Back in 2012, President Obama's budget was unanimously rejected by the US Senate, where the Democrats had a majority. It also was unanimously rejected by the Democrat-majority Senate in 2013. If anything, the $4 trillion budget (with a half-a-trillion-dollar deficit) just submitted by President Obama, is even worse - and now the Republicans control not only the House by the Senate as well. The phrase "dead on arrival" was coined just for instances such as these.
The unprecedented march in France in support of intellectual freedom and in honor of the murdered victims at the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo was a wonderful thing. The sight of many world leaders and millions of people marching in unison was an historic way of standing up for freedom and against barbarism. But there is a disappointing side as well, and that is this. The number of victims of Jihadi terrorism at the Charlie Hebdo attack was not even the highest number of victims of Islamic terrorism that day. Nearly thirty were killed in a bombing in Yemen, but there was no march in their honor. Almost two thousand were slaughtered by Boko Haram in a series of Nigerian villages at about the same time, but there was no march for those victims. The intellectual community rallied around the murdered writers and cartoonists, but not for the police recruits murdered in Yemen or the ordinary people butchered in Nigeria. Hardly a day goes by without some murderous attack by Jihadi terrorists somewhere in the world, most frequently in the Middle East, but in many other countries as well. We would like to think of Islam as “a religion of peace,” as President Obama assures us it is – but where are the protests against the murders of police recruits or African families? Why are such atrocities tolerated, or explained away or seen as justified in some way? There even are people who believe that the reason that Muslim militants commit acts of terror and murder is because of policies of the United States and western Europe. “We made them do it,” so the thought goes.
by John Shaffer He might not phrase it quite this way, but President Obama’s recent proposal to make the first two years of community college “free” is another way of making college an entitlement – an expensive one at that. Because, of course, no one expects the professors or the staff or the maintenance crews or the clerks to work for nothing – or that the cost of the utility bills and loan payments and office supplies and books and everything else that makes up those two years of college will be written off. Therefore, it will not be “free.” The President of course believes that something is free if it is given to the person he wants to have it- the cost is immaterial because it will be paid by someone else.
by John Shaffer, Editor One of the largest gatherings in the history of France took place this weekend. Over 3.7 million people marched in support of the victims of the massacre at the office of the satirical journal Charlie Hebdo and murders at a kosher deli. Although many nations were represented by heads of government or other high ranking officials, the highest official from the United States was our Ambassador to France. President Obama did not go. He watched football games on television. Vice President Biden did not go. He was in Delaware. Secretary of State John Kerry did not go. He was in India on a trade mission. Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris, but did not attend the march. He was “at a meeting.” Not only that, there was no representation above the rank of Deputy Secretary of State at a companion march in Washington DC.
If you were looking for an example of a case where forces were unleashed beyond anyone’s control, you need look no further than the horrific assassinations of two New York City Police officers as they were seated in their car. Their killer’s social media posts make it clear beyond all doubt that he intended to kill police officers in revenge for the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO and Eric Garner in New York City. There are many dreadful and frightful aspects of this tragedy, and so many mistakes have been made that it is hard to know where to begin.
Let’s start with the fact that the murderer had been arrested at least nineteen times (some reports say as many as thirty-one times), which means this is another in a sad list of crimes committed by felons “with a record as long as their arm” – who thus should probably never been on the street in the first place but should have been incarcerated or institutionalized for the safety of the public. Often, because judges and juries and lawyers and opinion-makers feel that it is unfair to hold them responsible for their crimes, career criminals or habitual violent offenders are spared lengthy sentences or have their charges “plea-bargained down.” Had this fellow been in prison, two families would be celebrating Christmas instead of mourning. But – sadly so – this type of thing happens way too frequently. We could avert many crimes if our legal system would put away habitual violent offenders for the length of their sentences. Authored by John Shaffer
Last week President Obama lamented that “racism is deeply rooted in American society.” While it is obvious that there are racists in America – white racists; black racists; and probably every other kind of racists you can imagine – and there have been times and places when the President’s contention may have been true - we strongly disagree that it is true today. The President has chosen to identify American society through a handful of incidents which may not be “racist” at all – but are law enforcement issues that have many more facets than merely a “racial incident.” Authored by John Shaffer, Editor
The Democrat majority on the Select Committee on Intelligence has released its “torture” report – hurriedly released before the Republicans take control of the panel. There is little “new” in the report – but like most reports, what it leaves out would make a good report. For instance, it left out all the interviews with the CIA Directors, other top CIA officials, the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States. . . ooops - they weren’t left out – those people were not interviewed at all! We repeat – this extensive report interviewed none – not even one – of the principals involved in the enhanced interrogation sessions. By John Shaffer, Editor
The official deficit for fiscal year 2014 (which ended September 30) came in at $483 billion dollars. That is a steep drop from the $1.2 trillion from fiscal 2009. The Obama Administration, if not downright overjoyed, is at least pleased with the drop in the deficit, attributing it to its wise policies. Of course, the federal government took in over $3 trillion in revenue, by far a record amount – and yet still managed to spend $483 billion more than it took in. So by extracting $3 trillion from the private sector and giving it to the public sector (and we are not including $2 trillion in state taxes or the $1.1 trillion in local taxes) we have managed to “drop” the deficit to $483 billion. By John Shaffer, Editor
America is debating the legality of President Obama’s executive order to defer prosecution of some people who have immigrated to the United States illegally. On more than twenty occasions over the past half dozen years, the President has declared that he lacked the authority to do that which has just done. He claims, now, that he has that authority, because Congress has refused to act. Actually, the Senate, controlled by Democrats, has passed a bill that the House, controlled by Republicans, has not taken up for a vote; and the House, controlled by Republicans, has passed a bill that the Senate, controlled by Democrats, has refused to take up for a vote. In the pre-Harry Reid days, each chamber would appoint members to a conference committee and a compromise bill would be hashed out. That hasn’t been done since Sen. Reid became Majority Leader. Perhaps when the Republicans take control in January the old ways will come back into vogue. We are neither shocked nor surprised at the news that Jonathan Gruber, one of architects of Obamacare, wrote the law in a dishonest way in order for it to win passage; critics of the law have known all along that the law's passage was built on a foundation of false presumptions. We never could understand how a law could increase coverage, reduce premiums, provide more services, lower costs, reduce the deficit and improve healthcare all at the same time. It may have been possible to do one of those things, even a couple of them, but not all of them. Obamacare was overpromised from the beginning, and the embarrassment of the failed website rollout and the dislocations from implementing the law had a great deal to do with the election night debacle suffered by the President's party.
After insisting that there was no need to take any additional measures to combat Ebola, President Obama took several additional measures. Among other things the CDC issued updated guidelines for wearing and removing protective gear (the fi rst guideline was incorrect); restrictions were placed on travel from certain countries; and an "Ebola Response Coordinator"was appointed. Of course, the administration considers this to be a political or communications problem, not a public health crisis, so it appointed a person whose healthcare experience is essentially limited to having been sick once or twice in his life.
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