The Disney Presidency

Where to begin, where to begin? The latest evidence of the Mickey Mouse Administration we have running the country into the ground is once again brimming over. Todays apocalyptic events alone include the final wave of US troops withdrawing from a still unstable Iraq, a war that cost us nearly 4,500 US Troops and a Trillion dollars.

Ironically this comes within a day of the bumbler declaring victory for the passage of the ONE TRILLION DOLLAR bill that would temporarily delay a federal government shut down until September. Let’s see here:

9 YEAR WAR=9 MONTH FEDERAL SPENDING BUDGET???

Huh?? Is this that “new” math, or was I just absent the day they reviewed under what article in the Constitution our fore-fathers imbued the right of extortion to our “elected” officials. And all of this skirted in one week before Christmas. Remarkable timing, that bumbler, huh?

All this as Cairo, Syria and Libya continue to erupt and further threaten the phantom flicker of tenuous “peace” in the region.

Lets get to it.

The last convoy of US troops to leave Iraq has entered Kuwait, nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. The final column of about 100 armored vehicles carrying 500 soldiers crossed the southern Iraqi desert overnight.

At the peak of the operation there were 170,000 US troops and more than 500 bases in Iraq.
Nearly 4,500 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since the US-led campaign began in 2003. The operation has cost Washington nearly $1 trillion dollars.

US troops have trained Iraqi security forces which, if they somehow manage to stick together, can arguably contain the internal security situation, still stubbornly jammed at a level of violence which kills on average around 350 people every month.

But security has to be rooted in political stability, and that's only one of many challenges immediately facing Iraq.

Even as the final US troops were heading for the border, a political crisis was erupting in Baghdad, with deputies from Ayyad Allawi's Iraqiyya block pulling out of parliament.
There is turmoil in two mainly Sunni provinces, which want to declare themselves autonomous regions like the Kurds in the north. There's also a widespread conviction that with the Americans gone, Iranian influence will spread.

While most Iraqis believe it was high time for the Americans to go, many are deeply worried about the challenges that lie ahead.

I can not, for the life of me recall a time when American forces liberated a nation and didn’t maintain a some presence in the country. Typically this is done through the use of peace operations or a stay-behind-force. These arrangements are negotiated under a status-of-forces agreement or SOFA. A SOFA is an agreement that defines the legal position of a visiting military force deployed in the territory of a friendly state. Agreements delineating the status of visiting military forces may be bilateral or multilateral. Provisions pertaining to the status of visiting forces may be set forth in a separate agreement, or they may form a part of a more comprehensive agreement. These provisions describe how the authorities of a visiting force may control members of that force and the amenability of the force or its members to the local law or to the authority of local officials.

"Nobody here wants occupation. This withdrawal marks a new stage in Iraq's history," said Karim al-Rubaie, a Shiite shop owner in the southern city of Basra. But, he said, "the politicians who are running this country are just a group of thieves. These politicians will lead the country into sedition and civil war. Iraq now is like a weak prey among neighboring beasts."

In the morning, a bomb hidden under a pile of trash exploded on a street of spare car parts stores in a mainly Shiite district of eastern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four others. It was the latest in the near daily shootings and bombings — low-level but still deadly — that continue to bleed the country and that many fear will increase with the Americans gone.

Equally worrying, the resentments and bitterness between the Shiite majority and Sunni minority in the country of 31 million remain unhealed. The fear is that without the hand of American forces, the fragile attempts to get the two sides to work together could collapse and even turn to greater violence.

In an escalation of the rivalry, the main Sunni-backed political bloc on Sunday announced it was boycotting parliament to protest what they called Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's attempts to monopolize government positions — particularly those overseeing the powerful security forces. The bloc has complained of security forces' recent arrests of Sunnis that it says are "unjustified."

The Iraqiya bloc warned that it could take the further step of pulling its seven ministers out of al-Maliki's coalition government. "We are against the concentration of security powers in the hands of one person, that is the prime minister," said Sunni lawmaker Hamid al-Mutlaq, a member of the bloc.

In particular, the bloc was angered by the arrest of several bodyguards of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi several days ago on suspicion of involvement in terrorist acts. On Sunday, a senior security official said that judges investigating the bodyguards banned al-Hashimi from traveling outside of Iraq — a step that is likely to further anger the Iraqiya bloc, to which al-Hashimi belongs. The security official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

Sunnis have long feared domination by the country's Shiites, who vaulted to power after the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein at the hands of the Americans. The rivalry was exacerbated by the years of sectarian killing.
The Iraqiya bloc narrowly won the most seats in last year's parliamentary election. But its leader Ayad Allawi was unable to become prime minister, outmaneuvered by al-Maliki, who kept the premier's post after cobbling together key support from Shiite parties.

That has left al-Maliki beholden to Shiite factions, including those led by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militiamen were blamed for sectarian killings during the worst of Iraq's violence. Since forming his new government, al-Maliki has effectively controlled the Interior and Defense Ministries, which oversee the police and military, while conflicts between Sunni and Shiite politicians have delayed the appointment of permanent ministers.

Many on both sides of the sectarian divide also worry that neighboring Shiite-led powerhouse Iran will now increase its influence in their country. Al-Maliki's party and other Shiite blocs have close ties to Tehran. But even some in the Shiite public resent the idea of Iranian domination.

"I am afraid that this occupation will be replaced by indirect occupation by some neighboring countries," said Ali Rahim, a 40-year-old Shiite who works for the Electricity Ministry.

Omar Waadalla Younis, a senior at Mosul University, said at first he was happy to hear the last Americans were gone and thought the city government should hold celebrations in the streets. Then he thought of the possible threat from Iran. "Now that the Americans have left, Iraq is more vulnerable than before."
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And stateside, it’s fiscal déjà vu à la democrats, de novo. The Senate voted Saturday to, once again temporarily avert a Jan. 1 payroll tax increase and benefit cutoff for the long-time unemployed, forcing a reluctant President Bozo to make an election-year choice between unions and environmentalists over whether to build an oil pipeline through the heart of the country.

With the still-reeling economy serving as a backdrop, the Senate’s 89-10 vote belied a tortuous battle between Democrats and Republicans that produced the compromise two-month extension of the expiring tax breaks and jobless benefits and forestalled cuts in doctors’ Medicare reimbursements.

It also capped a year of divided government marked by raucous partisan fights that tumbled to the brink of a first-ever U.S. default and three federal shutdowns, only to see eleventh-hour deals emerge. It also put the two sides on track to revisit the payroll tax cut early next year as the fights for control of the White House and Congress heat up.

However, House GOP leaders held a conference call Saturday with rank-and-file lawmakers in which participants said strong anger was expressed at the Senate for approving a bill that lasted just two months. No specific date was set for bringing the House back to town or for a vote, they said, injecting uncertainty into the next step. ****(Author’s Side Note) WHAT??? Didn’t we just go through this THREE TIMES already THIS YEAR??? Are they burning this money???

“You can’t have an economic recovery with this,” said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., of the uncertainty he said the temporary bill would create. “If the Senate is incapable of doing that, we don’t have to accept it.”

A House GOP aide said afterward, “Members are overwhelmingly disappointed in the Senate’s decision to just ‘kick the can down the road’ for two months. No announcement was made regarding the schedule or plans.”

By 67-32, senators gave final congressional approval to a separate $1 trillion bill financing the Pentagon and scores of other federal agencies through next September. That measure avoided a shuttering of government offices that otherwise would have occurred this weekend when temporary financing expired. ****1 TRILLION DOLLARS forestalls the current  crisis for ONLY 9 MONTHS!!

The tax legislation delivers tax cuts and jobless benefits that some Republicans opposed. It also represents a rebuff of Obama’s original demands for a yearlong payroll tax reduction for 160 million workers that was to be even deeper than this year’s cut, extended to employers and paid for by boosting taxes on the highest-earning Americans.

The measure’s $33 billion price tag will be paid for instead by raising fees that government-funded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will charge to back new mortgages and/or refinancing, beginning next year. When fully phased in, those increases could cost a person with a $200,000 mortgage about $17 a month. BRILLIANT STRATEGY, continue to finance the USELESS federal government at the cost of further CRIPPLING THE ALREADY  DOA HOUSING MARKET.

Despite the changes, Obama praised the Senate for passing the bill and prodded the Republican-run House to give it final approval in a vote, which has been expected early next week. He exhorted lawmakers to extend the tax cuts and jobless aid for the entire year, saying it would be “inexcusable” not to.

“It should be a formality, and hopefully it’s done with as little drama as possible when they get back in January” from their holiday recess, he said.

The Senate adjourned for the year after its votes Saturday.

While Obama and Democrats used the fight to portray themselves as defenders of beleaguered middle- and lower-income people, ****The LARGEST subset of our population since OBO has taken office****Republicans used it to cast themselves as champions of job creation.

Headlining that was a provision they inserted forcing Obama to make a decision within two months on whether to allow construction of the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which is to deliver up to 700,000 barrels of oil daily from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas. The language requires him to issue the needed permit unless he declares the pipeline would not serve the national interest.

Unions have clamored for the thousands of jobs the project could create. Environmentalists have decried the huge amounts of energy it would take to extract the oil. Obama originally announced he was delaying a decision until 2013, which would have allowed him to avoid choosing between two Democratic constituencies before Election Day next November.

When the House inserted the language into its version of the payroll tax bill this month, Obama said he would “reject” the legislation if it retained the Keystone provision. He abandoned that stance this past week as GOP leaders said they would insist on keeping the Keystone language and the final deal jelled.

“The only thing standing between thousands of American workers and the good jobs this project will provide is a presidential decision,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

An administration official said Friday that Obama would almost surely refuse to grant the permit, a stance echoed Saturday by congressional Democrats.

“We feel we’re giving them the sleeves off a vest,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY. . REALLY, Chuck?? WHOSE VEST?

Democrats said when Congress revisits the issue of renewing the tax cuts and jobless benefits early next year, they would win the political battle because they would be viewed as protecting peoples’ household budgets.

Republicans, though, said they would once again focus the fight on jobs, with some predicting they would try adding provisions to repeal pollution curbs and other government regulations that they say make it harder for companies to hire people.

“There are lots of issues Republicans are interested in as job creators that will still be alive in March,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

The tax bill would renew this year’s 4.2 percent payroll tax through February, preventing the rate from bouncing back to its normal 6.2 percent on New Year’s Day. Obama pushed that cut through Congress a year ago as a way to help spark the economy by leaving more money in people’s pockets.

A $50,000-a-year wage earner would save about $170 during next year’s first two months under the bill the Senate approved Saturday. But if you account for the new taxes levied to off-set the governments revenue loss on that $170/year; it will cost the average citizen more than 4x’s as much.

Obama had proposed reducing the payroll tax employees pay to 3.1 percent next year. The levy is the chief source of revenue for Social Security.

For two more months, the tax measure would also continue current jobless benefits that provide a maximum 99 weeks of coverage for people who have been out of work the longest. Without any extension, the White House said, 2.5 million people would have lost coverage by the end of February.

The bill also prevents a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements for doctors that might have induced some to stop treating the program’s elderly beneficiaries.

The spending legislation carries out budget cuts across government that Republicans won earlier this year and includes GOP provisions blocking energy efficiency and coal dust requirements. Democrats fought off Republican language that would have blocked limits on greenhouse gases and hazardous emissions from utility plants and other sources.
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Previous to this train-wreck of an administration, the last time the federal government shut down, a Democratic president tangled with a Republican Congress and movie lovers were praising the wonders of a film called Toy Story. Guess the year and the party.

Other things have also changed since November 1995. Back then, President Clinton had to deal with a completely Republican Congress; The bumbler still has a Democratic Senate. The number of federal employees has also dropped over the past 15 years, though overall pay is much higher. Here are the numbers:

Federal civilian employees (not including uniformed military)
1995: 2,943,000
2011: 2,780,220

Percentage of workforce employed by federal government
1995: 2.4%
2009: 2% (latest available)

Federal civilian payroll
1995: $118 billion
2009: $175 billion (latest available)

Federal spending
FY 1996: $1.6 trillion
FY 2011: $3.8 trillion

Budget deficit:
FY 1996: $107.4 billion
FY 2011: $1.6 trillion

Gross federal debt (end of fiscal year)
FY 1996: $5.2 trillion
FY 2011: $15.5 trillion

Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nov. 14, 1995: 4,871.81
Feb. 25, 2011: 12,130.45 (Sources: Census Bureau; White House Office of Management and Budget)
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The Mid-East

Cairo: Further unrest is seen in Cairo where Protesters have been stoning security forces in Cairo on the third day of unrest in the Egyptian capital over the military government. Ten people are now known to have been killed and hundreds injured since the trouble began on Friday. It has emerged that precious national archives were burnt when the Institute of Egypt was set alight.

The violence has overshadowed the first parliamentary elections since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February. The latest unrest has highlighted divisions in Egyptian society, the BBC's Yolande Knell reported from the city. While some activists are angry at the army's reluctance to give up power, there are many people who support it as a stabilizing force during this difficult period of political transition, according to Knell.

The latest round of voting in the election for a new parliament passed off peacefully, with more gains for Islamist parties. Hundreds of protesters have camped out in the cold on the city's Tahrir Square. Shortly before dawn, soldiers advanced from the barriers they had erected on streets adjoining the square and the confrontations restarted. But this was not a repeat of the violence seen earlier when some protesters were beaten to the ground with sticks and shots were fired at them.

The Institute of Egypt was set on fire two days ago and the building is still smoldering.
It had housed national archives going back over two centuries and its paper archives have now been largely been destroyed. Some burnt papers can be seen on the streets
.
Egyptian television talk shows have focused on the loss of national heritage. In another development, an Egyptian natural gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan was attacked again on Sunday morning. Luckily, the line through North Sinai was already disabled so no fire broke out, a security source was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

Syria: The Syrian authorities have responded to widespread anti-government protests with overwhelming military force. The protests pose the greatest challenge to four decades of Assad family rule in the country.

The protests have so far left 1,600 people dead, sent 10,000 fleeing to Turkey, and seen tens of thousands more injured or arrested.

Inspired by the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, the Syrian protests began in March with rallies calling for freedom in the southern border town of Deraa. But several people were killed when security forces opened fire on unarmed crowds. The unrest in Deraa quickly spiraled out of control, and then spread to other towns and cities. President Bashar al-Assad sent in tanks and troops to restore order, blaming "armed gangs and terrorists" for the unrest. Towns like Deraa, Homs and Douma were besieged for days. Hundreds were killed when snipers and tanks fired on unarmed protesters. Men were rounded up in night-time raids and electricity and communication lines were cut.

As the unrest spread to the north of the country, troops besieged the town of Jisr al-Shughour, where the government said 120 security personnel were killed. Fearing a military onslaught, more than 10,000 people fled to Turkey, where they remain in refugee camps.

However, the protests have not yet taken hold in the capital Damascus or the second largest city Aleppo, which are under heavy security guard. For months, protesters have been calling for democracy and freedom in what is one of the most repressive countries in the Arab world. Mr Assad has made some concessions and promised further reform, but has not once mentioned the word "democracy" in his public statements. Activists say that as long as people continue to be killed in the streets his promises count for very little.

Syria is a major player in the Middle East and any chaos here could cause domino effects in countries such as Lebanon and Israel, where it can mobilize powerful proxy groups, such as the militant Hezbollah and Hamas movements. It also has close ties with Shia power Iran - an arch-foe of the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia - which could potentially draw those powers into a dangerous Middle Eastern conflict.

Perhaps tellingly, the Arab League has remained silent on the issue of Syria - although it backed the Nato-led bombing campaign against Libya's Col Muammar Gaddafi in a bid to protect civilian lives there. The league has called for an end to the violence, but cited hesitation over any action because of "strategic and political considerations."

Russia, which has significant economic and military ties with Syria, has refused to back a Western-drafted UN Security Council resolution condemning the violence, concerned that it would pave the way for military intervention At the United Nations Security Council, Russia has repeatedly argued that its opposition to UN sanctions against Syria is consistent with a broader refusal to back outside interference in sovereign states, and an insistence that diplomacy is always preferable to coercion. That position has hardened in the last decade or so, following the West's interventions in Kosovo, Iraq and Libya.

Indeed, Nato's action in Libya is regularly cited by Russia as the main reason it blocked the UN resolution on Syria in October - precisely because, Moscow said, it feared the start of a slippery slope towards military action.

Libya: After four decades in power, Col Muammar Gaddafi was ousted when rebels took the capital Tripoli in August. Col Gaddafi and his family went on the run. On 31 October the former leader was captured and killed on the outskirts of Sirte. Eight months of civil war - and Nato's operation - had come to an end.

Three weeks later, his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Libya's intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Sanussi, were captured trying to flee the country and now face trial in Libya. The National Transitional Council (NTC) led the revolt and is now recognized by the UN as Libya's legitimate ruling body.

Libya's uprising began in mid-February when, inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, hundreds came out onto the streets of several towns and cities demanding the end of Col Gaddafi's rule. The authorities responded with violence, opening fire on protesters, as the rallies grew and spread across the country. The revolt soon evolved into an armed conflict pitting forces loyal to Col Gaddafi - based in Tripoli in the west - against rebel forces based in the eastern port city of Benghazi.

In March, the UN Security Council passed a resolution that authorized "all necessary measures" except troops on the ground in order to protect civilians.

Coalition operations were largely confined to air attacks, initially aimed at imposing a no-fly zone and later widened to include government targets. Following six months of fighting, rebel forces took Tripoli in late August, after gaining pockets of territory in the west.

Thousands of people poured out of their homes in celebration at the ousting of Col Gaddafi.

Several thousand people have been killed and many more have been injured in the conflict and Amnesty International has reported extensive human rights abuses by both sides. The UN believes at least 335,000 people have fled Libya since the beginning of the conflict, including at least 200,000 foreign nationals.

In the midst of all this, our “president” decided to escape to Hawaii where his family began their 17-day vacation ahead of him, last week. If WE THE PEOPLE don’t come together to vote him out this November, the next nation torn apart by revolution may very well be our own.



original post at http://politicalpatrol.blogspot.com NEED A BLOGGER? I'M AVAILABLE TO BLOG FOR YOU. CONTACT ME AT THE ABOVE ADDRESS.

This War Is Killing USAll

*****Here's another draft that I failed to post. Originally written on 
June 4th, 2008, even before Obumbler "won" the election*****


Hate to say, "I told you so", so I won't. I'll just nonchalantly mention that it is personally gratifying to scroll back through my initial postings and recognize the alarming accuracy with which I warned of the Obama "unknowns."

That satisfaction, however, fails to linger when I stop to consider that the momentum that had already built up behind him may still prove strong enough to carry him through to a victory in November. That momentum may say less about the one it carries than it does about those who sustain its course.

Youth: bitter, disenfranchised, fleeting, youth.

Looking back through history, I don't think since the explosion of the 1960's anti-war movement that there's been a generation of young adults that have not felt disaffected, inclined towards indifference, either absorbed with or lost to; themselves.

Satisfaction it seems, went the way of sock hops and skating waitresses and truth be told, mores' the pity.

We will never be innocent again.

A lot of the Obama mystique can be directly attributed to the liberal media. So damn excited were they to have themselves a new poster child for change, they neglected, as they are wont to do when it comes to resolving conflicts of interest, to do any fact checking behind the shiny facade.

It was enough that he was giving them their six o'clock lead-in twenty second sound bites and Nielsen grabbing photo ops. After all, they had just suffered eight l...o...n...g years through G double U, with his mangled pronunciations and down home matte finish, that they felt justified in exchanging journalistic integrity for hollow words and high gloss.

If you watch the speeches that Mr. Obama has been giving lately; his combined apology/claims of ignorance/steadfast denial colloquies, you can see the difference in his delivery from smooth self assurance to stumbling, sticky defensiveness. If it's this bad now, and it's only his own side that's investigating him, imagine the field day the Republicans are headed for in terms of discovery.

But even their discoveries might not be enough to turn the tide, and a lot of that is their own fault; or the perception of it being so. Take a look around, if you can afford the gas, and drive up and down any street; see how many foreclosures you can count with the kids (free entertainment AND educational).

America and Americans are hurting and it's not just a boo-boo. We are bleeding red, white and blue at mortality speed and our present administration doesn't seem to know how to hit the brakes. 

I don't know why they refuse to see that the war has gone on too long. I'm sure our withdrawal won't be an instant cure, but it'll go a long way towards our recovery. I mean, we accomplished our objective, Hussein is gone. It's too damn bad the region is unstable and the people aren't equipped to take care of themselves and I don't want to hear the argument that if we don't stay there another terrorist will emerge.


News flash: Americans are no longer equipped to take care of themselves and you can bet another terrorist is surely being groomed in a deep cave somewhere, under our nose and we're still not aware. Terrorists are like that carnival game with the sledge hammer and the heads; you beat one down and another one pops right up.

We'll never get them all because the specific person doesn't matter; it's the ideas, the beliefs, and the convictions that are ingrained in them, some from birth. We will never win that game. I agree, we needed to retaliate for the attacks on our towers, to reaffirm to the world, after a crippling wound, that we would not be intimidated and we will never succumb. But it's over, we captured the king--the dictator's dead.


Ground control to Major Tom: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

It's going to amount to being another strike against McCain and he's already got those other 72 years against him. Propriety probably dictates that he not say a word, lest he appear to be criticizing not only Bush, but the Party he belongs to, as well. I wouldn't care, in politics it's: kill or be killed and if old bones really wants to win, he better start yapping about pulling us out.

I guess now is as good a time as any to formally announce that on August 17th, I'll once again be an Ex patriot. I have decided to teach English overseas and I've just accepted a contract in Dubai. Unlike those all talk democrats who were "moving out if Bush got reelected," I'm honoring my silent vow to do the same if Obama gets in.

Matter of fact, I'm taking it a step further and making a preemptive strike since it doesn't matter anyway, neither party shares my beliefs.

My point in telling you this now is so that I may end this post with a quote I came across while researching the lifestyle, culture, religion, and political climate of my new home.

            "A majority of Americans have now lost faith in Bush, cheerleader for America's conservative right wing and its allies in the region who still view Arabs as backward and primitive. They seek to offer guidance, though guidance of that kind is the last thing we need. Ironically, liberals in the region were once thrilled by US policies, seeing in them a promise that they could become a political alternative. That was never on the cards. It seems that we have to choose between Bush's counterfeit democracy, brutish liberals who make a travesty of their own doctrine or ugly and corrupt regimes. But what about ordinary people? What about their needs? Has anyone thought of them?"

...I think I hear a movement calling my name.

 JGG

The DeEvolution of the Last Great Nation

I know it’s been a while since my last update, but honestly, like the rest of you; I’ve just been sitting here dumb-founded. Mouth agape as each successive day bleeds into the next. While idly by, those we voted in, who SWORE to fight to regain, and to protect our Constitutional rights, sit on their hands, shrug their shoulders and for all intents and purposes have blended seamlessly into to the Washington as usual routine that they swore throughout their campaigning to rage against.


It’d be too overwhelming to cover all the corruption that has continued unchecked—running rampant throughout this administration. So lets just focus on two of the over-riding issues I see as central to the illustration of my point of just how disconnected obumbum is from the desires and will of the American People. He is a lone-wolf renegade hell-bent on ramming his socialist agenda through Congress before we hand him his walking paper in 2012.


First off is the federal government’s continued legal challenge against state crackdowns on illegal immigration. After suing Arizona and Alabama over their strict immigration laws, the Obama administration is seriously weighing whether to legally challenge similar measures in four other states.


“To the extent we find state laws that interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of immigration law, we are prepared to bring suit,” said Justice Department spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa. “The department is currently reviewing immigration-related laws that were passed in Utah, Indiana, Georgia and South Carolina.”


“In reviewing these, the department is proceeding consistently with the process followed and the legal principles established in United States v. Arizona,” she said. “Based on that review and applying those principles, the United States will decide whether and when to bring suit challenging particular state laws.”


Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees federal immigration policy, criticized the administration’s move.


“The administration should be working with states, not against them, to enforce our immigration laws,” he said. “This latest attempt to challenge a state’s efforts to enforce the rule of law, while turning a blind eye to cities and states that knowingly harbor illegal immigrants through sanctuary policies, is undermining the very same rule of law that our country was built on.”


Arizona set the stage last year for the epic battle between the states and the federal government over cracking down on illegal immigration. Arizona passed its law in April 2010 after years of complaints that the federal government hasn’t done enough to assist Arizona, the nation’s busiest illegal entry point, with border security. The legislation inspired protests, led to lawsuits seeking to overturn the law and sparked a debate about whether the law would lead to racial profiling. I briefly discussed Arizona’s immigration law SB1070 back in August, 2010

http://politicalpatrol.blogspot.com/2010/08/roof-hasnt-collapsed-yet-but-walls-are.html


A federal judge blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona's law last year after the U.S. Department of Justice sued, arguing the law intrudes on the federal government's exclusive powers to regulate immigration. A federal appeals court judge upheld the decision and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.


The other immigration laws are similar but have their differences.


Georgia passed its law in May. But a month later, a federal judge blocked parts that penalize people who knowingly and willingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants while committing another crime and other parts that authorize officers to verify the immigration status of someone who can’t provide proper identification (WHAT?!!)


In March, Utah passed a softer version of Arizona’s law, requiring people to prove their citizenship if they’re arrested for serious crimes – ranging from certain drug offenses to murder – while giving police discretion to check citizenship after traffic infractions and other lesser offenses.
But a federal judge temporarily blocked it in May on the same day it was to go into effect.


In June, South Carolina passed its law that requires police in South Carolina to call federal immigration officials if someone is suspected of being in the country illegally. It also creates a new police force to enforce a law that would also make it a felony to make fake photographic identification for illegal immigrants. People convicted of that felony could face $25,000 fines and five years in prison. It doesn’t take effect until January.


Indiana passed its law in May, which required public employers and state contractors to verify workers’ immigration status using the federal government’s E-Verify system. But a federal judge blocked parts of it the following month, saying it was the latest failed effort of states to deal with a primarily federal issue.


On Wednesday, a federal judge refused to block key parts of Alabama’s law that requires public schools to verify the citizenship status of students and report statistics to the state, among other things. U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn said that some parts of the law are in conflict with federal statues, but others aren’t.


She said federal law doesn’t prohibit checking students or suspects pulled over by police. She also refused to stop provisions that allow police to hold suspected illegal immigrants without bond; bar state courts from enforcing contracts involving illegal immigrants; make it a felony for an illegal immigrant to do business with the state; and make it a misdemeanor for an illegal resident not to have immigration papers. (FoxNews.com, September 30, 2011).


Kudos to Justice Blackburn, shame on the rest of them. I haven’t yet found the names of the federal judges above who blocked key parts of their respective states reformed immigration bills from taking effect, but when I do, and you can bet your bottom that I will, I’ll give you 10:1 odds that they were Oblahblah appointees.  


Maybe this is obozo’s way of  finally keeping with his campaign promise of transparency. It’s fairly obvious that the attempts to thwart/circumvent our immigration laws are just a poorly disguised ruse by the thief-in-charge and his minions to “legalize” enough voters for the 2012 election. It’s a blatant   attempt to give themselves any possible foothold--even one dangling off the side of a crumbling cliff. 


Their “hope” is that, when combined with all the dead citizens they revived to pull the lever, along with those imbued with rights evidently not granted en masse via the Constitution to have their vote count more than once, they’ll have effectively secured a win. And then on Sunday, January 20, 2013 the betrayer-in-chief will once again stand with one traitorous hand on a Bible in which he doesn’t believe and hollowly repeat the words specified in Article Two, Section One, Clause Eight of the Constitution:


“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” 


I wonder if this time he’ll get it right on his first try or if like in 2009 the presidential oath will need to be taken a second time "out of an abundance of caution," because when it was administered to President Obama the first time, in the public inauguration ceremony, the word "faithfully" was misplaced. 


The second bald-faced scam foisted on our populace is the Solyndra Clean Energy Fund that I predicted would be bankrupt by November of 2011, well…they beat me to the punch and managed to spend more tax-payer money than even I thought they were capable of. This is the liberal scam of all scams, hatched by Al Gore and held near and dear to the democratic/progressive lefts fear-mongering tactics to keep their sticky fingers in our ever-emptying pockets to fund the shell corporations designed to fail, and take our hard-earned tax dollars with it.


The whole thing is terribly confusing by design in order to keep the average American from fully comprehending the total fiasco this “investment” was from the beginning. Even I, who can’t even balance my checkbook, predicted as much in my post published July 5th, 2010  http://politicalpatrol.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-clusterfk.html.


Below is the long and short of it as reported by FOX News:


As the Energy Department moves to finalize the last remaining loan guarantees from a controversial clean-energy fund, the federal government is on pace to put up more than $6 million for every permanent job saved or created by the program. 


As of late Friday afternoon, the program that doled out money to now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra has backed up $16 billion in clean-energy loans. And although the program, which expires Friday, aims to wean the country off fossil fuels and build up the alternative power industry, it has been touted as a jobs generator.


The loan guarantees do not necessarily represent an actual government payment -- they are a commitment by the government to assume debt if a company or project goes under. But in the case of Solyndra, the government ended up lending $528 million, with taxpayers on the hook in the wake of the bankruptcy. 


For all the money the federal government is putting on the line to support renewable energy projects that administration officials say are the key to winning the future, the program has saved or created about 2,500 permanent jobs. That's $6.4 million per job. 


The numbers come from Department of Energy figures reviewed by FoxNews.com. If temporary construction jobs are lumped in, the jobs total rises to more than 16,700.Counting all jobs; the government is still committing the equivalent of nearly $1 million per job. 


The number of jobs pegged to each project varies widely. A $197 million loan guarantee for an Oregon solar panel firm was estimated to create or save 500 permanent jobs. A separate $737 million loan guarantee finalized this week for a Nevada solar facility was tied to just 45 permanent jobs -- as well as 600 construction jobs. A $646 million loan guarantee being announced Friday for a California solar facility is projected to fund 20 permanent jobs and 350 construction jobs. 


"Where are the jobs?" Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the House panel looking into the Solyndra case, said in a statement Friday. "Here we have a stimulus program in its final hours with DOE poised to rush billions out the door, yet the latest $646 million loan creates just 20 permanent operations jobs -- that's $32 million per job!"


The Department of Energy argues the tally is actually much higher when other programs are factored in. The department's loan office administers three different programs and in a statement earlier this month estimated they've created or saved about 44,000 jobs total. That tally factors in construction jobs, as well as the 33,000 jobs the administration claims were saved by a Ford loan through a program designed to support emerging vehicle technologies. 


Federal officials indicate the program is not just about creating jobs. Administration officials have stressed the program is meant to help the United States expand on its relatively modest foothold in the clean-energy market. 


Jonathan Silver, director of the Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, testified before a House committee investigating the matter that China is home to five of the 10 largest solar manufacturers, and Asia as a whole is home to seven of them. The United States, he said, is home to just two. 


"It is in this context that we should discuss the Solyndra transaction," he said, describing the program as a matter of national interest. 


"Developing a robust clean-energy manufacturing sector in the United States is critical to our long-term national interests, and one of the most important tools as our global competitors have already learned is low-cost financing effectively targeted and deployed," he said. "We invented this technology, and we should produce it here." 


A department statement also said the program is designed to encourage others in the private sector to take their own financial risks and back similar projects. 


Though Solyndra went bust, administration officials say they have been conducting extensive analysis on the remaining loans. The department said in a statement that every application "has undergone many months of due diligence." The department said analysts are evaluating applications to make sure they are "commercially viable." 


A few of the commitments offered by the Department of Energy are partial guarantees. The loan guarantees cover everything from solar to wind to geothermal projects, many of which are based in Western states. 


And yet, as with everything attached to this corrupt administration, the more we peel the onion, the more layers of fraudulent backdoor, underhanded dealings we uncover.


Just one day before the controversial federal loan program that backed bankrupt solar company Solyndra was to end, a Spanish-owned firm received a $132 million loan guarantee.


Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Thursday that Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass would receive the guarantee to support the development of a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant that is estimated to create 300 construction jobs and 65 permanent jobs in Kansas.


“Investing in a domestic advanced biofuels industry will help us compete in a growing, global clean energy economy while creating jobs in rural communities across the country,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. “At the same time, these investments will help us reduce carbon emissions and decreases our dependence on oil.”


The company is a subsidiary of Abengoa Bioenergy US Holding, Inc., which is part of the Spanish engineering firm Abengoa.


Abengoa has also received more than $2.6 billion in federal loan guarantees from the Energy Department for two power-generating complexes, with the most recent $1.2 billion guarantee closing just this month.


An Energy Department official underscored to FoxNews.com that the loan guarantees are for projects, not the companies, and that the projects have to be in the U.S. creating jobs.


The official added, "The fact that most windmill manufacturers are foreign-owned companies is the reason why we need to be investing in the capability to be doing these things at home." 


Created under President Obama’s 2009 stimulus, the Energy Department’s $38.6 billion loan guarantee program aimed to ignite the nation’s clean energy sector. But the program, which ends Friday, has come under intense scrutiny since the first recipient, Solyndra, filed for bankruptcy this month, leaving taxpayers on the hook for $528 million. Federal authorities are now investigating the company.


The Energy Department approved three more loan guarantees Friday totaling about $3.5 billion. The Arizona-based First Solar Inc. received a $1.5 billion loan guarantee for a 550-megawatt solar farm on federal land in Southern California and Exelon Corp. received $646 million for a 230-megawatt solar plant near Los Angeles.


A third project worth $1.4 billion will support installation of about 750 solar rooftop panels in 28 states.


"In a last-minute mad dash to beat the stimulus deadline, DOE today rushed out an unprecedented tidal wave of taxpayer dollars -- and the question still remains, where are the jobs?" said Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. 


"American taxpayers are already on the hook for half a billion dollars for the sins of Solyndra -- what surprises does DOE have in store from today's rush job?" he said.


Abengoa’s press releases tout the thousands of construction and other jobs that the two projects receiving $2.6 billion in federal loan guarantees will create. But the Energy Department’s own website reveals that the projects – one in the Mojave Desert in California, the other southwest of Phoenix –will permanently employ no more than 130 people after completion.
According to its 2010 annual report, Abengoa’s entire staff worldwide was 526 employees.


My final thought before I retire for the night has to do with the “alledged” capture and swift execution of the American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed by many to have been the second in command behind bin Laden in the Al Qaeda heiarchy. According to reports, Al Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric killed Friday, sought to use weapons of mass destruction to attack westerners in his role as chief of external operations for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to a senior U.S. official. 


There’s two points I feel compelled to make regarding these alleged reports. First and foremost is that idiot Ron Paul’s response, “Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, cried foul Friday over the killing of a radical U.S.-born cleric in Yemen without a trial, joining a chorus of civil liberties groups raising "due process" concerns over the drone attack.” He goes on to say, “No one likes these kind of people, but I also like the rule of law and I like our Constitution, that you don't just target people, assassinate them, someone who has not been charged and you have no proof of anything," Paul told Fox News. "So if we want to protect American citizens from that type of justice, we have to be more cautious."


NEWS FLASH MORON:
al-Awlaki IS NOT AN AMERICAN CITIZEN, AS SUCH HE IS NOT ENTITLED TO EQUAL PROTECTION GRANTED TO US CITIZENS UNDER OUR CONSTITUTION.


The second and final point that I want to make on this issue is that I have some serious doubts that al-Awlaki was ever captured/killed. I think the Obumbler lie machine is cranked up into over-drive in an attempt to be able to point to some (any) area of administrative success before they have to start rolling out the dead bodies again for the 2012 election. I predict between now and November, we’ll be hearing near daily reports of some high-ranking Al Qaeda operative being either captured or killed.


He can’t run on his ZERO-GROWTH JOBS PLAN, the sustained 9.7% unemployment rate that reached its apex and has virtually held steady since the day he was sworn in. His legacy of a healthcare reform act has devolved into such a polarizing issue in our country that even if he manages to buy off enough justices to have the thing declared constitutional (which it TOTALLY isn’t); it will effectively serve to completely destroy the only remaining superior healthcare system in the world. When’s the last time you heard of anybody flying to Canada for intricately involved open-heart surgery? My point exactly.


JGG

More Promises...More Lies. BO's MO.

***THIS IS THE DRAFT VERSION OF POST I NEVER COMPLETED, ORIGINALLY SAVED ON 1/25/2011. THEY ARE COMPANION NOTES TO THE ACTUAL TEXT OF HIS SPEECH WHICH I PUBLISHED ON 1/25/2011.

That State of the Union Address was a disgrace. These are the notes I jotted as he was blathering; I'll connect them to the points in the speech he was making when I wrote them in a minute.

Now he's going to try to sell us his clean energy tax...

Blatant lies. Does he think we're going to forget the last two years? He just asked for additional spending allocations yesterday...

I just watched a special report the other day that said "our" government subsidized some solar panel company millions, if not billions of $; within 6 months; that co. went bankrupt. We need to start drilling off our own shores!!! END OUR DEPENDENCY ON FOREIGN OIL!!

By the end of the decade, the US will have the highest % of UNEMPLOYED college graduates...

Boehner isn't buying any of it. He's rolled his eyes more than once and hasn't clapped for any of Obumbler's lies so far. Pelosi would be leading "the wave" by now...

Notice the military men did not stand/clap or even smile when he brought up the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?”. He's destroying US...

So he’s going to cut defense spending as well as funding to Medicare (government run healthcare for the elderly, which, I might add; the elderly have already paid for via automatic tax deductions from every pay check they worked for) but he wants us to throw open the flood-gates and grant citizenship to illegal’s who have never paid into the system...

The recession is over??? We need a government that learns how to live within our means???

Let me tell you something to maybe give you a little insight to why I feel the way I do. My dad paid a million dollars in taxes a year for as long as I've been alive, could have used some tax shelters and loopholes, but never did. Raised 5 kids without any help from Uncle Sam and put us all through private university by paying out of pocket because according to the government, he had too much money for any of us to qualify for financial aid.

Keep in mind, that he owned the biggest public transportation bus company in all of NY, servicing Manhattan and the 5 boroughs. He employeed 5,000 people and paid them top tier with the best company paid benefits available. The gvmt. didn't subsidize a dime of his company and even if they offered, my dad wouldn't take the $ because then they'd have a say. The man woke up at 4 AM every morning to drive to Queens from our house in Jersey and didn't get home until 6 PM at night.

My point in telling you all that is to say, yeah, we were fortunate, but we were fortunate because my dad WORKED HIS ASS OFF to make it so. He paid more than his fair share into the system and he's never gotten shit back from the system inn return. And never complained about it either.

When I got hurt, my medical bills topped $1,000,000--over and above what insurance covered. Granted, it was my parents choice to bring in certain specialists, but even the basic care, the room I was in while I was in the coma cost a hundred grand a day because of the 24 hour care. I was in my coma for 14 days. In ICU for another 2 weeks before I got transferred to a children's rehabilitation hospital for another 3 months.

While I was in the rehab, there were a lot of other kids there under "charity" care. And the government was PAYING THEM something like $100/day. When my parents asked about it after they found out from one of the other parents, they were told that I "didn't qualify" because my dad had too much $.

Why has my father always been punished for working hard? And this is nothing new under Obama, it's always been that way; Obama just wants to give them 10 fold more.

I'm disgusted with the whole thing...


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