ill:"

Brit Hume        ✔ @brithume

There are now people seriously arguing for abortion AFTER BIRTH. 

 

"Hume was referencing an article at Slate outlining a hideous attempt to justify “after-birth abortion” which two “philosophers” proposed, ironically, in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

[W]hen circumstances occur after birth such that they would have justified abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible. … [W]e propose to call this practice ‘after-birth abortion’, rather than ‘infanticide,’ to emphasize that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus … rather than to that of a child. Therefore, we claim that killing a newborn could be ethically permissible in all the circumstances where abortion would be. Such circumstances include cases where the newborn has the potential to have an (at least) acceptable life, but the well-being of the family is at risk.

"It’s hard to believe anybody could find a way to justify that, but there are those who try."   See below:

 

Slate:  The pro-choice case for infanticide. 

 

"Just when you thought the religious right couldn’t get any crazier, with its personhood amendments and its attacks on contraception, here comes the academic left with an even crazier idea: after-birth abortion."

This Humble Trash Collector Did Something to an American Flag That Made Him a Hero

IJReview.com   "An Oregon garbage collector was just going through his route when he saw that an American flag had been blown off its pole and scattered across a trash can. While he could have just ignored it, he instead stopped what he was doing, properly folded the flag like he’d learned to do in Boy Scouts, and returned it to its owner.

 

"A neighbor caught the admirable act and notified the trash company. The company happily released the camera footage, which has since gone viral.

This incredible story shows that even the smallest, everyday acts of patriotism are meaningful. Many thanks to this hero for reminding us that patriotism is a way of life, not just something that comes out on the Fourth of July."

 

Netanyahu: Iran still getting everything, giving nothing

The Jerusalem Post   "PM warns that granting Iran new uranium enrichment capabilities will help Tehran to "practically realize its plan to become a nuclear threshold state.' "  

 

...."Even as the US top Iran negotiator is in the country saying Iran could be allowed a small peaceful nuclear program, Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu continued to warn Sunday against granting Iran any uranium enrichment capabilities...."

McCain Left Speechless After Susan Rice Tries To Cover Her Tracks Over Benghazi Report

Downtrend   "Sen. John McCain made an appearance on Face The Nation this morning to discuss, among other things, the appearance of Susan Rice on Meet The Press this morning.

 

"You got all that?

 

"Anyway, you might recall Susan Rice. She was the ambassador to the UN when our embassy in Benghazi was attacked by a band of militant Muslims pretending to express Allah’s outrage by killing innocent Americans or something like that.

 

"Shortly after that act of blatant terrorism, she went on every single Sunday talk show in an effort to promote the administration’s ridiculous talking points about the event. She said that it was a spontaneous response to a YouTube video that was, at the time, months old.

 

"She ended up with egg on her face as the facts came out. The only person left who believes those talking points is Chris Matthews, which should tell you all that you need to know.

 

"Well, Ms. Rice appeared on Meet The Press this morning and was, of course, asked if she was ready to admit that she lied. Of course, she wasn’t.

 

“ 'That information turned out, in some respects, not to be 100% correct,” she said, with a straight face. That’s like saying that Philip Seymour Hoffman isn’t 100% dead.

 

"Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer played the video of Rice on Meet The Press and then asked Sen. McCain for his reaction, which is absolutely priceless. Check it out below.

 

Ex-commie spymaster warns of rapid 'American descent'

WND

 

Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa was the highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence official ever to defect to the West. He exposed the massive crimes and corruption of his former boss, Romanian President Nicolae Ceauescu, giving the dictator a nervous breakdown and prompting him to post two different million-dollar bounties on Pacepa’s head and send assassination squads to the U.S. to find his former spy chief and kill him. Pacepa, at 85, today lives in the U.S. as a “proud American citizen.”....

 

Amazon

.... "PACEPA: In my view, America’s infection with undercover Marxism should be the most important political topic of our day. In every country that became Marxist, the transformation process began with undercover Marxism, disguised as various kinds of free lunches.

I walked in undercover Marxist shoes over many miles and for many years, and I am convinced that if the Democratic Party has its way, it will use undercover Marxism to transform the United States into a socialist country in all but name.

 

"WND: Gen. Pacepa, you are known for making some dramatic statements from time to time. Your perspective as a former high-level Marxist with knowledge of the inner workings of communist methods and notions of progress can be eye-opening for us. What do you have to say concerning recent political and economic trends in the U.S.?

 

"PACEPA: Listen, I will answer by simply taking a quote from an article titled “American capitalism gone with a whimper” that was written 10 years ago and published in Russia’s Pravda, a new newspaper with a famous Cold War name, which learned from the past because it says it all: “It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed, against the backdrop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.' ”.... 

Ready For Hillary, Illustrated

Doug Ross Journal

"Smart Power, indeed:"
Is Hillary the Teflon Dame?  "The enduring and inexplicable popularity of Hillary Clinton." 

Dem Rep threatens TV stations showing anti-Obamacare ad

Thomas Lifson  Democrat Rep. Gary Peters is running for the Senate in Michigan and he doesn't like a political ad from Americans for Prosperity being shown on TV stations there. His attorneys at Perkins Coie have sent a letter to local television stations implying their licenses could be in jeopardy if they continue playing the ad.

"For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station should immediately require AFP to provide the factual documentation for its claims if you are going to continue airing this advertising...."

The ad (below) highlights the story of Julie Boonstra, who lost her existing health insurance plan thanks to Obamacare, and who says in the ad that her situation has gotten much worse thanks to the legislation Rep. Peters voted for and is defending.  Read more:

 

While some are quoted challenging the ad, the fact remains, as Lifson writes:

 

1.      Peters and other Democrats are terrified of being held responsible for health insurance troubles, so much so that they seek to stifle free speech on the subject.

2.      Boonstra and other sick people are far more sympathetic figures than politicians defending Obamacare.

3.      Whatever the math turns out to be for Boonstra's case, she has suffered serious disruption and uncertainty thanks to Obamacare's passage... 

America's ruling class has been experiencing more pushback than usual lately. It just might be a harbinger of things to come.

USA Today  "On Friday, after more public outrage, the Federal Communications Commission withdrew a plan to "monitor" news coverage at not only broadcast stations, but also at print publications that the FCC has no authority to regulate. The "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN (pronounced "sin") involved the FCC sending people to question reporters and editors about why they chose to run particular stories. Many folks in and out of the media found it Orwellian.

 

"How this program appeared was, like the DHS program, a bit of a mystery: FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said: "This has never been put to an FCC vote; it was just announced." But the blowback was sufficient to stop it for now."

 

Related: 

Don't track me, bro! The perils of tax by GPS.  "A GPS-based tracking system appeals to the authorities for obvious reasons:  It knows exactly how much you’ve driven, and in which states... It knows exactly how much, and where, you’ve driven.  One of the great things about driving a car is the freedom that it involves, and part of that freedom is the ability to go anywhere without buying tickets, checking in, or otherwise operating under someone else’s nose.

"That freedom would disappear with a GPS-based mileage tax. " 

How Americans can kill Obamacare, legalize pot: Column    "Nobody is signing up, and everybody -- in Colorado,at least -- is smoking." ...

One need not have an actual conspiracy to achieve the practical effects of a conspiracy. More regimes have been brought, piecemeal, to their knees by what was once called 'Irish Democracy,' the silent, dogged resistance, withdrawal, and truculence of millions of ordinary people, than by revolutionary vanguards or rioting mobs.

Last November, Jennifer Rubin considered What happens if Obamacare fails

"The greatest chance to get rid of Obamacare without Republicans keeping the House and winning a filibuster-proof Senate majority and the White House is to highlight just how bad Obamacare actually is and to offer more and more off-ramps for people to stay outside the exchanges." ...