Posts Tagged ‘Obama’

The news today that the United States will begin negotiating with the Taliban will certainly be celebrated in the future Afghanistan as “Taliban Victory Day.” There is a long history of negotiation with the Taliban; in absolutely every case, the Taliban has embraced talks insincerely. Think the Taliban are only interested in Pushtun areas of Afghanistan? Back in 1995, they had agreed in talks not to enter Herat, and yet into that non-Pushtun city they marched. Then, in 1996, they agreed to take part in negotiations about a broad coalition government in Afghanistan. The talks were still ongoing when they seized Kabul and imposed their reign of terror.

The United States also has a long history of negotiation with the Taliban. Between 1995 and 2000, Clinton administration officials—up to and including cabinet-level UN Ambassador Bill Richardson—met with the Taliban on perhaps 30 different occasions. The same individuals with whom President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry now seek negotiations had promised the Clinton team a range of Taliban concessions: giving up Bin Laden, closing terror training camps, and improving women’s rights. The terror attacks of 9/11 should reinforce how sincere the Taliban was in its promises.

Read more by Michael Rubin at aei-ideas.org

–SNIP– In the fall of 1996, at the campaign’s climax, Democrats filed with the Federal Election Commission charges against Salvi’s campaign alleging campaign finance violations. These charges dominated the campaign’s closing days. Salvi spoke by telephone with the head of the FEC’s Enforcement Division, who he remembers saying: “Promise me you will never run for office again, and we’ll drop this case.” He was speaking to Lois Lerner.

–SNIP– Lerner, it is prudent to assume, is one among thousands like her who infest the regulatory state. She is not just a bureaucratic bully and a slithering partisan. Now she also is a national security problem because she is contributing to a comprehensive distrust of government.

Read more by George Will at WashingtonPost.com

When even Zee Germans are staring open-mouthed at what they call “American-style Stasi methods” you know things have got a little out of hand. As Reuters reports, German outrage over a U.S. Internet spying program has broken out ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, with ministers demanding the president provide a full explanation when he lands in Berlin next week and one official likening the tactics to those of the East German Stasi. “The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is,” Merkel’s Justice Minister exclaimed, adding, “the suspicion of excessive surveillance of communication is so alarming that it cannot be ignored.” While Obama has defended it as a “modest encroachment” on privacy and reassured Americans that no one is listening to their phone calls, the Germans reflect “I thought this era had ended when the DDR fell.”

Read more at ZeroHedge.com

“The Stasi only dreamed of these capabilities.”

The last few weeks have been among the worst of Barack Obama’s time in office, recalling earlier periods of turmoil for the president in 2010 and 2011, when his ratings also plummeted. In 2013, the situation is significantly worse for the White House, with the Obama administration engulfed in a series of major scandals (IRS persecution of conservative groups, the Benghazi debacle, and the Justice Department seizure of journalists’ phone records) that are not only eroding trust in government but also in the office of the president itself. This is undoubtedly a period of steep decline for the Obama presidency, whose imperial-style big government approach is being increasingly questioned not only by American voters, but also by formerly subservient sections of the liberal-dominated mainstream media. In contrast to his first term, Barack Obama is finding himself less and less shielded by the press, and far more vulnerable to public criticism.

With good reason, Americans don’t feel optimistic about their country’s future with President Obama at the helm. . . .

Read more by Nile Gardiner at Telegraph.co.uk

Those crazy American conspiracy theorists who live up trees with guns and drink their own pee don’t seem quite so crazy anymore. It turns out that a “secret court order” has empowered the US government to collect the phone records of millions of users of Verizon, one of the most popular telephone providers – a massive domestic surveillance programme and a shocking intrusion into the lives of others. For the first time in history, being an AT&T customer doesn’t seem such a bad thing after all.

Of course, it isn’t the first time that a US administration has spied on its own people. . . .

Read more by Tim Stanley at Telegraph.co.uk

–SNIP– Barack Obama was born into an Islamic society. He is a product of skewed secretive, distrustful, paranoid, victimized teachings that included studying the Koran and living life lessons as taught by the Prophet Muhammad.

During his formative years Obama attended madrassas and lived in a world dominated by Islamic thinking. Perhaps that is of no consequence, but it is no secret that many Muslims are indoctrinated in their youth long before they have any concept of what they are saying.

Far fetched? Maybe, but how many times have we seen attorneys defend clients by claiming child abuse and all manner of detrimental external prejudice that influenced a person during childhood? It happens all the time. Why should the early outside forces on the president be any different when as a youth he was surrounded by a preponderance of Islamic thinking?

Read more by Bob Taylor at WashingtonTimes.com

–SNIP– With a nod to Michelle Obama, for the first time in my adult life, I’m beginning to believe that government is my enemy. Not a nuisance, nor a necessary evil, but a conglomeration of self-absorbed, self-interested people working directly against the interests of the American public. People who, if Americans ever got the courage to openly rebel, would instinctively seal off Washington, D.C., rather than seriously address the source of the peoples’ discontent.

–SNIP– This administration deliberately plays Americans off one another for the purpose of creating resentment and envy. The moochers and the slackers are told nothing is their own fault, that they shouldn’t have to pay a nickel for America’s upkeep, and that the only thing keeping them down is the free-market capitalist system. The genuine wealth creators (not the crony capitalists) are told they’re not paying their “fair share,” even as they already pay the lion’s share of taxes — and even as those telling them to do so are the most irresponsible stewards of American finances the country has ever known. The middle class? They’re told we’re in an economic recovery, even as housing continues to crater, they can’t find jobs, and the cost of everything keeps going up.

Read more by Arnold Ahlert at Jewish World Review

–SNIP– Like Watergate, Benghazi has several layers. But the most revealing one is the active collusion between this administration and Al Qaida.

Al Qaida is a Saudi-inspired and Saudi-funded terror gang. Almost all of the terrorists on 9/11 were Saudis. Those facts are always covered up, but they are crucial to understanding the Jihad War.

In Benghazi we ran arms from Libya to Al Qaida rebels in Syria. The Saudis are funding that rebellion.

There’s that Saudi link again.

Read more by James Lewis at American Thinker

Barack Obama defeated* Mitt Romney by 166,214 votes in Ohio in 2012. That’s out of 5,489,028 votes cast. So Obama’s victory margin was just 3 percent, 50 to 47 over Romney.

But 20% of Ohio’s voters should not be on the rolls at all, according to a story in the Columbus Dispatch.

Read more by Bryan Preston at PJmedia.com

As more information about the IRS scandal trickles out daily, the White House’s involvement is becoming clearer. Those of us who’ve been warning about the demise of freedom with Barack Obama’s efforts to “fundamentally transform” our great nation are about to witness some sad vindication. Will awakened Americans finally join us in saying “enough is enough”?

The president would like us to believe that he only learned about the IRS corruption from watching the news. But we recently learned that the White House was actively working with the IRS on how to roll out the story of this scandal. So, Mr. President, how can you have your staff work on the roll out of the biggest controversy since Watergate, and yet claim that you only heard about it by watching the news with the rest of us?

Read more by Sarah Palin at Breitbart.com

There’s no reason to fear the liberal eyes of the IRS when you’ve got ConservoTax.

http://teamcoco.com/video/conservotax

Conservative radio host Mark Levin is very skeptical of the idea that President Obama had absolutely no idea about the IRS tea party targeting before the story broke in the news mere weeks ago. Levin declared adamantly that it is a “flat-out, bald-faced lie” that Obama didn’t know beforehand, citing prior reports by a few conservative news outlets picking up on the news well before the 2012 presidential election.

Read more by Josh Feldman at Mediaite.com

The Obama campaign played a big role in a liberal onslaught that far pre-dated Citizens United.

The White House insists President Obama is “outraged” by the “inappropriate” targeting and harassment of conservative groups. If true, it’s a remarkable turnaround for a man who helped pioneer those tactics.

On Aug. 21, 2008, the conservative American Issues Project ran an ad highlighting ties between candidate Obama and Bill Ayers, formerly of the Weather Underground. The Obama campaign and supporters were furious, and they pressured TV stations to pull the ad—a common-enough tactic in such ad spats.

What came next was not common.

Read more by KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL at WSJ.com

Is the worm turning against Barack Obama? After four-plus years of being given the benefit of the doubt by the bulk of the US media, the President now suddenly feels more vulnerable.

Today both the New York Times and the Washington Post have run prominent and angry editorials and columns slamming the administration for its attempt to criminalise a Fox News reporter James Rosen for working a State Department source to obtain a story.

Read more by Peter Foster at blogs.telegraph.co.uk

http://www.youtube.com/embed/vCjssK-i4Mg