Obama -vs- The US Constitution ... J. D. Longstreet

Obama -vs- The US Constitution
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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I'm so old I can remember when anyone who did not agree with the government of Soviet Socialist Russia (or the Soviet Union) would be arrested by the government and placed in Soviet mental institutions because, the Soviet government had determined, you see, that anyone NOT agreeing with them was obviously INSANE.  Ofttimes the mentally challenged prisoner disappeared into the Gulag system never to be heard from again.

So -- where am I going with this?

I'm just trying to give you a heads-up, 'cause it's happening right here in America -- TODAY.

Consider this from The New American.com:
"Readers also may remember the recent shocking case of Brandon Raub. The New American’s Jack Kenny reported on the story last August. Kenny wrote that Raub was:
... held involuntarily as a psychiatric patient at the Salem Veterans Affairs hospital in Virginia over anti-government postings on his Face book page. Raub, a Marine combat veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, was visited by FBI and Secret Service agents at his North Chesterfield home on August 16, then taken by police under an emergency custody order to John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. He was transferred to the veterans hospital on August 20. A medical assessment of his condition at John Randolph described him as paranoid and delusional, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. But after an hour-long hearing in Hopewell Circuit Court August 23, Judge W. Allan Sharrett dismissed an involuntary commitment petition as invalid.

"The petition is so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy," said the release order signed by Sharrett, vacating the order of Special Justice Walter Douglas Stokes to detain Raub for 30 days. Stokes, who presides over commitment hearings, also ordered Raub's transfer to the VA hospital in Salem, about 180 miles from his home. Judge Sharrett said he was shocked to find the commitment order contained no grounds for holding Raub.

The irrefutable fact is that, had the Rutherford Institute not stepped in and defended Raub, the young man would likely still be unconscionably held in a government mental hospital at the mercy of Obama administration bureaucrats."
SOURCE:  http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/14629-why-is-the-federal-government-disarming-veterans

It would seem the Obama Administration simply does not recognize the Constitution of the United States.  This type of action by the government just blows the Fifth Amendment right out of the water.

This is the 5th Amendment, for heaven's sake.  It has ties all the way back to the Magna Carta in 1215!  It protects Americans  against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. It is fundamental to our freedom. 
Just read the text of the 5th Amendment: 

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

Look.  Either the Bill of Rights stands as our protection from the government or, it doesn't.  There is no in between.  And, I must tell you, I am very concerned that the current administration has decided the Bill of Rights is an impediment to their drive to transform America into a socialist dung heap, therefore they have deliberately decided to ignore the amendments and do as they darn well please, making up laws on the fly, and decreeing said laws by way of the Presidential Executive Order.

And it's going to get progressively worse over the next four years. The America of 2016 will bear little resemblance to the America of today.  Count on it. 

America has become a police state right before our eyes. Americans are now monitored around the clock by our government. 

A few of us old mossback conservatives have been screaming at the top of our lungs for somebody to pay attention to our loss of freedom. To no avail.

Little by little, the freedom and liberty Americans have fought and died for is being systematically taken away and America has been, already, transformed into a socialist/communist state.

I wonder, sometimes, whether the conservatives in the US House of Representatives will be able to continue fighting their "holding action" until the elections in 2014 and 2016?  (Even King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans were only able to hold the pass at Thermopylae for three days until they were overrun and wiped out by Xerxes and his Persians.)

One by one we are losing our guaranteed freedoms under the constitution.  The Obama Administration just tramples all over the constitution with very little, if any, resistance.

The left is taking away our freedom in exactly the same way they have foisted socialism on America -- incrementally -- a tiny bit at a time.  Like the frog placed in pot of slowly heating water, we are about to be boiled without ever even TRYING to hop out of the pot.

"A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.”  Ben Franklin said that -- and it was and remains true.  The political left has been diminishing America little by little at the edges.  Now the great cake is nearly eaten away by socialism and that portion of the original cake remaining is so small as to offer only miniscule resistance --or none -- to the threatening forces encircling it. 

When I was a high school student, I presented a speech at the University of South Carolina in which I noted how proud I was that here in America we didn't have to dread the loud knock on our door at three in the morning and have one of our parents, or even ourselves, dragged away from our families and marched off to a prison, a gulag, or a mental institution by government authorities.

That was then

This is NOW.

I could not make that statement today.  Since I stood on that stage at Russell House, some 60 odd years ago, America has, indeed, become the nation I described in my speech that night that rules its people by fear and intimidation.  Had I known then that America would have the rogue government we have today, I would have warned those in the audience of what was in store for them, their children, and their grandchildren.

But I did not know, could not know, how far and how fast America would fall.
A friend mentioned, half jokingly, recently how he eyed with suspicion any black SUV or panel truck parked overly long near his office or home.  He told me how he fearfully looked up at the sound of helicopters overhead, and how the tiny hairs on the back of his neck began to tremble every time he uses an ATM machine because he said,  he knows those ubiquitous cameras that never grow tired, that never sleep, are everywhere watching, and watching.  My friend remarked as to how he pauses every time he is about to tap the "send" button on an e-mail or a blog comment, and, too, every time he produces his credit card to pay for a purchase of any kind.

One word describes the state of being my friend recounted to me above.  It is raw, naked, FEAR. It is something Americans have not known - until NOW. 

Terrorists did not instill THIS fear in Americans. NO. America's leaders USED the actions and the threats of terrorists to instill this particular fear in their fellow Americans.  That fear has been magnified by executive actions creating government agencies with heretofore unheard of powers over the American people.

Little by little, bit by bit, incrementally, America has been fundamentally transformed from a constitutional representative republic to some sort of hybrid socialist society with a government decidedly leaning toward the Marxist principles of governing.

What a mess!

Ben Franklin is given credit for saying the following:  “As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.”  Isn't it time to forsake "idle silence" in favor of actively rattling the cages of our elected government in Washington, DC?  Of course, we COULD just wait for the knock on our door at three in the morning.  

Or -- have we waited too long?  As John Adams reminded us centuries ago -- freedom, once lost, is almost impossible to regain.

Americans have done the impossible since the nation was founded.   But it requires enormous amounts of WILL to do whatever is necessary to accomplish the Herculean task of saving a nation.

Do we have that will?  Or, will we simply remain silent and allow the lights to be put out in the once "shining city on a hill?"

© J. D. Longstreet
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We Didn't STEAL IT! We BOUGHT It! ... J. D. Longstreet

            We Didn't STEAL IT!  We BOUGHT It!

                            ... All  Six-Hundred BILLION Dollars Worth!
                                 A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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To say that the US stole the land that now comprises the southwestern United States is a bald-faced lie!

It is a lie the political left is using to their advantage.  The "citizens of the world bunch,"  the globalists, the world without borders nuts, (and the like) have spread this lie so thickly that it is now accepted as truth.  It is NOT truth.  It is a damnable lie! It is propaganda intended to soften up US citizen's sentiments toward amnesty for illegal aliens.

Obama is about to mount an all out push for amnesty for illegal aliens, very soon now, and it WILL pass the Congress this time.    

Do you understand now why no one is correcting the lies that the US stole all that land in the Southwest from Mexico???  Do you understand WHY  they want you to remain "dumb" on the subject?

It is all a part of their Deconstruction of America Project. It is a project, I might add, that appears to be well ahead of schedule and coming to fruition at a pace I would not have believed had I not experienced it since Election Day 2008.  

OK, so -- let’s set the record straight and look at some facts.

First, The Mexican War:

The Mexican War between the United States and Mexico began with a Mexican attack on American troops along the southern border of Texas on Apr. 25, 1846. Fighting ended when U.S. Gen. Winfield Scott occupied Mexico City on Sept. 14, 1847; a few months later a peace treaty was signed (Feb. 2, 1848) at Guadalupe Hidalgo. In addition to recognizing the U.S. annexation of Texas defeated Mexico ceded California and, New Mexico (including all the present-day states of the Southwest) to the United States.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War, was signed on February 2, 1848, by Nicholas P. Trist, for the United States, and by a special commission representing the collapsed government of Mexico.

Under the treaty, Mexico ceded to the United States Upper California and New Mexico (including Arizona) and recognized U.S. claims over Texas, with the Rio Grande as its southern boundary. The United States in turn paid Mexico $15,000,000, assumed the claims of American citizens against Mexico, ($3.25 Million) recognized prior land grants in the Southwest, and offered citizenship to any Mexicans residing in the area.  Then a few years later, the US bought the land that is now Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico for another 6 million dollars. 

Second: Why did we need that additional land?

After the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, border disputes between the United States and Mexico remained unsettled. Land that now comprises lower Arizona and New Mexico was part of a proposed southern route for a transcontinental railroad. US President Franklin Pierce was convinced by Jefferson Davis, (Later the First President of the Confederate States of America)  then the US Secretary of War, to send James Gadsden (who had personal interests in the rail route) to negotiate the Gadsden Purchase with Mexico. Under the resulting agreement, the U.S. paid Mexico $10 million.  There was a problem with the money, however: Even though the agreement specified $10 million, the US Congress only agreed to pay $7 million. When the money finally arrived, in Mexico City, $1 million was found to be lost, thus making $6 million the amount Mexico actually got for the sale of that land.  Hey, they set the price… we PAID it!

Run the numbers and you will find that the US paid Mexico $24,250,000.00 (24 million, two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand) US dollars for the land in the Southwest US which many claim, today, we (The US) stole! 

You know I get a bit tired, and even short-tempered, with folks who attempt to perpetuate an untruth by the act of sheer omission.  As  a Southerner, I know how that can hurt.  To say the US stole all that land in the Southwest is a flat-out lie.  So, 24 and-a-quarter-million isn’t much money?  Not by today’s standards, perhaps. But back in the mid 1800’s we’re talking about somewhere in the area of $600,000,000.00!  Now that IS big bucks!

So, next time you hear someone prattling on about how the US stole all the southwestern United States from Mexico, set them straight.  Tell them we bought it and PAID for it.  If they refuse to believe you refer them to the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty -- AND --  the "Gadsden Purchase" a few years later.  It’s all there.  It’s a part of history.  It is, apparently, a part of history students in the American government schools never hear about. (Sometimes referred to as The American "Fool" System)

Of course, the claims that we stole the land from Mexico are all a part of the propaganda being employed to saddle Americans with more undeserved guilt.  People who feel guilty will ofttimes respond in the way those prodding them wish them to respond.  That is what is hoped for with all the unmitigated garbage heaped on America (and Americans) today.

Actually, as I view the relationship between the US and Mexico today, I almost ... ALMOST ... agree with those who feel we ought to annex the entire country of Mexico and run it as an American territory.   I mean, it’s not like we are not supporting the country of Mexico, anyway.  The billions of US dollars a year pouring into Mexico, from Mexican citizens who have burglarized the US, by "breaking and entering," is absolutely staggering.

So, as the leftist's propaganda mills continue to crank this unmitigated bovine scatology and pure horse hockey out inundating Americans with all the lies and distortions about how badly Americans treat Mexicans, illegal and otherwise, just keep in mind that all they are attempting to do is prod Americans into supporting Obama's AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS endeavor.  

Comprehensive Immigration Reform (or whatever they are calling it THIS time!!!), is an abomination and should never see the light of day. I’ll be leaning on my Senators from North Carolina to vote against that bill -- and any other bills that will aid in the left's efforts to destroy America -- at every opportunity. May I suggest you do the same?

© J. D. Longstreet

**** Recommended Additional Reading: http://www.wbtw.com/story/21411970/marked-nc-drivers-licenses-for-illegal-immigrants-spark-debate 
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Obama's Dr. Ben Carson Problem ... Douglas V. Gibbs

Obama's Dr. Ben Carson Problem
By Douglas V. Gibbs
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LINK:   http://politicalpistachio.blogspot.com/2013/02/obamas-dr-ben-carson-problem.html

The Democrat Party has hoisted Barack Obama up as some kind of liberal, god-like, superhero.  Barry has been very happy to fill the britches of such a false god, but as some kind of anti-hero that, armed with his arrogance, can destroy federal budgets with a single bound.  To the horror of Republicans, even no-nos like gun control and stomping all over freedom of religion has proven to be areas this president is willing go after.  Like every cloud-skipping false-prophet, however, Barry Sotero has his own kind of Kryptonite.

In the case of Barack Obama, the thing that can bring him down, make him falter in mid-air, and drop him miserably to his political knees, is anyone that is willing to articulate American values, and do it in his face.

While the Republicans run around in circles trying to figure out a way to co-exist with the democrats, and their presidential messiah, Dr. Ben Carson took a stab into the side of Barack Obama, and his ultra-liberal policies, with a single speech at this year's National Prayer Breakfast.  Obama's balloon began to whistle as the air came rushing out of his ego.  How dare this man embarrass our king, err, uhh, messiah, err, uhh, president like this.  How dare he!

Dr. Ben Carson is not your typical (as the liberal left sees the world) white, racist, right-wing, extremist, religious-nut, gun clinging, Bible-thumping, conservative maniac.  In fact, Dr. Carson isn't even a white republican.  He, to the amazement of the democrats, is an honest, God-fearing, common sense, American that was willing to simply take Obama to the mat, and expose Barack Obama for the leftist ideologue, and coward, that he really is.

After Dr. Carson's speech, a giant sigh released somewhere in the conservative stratosphere.  "Yeah," the TEA Party folks, and the Constitutionalists, and the conservatives cried out.  "That is what I have meant all along!  I just didn't know how to say it."

Dr. Carson doesn't even really consider himself a conservative.  In fact, I am sure that on some issues he may not be one hundred percent in line with the conservative narrative.  But, conservative or not, he articulated conservatism in such a manner that Barack Obama, the democrats, and the liberal media did not know how to respond, at first.

Common Sense sometimes does that to people.

Well, the liberal left can't have somebody walking around making their favorite son look bad.  As they did with Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Mitt Romney, they have got to make Dr. Benjamin Carson look like a fool.  They know, in their dark little hearts, that they need to do all they can to stop this guy before he does something, or says something else, really damaging to their collectivist cause.

And Dr. Benjamin Carson being black, but viewing himself not as a race, but as an American, makes it all the more difficult.

The liberal media immediately took up the task.

The liberal left is in absolute hysterics over Dr. Ben Carson's remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast because, in addition to making sense to a lot of people, and daring to challenge Barack Obama to his face, in his presence, he weighed in on one particular topic that he knows more about than Barack Obama, exposing Obama for the unknowing fool that he is.

The Holy Grail of liberalism has always been health care, and Carson, a prominent pediatric surgeon from Johns Hopkins University, knows a little something about the subject too.

Dr. Ben Carson said, taking on taxation right out of the gate, "What we need to do is come up with something simple. And when I pick up my Bible, you know what I see? I see the fairest individual in the universe, God, and he's given us a system. It's called a tithe. We don't necessarily have to do 10% but it's the principle. He didn't say if your crops fail, don't give me any tithe or if you have a bumper crop, give me triple tithe. So there must be something inherently fair about proportionality. You make $10 billion, you put in a billion. You make $10 you put in one."

Then Dr. Carson turned on health care: "Here's my solution: When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health savings account to which money can be contributed -- pretax -- from the time you're born 'til the time you die. When you die, you can pass it on to your family members, so that when you're 85 years old and you got six diseases, you're not trying to spend up everything. You're happy to pass it on and there's nobody talking about death panels.

"Number one. And also, for the people who were indigent who don't have any money we can make contributions to their HSA each month because we already have this huge pot of money. Instead of sending it to some bureaucracy, let's put it in their HSAs. Now they have some control over their own health care."

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky went so far as to comment that it was “… not really an appropriate place to make this kind of political speech and to invoke God as his support for that kind of point of view.”

Am I right?  Did she say God was not an appropriate thing to mention at a National Prayer Breakfast?  Who were they praying to, then?  Barack Obama?

As for the political end of it, every time Obama opens his mouth it serves as an opportunity to politicize whatever it is he is targeting.  Just ask every group of grieving parents after mass shootings, or or the families of dead heroes coming home with flags draped over their coffins.

What Dr. Ben Carson did was publicly challenge Obama's policies, and do so in the context of faith. For liberal Democrats, such articulation of conservatism is blasphemous.  Disagreement, and doing so in a way that can damage one's opponent, is not a luxury allowed to non-liberal political types.  Opposition to liberalism is especially not permitted when the offender dares to use their faith to disagree.  And what is worse, Dr. Carson was willing to use a tool that no politician has used since anyone can remember. . . The Truth.

The "God-Thing" is what really has the liberal left in a tizzy.  They use "religion" all of the time to support their policies of entitlement, calling such programs a kind of "charity."  Barack Obama has told us straight out that God approves of his health care policies, because it is all about "social justice," and as Barry has put it, being our brother's keeper.  Obama, even, in 2009 to a crowd of raging liberal religious-types, proclaimed that, “We are God’s partner in matters of life and death.”

Never mind that he's got that whole brother's keeper thing screwed up, or that murdering thousands of unborn babies a day hardly seems like the work of a group of people in line with God's plan. . . it seems more like the work of folks in league with somebody else.

Of course, if a republican says anything about God in reference to politics, the "separation of church and state" slogan comes flying across the room, and slaps that conservative evil-doer right upside the head.

Two years ago, coincidentally at the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama stood before the huddled masses and proclaimed, “But sometimes what I can do to try to improve the economy or to curb foreclosures or to help deal with the healthcare system — sometimes it seems so distant and so remote, so profoundly inadequate to the enormity of the need. And it is my faith, then, that biblical injunction to serve the least of these, that keeps me going and that keeps me from being overwhelmed.”

"AMEN, Brother!" must have been the uproarious response inside the heads of the liberal faithful in attendance.

Brother?  Or did they say in those skulls of mush, "Messiah!"?

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, or any other liberal democrat, didn't say anything about that being an inappropriate thing to say at a National Prayer Breakfast back then.  In fact, Obama had no problem making that kind of political speech, and invoking God, to support his kind of point of view  Not a single liberal cried out, "Wait a second, buddy.  What about that separation of church and state thing?"

Such a tactic is nothing new to Obama.  He has invoked his supposed faith, and his misunderstandings of the Bible, not only on behalf of healthcare reform, but on the behalf of gay marriage, and a litany of other liberal agenda items, as well.

And then, here comes along the way at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013, Dr. Ben Carson, pediatric surgeon, and a man that dares challenge the liberal saint of health care, and social justice.  How dare he.  How dare he challenge the great and powerful Barack Obama, and do so to his face, and in the presence of the liberal faithful.

Dr. Ben Carson took it to Obama, aiming his arrow of truth directly at the liberal president's health care law, at the National Prayer Breakfast, and the good doctor did it with more than just the truth - he sent that arrow on a trajectory straight and true of common sense.  How dare he.  How dare he go after the young messiah that sits behind the presidential seal, with a teleprompter nearby to ensure he remembers the holy word.

The liberal media is angry.  I am surprised they didn't start turning tables right there in the room as Dr. Carson spewed his opposition to President Obama's holy work.

They did something else.  As Paul Kengor at the American Spectator put it, Dr. Ben Carson's price for daring to challenge President Obama was "... political excommunication and denunciation. In Alinsky fashion, he must now be isolated and demonized. The Religious Left grabs its stones to cast them at the good doctor. How dare Ben Carson mention healthcare at the National Prayer Breakfast! How dare he disagree with Obama!"

The conservatives poured into the streets.  "Finally, someone not too afraid to challenge Obama has spoken up.  Finally, we have seen someone that can articulate conservatism in a manner that wipes that smug sneer right off Barack's arrogant face.  Finally, someone with a brass pair."

"Why, this guy ought to be," cried out the celebrating conservatives, "our next President!"

Dr. Ben Carson, being the humble man of God that he is, smiled, nodded, and said, "I'll leave that up to God."

That's the one and true God, he was referring to.  Not the false, pseudo-demigod in Washington DC, mind you.
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-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

The Stoning of Dr. Ben Carson - The American Spectator

Dr. Benjamin Carson Addresses National Prayer Breakfast, Criticizes Obamacare - RealClearPolitics

Now Media Matters Targets Ben Carson - World Net Daily

Dr. Ben Carson for President? 'I'll Leave That Up To God' - Yahoo! News
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Douglas V. Gibbs

Doug is a longtime Internet radio host, conservative political activist, writer and commentator; he is the host of Constitution Radio and teaches weekly classes on the Constitution in Southern California. Follow him @douglasvgibbs.

The Present Threats to Israel ... Alan Caruba

The Present Threats to Israel

By Alan Caruba

If you take a look at the map of the Middle East and read the daily headlines, you have to wonder what it must be like to be an Israeli—a nation the size of New Jersey—surrounded by Arabs driven insane by Islam, by a succession of brutal dictators, and by the never-ending hate-filled fulminations in the mosques and media against Zionism, Israel, and Jews.

The UN nuclear watchdog released a report last week stating that Iran has installed advanced technology at Natanz, its main site for uranium enhancement. Iran that has relentlessly sought to make its own nuclear weapons and the missiles with which to deliver them. In 2009, Dore Gold, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations—a hotbed of anti-Zionism—and the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, authored “The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Iran Defies the West.”

“It can be reasonably asserted that Iran perceives itself as a natural hegemonic power in its region,” wrote Dore. With roughly one-tenth of the world’s supply of oil and natural gas, Iran had the financial capacity to acquire the military strength it needed to realize its historical ambitions.” The various sanctions that have been applied to it have wreaked havoc on its economy, but have no deterred its intentions.

“Given that the Islamic Republic was the first to systematically employ suicide bombing attacks in the present era, it could very well be immune to deterrence and the threat of full scale retaliation should it employ nuclear weapons,” wrote Dore.

Writing more recently in The Washington Times, columnist Jeffrey T. Kuhner, addressed the “Consequences of a Nuclear Iran.”  He reiterated the history of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s many threats to Israel and its denial of the Holocaust, the deliberate murder of six million of Europe’s Jews during World War II. “What if Mr. Ahmadinejad is not lying” about Iran already being a nuclear power?” asked Kuhner. “Then the West—and especially the United States—faces a major crisis. It means the West’s policies of sanctions and diplomatic engagement have failed.”

It means that President Obama’s efforts, as executed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, throughout his first term have failed. It does not bode well that the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, in his first major foreign policy speech on February 20, believes that the real threat is climate change, not Iran and the other known enemies of the nation.

Kerry is delusional. He blathered on about “an environment not ravaged by rising seas, deadly superstorms, devastating droughts, and other hallmarks of a dramatically changing climate.” The seas are not dramatically rising, large storms have occurred throughout our history, as have droughts. It is as if Iran, the Middle East, Africa, North Korea, China and Russia aren’t even a problem.

The designate for Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, is, if it is possible, an even worse choice so far as Israel is concerned. He is on record repeatedly displaying his antipathy—and worse—towards Israel. Demonstrably incompetent for the job, Hagel will reflect Obama’s reluctance for any combat short of the antiseptic use of drones.

The President has repeatedly stated that he will not accept a nuclear-armed Iran, but the President has spent years saying things that turned out to be empty promises and outright lies. His ties to anti-Semites and stated sympathy for Islam make anything he says suspect.

Kuhner warned that “An attack (on Iran) would have disastrous consequences. Iran is not Iraq. It is a much larger and more populous nation. It has proxies across the region—including Hezbollah, Hamas, and Syria’s besieged regime.”

The Israelis know this in ways we never can. It recently had to take military action against Hamas in Gaza to slow the continued rocketing of his towns in its south. It has fought numerous ways since its founding in 1948, and it is threatened on all of its borders with Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank and Gaza.

The change of power with Egypt, now in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, poses a threat to its peace treaty with Egypt. The civil war that has been raging in Syria for two years poses a present and future threat on its border. Jordan, which has been a stable monarchy and friend, is being challenged by Islamists.

The President is scheduled to visit Israel in March, the first visit since having been elected in 2008. His relations with Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu are chilly at best. Everything he says—and does not say—will be examined. The U.S. has provided a lot of military aid to Israel, but one wonders if that isn’t part of a larger policy to maintain a balance of power in the region.

The Israelis have been a major source of intelligence to the U.S. Even so, one suspects that the Israelis have deep reservations about President Obama and a lack of confidence given his past statements about its borders and settlements.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq says everything you need to know about the failure of its military involvement in both nations and its failed effort at “nation building.” When you add in the U.S. reduction of naval power in the Persian Gulf, you might imagine that the current Iranian regime believes it is triumphing over “the Great Satan” as it pursues its quest to “wipe Israel off the map.”

Dore stated a fundamental truth that continues to be ignored by the Obama regime. “If the West has a choice between negotiating yet again with the regime in Iran or undercutting it further, it should clearly seek to promote a process that leads to its collapse and replacement. Engagement was tried in the past and doesn’t work.”

Meanwhile, our new Secretary of State is wedded to negotiations and to the notion that climate change is the real threat to the West.

© Alan Caruba, 2013
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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2 million page views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.

The Curse Of The LO/INFO Voter ... J. D. Longstreet

The Curse Of The LO/INFO Voter
A Commentary b J. D. Longstreet
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The LO/INFO voter -- sometimes referred to as LIV's -- are a curse on America.  It is they who are driving America's "post constitution" government.  They, however, are SO low-information they have no idea their influence may lie at the root of the problems America faces today.

Now.  Who are these LO/Info voters?  What is a Lo/Info voter?  Let's take a closer look. 

I will guarantee when we finish here you will KNOW who a Lo/Info voter is -- and -- you might be surprised to learn that YOU fall within their ranks.  Not to worry.  Most of us have been, at one time in our lives, card carrying members of the Lo/Info voter classification.

Let's begin with the obvious.  Lo/Info voters are people who may vote, but who are, generally speaking, poorly (or badly) informed about politics.  That fact alone speaks volumes concerning the inherent weakness of a democracy.  It can certainly be considered an important reason the Founders of America decided that a Representative Republic was the way to go for this fledgling country and it's government.

The LIV's could not define their political ideology if their lives depended upon it.  As a rule, with some exceptions, of course, they have no political ideology of their own.  Instead, they choose candidates that are, for whatever reason, appealing to them.  It could be as simple as the physical appearance of the candidate. In fact, it often IS the visage of the candidate.  For instance, America's last balding President was Dwight Eisenhower.

Having no coherent political ideology the LIV's are more likely to be swing voters, and they will split a ticket in a heartbeat.

Some years ago, I was conversing with a young man about an upcoming Presidential Election.  He volunteered that he probably would not vote because his vote didn't really make a difference anyway.  I tried to convince him, as best I could, that he was wrong.  But as the conversation went on I began to understand that this young man knew squat about America's political system. He was married, a high school graduate with possibly some college, a veteran, gainfully employed, and dumb as a post about politics in America. He was, and I suspect still is, a LIV. 

I have a friend, a middle-aged government employee, very intelligent, with more than one college degree, married, very successful in his chosen field, who, when asked his opinion on something or other the government is proposing in Congress, responds with:  "I don't worry about stuff like that.  There's nothing I can do about it. So why worry?"

Do either of these examples remind you of some of your friends and acquaintances?

These are LO/INFO voters ... and they are dangerous to America.

America was very carefully designed for  people who were educated, moral, and involved in the politics of the country. Over the two and a half centuries America has been on the scene we have seen what can happen to her and her government as fewer and fewer Americans deign to take part in the governing process.

By taking part, I mean not just voting, but following, closely, the goings on in the Congress and the Oval Office and writing letters, e-mails and telephoning or faxing their representative in Congress over their concerns about proposed legislation, etc. It means attending City Council meetings, at least occasionally,  and County Commissioner meetings, too.  All these politicians need to see you and hear you and KNOW hey are being held accountable to and by the voters who selected them as their representatives.

It is frighteningly easy to see what happens to a government when the electorate does not  stay involved.  We get exactly what we have today in Washington -- a Congress that is so out of touch with their constituents as to seem almost rogue in nature. 

The current government of the US is a product of the lo/info voter.  Who else but lo/info voters would vote for a man for President based simply on the color of his skin?  How do we get so many worthless, corrupt, politicians returned term after term to the Congress except by the votes of lo/info voters? 

So now, we are paying the price.  We're broke, under water, quickly becoming a third-world country, and we're scratching our collective heads wondering how we ever got into this mess.

I submit that wondering how we got into this mess is not the real question.  We already know the answer to that.

 The real question is:  "How do we get out of this mess?"

© J. D. Longstreet
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Overcoming Their Own Worst Enemy ... J. D. Longstreet

Overcoming Their Own Worst Enemy
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Liberal guilt created a permanent underclass of citizens in America about one hundred and fifty years ago and still there is no light at the end of the tunnel for that underclass to claw their way towards IF they ever hope to crawl out of the societal hole liberals tossed them into at the end of America's "War Between the States."  

There is another entirely different commentary to be written about the way liberals have suckered the black race in America and taken credit for any and all advances American blacks have made since the Civil War.  Most of the left's claims are pure bovine scatology but their willing accomplices in the intellectual community, the halls of academia, and the Mainstream Media have taken those lies and transformed them them into what is recognized today as history.  Never mind that that so-called "history" is mostly lies.  It IS the official record.  And that, dear reader, is THAT.

It is the national leadership of the black community in America where, I think, the problem lies.

But there is a crying need for leadership at a much more critical level.  In the home, in the family, and in the black neighborhoods.

The black family desperately needs two parents at the head of the family unit ... a mother and a FATHER.  That young black male can learn much from his mother --  but -- how to be a responsible, disciplined, self-respecting man, a masculine contributor to society,  can be learned ONLY from a father.  The home is where real leadership begins, where it is born, and where respect for leadership is taught.  It is also where accountability is learned and where one learns to take responsibility for one's own actions or inactions.

It is jaw-dropping to realize that an entire race of people in America were given freedom over 150 years ago and so little progress has been made as a race, as a class, in bettering themselves, taking advantage of the blessings of this country,  seizing the guilt offerings from white America and using all of it to make their way up the ladder of progress  until they truly stand on a level societal field. It just has not happened. 

If anything, with exceptions, of course, the vast majority of American blacks seem to take pride in their victimhood, assumed or real.  See, little is expected of victims.  It is SAFE to play the part of the victim. And besides, white America loves to "rescue" victims by lavishing all sorts of goodies on them if only to assuage the guilt they (white America) feel for having victimized the poor "victim" in the first place.

Then along comes someone like Dr. Ben Carson and blows a hole the size of the moon through all the BS the leaders of the black community have thrown up the past 150 years -- and what happens?  Well, of course, he is attacked for it.  He's not "down" with the "cause."

See, Ben Carson is an embarrassment to the black community.  That alone should tell you just how convoluted the thinking within that hapless community of people really is.

Here's a man who made the most of every opportunity he found, or came his way, or that he himself could create. Ambitious?  HELL, Yes!  But ambition is a necessary element in striving to better your lot in life.

"Black people created their own stereotype. Now its hard for me to be a educated young black man without being labeled as 'acting white." (Quote from "unknown.")

Nobody seems to know who actually created or verbalized the quote above but it is unarguably true.

Mychal Massie, in an Article for WND entitled: "Blacks: Their own worst enemy" said the following: "If you are black, when was the last time you applauded the accomplishment of another black who didn’t play victim or have an edge of militancy earmarking said accomplishment?

Blacks are inculcated from the womb to believe that whites, especially conservatives, are out to get them. Living under that onus creates a debilitating vestige of rage, resentment and inferiority. In reality, whites, apart from liberals who trade on black immiseration, are not interested in holding blacks down or treating them unfairly. And in no way do they reference blacks in the same disparaging ways blacks do them." SOURCE:  http://www.wnd.com/2007/10/43800/#zqvc6ysDx2m6RJvd.99

(Mr. Massie is, himself, black. He is the former chairman of the National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives-Project 21 – a conservative black think tank located in Washington, D.C. He was recognized as the 2008 Conservative Man of the Year by the Conservative Party of Suffolk County, N.Y. He is a nationally recognized political activist, pundit and columnist. He has appeared on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NBC, Comcast Cable and talk-radio programming nationwide. A former self-employed business owner of more than 30 years, Massie's website is mychal-massie.com.)

In the very same article Mr. Massie goes on to say: "Many blacks may not like it, but all too often, when they’re not being their own worst enemies, they are giving their tacit stamp of approval for others to portray them that way."  SOURCE:  http://www.wnd.com/2007/10/43800/#zqvc6ysDx2m6RJvd.99

For evidence of the truthfulness of Mr. Massie's statement above simply look at the leaders the American black community has chosen to represent it and consider how those very same leaders embellish the victim-hood label.

I agree with Mr. Massie who says in the same article:  "It is time to stop feigning insult over nothing, and over that which could be avoided by appropriate behavior, and start promoting positive stories of blacks, regardless of their party affiliation. It is time to stop honoring malevolent anti-social behavior and victimology."  Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2007/10/43800/#zqvc6ysDx2m6RJvd.99
  
The self-appointed leaders of America's black community continue to play the "blame game" and continue to preach hatred and divisiveness when they ought to be preaching a message of repentance and turning away from immorality.   As a result, American blacks have simply traded one enslavement for another.

At some point, blacks are going to have to relinquish their death grip on the battles of the past, accept that most of those battles have actually been won, and join with the rest of us battling today's problems and preparing as best we can to face the unknown problems about to assail us from the future.

Look. Bigots and racists are EVER with us,  have always BEEN with us,  and will always BE with us.  Unfortunately, it is a part of the human condition.  It is a part we can choose to allow influence us -- or -- we can choose to ignore it/them and move forward.   I hope we as a people, both black and white, choose the latter.

America is facing an uncertain future in which she will need all her children, black, white, brown, whatever,  dedicated to her survival.

WE can do this, but we can do it so much better TOGETHER.

© J. D. Longstreet
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Keeping The Republic ... J. D. Longstreet

PUBLISHED October 2009

A Republic… IF We Can Keep It!

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

The story is told that when Ben Franklin emerged from the Constitutional Convention an anxious lady asked him what kind of government they had given us.  His famous reply was:  “A republic, Madam… if you can keep it.”   And, for the most part, we Americans have been trying to keep it.  But “change” is in the air. 

 Have you noticed how the Democratic Party has stopped denying its socialist tendencies?

  

 Months ago, as I began to write about the dangers of socialism to America, (and how the Democratic Party has become a sort of Democratic/Socialist party) I was stunned when they, the democrats, did not refute it! See, I had expected democrats to deny any connection to socialism. But they didn’t.It was then that it struck me… they don’t deny it because they can’t. Apparently, they have embraced socialism.

You must forgive me if I get a bit wound-up when socialism is the topic.  I have watched that “destroyer of nations” reap its harvest for many, many, decades. It is, in my opinion, the greatest threat to democracy on the planet.  I see socialism as presenting an even greater threat than the Islamofacist terrorists!  I will never be comfortable with a socialist government in America.  We can argue “degrees” of socialism all day and it won’t matter.  As the biblical expression goes: “a little leaven leavens the whole loaf.”

I think it is pure irony that now, as a “near” socialist nation, America can celebrate an event named “Independence Day” with a straight face! 

 As I write, in the year of our Lord 2009, Americans are anything but independent!  We are fat, and lazy, and dependent on our new “near” socialist government for far too much and if the polls can be believed nearly half of the electorate is begging the socialists in charge of the US government to take on more of our care through a National Healthcare System that at least some of us recognize as socialized medicine and which has been dubbed “ObamaCare.”  There is very little “independent” about Americans today.  In just a few months of the Obama regime we have gone from “King of the Hill” to just another member of the “Mediocrity Mob” of nations.

 I know this is difficult to swallow.  You can’t know how much pain it caused me to write these words.  I have stood on the ground where the Wright brothers took their first flight launching America into the space age.  They had no idea that their short flight would end up taking man to the stars, but of course, it did.   I have trod the ground from which our astronauts blasted off to land and walk upon the surface of the moon.  I have witnessed America claw her way to the top through sheer willpower and determination to be the best.  And now, as I approach the autumn of my life, I am watching the decline and fall of that same America.  Do you reallythink I don’t feel a tremendous amount of pain? I think I must now know what the ancient Romans felt as they watched the greatest civilization in history, to that day, decline, crumble, and fall in ruins around them. 

 “Oh,”but you say, “… Socialism is the only way to go.  Everyone will be equal!  No class, no class warfare…”and such.

 Well, let us see if we can break it down so that even those of you in love with the “cancer of nations,” socialism, can understand it.

 The story is told of an economics professor at a small college who made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan.” All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.  

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride, too, so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.  

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. 

  

Socialism will bring the end to private enterprise. Just think: under socialism there would be no small businesses, none of those Mom and Pop stores with which we are so familiar in America.  There would be no entrepreneurs. Socialism calls for the redistribution of wealth. Broken down, that simply means taking the money you earned and giving it to those you feel did not earn it. Socialism demands that all wealth in a nation, and that includes yours, will be controlled by the government. In other words, you will own nothing --- not even your own money. The government owns everything and everyone is given only what it takes for that person to survive. Socialism celebrates the lack of an upper class and a lower class. Under socialism there is only one class. And in THAT class all people suffer equally. 

 Americans have made an awful decision.  They have decided to give up.  Freedom is just too hard.  It requires entirely too much work and effort on the part of the individual. It is much easier to sit back, relax, and allow the government to take care of us.  Look, folks, birds locked in a golden cage are just as much a prisoner as those locked in a rusty old quarter-inch mesh wire cage.  A prison is a prison and man is quite capable of creating his own.

 Americans remind me today of the little granddaughter of a friend. He tells me she just recently went through the stage all parents are familiar with called…”potty training.”  

When she finished her business she would sit patiently on the porcelain throne, and yell her head off, until someone appeared to take care of that most important chore – the hygienic cleansing of the recently employed lower sphincter. (The vernacular is much more colorful and maybe a bit more descriptive, but, at the risk of creating a pun here, I wanted to keep it clean!)   

The child’s actions sound so much like what Americans are doing today, sitting on the porcelain throne yelling our heads off while waiting for someone to come take care of the last, but important, chore.  The government will take care of it, but there is a price to be extracted from each of us. The price is  -- the loss of our freedom.

 

 It is said that Satan’s greatest trick is convincing mankind that he doesn’t exist. It may be his best trick but it doesn’t hold a candle to the trick socialism has played on America.

© J. D. Longstreet
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