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Obama Win Will Be Difficult In 2012

Michael Redbourn — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:26:13 +0000

Shaw's Blog: Gallup Poll–Battleground State Nightmare for Obama

shawsblog2011.blogspot.com2/1/12

fox nation Today, Gallup released their aggregate state approvals for President Obama over the entirety of 2011. His drop relative to his 2009 standing is especially stark in battleground states. Here are some of the …

Webutante: Battleground States Show Sharp Decline For Obama

webutante07.blogspot.com2/1/12

Battleground States Show Sharp Decline For Obama. AS MITT ROMNEY MOPS UP IN FLORIDA TONIGHT, many of my fellow conservative commenters diss and whine about Romney's conservative qualifications, his …

The following data is from all of 2011, and 2012 is not looking any better.

The Good News For Obama

His political standing is in reasonable but not good shape in traditionally Democratic Midwestern battlegrounds such as Wisconsin and Michigan and the more Republican heartland state of Iowa where his rating is 46 approval/46 disapproval.

And his numbers in Virginia are better than those in other battleground states 45% approve, 49% disapprove.

His numbers in North Carolina 44/49 approve/disapprove and Florida 44/48 approve/disapprove and even in Georgia 45/48 approve/disapprove aren’t good, but given his overall numbers, they aren’t that bad either.

The Bad News For Obama

His job approval ratings in the other battleground states are solidly underwater however, and in many states, they are much worse than publicly perceived, mostly because of White House spin.

In Colorado, which is seen as a gateway to aggressively contesting the Southwest, Obama scored a net -12 job approval 40/52 throughout the year.

In Nevada, also seen as a major bellwether, Obama has a 41% approval rating, with 50% of respondents disapproving.

In the critical battleground state of Ohio, 50% of voters disapprove of his performance, with only 42% approving.

And in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, Obam’s job approval is underwater, with 45% approving and 48% disapproving.

More Bad News

New Mexico is seen as a Democratic-leaning state because of its voting history and its significant Hispanic population.

But Obama’s performance there, 42% favorable, 51% unfavorable, isn’t much different than his weak standing in the other Southwestern battlegrounds.

The Obama campaign argues that it has an outside shot at contesting Arizona, but his approval rating is at 40%, with 52% disapproving.

In New Hampshire, a state that John Kerry carried in 2004, Obama’s job approval is at 39%, with 54% disapproving, and it’s a state that with Romney heading the GOP ticket, is starting to look more and more out of reach.

So What Does Obama Have To Do To Win?

Based on the above numbers, the most plausible path for the president’s re-election runs through Virginia, Florida and Iowa, which isn’t a scenario that Team Obama drew up in its spin sessions, but if the polls are to be believed, then it’s likely the only way to go.

How Many Illegals Are In The US And What Is The Cost?

Michael Redbourn — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:41:47 +0000

Obama Slaps Intimidation Lawsuit on South Carolina Over Illegals

www6.lexisnexis.com11/7/11

States and localities bear the brunt of the costs that illegal aliens impose on taxpayers. … State and local costs for services siphoned by illegal aliens and their anchor babies now total $391 million a year in South Carolina.

Illegal Aliens Not “Innocent Immigrants”; U.S., Dem. Party Wasting …

neosecularist.com1/27/12

Why would we want to reelect a man, Barack Obama, who would give the potential illegal alien that much more incentive to become a criminal illegal alien? Isn't it more cost-effective to the American taxpayer to advance a “no …

How Many Illegals In The US And What Is The Cost?

It’s obviously impossible to come up with exact figures because illegal aliens don’t reply to census questionnaires, but the U.S. Border Patrol Union Local 2544 in Tucson, Ariz., says the total number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. today is somewhere between 12 million and 15 million.

And basing its figures on the "Current Population Survey", which is a monthly assessment of about 50,000 households jointly conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that there are between 11.5 million to 12 million "unauthorized migrants" living in the U.S. today.

Bear Stearns (download pdf) says however that based on school enrollments, foreign remittances, border crossings, and housing permits that, "there is significant evidence that the census estimates of undocumented immigrants may be capturing as little as half of the total undocumented population", meaning that there might well be as many as 20 million illegal immigrants in the US today.

Estimated Number Of Illegal Aliens – State by State

How Much Are Illegal Aliens Costing The U.S. ?

The following estimates are in billions and not millions!

Illegal aliens are said to be costing the welfare system between $14 billion and $22 billion every year – Federation for American Immigration Reform

Medicaid use by illegal aliens costs the U.S. 7.5 billion every year- Center for Immigration Studies

In 2006, illegal aliens sent an estimated $65 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin, to their families and friends – rense.com

The following information was sourced from and interview on - Lou Dobbs Tonight

Primary and secondary school education for illegal aliens is said to be costing $12 billion dollars a year.

Anchor (American-born children of illegal aliens) children another $27 billion a year.

The incarceration of illegal aliens – $1.2 billion a year and 28% of all federal prison inmates are reckoned to be illegal aliens.

Every single year a massive $190 billion dollars is spent on welfare and social services for illegal aliens.

It is thought that illegal aliens cause American wages to be suppressed by around $200 billion dollars per year.

The above figures are not 100% accurate of course, but they’re based on extensive research, so it’s probably safe to say that illegal immigration is costing the U.S. around $500 billion a year and $500 billion is half a trillion dollars!

And How Much Do Illegal Immigrants Pay in Taxes?

Most experts agree that many illegal immigrants are paying taxes to Uncle Sam, but just how much they pay is hard to determine because the federal government doesn’t fully tally it.

"The latest available figures indicate however that it will amount to billions of dollars in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes this year and one rough estimate puts the amount of Social Security taxes alone at around $9 billion per year". – MSNBC

So What’s To Be Done?

Mass Deportation?

According to The National Policy Institute, the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion, and you can download a free copy of the The National Policy Institute ebook entitled, deportation if you’re interested in more details.

How Much Overall Support Is There For Reducing Immigration?

What Steps Was It Recommended That The Government Take?

In 1995, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform asked the National Research Council / National Academy of Sciences to study the economic and fiscal effects of immigration.

Here are the principle findings of their extensive analysis, published in 1997 as The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration (ISBN 0-309-06356-6).

Their recommendations on Illegal Immigration were to.

Restrict the eligibility of illegal aliens for publicly-funded assistance.

Implement a nationwide system for easily verifying authorization to work (specifically, a computerized registry based on a secure
social security card).

Increase the resource for border management and interior enforcement.

Is There The Political Will To Implement Either Of The Above?

Obviously not, because in spite of a recent Pew survey (and all other polls that I’ve seen confirm it) showing that 73%of those polled approved of Arizona’s new immigration plan, and in spite of many other States wanting to adopt it, the Obama administration is seeking to have Arizona’s new law ruled unlawful.

The Answer To The Question

A Mexican journalist by the name of Evangelina Hernandez asked in Denver recently, "Illegal aliens pay rent, buy groceries, buy clothes. What Happens to your country’s economy if 20 million people go away?".

The answer would of course be, that the U.S. would be close to $500 billion a year better off, and

Do Liberals Finally Understand Obama Was A Huge Mistake?

Michael Redbourn — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:12:28 +0000

Obama Rejected Numerous Proposals to Retrieve Lost U.S. Drone …

atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com12/9/11

Apart from the obvious — Islamic Iran, China and Russia now have state-of-the-art stealth technology and we lose a killer app in the war against the enemies of freedom, the most troubling aspect of this story is that Obama had a window of opportunity to retrieve the critical intelligence gathering drone and rejected it. He left it there for the murdering mullahs. With early knowledge that the aircraft had likely remained intact, the senior U.S. official also told Fox News that …

Gay donors fuel Obama's 2012 bid – Catholic Citizens

www.catholiccitizens.org12/10/11

The left-leaning super-rich, including George Soros, see Obama as hopelessly compromised and have lost their enthusiasm for him. Some Wall Street and hedge fund executives, tired of being criticized and regulated, have …

It’s somewhat hard to believe that this conversation took place on an MSNBC panel.

And I’m somewhat stunned by it!

On Morning Joe, a consensus emerged that Barack Obama doesn’t believe he has failed America, but rather that America has failed him.

Joe Scarborough encapsulated, saying,

"Obama sees our version of democracy as a stumbling block to his greatness".

More quotes:

"He believes that the country is not commensurate with his gifts".

"He thinks this country has an 18th constitutional republic that needs significant updating".

"He sees elected leaders from across the country as a stumbling block".

"And he sees democracy as …".

"He sees this government as a stumbling block that’s getting in the way of his greatness!".

I never thought I’d say it but,

"If this was on Morning Jow, then it must be true".

Does this video signify the end of the leftist MSM’s support for Obama?

That Obama was coming from the extreme left was never in doubt because he was a member of the New Party (communist) just twelve years before he was elected.

And he didn’t quit his prominent role; the courts shut the New Party down!

Did the MSM believe that he would be less left than his past portrayed?

Who knows, but let’s hope that they now understand and continue to downgrade him.

He has to go and maybe now there is a uniformity or opinion on it!?

Pro Israel? Anti-Israel? Please watch this video

Michael Redbourn — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:54:52 +0000

Israel – Light onto Nations: Growing forests in the desert

israel-lightontonations.blogspot.com11/30/11

Once the trees are mature, it's possible that they could become a renewable source of biofuel to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. This is another area of great interest to Israel and just about every other country on the planet …

Technion LIVE: Cornell – Technion – Together in Vision

www.technioniit.com12/3/11

During his visit, he planted a now-famous first palm tree that still stands in front of the old Technion building in Hadar. … Its graduates helped to build the county's infrastructure and started the high-tech industries that today make Israel a modern country with the greatest concentration of high-tech startup companies anywhere outside of Silicon Valley. More than 70 percent …. Israel's 10th Nobel laureate on his way to Stockho. … Technion Nanocrystals for Solar Power …

I recently received a link to the following video and thought it well worth posting.

Please note that it was made 6 years ago.

Israel is certainly no angel, and both its politicians and its army make their fair share of mistakes.

But regardless of whether you’re pro or anti Israel, you’ve surely got to admire its upside and wish that other countries could or would achieve the same positive results.

Please post your comments, and if they don’t flame or use abusive and/or hateful language, then they’ll be approved.

More Than Eighty Reasons Why Obama Shouldn’t Be Reelected!

Michael Redbourn — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:51:35 +0000

Daily Kos: What I said to Joe Biden and the Obama re-election …

www.dailykos.com11/19/11

In the past two days I have received emails from Joe Biden and Jim Messina of the Obama re-election committee asking me to contribute and become active in the re-election effort. I support President Obama (in 2008 and will …

Mitt Romney: Nuclear Iran Would Be Consequence Of Obama Re …

www.huffingtonpost.com11/13/11

Mitt Romney: Nuclear Iran Would Be Consequence Of Obama Re-Election. Romney Obama. KASIE HUNT 11/12/11 11:54 PM ET Associated Press AP. React. Important Funny Typical Scary Outrageous Amazing Innovative Finally. Follow …

More Than 80 Reasons to Elect a New President Worthy of a Great Nation: Not the Abomination of an Obama Nation

With very rare exceptions, everything on this site was written by me; but this one was too good not to promote.

Courtesy of www.rabbidov.com

(Based on an Idea and Initiative, and Built off a List, Launched by KRLA Radio Talk Show Host and Constitutional Law Professor Hugh Hewitt)

1. Obamacare – Attempting to federalize local state rights, extending federal control over massive components of the national bourse, extending federal control over individuals’ lives in violation of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. Cynically lining up supporters in white doctors’ robes, while refusing to consult with much more prominent and predominant medical groups who oppose. Lying about the program’s cost and tax burden by subterfuging it with exorbitant taxes that begin several years into its anticipated roll-out. Robbing $500 billion from Medicare that will destroy access for seniors, while lying about the Ryan proposal that would not affect people over 55.

2. The catastrophic $850 billion stimulus. $700,000 to develop a robot that tells jokes. $3.4 million for an underground tunnel for turtles to cross the road in Florida. $1 million to help smokers kick the habit by giving them Blackberry "smartphones." $2.6 million for Chinese prostitutes in China to drink responsibly. Lying to Americans by claiming the money was going to "shovel-ready jobs" — and then joking about the falsehood. Lying by hiding the amounts transferred to favored liberal projects unrelated to job growth or economic stimulation.

3. Chronically high, persistent unemployment – His own staff said that he would bring it under 8% ; yet it remains over 9% thirty months into his one term, with real unemployment actually exceeding 15% as huge numbers of unemployed Americans withdraw from searching hopelessly for jobs. Lying about a Summer of Recovery (2010).

4. Gas prices – Now exceeding $4.50 a gallon in California, while he bars exploration in ANWR, restricts licenses to explore along the Atlantic coast or in the Gulf, but exports American dollars to help Brazil explore for oil in the Gulf even as Obama promises that America then will buy that oil from Brazil. (See also #82.)

5. Failure to pass a budget. The abject failure by the Chief Executive to get any kind of budget adopted for 2010.

6. Multi-trillion debt free-fall. Turning the disastrous Bush deficits into a multi-trillion-dollar economic free-fall, now leaving the nation with a debt exceeding $14.3 trillion . . . and pressing for authorization to increase the free-fall. His own latest mad deficit proposal was demolished in a House vote 97-318, as his own Democrats abandoned him in droves.

7. The seizure of GM and Chrysler. The illegal transfer of bondholder wealth to unions, imposing his views on parts of the American auto industry, artificially trying to jump-start his favored companies with "Cash for Clunkers," only to find that American tax dollars were used instead by people buying preferred Japanese cars to acquire them cheaper while being forced to destroy throughly sound used cars.

8. Dodd-Frank.

9. Unremitting hostility to Israel. Destroying the Mideast process by imposing unilateral burdens on Israel, forcing Israel to cease construction of Jewish homes, even in Jerusalem, thus compelling Abbas to harden several positions, all while publicly snubbing Prime Minister Netanyahu in the basement of the White House (the first visit) and trying to snub him on the second visit with a horrible policy speech as Netanyahu was flying en route to America.

10. Failure to support Iran‘s Green Revolution. A complete silence and abandonment of leadership when Iranians risked their lives for freedom, while backing the Moslem Brotherhood uprising in Egypt.

11. Failure to support the Syrian people’s revolution against Assad. Utter failure to lead until it was impossible to overlook the massacres by a dictator who actively finances and supports Iran and Hezbollah, America’s sworn enemies in Iraq and South Lebanon.

12. The Libyan Fiasco. Entering Libya while failing to consult Congress. No sense of whether we are supporting people just as bad as Qaddafi. Remaining in the war more than 90 days without obtaining Congressional approval. Lying about violating the War Powers Act by claiming there are no "hostilities" in Libya.

13. The Gulf oil disaster. Bumbling in handling the Gulf oil disaster – refusing aid from countries with oil-cleaning vessels, failing to accept offers of boom to corral the spill, bringing in underwater filmmaker James Cameron as an expert.

14. Closing down oil exploration. The unnecessary moritorium on permitting oil exploration in the aftermath of the Gulf oil disaster, contributing to a massive explosion of oil prices, even leading a federal court to overturn him.

15. EPA interference. The shutdown of Shell’s Arctic oil exploration by EPA

16. Cap-and-Trade Fiasco. The push in Congress for a disastrous "cap-and-trade" plan that would stymie the coal, electric, and natural gas industries, while enormously raising Americans’ home fuel prices, leading even his own party’s U.S. Senator from West Virginia to film a TV promise to voters that he will shoot the proposal full of holes.

17. Use of federal agencies to bypass Congressional oversight. The attempt, after Congress refused to adopt his cap-and-trade nonsense, to bypass Congressional opposition and impose cap-and-trade undemocratically via the EPA.

18. Use of FCC initially to restrict free speech. The push for unconstitutional restrictions on free speech on his political enemies on Talk Radio while assuring protections for unions to spend money on campaigns via The Disclose Act.

19. The Disclose Act and cherry-picking. The attempt to unconstitutionally impose The Disclose Act on his political opponents but not unions via Executive Order.

20. Czars to bypass Congressional oversight. The use of unaccountable "czars" who effectively run huge segments of the American Government without being accountable to Congress and who are protected from Congressional subpoena power.

21. Boorish shaming of Supreme Court justices. The embarrassing and arrogant verbal assault on the Supreme Court while Court Justices courteously attended the first State of the Unionaddress, sitting in front of him, leading most to boycott the subsequent State of Union addresses.

22. Boorish attempt to shame Paul Ryan. The similarly embarrassing and arrogant verbal assault on Rep. Paul Ryan when addressing the federal budget, with Ryan having been invited personally by Obama to attend the speech and sit in front of him.

23. Boorish attempt to shame John McCain. The insulting, embarrassing, and arrogant gloating at John McCain during the televised sham negotiation over Obamacare, when he responded to McCain not substantively but by saying that Obama had won and McCain had lost the election — so there!

24. Refusal to prosecute Black Panthers for Voter Intimidation. Obama’s and Attorney-General Eric Holder’s politicization of the Department of Justice, including refusing to prosecute the Black Panther voter-intimidation case in Philadelphia.

25. Marriage Act. Obama’s and Holder’s refusal to defend the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, an act of Congress.

26. Lies, Lies, Lies. The regular use of straw-man demonizations to try winning support for his unpopular legislation, like accusing doctors of performing unnecessary surgery so that they can enrich themselves by imposing misery on their patients.

27. Throwing his grandmother under the bus. Using his grandmother as a foil to win points, calling her a racist like "typical white people."

28. Bowing to the Saudi King and the Japanese emperor. Literally.

29. Treating our British alliance contemptuously. Shamefully returning to Great Britain the bust of Winston Churchill that they had given us and that had reposed in the White House, while insulting the Queen and the Prime Minister with inane gifts like DVDs. The subsequent fiasco while toasting the Queen, continuing to talk during the playing of the British National Anthem.

30. Violating and abrogating long-standing promises to our allies. Removing the missile shield from Poland and the Czech Republic to placate Putin.

31. Standing with the aspiring Honduran dictator. Backing the would-be dictator of Honduras when that nation’s duly convoked Supreme Court had removed him from office in careful compliance with law.

32. FTAs with allies. Failure to push for quick ratification of free trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea.

33. Amateurish handling of Afghanistan military effort. The painfully over-extended indecision, for months, whether to authorize a military surge into Afghanistan, then exacerbating the indecision by announcing to our enemies a date-certain withdrawal timeline — a time coordinated with his reelection bid.

34. Incoherence on how to handle the anti-Mubarak uprising in Egypt. Having Frank Wisner despatched as his emissary, and then rejecting Wizner’s advice.

35. Radicalizing the NLRB outside Congressional purview. Appointing [Harold] Craig Becker, a radical unionist, to the NLRB through a recess appointment that otherwise never would have passed Congress.

36. Radicalizing FCC outside Congressional purview. Appointing FCC commissioners who are pursuing "net neutrality" without Congressional authorization.

37. Ecology gone wild in California. Wiping out much of the agricultural economy of California’s Central Valley by restricting full water deliveries to protect a small Delta Smelt fish

38. Gitmo debacles. Promising to close the Guantanamo Bay facility that interns terrorists, trying to close it, failing to close it, refusing to concede his error or assure that "Gitmo" will remain open.

39. Civil trials for terrorists debacles. Promising to move terrorist trials to civilian courts, then trying to prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Downtown New York, only to be opposed even by the two ultra-liberal Democrat U.S. Senators of New York, then pressing to try another terrorist, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, in civilian court, resulting in the terrorist being acquitted on 284 of 285 counts.

40. Napolitano out of touch. The shameful failure of Obama’s Homeland Security chief, Janet Napolitano, to appreciate the Obama Administration’s security failures in the face of the near-catastrophe of the "underwear bomber" in the skies over Detroit, as she insisted "the system worked."

41. Student loans. Government takeover of the student loan program

42. Border security. Cancellation of the "virtual border fence" project with no replacement, while deploying National Guard troops to do paper work at desk jobs and provide office assistance rather than stand armed along the border.

43. The "Beer Summit." In the aftermath of wrongly castigating and erroneously pre-judging fault regarding the Cambridge Police Department, tying up the country with a foolish spectacle on the White House lawn.

44. Immigration and Arizona. The Department of Justice’s attack on Arizona for that state’s exercise of its sovereign legislative authority on the issue of citizen identification rules. Failure of his own federal government to execute the law on immigration.

45. The attack on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Attacking the Wisconsin governor and his state legislature for exercising their sovereign legislative authority on public employment issues, while Obama failed to acknowledge that the new Wisconsin rules are comparable to those that always have applied to federal employees.

46. Lying to McCain on their deal over campaign fundraising. Violating his pledge to John McCain to abide by McCain-Feingold limits for funding his Presidential campaign.

47. Downplaying American exceptionalism. Apology tours.

48. Implying that the Minnesota bridge collapse was the result of lack of infrastructure funding

49. Chicago Olympics fiasco. Shamefully inserting himself into a botched campaign to bring Olympic Games to Chicago, thereby exposing the Presidency of the United States to ridicule and formal rejection, and demonstrating early-on his overconfident sense of himself and his unpreparedness for the seriousness of his office.

50. Hypocritical attack on D.C. public school voucher effort. The attack on a voucher program for Washington, D.C. schools, even as his own children are protected from the educational failures that curse the Washington populace.

51. Associating with the murky. Associations with convicted unrepentant domestic terrorists and eccentric haters of America: the Reverend Wright, William Ayres, Van Jones.

52. Anita Dunn. Her war against Fox News and her boastfulness that the Obama White House has the "courage to speak truth to Power" — when it is the White House, not a cable TV station, that is "Power"; and her speech to schoolchildren, as a White House representative, sharing with the young and impressionable her idolization and admiration of mass-murderer Mao Tse-Tung.

53. ACORN.

54. SEIU. Having Andrew Stern, President of SEIU, as the man who has visited the White House more than any other person during the Obama term.

55. Teleprompters / White House for Dummies. A reliance on teleprompters to protect him from stumbling and bumbling speeches when, without scripting, he has spoken of his visits to America’s "57 states," has denigrated the handicapped, could not pronounce "corpsman," moronically said that Austrians speak "Austrian," referred to deceased war heroes adding that many were in the audience he was addressing, and has made more gaffes than Dan Quayle.

56. Arrogance and Haughtiness. An extreme level of personal nose-in-the-air arrogance and lack of graciousness, from physical comportment to the way he addresses others. The Roman columns. The arrogant temerity to tell Americans, God-like, that history will record his coronation as the moment that the rivers stopped rising and the planet healed.

57. Chicago Corruption. The house he corruptly acquired through Tony Rezko.

58. The artificial shifting dialects. Affecting an artificial accent when speaking to unions, and to others with whom he allies in his "class wars," that belies his having grown up in Hawaii, reared by a Caucasian grandmother, his having spent years being schooled in Indonesia, and later attending school at Occidental College in California, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School.

59. Lack of transparency. Refusing to share his academic records or the sources through which he paid for private college and law school, despite his pre-election calls for transparency.

60. Failure to lead on immigration. Not confronting the immigration issue when he dominantly controlled both the House and a filibuster-proof Senate, then mocking the GOP on immigration, saying they would not be happy with "alligators and moats" — when all they want is secure borders.

61. Fiscal irresponsibility on foreign relations with Egypt. Forgiving billions of dollars in Egyptian and related Mideast debt when we are past the 14.3 trillion debt line.

62. Wasting billions on corrupt "Palestine" agencies. Pumping billions more into the discredited United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Authority that merged with the terrorist Hamas.

63. Radical judicial appointments. Nominating a radical leftist, Professor Goodwin Liu, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit despite Liu’s contempt for constitutional imperatives towards limited government.

64. Acceding to political bribery by cherry-picking waivers to Obamacare for favored donors. Forcing Obamacare down the throats of small businesses across America that cannot afford it . . . then approving politically correct and electoral pay-off waivers for his friends, donors, and rich boutique businesses. Granting 20% of all the country’s Obamacare waivers in Pelosi’s San Francisco district. Buying off votes from Ben Nelson of Nebraska (the Cornhusker Deal), Mary Landrieu (the Louisiana Purchase) to pass Obamacare.

65. Using the White House to crush political opposition. Trying to force donors to his political opponents to reveal their contributions. Using the White House official website asking supporters to report to the Government instances of people criticizing Government policies.

66. Attempting to crush media opposition. Punishing a Boston newspaper whose editorial attacked him, having his White House conduct a war against Fox News, claiming they are an entertainment, not a news organization, and then boycotting Fox until that strategy backfired.

67. Encouraging cultural decline. Inviting "Common," a "poet" with disgusting lyrics of hate, to entertain at the White House

68. The Louis XVI Factor. Vacations and high-profile golf during the Gulf oil crisis, prompting even Democrat strategist and Presidential advisor James Carville to erupt in fury. More high-profile golf at Cape Cod while the country was losing its AAA credit rating for the first time.

69. The Marie Antoinette Factor. Michelle high-profile huge trips abroad, a la Eva Peron, with family friends and their children partying on the public payroll, at 5-star hotels in places like Spain.

70. Al Sharpton. Launching his national presidential reelection campaign with a speech to Al Sharpton’s base.

71. Secrecy in Legislation. Failing to honor his pledge to conduct transparent governance, crafting Obamacare with Democrats behind closed doors barred to Republicans, leaving Obamacare as a massive document so convoluted that Nancy Pelosi had to tell the media: "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."

72. A philosophy of redistributing other people’s money. Trying to persuade "Joe the Plumber" that it is a beneficial national economic goal to "redistribute the wealth."

73. Cynically blaming Republicans and Talk Radio for the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Blaming their rhetoric, while failing to address Democrat use of vile and violent language to describe Republicans and the Tea Party.

74. Lying about a family connection to the Holocaust. Lying and falsely telling Americans that his grandfather was among those who liberated Auschwitz when, in fact, no American troops liberated Auschwitz.

75. Failing to grasp the Israel narrative. Describing Israel’s right to exist as premised on the Holocaust, thus missing the entire point of a Jewish country built on the land where Jews have lived since Biblical times.

76. Lying about a family connection to the Civil Rights movement. Telling Americans that his birth happened because his parents became amorous as a result of the 1965 Selma Civil Rights March — even though he was born in 1961.

77. Collapse of the housing market. American housing prices lowest since 2002.

78. Manipulating legislation by forcing votes on massive documents. Racing massive thousand-page legislation packages through Congress without allowing Congress or the American People time to read, comprehend, and absorb the bill — and thus breaking a major campaign promise.

79. The Credit Rating downgrade. Presiding over the first credit-rating downgrade in American history.

80. Timing military campaigns to coincide with election campaigns. Manipulating and sacrificing the lives of American soldiers, basing a withdrawal from Afghanistan not on strategic national security considerations but timed instead to coincide with the start of the 2012 Democrat Presidential Convention.

81. NLRB. Stacking the National Labor Relations Board with left-focused political hacks who are attempting to prevent America’s leading exporter, Boeing, from building a $1 billion manufacturing plant in South Carolina because that state permits employment of non-union labor.

82. Cynically manipulating the national Strategic Oil Reserve. Releasing 30 million barrels of oil from the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to obtain the temporary political goal of lowering gasoline prices that have skyrocketed in the face of his severe restrictions on permitting exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, along the Atlantic coast, and in Alaska in his obsessive pursuit of "green jobs."

83. "Operation Fast and Furious" debacle. Allowing Mexican drug lords to access illegal firearms, then losing track of the firearms while the drug cartels used the illegal firearms for crime including murdering Americans.

84. Lying, lying, and more lying to voters. Trying to create class warfare by telling people that Republicans’ refusal to raise taxes will cause youngsters to be unable to finance their college educations, while causing seniors to lose health care and social security payments. Failing to admit honestly that Congress extended the Bush tax cuts and refused to increase taxes even when Democrats had a filibuster-proof Senate and veto-proof control of both Congressional chambers.

85. Investigating CIA patriots. The Holder investigation into CIA operatives’ interrogations of suspected Al Qaeda terrorists and their use of methods that had been approved in advance by the Justice Department.

If there’s anything that you believe should be added to the list, then please post a response.

And please post why you think any sane person would vote to have Obama reelected.

Will Youths Blacks And Hispanics Desert Obama?

Michael Redbourn — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:32:38 +0000

Early Jobs Projections Could Haunt Obama in 2012 – NYTimes.com

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com11/4/11

Friday's tepid jobs report brings a fresh reminder of the stubborn difficulty President Obama and his team face in overcoming the argument that his administration has failed to address unemployment.

Droves Of Democrats Balking On Obama 2012 | Politicons

politicons.net11/14/11

Radioactive Obama… Politico has a piece highlighting the droves of Democrats that are refusing to back Obama in 2012. …

Just one year from the 2012 election and President Obama is in an extremely perilous political situation.

The poor economy he inherited hasn’t recovered and has most likely worsened.

Published unemployment is stuck above 9% with real unemployment being around 18.5%

Long-term unemployment is at record post-war levels.

The housing sector, where most people’s personal wealth was and is concentrated, remains mired in deep recession.

The scandals surrounding Republican-led investigations into Solyndra and Operation Fast and Furious are deepening.

Obama Had Overwhelming Majorities In Both Houses Of Congress

Although the President had overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress in his first two years, he has only two major legislative achievements to his credit:

The stimulus bill.

And Obamacare.

The stimulus bill is generally perceived as having been worse than a total failure, because it’s perceived as having been motivated more by politics than economics, and because much of the $800 billion was directed towards public service union members and liberal causes; i.e. "green energy", rather than real economic recovery.

Obamacare also remains deeply unpopular with the general public and is headed for the Supreme Court, which could well find its key provision unconstitutional next summer, just as the election gets into high gear.

The Economy And America’s Status

Budget deficits soared during the Obama years, with three trillion-dollar-plus deficits in a row.

And this has caused the national debt to swell to a level that, relative to GDP, has not been seen since the end of World War II and for the first time ever, the United States lost its AAA credit rating, which was a deep embarrassment for the country and also the administration.

Obama’s Ratings

So it shouldn’t be surprising that under these circumstances, that the President’s approval ratings have been in sharp decline, with some of his key supporting groups, including the youth and Hispanic voters to a greater or less degree abandoning him.

Obama’s Re-electability

No recent President was re-elected with unemployment above 7.8%, and that was in 1984, when unemployment was falling rapidly as a major economic boom accelerated.

So What Happened?

How did a man who three years ago won a higher percentage of both the popular and electoral vote than any Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson’s landslide almost fifty years ago find himself fighting such uphill odds to keep the White House?

The answer to that seems to lie in the somewhat exceptional circumstances that existed during the 2008 election, and Barack Obama’s personality which fitted the times.

In 2008, the American electorate was thoroughly tired of both the Bush administration and the Republican Party, which had lost its majority in Congress in 2006 for the first time in twelve years.

The Republican field of presidential candidates in 2008 was a weak one, with the eventual winner, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, widely perceived as being too old for the job.

So Obama, who was only forty seven years old, seemed in contrast, like a breath of fresh air.

He seemed personable, articulate (nobody had yet focused on his TelePrompTer) and he was the first ever bi-racial candidate for a major-party nomination with any serious chance of winning.

His biggest opposition was Sen. Hillary Clinton, the first woman candidate who also had a serious chance of winning, but she was already well known to the American people, having been First Lady for eight years; and she carried a lot of baggage from her husband’s administration.

Obama, in contrast, was a blank slate and to some extent still is because of the main stream media which is still protecting him.

Obama Hid His Tracks

Obama only served a little over three years in the US Senate, where his record was thin, and he mostly voted "present” rather than take a stand on issues.

Which we can now see was because he didn’t want evidence that could later be used against him.

How Obama Won

The Obama campaign used his lack of Washington experience to the fullest, much like Herman Cain is using his now.

They cultivated an image of a new kind of president, one who would cut through the old Washington merry-go-round of partisan bickering and special-interest pandering.

He would be post-partisan, a President who would throw the special-interest moneychangers out of the temple of the nation’s capital.

Obama’s biggest advantage in the 2008 election however, was that the mainstream media, failed to reveal any of his major negatives, such as having been and active member of the New Party (communist) and promoted all of his seeming positives; simply because it so desperately wanted to see an extreme left-wing, bi-racial candidate elected.

So What Happened To Candidate Obama’s Promises?

Running for President and being President, are two entirely separate matters however, and once in the White House a new Obama emerged, one who was quite different from the post-partisan, special-interest-bashing one.

What metamorphosed, was a hyper-liberal ideologue who attended to his special interests, such as labor unions, as assiduously as any other Washington politician had ever done before.

And what’s more, an arrogance and a rigidity that had not been seen in the candidate before, became increasingly evident, and expressed itself in such things as his State of the Union speech in January 2010, wherein he publicly criticized the Supreme Court, many of whose members were sitting in front of him for one of its decisions, which was totally unprecedented behavior.

Soon Gone Was The Bi-Partisanship

"I won the election”, he bluntly told Rep. Paul Ryan when the latter tried to negotiate regarding Obamacare, and it resulted in his two major pieces of legislation passing with almost no Republican votes in either house.

The Tea Party

What happened next was a groundswell of opposition to the Obama administration’s big spending ways which quickly became known as the Tea Party, and it’s something that Obama naively or arrogantly ignored for too long.

Obama Vainly Ignored The Clear Writing On The Wall

Republican candidates did extremely well in the off-year elections of 2009, winning the governorships in both New Jersey and Virginia with control-the-spending campaigns, and even greater evidence of voters’ dissatisfaction was when Scott Brown, who was a little known Republican, won the special election to fill the Senate seat of Democratic icon Ted Kennedy in deep-blue Massachusetts in January, 2010.

Obama Has Been Slow To Learn

Obama simply made a few token political adjustments, and in November, 2010, a tidal wave election gave decisive control of the House back to the Republicans and added seven Senate seats to their column, with Republicans also winning races for governor and state legislative seats across the width and breadth of the country.

Obama did admit that he had taken a shellacking, but he seems no more willing to change his ways than before because his latest plan to stimulate the economy is little different than his first one, and it has no chance of being enacted.

Can Obama Win Reelection?

Unlikely unless:

The economy turns around.

The Republicans nominate another weak candidate, which is possible.

The Supreme Court upholds Obamacare, or avoids making a decision before the election.

Obama’s biggest problem however seems to be that he’s totally egocentric and believes that his way is the only right way.

It’s highly unlikely that he’ll change, and increasingly likely that he’ll be a one term president, which is something that he said that he’d prefer.

"I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president".

And if that comes to be, then he’ll be able to say that he was right about that too!

Islam’s Goal – In Layman’s Terms

Michael Redbourn — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:56:03 +0000

Bosnia, Cyprus and Kosovo: America and Islamism in the Balkans …

leejaywalker.wordpress.com10/25/11

Shaul Shay in his book called Islamic Terror and the Balkans comments on page 191 that “The “Afghan model,” in which an “ad hoc” alliance was forged between radical Islam and the West with the aim of defeating a common …

Islamism actually is Islam | The Ground Zero Declaration

www.groundzerodeclaration.org10/23/11

The following is from a best selling book entitled:

Dr. Hammond, who has a doctorate in Theology was born in Capetown in 1960, grew up in Rhodesia and converted to Christianity in 1977.

Islam Is Not A Religion Or A Cult

In its fullest form, it is a complete, total, 100% system of life!

Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components, but the religious component is simply a beard for all of the other components.

How Is Islamization Achieved?

Islamization begins when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious privileges.

When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse societies agree to Muslim demands for their religious privileges, some of the other components creep in as well..

Here’s How It Works

* The following figures were correct in 2008 so most countries will have experienced and increase in Islamization since then.

Whilst the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, it will for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens.

This is still the case in:

United States — Muslim 0.6%
Australia — Muslim 1.5%
Canada — Muslim 1.9%
China — Muslim 1.8%
Italy — Muslim 1.5%
Norway — Muslim 1.8%

But From 2% To 5%

Muslims begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from jails and street gangs.

This is happening in:

Denmark — Muslim 2%
Germany — Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
Spain — Muslim 4%
Thailand — Muslim 4.6%

From Five To Nine Percent

From 5% – 9% Muslims begin to exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.

How?

They begin by pushing for the introduction of halal food which in turn secures
food preparation jobs for Muslims.

They then increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves, along with threats for noncompliance.

This is happening in:

France — Muslim 8%
Philippines — 5%
Sweden — Muslim 5%
Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%

At this point, Muslims will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law.

The ultimate and openly expressed goal of Islamist leaders is to establish Sharia law throughout the world, and I admire Muslim leaders for their honesty!

But sadly for non-Islamic countries, their leaders mostly say, “They’re just saying that”.

From Ten To Twenty Nineteen Percent

When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they increase lawlessness by protesting their conditions, and in Paris, cars are still being burned every night.

Any non-Muslim action offends Islam, and results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam, with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam.

Such tensions are now seen daily, particularly in Muslim areas in:

Guyana — Muslim 10%
India — Muslim 13.4%
Israel — Muslim 16%
Kenya — Muslim 10%
Russia — Muslim 15%

From Twenty To Thirty Nine Percent

After reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burning of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in:
Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%

From Forty To Fifty Nine Percent

At 40%, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare.

Such as in:

Bosnia — Muslim 40%
Chad — Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%

From Sixty To Seventy Nine Percent

From 60%, nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya which is a tax placed on infidels.

Such as in:

Albania — Muslim 70%
Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
Sudan — Muslim 70%

From Eighty To Ninety Nine Percent

After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide as these nations drive out the infidels and move toward a 100% Muslim population.

Such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:

Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
Egypt — Muslim 90%
Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
Iran — Muslim 98%
Iraq — Muslim 97%
Jordan — Muslim 92%
Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan — Muslim 97%
Palestine — Muslim 99%
Syria — Muslim 90%
Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%

One Hundred Percent

100% should usher in the peace of ‘Dar-es-Salaam’, which is the Islamic House of Peace!

But There Is No Peace!

At this point there is supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word.

Such as in:

Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
Somalia — Muslim 100%
Yemen — Muslim 100%

Peace is never achieved however, because in these 100% states the most radical Muslims intimidate and spew hatred, and satisfy their blood lust by killing less radical Muslims, for a variety of reasons.

Ghettos In Non-Islamic Lands

It is important to understand that in some countries, which have well under 100% Muslim populations, such as France, the minority Muslim populations live in ghettos, within which they are 100% Muslim, and within which they live by Sharia Law, and the national police daren’t even enter these ghettos.

There are no national courts, nor schools, nor non-Muslim religious facilities.

In such situations, Muslims do not integrate into the community at large.

The children attend madrasses.

They learn only the Koran.

To even associate with an infidel is a crime punishable with death.

Therefore, in some areas of certain nations, Muslim Imams and extremists exercise far more power than the national average would indicate.

The Growth Of Islam

Today’s 1.5 billion Muslims make up 22% of the world’s population, but their birth rates dwarf the birth rates of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and all other believers.

Muslims are likely to exceed 50% of the world’s population by the end of this century.

Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond’s book:

Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat.

Dr. Hammond, who has a doctorate in Theology was born in Capetown in 1960, grew up in Rhodesia and converted to Christianity in 1977.

Islam Is Not A Religion Or A Cult

In its fullest form, it is a complete, total, 100% system of life!

Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components, but the religious component is simply a beard for all of the other components.

How Is Islamization Achieved?

Islamization begins when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious privileges.

When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse societies agree to Muslim demands for their religious privileges, some of the other components creep in as well..

Here’s How It Works

* The following figures were correct in 2008 so most countries will have experienced and increase in Islamization since then.

Whilst the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, it will for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens.

This is still the case in:

United States — Muslim 0.6%
Australia — Muslim 1.5%
Canada — Muslim 1.9%
China — Muslim 1.8%
Italy — Muslim 1.5%
Norway — Muslim 1.8%

But From 2% To 5%

Muslims begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from jails and street gangs.

This is happening in:

Denmark — Muslim 2%
Germany — Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
Spain — Muslim 4%
Thailand — Muslim 4.6%

From Five To Nine Percent

From 5% – 9% Muslims begin to exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.

How?

They begin by pushing for the introduction of halal food which in turn secures
food preparation jobs for Muslims.

They then increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves, along with threats for noncompliance.

This is happening in:

France — Muslim 8%
Philippines — 5%
Sweden — Muslim 5%
Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%

At this point, Muslims will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law.

The ultimate and openly expressed goal of Islamist leaders is to establish Sharia law throughout the world, and I admire Muslim leaders for their honesty!

But sadly for non-Islamic countries, their leaders mostly say, “They’re just saying that”.

From Ten To Twenty Nineteen Percent

When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they increase lawlessness by protesting their conditions, and in Paris, cars are still being burned every night.

Any non-Muslim action offends Islam, and results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam, with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam.

Such tensions are now seen daily, particularly in Muslim areas in:

Guyana — Muslim 10%
India — Muslim 13.4%
Israel — Muslim 16%
Kenya — Muslim 10%
Russia — Muslim 15%

From Twenty To Thirty Nine Percent

From Forty To Fifty Nine Percent

At 40%, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare.

Such as in:

Bosnia — Muslim 40%
Chad — Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%

From Sixty To Seventy Nine Percent

Such as in:

Albania — Muslim 70%
Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
Sudan — Muslim 70%

From Eighty To Ninety Nine Percent

After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide as these nations drive out the infidels and move toward a 100% Muslim population.

Such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:

One Hundred Percent

100% should usher in the peace of ‘Dar-es-Salaam’, which is the Islamic House of Peace!

But There Is No Peace!

At this point there is supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word.

Such as in:

Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
Somalia — Muslim 100%
Yemen — Muslim 100%

Ghettos In Non-Islamic Lands

There are no national courts, nor schools, nor non-Muslim religious facilities.

In such situations, Muslims do not integrate into the community at large.

The children attend madrasses.

They learn only the Koran.

To even associate with an infidel is a crime punishable with death.

Therefore, in some areas of certain nations, Muslim Imams and extremists exercise far more power than the national average would indicate.

The Growth Of Islam

Today’s 1.5 billion Muslims make up 22% of the world’s population, but their birth rates dwarf the birth rates of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and all other believers.

Muslims are likely to exceed 50% of the world’s population by the end of this century.

Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond’s book:

Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat.

Did Eric Holder Commit Perjury?

Michael Redbourn — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:35:42 +0000

Of Arms and the Law: Fast & Furious: AG Holder caught in perjury?

Fast & Furious: AG Holder caught in perjury? Posted by David Hardy · 3 October 2011 06:26 PM. CBS News has the story. Holder was sent briefing papers on it in July of last year, but in May of this year testified that he;d only heard about it "for …

Publish Date: 10/04/2011 2:46

http://armsandthelaw.com/archives/2011/10/fast_furious_ag.php

DOJ Memos Show Eric Holder Was Briefed on Fast and Furious in …

Internal memos reveal that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of Operation Fast and Furious nearly a year before he previously acknowledged.

Publish Date: 10/04/2011 2:36

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/10/03/doj-memos-show-eric-holder-was-briefed-on-fast-and-furious-in-july-2010/

Under the ‘Fast and Furious’ program, weapons were allowed to be illegally purchased in the Phoenix area so that they could be tracked to gun traffickers and drug cartel leaders, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of these firearms, and many were allowed to cross into Mexico.

New documents show that Attorney General Eric Holder was sent briefings on the controversial Fast and Furious operation as far back as July of 2010 which directly contradicts his statements to Congress.

Did Holder Commit Perjury?

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, sent a letter to President Obama on Tuesday October 4, 2011 arguing that Holder cannot investigate himself, and requested that the president instruct the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel.

The chairman wrote in his letter to Obama:

"These updates mentioned, not only the name of the operation, but also specific details about guns being trafficked to Mexico".

"Allegations that senior Justice Department officials may have intentionally misled members of Congress are extremely troubling and must be addressed by an independent and objective special counsel. I urge you to appoint a special counsel who will investigate these allegations as soon as possible".

The very serious question is whether or not Holder committed perjury during a Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3, 2011when he stated that he was not familiar with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program known as Fast and Furious until about April 2011.

"I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks" – Holder testified!

A New Memo

A newly discovered memo dated July 2010 reveals that Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, told Holder that straw buyers in the Fast and Furious operation,

"are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels".

The Justice Department’s Response

In response to the release of the memos, a Justice Department official said that the attorney general,

"has consistently said he became aware of the questionable tactics in early 2011 when ATF agents first raised them publicly, and then promptly asked the inspector general to investigate the matter".

"The weekly reports which are generally 100 + pages are provided to the office of the AG and deputy attorney general each week from approximately 24 offices and components. These are routine reports that provide general overviews and status updates on issues, policies, cases and investigations from offices and components across the country. None of these reports referenced the controversial tactics of that allowed guns to cross the border".

"House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., of all people, should be familiar with the difference between knowing about an investigation and being aware of questionable tactics employed in that investigation since documents provided to his committee show he was given a briefing that included the fast and furious operation in 2010 a year before the controversy emerged".

More Proof That Holder Knew

Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif said on Tuesday morning (October 4, 2011) that Holder saying that he didn’t understand the question rather than he didn’t know of the program is not a successful defense to perjury.

And Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, added that months before Holder testified, on Jan. 31, 2011, that Holder went to Grassley’s office, where Grassley gave him a letter detailing the investigation of Fast and Furious.

"If he read my letter, he knew on January 31. He probably actually knew about it way back in the middle of last year or earlier".

The Attempted Cover-Up

Grassley said that since he’s not a lawyer he’s not going to make a judgment on whether Holder committed perjury but did add:

"But I can tell you this. They’re doing everything they can, in a fast and furious way, to cover up all the evidence or stonewalling us. But here’s the issue, if he didn’t perjure himself and didn’t know about it, the best way that they can help us, Congressman Issa and me, is to just issue all the documents that we ask for and those documents will prove one way or the other right or wrong".

The Audio Tapes

In a series of secretly recorded audio tapes believed to have been recorded last March 2011, an Arizona gun dealer and an ATF agent involved with ATF’s Fast and Furious operation worried about the unraveling scandal.

The conversations were recorded by Andre Howard who ran the Lone Wolf Trading Company.

Howard’s gun dealership had been cooperating with the ATF in Fast and Furious, and at least two of his weapons were sold to a straw buyer before turning up later at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Hope MacAllister, the ATF agent heard in the conversations, was the lead case agent.

Among other things, Howard and MacAllister expressed concerns about ATF Special Agent John Dodson, who by that point had gone public about Fast and Furious, and they also spoke of their concerns that Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) was investigating, with Agent MacCallister saying of her superiors in Washington, DC,

"they’re gonna have to say Grassley you’re just gonna have to sit your a– down".

The recordings are important because MacAllister has never spoken publicly about her involvement in the operation and its fallout and Howard’s role as a gun dealer cooperating with the ATF placed him in position to see Fast and Furious firsthand .

The tapes have been turned over to Congressional investigators and the Inspector General in connection with their probe into Fast and Furious.

No related posts.

What Is Obama’s Vision For America?

Michael Redbourn — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:02:42 +0000

An “Act of War”: Obama’s Destruction of the U.S. Energy Industry …

Kevin Mooney tabulates the damage that the Obama administration is doing to the Gulf economy, and to the energy industry generally: Ten oil rigs have left the Gulf of Mexico since the Obama Administration imposed a …

Publish Date: 08/23/2011 22:10

http://mayrantandrave.com/2011/08/23/an-act-of-war-obamas-destruction-of-the-u-s-energy-industry/

Bob Chapman: Obama's Deliberate Destruction of America …

1 comment to Bob Chapman: Obama's Deliberate Destruction of America. David. October 1, 2011 at 9:41 am · Reply. I am going to have to agree with Chapman. I think the destruction of America has been a deliberate attempt. …

Publish Date: 10/01/2011 6:51

http://sgtreport.com/2011/09/bob-chapman-obamas-deliberate-destruction-of-america/

As promised, the Obama administration fundamentally transformed America!

America is now in serious decline.

Income is lower.

Unemployment is higher.

Jobs are fewer.

Government is much larger.

Federal spending is way up.

America’s global economic status is way down.

The world-view of our country and our economy is in the pits!

And perhaps worse still, hardly anyone sees any sign of economic recovery or improvement.

Let’s look at the Labor Department data on the number of Americans 16 and older unemployed for 52 weeks or more during the five most recent recessions:

1976 750,000

1982 1,600,000

1994 1,200,000

2004 1,100,000

2010 4,300,000

Total government spending averaged about 19% of gross domestic product from 1996 to 2007 and rose to about 21% in 2008 but in the three years of the Obama administration it soared to 25%.

Why Did It Happen?

The Obama administration is focused on its increasing control of health care, propping up labor unions, increasing taxes, and expanding the scope and size of government.

In the first 70 years of the 20th century, American and European economic growth increased together, but then the Europeans shifted toward socialism, and their growth lagged.

And America is rapidly moving toward the European model, and we are starting to see its detrimental impact.

President Obama’s recent spending and tax policy proposals would only make things worse.

He wants to increase the federal deficit by increasing spending and providing some targeted, but short term, payroll tax cuts.

And this is at a time when we need to bring the federal deficit down and fast!

Obama’s Plan

Although Obama’s plan would actually increase the deficit by $447 billion over the next year or two, Obama says his increase will be "paid for", and to do it, he’s proposed a series of permanent tax increases.

But America’s economy is already facing two significant tax increases.

The first will be the end of the Bush tax cuts in December 2012.

And because of ObamaCare, starting in 2013 taxpayers making more than $200,000 will pay an additional 3.8% on investment and interest income.

The Near End Of Giving To Charity?

The new Obama proposals include reduced itemized deductions allowed for any individuals earning more than $200,000 a year ($250,000 for married couples) and included in that proposal, is a government plan that would take some of the money that would have gone to charity and instead funnel it to federal government spending.

The Effect Of Tax Increases

Tax rate increases more often than not bring in reduced tax dollars!

The Cato Institute’s Alan Reynolds demonstrated in his recent Wall Street Journal piece that the 28% tax rate on long-term capital gains brought in $36.9 billion a year from 1987 to 1997, while the current 15% rate in 2004 to 2007 brought in $96.8 billion per year.

Did Obama Change His Tune?

Last December when the president extended the Bush tax cuts, he acknowledged that tax hikes both slow economic growth and deter job creation, something he seems to have forgotten!

The higher taxes on energy producers are particularly discouraging, given the importance of energy to our economic recovery and the administration’s continued clampdown on energy production.

Can It Get Any Worse?

Sadly, "Yes".

In another measure that is counterproductive to economic growth, the Obama plan includes extending benefits for the long-term unemployed, even though studies show that long term employment benefits raise the unemployment rate from 0.5 to 1.5 percentage points.

President Obama has said that:

"Everything in [his new] bill will be paid for", and that it "will not add to the deficit".

But it will be paid for in the future, and the president is effectively saying that we should add some more to the deficit now in return for promises of future spending.

The Bottom Line

None of the administration’s programs bode well for the good or for the future of America or its people.

American Enterprise Institute’s Director of economic policy Kevin Hassett said earlier this month:

"The Obama administration’s position throughout this recovery has been that the U.S. can have the highest corporate tax on earth, a big regulatory crackdown, and a vast expansion of labor-union power and still expect a positive jobs story because of cash-for-clunkers and green jobs. This jobs report indicates how much damage that view has done".

In the end, the newest Obama proposals are proof that his recent centrist posturing was just that, posturing.

The new proposals are a continuation of the old Obama New Party (read communist) policies, and they are policies that sadly have extended the recession, stifled economic growth, and will for some years to come, weaken America!

Obama Is Trying To Save His Liberal Base

Michael Redbourn — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:54:28 +0000

Obama Medicare Cuts Target Providers, Then Beneficiaries For …

WASHINGTON — President Obama wants to extract $320 billion in savings from the health care system in his push to trim the deficit, starting with cutting payments to Medicare and Medicaid providers and ending with making …

Publish Date: 09/19/2011 15:51

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/19/president-obama-targets-p_n_969991.html

Obama to Pitch Higher Taxes, Means-Testing Medicare – Politics …

Political News and Headlines From ABC News Radio.

Publish Date: 09/19/2011 9:54

http://abcnewsradioonline.com/politics-news/obama-to-pitch-higher-taxes-means-testing-medicare.html

President Obama tried for months to convince critics on the far left that entitlement programs such as Medicare had to be cut in order to save the programs.

"With an aging population and rising health care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain the program", he said.

"And if we don’t gradually reform the system while protecting current beneficiaries, it won’t be there when future retirees need it. We have to reform Medicare to strengthen it".

But after those speeches, several Democratic groups and lawmakers sent letters, held news conferences and even staged protests, including one in front of the White House by activists challenging the idea of any cuts in Medicaid benefits.

The president appears to have heard the objections, because in his Rose Garden speech Monday, he proposed only half as much in savings as he did in debt talks this summer, offering $320 billion in changes instead of $650 billion, and he took a very different tone:

"We will reform Medicare and Medicaid, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment that this country has kept for generations", he said.

Alison Fraser, of the conservative Heritage Foundation had this to say;

"He’s pulled way back on those proposals specifically on Medicare, Medicaid".

"Even on Social Security, which at one point was in the mix, now it’s completely off the table. So it’s a disappointing step, rather than an encouraging one".

"If we continue with even more of these provider crackdowns, you know, you’re going to have a lot more doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, and so forth, dropping out of the program".

Will Obama’s Backtrack Help Him?

His recent comments on Medicare may or may not soften criticism from the left however, and the liberal group MoveOn.org urged its members last week to call the White House, and warned in a letter,

"If the President comes out on Monday calling for cuts to Medicare and Medicaid benefits, the enthusiasm he’s built up in the last week will disappear in an instant".

Many Doctors Are Already Quitting

90% of the changes that Obama has proposed so are in the form of cuts to providers, such as doctors and hospitals, and many policy experts are concerned about access to care for seniors on Medicare, which is a trend already under way in some areas of the country.

Many doctors in rural areas are now saying that they will either have to seek alternative employment or go work at a hospital or clinic, because they’re no longer getting enough income to continue their practices.

More Price Controls

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said,

"So what we’ve seen from the president so far is, more price controls and rationing, but no plans to save it from bankruptcy".

The Bottom Line

Taken together, the Medicare and Social Security programs are committed to $46 trillion dollars more in benefits than the government can pay for from the revenues it now receives, and cuts are inevitable.

Sounds like a Ponzi scheme?