Jay Carney impersonates Baghdad Bob

From Michelle Malkin

Jay Carney:  “…I would challenge you to look at what the President does on any given week, including this week and many weeks going back, and not come to the conclusion that he spends a relatively small amount of time — at this stage — on campaign events. That’s a simple fact”.

Read it here: Michelle Malkin

DJH

Another Progressive Failure

In the LA Unified School District, thousands of students have stopped participating in the school lunch program, school lunches are being thrown away, and a black market has emerged among students providing ‘unhealthy’ food. After one year of the school district’s decision to force healthy menus on students, the program’s failure cannot be ignored.

 “Healthy” lunches for students certainly sounds reasonable and something everyone agrees would be ideal – But there’s the rub. Ideals are perfect and trying to legislate or force perfection does not work because reality is not perfect. This is the basic flaw in a progressive ideology that refuses to accept anything less than perfection and ignores human nature.

A hungry student does not do well in school, so school lunches are important. What a child eats is a parent’s responsibility and the best a school should do is offer a variety for the student’s choice. The fact that many students do not have responsible parents does not mean that schools should stop focusing on education to become substitute parents. Providing food that students will eat establishes a better learning environment that allows a school to do its job.

Progressive failures such as this abound. Obamacare mandates, Chevy Volt, Solyndra, UN climate change conference, and many other attempts to force ideological ideals verify the futility of doing so. Everyone has heard the old adage about good intentions paving the road to hell, but progressives’ quest for perfection breeds a self-righteous attitude that refutes past wisdom. Progressives focus on what “should” be and fail to see what “is” and end up trying to force what they believe “must” be. The majority suffers because of it.

David J. Hentosh

Dangerous Defense Cuts

Obama’s approach to diplomacy and foreign policy combined with his distaste for the military has increased international tensions and put the US on a coarse that threatens the security of our country. If continued, it will also threaten the security of the entire free world.

One of the consequences of Obama’s weak diplomacy is Iran’s threat to close the straight of Hormuz. It is a very aggressive move that shows Iran sees little danger of any military response from the US. This is confirmed by the recent cancelling of a planned joint US/Israel military exercise for fear of aggravating tensions with Iran. This is a win for Iran.

Sword rattling is producing results for Iran because of Obama’s reluctance to be more forceful and it has allowed Iran to continue its quest for nuclear weapons. That quest may be, as former U.S. ambassador John Bolton recently said, closer to fruition than many want to believe. Iran’s imminent nuclear capability may force Israel to take unilateral action for its survival, causing the Middle East to explode.

Iraq’s former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said that Obama’s claim that Iraq is now a stable and democratic country is wrong. He says Al Qaeda is now fully operational in Iraq. Obama’s desire to fulfill a campaign promise resulted in a premature “declaration” of the war being over (mission accomplished?) and Iraq is now up for grabs by Al Qaeda and Iran.

Defense cuts proposed by the Obama administration could result in the US being unable to meet future threats. Obama’s attempt to cut costs by relying more heavily on technology ignores the success that ‘boots on the ground’ produced in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our loss of a military base in Iraq also means an increased reliance on aircraft carriers to meet threats in the region and they, too, may end up on Obama’s chopping block.

Our government’s prime responsibility is defense. Obama does not seem to agree and a continuation of his policies will push defense lower and lower on his priority list. In a world growing more dangerous and with more countries relying on US military capability, it is irresponsible to treat our military capability as a liability rather than an asset.

David J. Hentosh

All of a Sudden, Experience Counts

President Obama is joining GOP candidates’ attacks on frontrunner Mitt Romney’s past experience in the financial equity business. Having little achievements from Obama’s three years in the White House to run on, the Obama campaign’s only tactic is to attack the challenger and Romney is in their crosshairs.

The Obama campaign is using Romney’s past business experience as a negative, saying that he laid off workers, outsourced jobs, and did not create jobs. Regardless of whether this is true or not, it is business experience that Obama never had before becoming president, one of the reasons why Obama has not been able to create jobs (Keeping in mind the forgotten fact that it is not the government’s responsibility to “create” jobs).

“Experience” has been the most hypocritical tool in the Obama-backer’s toolbox. When running for president, Obama was excused for having no experience because experience was over-rated and didn’t count for much – until Sarah Palin became the GOP vice-presidential candidate.

Attacking Palin’s lack of experience to be vice president when she had much, much more experience than Obama who was running for president (with no experience) stands as one of the most hypocritical campaign tactics ever. However, with the media blindly buying into it, it was repeated often enough to become a real factor in the campaign and the blatant hypocrisy was ignored.

Now, all of a sudden, business experience does count for a presidential candidate, though it is being presented as a negative quality. Perhaps there is a certain twisted consistency in this from Obama’s campaign since Obama has shown he is not a big fan of business. However, it does treat experience as an important consideration and that goes directly against his campaign’s previous mantra of “experience doesn’t count”.

This type of hypocrisy from Obama’s supporters may not be a surprise, but it remains seemly. It is also a good reason to treat other claims from the Obama campaign with extreme cynicism because past experience with those claims demands it – and experience counts.

David J. Hentosh

Fire About Firing

Ann Coulter takes the media to the woodshed for attacking Mitt Romney about his comment on firing people. Romney’s comment was twisted into something it wasn’t and Coulter provides a few examples that make the media, not Romney, look foolish.

From Ann Coulter

To comprehend why the political class reacted as if Romney had just praised Hitler, you must understand that his critics live in a world in which no one can ever be fired…

…after a spate of burglaries at a veterans hospital in California several years ago…nurse’s aide Linda Riccitelli was videotaped sneaking into the room of 93-year-old Raymond Germain as he slept…stealing the bait money that had been left there…the California Personnel Board rescinded her firing and awarded her three-years back pay…

Psychiatric technician…hit a severely disturbed individual with a shoe…(he) was fired, but, again, the California Personnel Board ordered him rehired.

For years, the New York City school budget included $35 million to $65 million a year to place hundreds of teachers in “rubber rooms”…Teachers accused of raping students sat in rooms doing no work all day, still collecting government paychecks because they couldn’t be fired.

33 employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission…were found to have spent most of their workdays downloading Internet pornography over a five-year period…Not one of the porn-surfing employees of the SEC was fired.

…the inspector general of the National Science Foundation…stumbled across dozens of NSF employees…surfing pornographic websites on government computers during working hours…They weren’t fired or even embarrassed…

Now, wouldn’t you like to be able to fire people who provide services to you?

Read it all here: Ann Coulter

DJH

Obama Ramming Amnesty Down Our Throats

It has been quite obvious that Obama’s definition of “Immigration reform” is amnesty. His administration has arrogantly refused to enforce current immigration laws in an effort to force amnesty. Now, Obama has decided to ignore and bypass Congress, the American people, and the Constitution in order to bring about his personal vision of “immigration reform”.

Obama’s Department of Homeland Security came up with a new regulation that, in essence, repeals a current law and puts into effect a new law, ignoring that the separation of powers set out in the Constitution does not allow such law-making. This new regulation undercuts a current law spelling out the process to become a legal resident and makes it much easier for thousands of illegal immigrants to remain in the US and become legal residents.

This new regulation is defined by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as a “focus on family unification”, but it is an end run around Congress and a blatant political move to garner votes from Hispanics. The fact that this regulation can eliminate the hardship of family separation for some illegal immigrants is recognized, but it does not justify this administration’s forcing of policies, laws, and ideology onto the American people.

Obama has ignored and bypassed opposition to many of his policies by just ramming them through by hook or by crook. As long as he is in the White House, there is no possibility of real immigration reform. If he gets re-elected, any reform proposed will be force-fit into an amnesty package before he signs off on it.

Amnesty is as much a part of Obama’s personal and political agenda as Obamacare. Unfortunately, it is the enacting of policies that Obama considers paramount, not the consequences. Obama’s willingness to give Obamacare waivers to hundreds of companies and unions is a good example and a warning. Consequences do not play a part in Obama’s plans to ram amnesty down our throats.

David J. Hentosh

Negotiating With Terrorists

Refusal to negotiate with terrorists has been a stern US policy for quite some time but the Obama administration has been quietly replacing it with a softer approach that has yet to deliver positive results. This softer approach failed with Iran, producing only more arrogance and aggressiveness, but the Obama administration seems intent on using it with the Taliban.

News that Talilban “insurgents” (terrorists?) may agree to open a representative office in Qatar is being welcomed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Obama administration. While negotiations and talks with any enemy in attempts to stop violence make sense, bribing them to talk doesn’t. It is hard to see Obama’s latest gambit as anything more than hopeful bribery.

Talks are underway to release five Taliban prisoners from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in return for the proposed Taliban “headquarters” in Qatar. The hope is that the Taliban will cut ties with al-Qaida, accept the elected civilian government of Afghanistan, and bargain in good faith. The five released prisoners will most probably be allowed to return to fighting the US on the Afghan battlefield.

Fortunately, the US maintains that it will not back off its Afghan military campaign while it “negotiates”, but that can easily fall by the wayside. It is not hard to imagine a “declaration” of an end to the Afghan war resulting from promises made by ruthless terrorists, especially when the US has five released terrorists invested in the process. The political incentive of placating a far-left base in time for November elections could sweeten the pot.

Iran praised and welcomed Obama’s policy of diplomacy which was used as a stalling tactic that allowed continuance of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It would be naïve and foolish to think the Taliban are above such tactics. Once it becomes recognized that the US is willing to negotiate and pay ransom, there will be other demands from other “organizations”. This could set a precedent that can get very ugly, very fast.

David J. Hentosh

Ten Surefire Predictions for 2012

1. Vice President Biden will say something goofy. (This has probably already been proven true.)
2. No matter who gets the GOP nomination, all those running will have self-inflicted gunshot wounds in their feet.
3. Bill Maher will say something dumber than he did last year – and the press will love it.
4. Obama will tell us he created lots of jobs – and then blame the Republicans for the continuing high unemployment.
5. More companies and unions will get wavers from Obamacare.
6. Democrats will blame the public’s poor opinion of Obama on racism.
7. Iran will adamantly claim its nuclear program is only for energy – and many fools will believe it.
8. Riots will occur in England when another government freebie is rescinded.
9. ICE will pretend to enforce immigration laws by ignoring illegal immigrants.
10. The 1%ers will continue to be productive, tax-paying members of society while those who are not will continue to blame them for their own failure.

David J. Hentosh

2011 Media Myths

The mainstream media, continuing its backing of a progressive agenda, was successful in propagating several myths during the past year. Some of these myths are ridiculous and some are very dangerous – and they all twist or deny facts.

The biggest myth of the year was Obama’s “winning” of the war in Iraq – by pulling US troops out against the advice of military commanders. This declared “end of the war” by Obama fulfilled his campaign promise but left Iraq as easy prey for Iran. Obama copied the Bush military surge (which he predicted would never work) and gained enough to allow him to abandon the country and declare “mission accomplished”. As a result, Iran will probably be declaring victory in Iraq in the upcoming year.

Speaking of Iran, Obama’s media-praised myth of international diplomacy (“talk softly and carry no stick”) has allowed Iran to advance its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons. Israel is now on the verge of a military attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities, putting the entire region in peril. Iran is brazenly rattling its sword in the Strait of Hormuz; North Korea is again raising tensions; and Russia and China are taking full advantage of the weak diplomatic style.

The “Stimulus” myth continues, along with unemployment and the rising national debt. Claims of creating jobs with the Stimulus bill abound and the media backs those claims with cherry-picked “facts” and dubious polls. Meanwhile, the stimulus intent of keeping unemployment under 8% has totally failed and many of the financial institutes that were “too big to fail” have failed anyway. The resulting increase in the national debt will be felt by our grandchildren’s children and the American Dream has been downgraded.

The great myth of Obamacare providing health insurance for all, lower insurance rates, better coverage, and lower government expenditures is still being floated by the media even as those balloons are bursting all around. Exemptions from Obamacare are being sought (and granted) by many companies finding nothing but economic ruin in the details. Obama’s promise of “keeping the health insurance you have” is evaporating as companies find it more beneficial to stop offering health insurance.

The media myth of Obama’s “superior intelligence” continues, though he has done nothing to validate its existence. The fawning over Obama by many media pundits brings nothing but praise, therefore, his omnipotence, along with his re-election, is broadcast as fact.

Myths die hard – but they do die. Perhaps November will bring about the demise of a few. Your help is needed in order to accomplish that.

David J. Hentosh

Poor Initiative From ICE

ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has been negligent in enforcing immigration laws to the point of outright refusal to deal with illegal immigrants brought to its attention. Therefore, ICE’s recent attempt to “improve our immigration enforcement process and prioritize resources to focus on threats to public safety…to strengthen oversight of the nation’s immigration detention system and facilitate legal immigration” would be comical if the issue wasn’t so serious.

This dramatic initiative from ICE consists of a new detainer form (a real bureaucratic achievement) and a hotline for immigration detainees to call in order to get help in dealing with their legal and rights issues. There is nothing in it that deals with border security, public safety, immigration control, or “enforcement” of existing immigration laws. It concerns itself only with helping detainees – as if the ACLU suddenly ceased to exist.

ICE is following the top-down philosophy of amnesty for illegal immigrants and has remained in the good graces of the current administration by doing so. Perhaps a new administration could convince ICE to re-direct its efforts towards real “enforcement”, but it may be so infested with a politically correct agenda that it may need to be totally gutted to stop the folly.

As it is currently operating, ICE brings very little to the table for discussion of real immigration reform. In fact, its elimination as a government agency would make a good start for real reform. Don’t hold your breath for that to occur, though, because government agencies are like laws: very easy to enact, very difficult to get rid of.

Obama, on the other hand, can be eliminated in November, and that could begin an era of actual “enforcement” of existing immigration laws. What a “change” that would be.

David J. Hentosh