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«Updated Daily« |
Monday May 20, 2013
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Made in the USA since 1998
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The US National Debt stands at $16.8 trillion. The Unfunded Liabilities (what the government is obligated to pay out) has reached a staggering $124 trillion.
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Analysis: Washington Hits the
$16.7 Trillion Debt Ceiling
Heritage.org
On May 19, the United States hit its debt ceiling after adding $300 billion in more debt since lawmakers suspended the ceiling in February. But the cash won't run dry until at least Labor Day, according to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, whose department can employ a variety of cash management tools to continue spending beyond the official debt deadline. Congress last hit the debt ceiling in January. The President and Congress then decided to "suspend" the debt limit through May 18. This is the first time that lawmakers adopted a debt ceiling date instead of a dollar amount. The Congressional Budget Office explains: "On May 19, the debt limit will be raised to its previous value--$16.394 trillion--plus the amount of borrowing that occurred while the limit was suspended," (that is, from early February to May 18). In other words, the President and Congress decided in February that they would continue borrowing through May 18, with the new debt limit becoming the then-current limit of $16.394 trillion plus whatever was added on since then. |
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If There Was Ever a Golden Opportunity
Frank Salvato
The recent “scandals” plaguing the Obama Administration serve to illustrate that nothing lasts forever. The honeymoon with the mainstream media has ended after a record run and their steamroller approach to Washington politics has hit a “bump in the road,” and one they cannot circumvent. This moment in time presents some golden opportunities for those of us who identify it as one of vulnerability for those who quest to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” But in every golden opportunity exists some danger. And while we of the constitutional and conservative bent never cease to protest this truth, it is a truth nevertheless. We could be winning a baseball game by 15 runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and find a way to lose by 3. While all the so-called “Republican strategists” and conservative pundits debate the depth of the Obama Administration’s “evil deeds,” and while everyone in the conservative blogosphere is screeching “impeachment” at the top of their cyber-lungs, we who possess level heads; who deal in facts and realism instead of emotion and appearance, understand that the probability of impeachment is next to zero.
Benghazi: Progressives
Rewrite History in Real Time
Frank Salvato
If there was ever a moment in time when the American people could collectively glean knowledge from a “teachable moment,” the Obama Administration’s handling of the al Qaeda-related attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya is surely one. From the moment the public became aware of what can only be perceived as an act of war, perpetrated at the hands of an enemy that has officially declared war on the United States and the West, the Obama Administration – Progressives one and all – have engaged in one of their favorite tactics of political opportunism: re-writing history. In this instance, they are doing it in real time; right in front of our faces. From the moment UN Amb. Susan Rice took to the airwaves to insist that the attacks that took the lives of a US Ambassador and three of his colleagues were, in fact, not a coordinated and planned terrorist assault of a US target of interest, but, rather, a “spontaneous” uprising turned violent, spurred by a third-rate video that literally no one had ever seen, the American people were being subjected to fact manipulation for political purposes. With an election coming up, a terrorist attack did not fit the Obama Campaign’s narrative that, “Osama bin Laden is dead and al Qaeda is on the run.” If the al Qaeda was on the run on September 11, 2012, it was running forward, bayonets fixed, with death in their eyes.
Days of Distress, Rebuke & Disgrace
AJ DiCintio
On September 12, 2012, the American public awakened to news about the attack on the diplomatic post in Benghazi, which included the Obama administration's carefully calculated lie it was incited by a video that vilified Islam. Despite that lie about an act of terrorism which resulted in the death of four Americans, every person except the irredeemable sycophants who comprise a huge part of the president's flock immediately understood two fundamental realities. First, that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had irresponsibly continued to operate an undefended diplomatic post in the extremely dangerous city of Benghazi in the utterly shattered nation of Libya. Second, that under the charge of Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, the administration had not even attempted to save American lives during the many hours of the attack. Having come to those understandings alone, millions reacted in a manner that recalls the following outcry of long ago: "This is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them." (NIV)
Benghazi's Portent &
The Decline of US Military Strength
Mark Helprin
From World War II onward, the US Sixth Fleet stabilized the Mediterranean region and protected American interests there with the standard deployment, continued through 2008, of a carrier battle group, three hunter killer submarines, and an amphibious ready group with its MEU or equivalent. But in the first year of the Obama presidency this was reduced to one almost entirely unarmed command ship. No MEU could respond to Benghazi because none was assigned to, or by chance in, the Mediterranean. Whereas during most of the Obama years the United States has kept one ship in the Mediterranean, during World War I no less than Japan deployed 14 destroyers and a cruiser there. But today--with the Muslim Brotherhood watching over the Egyptian powder keg, terrorist warlords murdering our diplomats in Libya, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb reaching up from the Sahel into the Mediterranean littoral, instability in Tunisia, Bedouin kidnappers in the Sinai, Hamas rockets streaming from Gaza, Lebanon riding the Hezbollah tiger, Jordan imperiled, and a civil war raging in Syria --what possible reason could there be for a powerful Sixth Fleet?
Hillary Never Called Back
Hugh Hewitt
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her senior staff conducted a conference call with Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of the US mission in Libya, in the early morning hours of Sept. 12, 2012. Hicks was overseeing a chaotic scene in Tripoli, where his staff was busy destroying classified material with axes and whatever else was at hand and as the few security people left in Tripoli were preparing to evacuate to a safer location at dawn. (Think the opening scenes of the movie "Argo.") The US Consulate in Benghazi had been stormed and the ambassador was missing. In his testimony Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the inspiring and obviously fearless Hicks recounted that, at the end of the 2 a.m. call, Hillary concurred with his decision to evacuate, and the call ended. An hour later, having received "the saddest phone call of his life," Hicks then relayed to the State Department in Washington that Ambassador Christopher Stevens was dead. Hillary never called back.
Starring Pres. Obama as Sergeant Schultz
Alan Caruba
How is it that, time and again, the most powerful man on the planet doesn't seem to have a clue what is happening in his own government? Famed for never accepting blame for anything, the more I see President Obama these days, the more I am reminded of Sergeant Hans Schultz of the TV sitcom, "Hogan's Heroes", that ran from 1965 to 1971. The wonderful John Banner, born Johann Banner, the actor who played the prisoner of war guard left an indelible legacy with his repeated denials, "I know nothing. I hear nothing, and I see nothing"; often all three at the same time to avoid being implicated in Col. Robert E. Hogan's manipulation of Werner Klemperer's Col. Wilhelm Klink, the camp commandant of Luftwaffe Stalag 13. Obama's way of dealing with everything has been to talk it to death and he has been responding to questions from the press, claiming that the accusations are all "a sideshow" or that "there's no there, there." It is not working. In the case of Benghazi-Gate, his lies are so blatant that it has gone from an embarrassment to a full-fledged cover-up.
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▪ Analysis: Washington Hits the $16.7 Trillion Debt Ceiling
▪ DoJ Subpoenas ‘Unconstitutional,’ Damage Free Speech: AP Pres.
▪ Detroit’s Pension Boards Pay $22K to Send 4 Trustees to Hawaii
▪ Lawmakers Eye Regulating Domestic Surveillance Drones
▪ US Denied Asylum to Pakistani Doctor Who Helped Get Bin Laden
▪ Al-Qaeda’s Syrian Wing Takes Over Oilfields
▪ Iran’s Guard Warns Against Post-Election Turmoil
▪ IRS Official Who Targeted TEA Party Now Runs Obamacare Division
▪ IRS ‘Liked’ TEA Party Facebook Information, Other Documents
▪ House Votes to Fully Repeal Obamacare
▪ Second Appeals Court Invalidates Obama’s NLRB Recess Appointments
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Al-Qaeda’s Syrian Wing Takes Over Oilfields
The London Telegraph
Al-Qaeda's Syrian wing is helping to finance its activities by selling the product of oilfields that once helped to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Up to 380,000 barrels of crude oil were previously produced by wells around the city of Raqqa and in the desert region to its east that are now in rebel hands, in particular Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda off-shoot strongest faction in this part of the country. Now the violently anti-Western jihadist group, which has been steadily extending its control in the region, is selling the crude oil to local entrepreneurs, who use home-made refineries to produce low-grade petrol and other fuels for Syrians facing acute shortages. The ability of Jabhat al-Nusra to profit from the oil locally, despite international sanctions, will be particularly worrying to the EU, which has voted to ease the embargo but marginalize the group.
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Iran’s Guard Warns Against Post-Election Turmoil
Associated Press
A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard has warned that his forces will be on watch for possible unrest after next month's presidential election, calling the outcome "unpredictable" and sending the strongest message yet against any attempts to revive street protests. The comments by Col. Rasool Sanaeirad point to a wide-ranging effort by Iranian authorities to intimidate opposition groups that could use the June 14 voting for possible political demonstrations. Pro-reform groups have been under relentless pressure since major protests following the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. Ahmadinejad is not running in this election because Iran's constitution bars him from seeking a third term. But the entry of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani into the race has re-energized reformists and brought backlash from hard-liners.
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US Denied Asylum to Pakistani Doctor Who Helped Get Bin Laden
FOX News
The jailed doctor who helped the US track down Usama bin Laden was convicted by a tribal court on bogus charges, according to a classified Pakistani government report. Portions of the voluminous 357-page Abbottobad Commission Report, which has yet to be made public and were obtained exclusively by FOX News, acknowledge Dr. Shakil Afridi's conviction last year by a government-sponsored Jirga has undermined Pakistan's credibility. The report calls for Afridi to be given a new trial. The report also claims Afridi joined the CIA search for Bin Laden five years ago, while he was staying in the US with a cousin. According to the report, Afridi applied for asylum after a terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Islam, stepped up its operations in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt. Afridi was reportedly kidnapped by the group in 2008 and released after his family paid a $10,000 ransom.
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Uzbekistan National Arrested in Idaho on Terrorism Charges
Associated Press
An Uzbek national living in Idaho has been arrested on federal charges that he gave support, cash and other resources to help a terrorist group in his home country plan a terrorist attack. Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, will appear in US District Court Friday morning, one day after federal agents arrested him during a raid of his small Boise apartment. Kurbanov was arrested after an extensive investigation into his activities in Idaho and Utah late last year and this year. A federal grand jury indictment charges Kurbanov with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and possession of an unregistered explosive device. A separate federal grand jury in Utah also returned an indictment charging the distribution of information about weapons of mass destruction.
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IRS Official Who Targeted TEA Party Now Runs Obamacare Division
FOX News
The outgoing commissioner of the IRS is in the hot seat Friday, scheduled to testify for the first time on his agency's scandalous practice of targeting conservative groups -- after it was revealed that another implicated official is now in charge of an Obamacare unit. Steven Miller, the acting commissioner who was ousted by the administration earlier this week, will testify before the House Ways and Means Committee Friday morning. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are sure to have plenty of questions for Miller, as they search for who was responsible for the program. Outrage mounted after lawmakers learned that the IRS official who led the tax-exempt organizations unit when the targeting took place -- Sarah Hall Ingram -- has since moved over to the IRS office responsible for Obamacare. "Stunning. Just stunning," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said.
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IRS ‘Liked’ TEA Party Facebook Information, Other Documents
Politico.com
The Internal Revenue Service asked tea party groups to see donor rolls. It asked for printouts of Facebook posts. And it asked what books people were reading. A Politico.com review of documents from 11 TEA Party and conservative groups that the IRS scrutinized in 2012 shows the agency wanted to know everything -- in some cases, it even seemed curious what members were thinking. The review included interviews with groups or their representatives from Hawaii, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas and elsewhere. The long-awaited Treasury Department inspector general report released Tuesday says the agency itself decided some of its questions to conservative groups were way over the line -- especially the one about donors. "They were asking for a U-Haul truck's worth of information," said Toby Marie Walker, the president of the Waco TEA Party.
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Detroit’s Pension Boards Pay $22K to Send 4 Trustees to Hawaii
Detroit Free Press
Four trustees of Detroit's two public pension funds are heading to a Hawaiian beach resort this weekend with their $22,000 tab paid for by the funds, which are mired in claims of mismanagement and said to be at least $600 million underfunded. Trustees say the conference provides the education they need to manage complex investments for the funds' retirees and beneficiaries. But other major public pension systems, including the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions, avoided sending their officials to Hawaii because of concerns the exotic locale sends the wrong message at a time when pensions nationwide are contemplating or implementing reduced benefits to cope with rising retirement costs and shaky investment returns. Records show the expenses cover airfare, lodging at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort in Honolulu, registration fees, and a per diem.
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Lawmakers Eye Regulating Domestic Surveillance Drones
AP/FOX News
Amid growing concern over the use of drones by police and government officials for surveillance, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to limit the use of unmanned surveillance "eyes in the sky" aircraft. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), along with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), is sponsoring legislation that would codify due process protections for Americans in cases involving drones and make flying armed drones in the U.S. sky illegal. Sensenbrenner believes it is necessary to develop new standards to address the privacy issues associated with use of drones — which can be as small as a bird and as large as a plane. "Every advancement in crime fighting technology, from wiretaps to DNA, has resulted in courts carving out the Constitutional limits within which the police operate," Sensenbrenner said.
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DoJ Subpoenas ‘Unconstitutional,’ Damage Free Speech: AP Pres.
FOX News
Associated Press President Gary Pruitt said Sunday the Justice Department sent a strong – and negative- message to future sources that the government would go after them if they spoke to the press. It's a move Pruitt called not only unconstitutional, but said it damaged the ideal of a free press in the country. "It will hurt," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "We're already seeing some impact. Officials are saying they're reluctant to talk." The Justice Department sought phone records for a two-month period from more than 20 phone lines in four bureaus, including Washington and New York. "Their rules require them to come to us first," Pruitt said. But the Justice Department maintains that telling the AP would have posed a threat to their investigation. Holder said he had recused himself from the AP investigation.
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Second Court Invalidates Obama's Recess Appointments
Politico.com
A second appeals court has joined the DC Circuit in ruling that President Barack Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional, concluding that some board actions taken in the wake of those appointments were also invalid. The issue has far-reaching implications for both the NLRB and other boards, including Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been a frequent target of conservatives and whose director was a recess appointment. The 2-1 decision Thursday from the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit found that the presidential recess appointment power is limited to breaks between sessions of Congress, not breaks within sessions or other adjournments during which the Senate might meet in pro forma sessions. The reasoning mirrors that in a ruling of the DC Circuit Court in January.
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John Edwards Re-Emerges, Begins Public Comeback
The Washington Times
Disgraced former presidential candidate and North Carolina senator John Edwards is plotting his own comeback. The wealthy lawyer has reactivated his law license and also is hitting the speaking circuit. Mr. Edwards is scheduled to speak at a private retreat in Orlando, FL, on June 6, where he'll address fellow attorneys and marketing gurus. An itinerary for the event says the highly successful trial lawyer will speak as part of a program titled "Historic Trials of the Century." Meanwhile, his law license, dormant for more than a decade, has been resuscitated, AP reported. It's unclear whether he plans to return to the courtroom. Mr. Edwards has remained in the shadows for the past year following his acquittal on one charge of campaign finance fraud in May 2012. Other criminal counts were dismissed after a federal judge declared a mistrial in the case.
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Muslim Brotherhood: Convention to Protect Women is Anti-Islamic
ClarionProject.org
The Muslim Brotherhood has published an article highlighting the comments of a senior Egyptian Islamist scholar criticizing the UN's Violence Against Women Convention for violating Islam and promoting Westernization. Dr. Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Mahdi, a member of Al-Azhar University's Council of Senior Scholars, was reacting to the endorsement of the UN convention by the leader of Egypt's National Council for Women. Dr. Al-Mahdi said that the UN convention is part of a war on Islam and that women are treated better under Sharia than Western law. He claimed "that Islam has given women a place of honor, and has allowed them to take part in the country's awakening, while in the West, the women have to search for employment and rely only on themselves. Islam, on the other hand, has given women partners or husbands to take care of them."
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InFocus Obama Finding Ways to Wield Power Without Executive Orders
President Obama could wind up issuing fewer executive orders than any two-term president in a century, records show. Obama has often exerted the power of his office in pursuit of his agenda, drawing charges from Republicans that he is acting like a "monarch" intent on destroying the Constitution's balance of powers. But a review of the historical record shows Obama is on track to issue roughly the same number of executive orders as President George W. Bush, and fewer than President Clinton. Comparing Obama's use of executive power to his predecessors is tricky, however, since presidents can wield their authority in a number of ways. His executive orders tell only part of the story, experts say. "They're not the only measure of presidential assertion of authority," said Kenneth Mayer, a University of Wisconsin political science professor who has studied the presidency extensively. "He's actually been pretty aggressive on a number of fronts."
The Briefing for May 9, 2013
The Syrian military is making significant gains against the Rebels. These successes are in large part thanks to unending and, nothing less than, massive re-supply and support from Russia and Iran. These successes are equally attributable to the thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah troops fighting alongside their Syrian military comrades...Syrian President Assad may have issued standing orders that his missile batteries immediately launch against Israel should there be another Israeli attack against targets inside Syria. Israel has attacked and destroyed advanced weaponry located in Syria, about to be transported to Hezbollah in Lebanon, three times this year. Russia has promised to rush its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Syria in an effort to stop the Israeli fighter aircraft. Thus far, the attacking Israeli aircraft have only been discovered when the missiles they fired hit their targets and the planes were already on the way back to their bases.
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