Congress Doesn’t Know How Many Agencies Or Programs It Funds

How To Fix The Broken Budget

 

 

 

 

 

” Congress is required by law to pass a budget each fiscal year which lays out the framework for allocating taxpayer dollars for all federal programs. Additionally, Congress must pass 12 function and program –related appropriations bills that then distribute the funds to the various departments, agencies, and programs.

  Instead, Congress and the administration have relied on last-minute continuing resolutions (CRs) and omnibus spending bills that kick the can down the road by adopting only set levels of funding — providing no oversight over the worthiness of program spending, nor prioritizing spending according to our country’s needs.

  As President Reagan famously said: “Government programs, once launched, never disappear…a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”

  This broken approach must end if we are to ensure long-term competitiveness and quality of living in America for future generations.

  Let’s take a deeper look at the problem:

• Continuing resolutions keep programs on “auto-pilot” from year to year without any assessment of whether the money is being well spent. There have been more than 20 of these resolutions in the past five years.
• Nearly 200 government programs are “fragmented, duplicative, overlapping or just inefficient,” according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
• Congressional committees, charged with scrutinizing how each federal department and agency is actually spending taxpayer dollars, are strapped for time to do so. Committees, on average, hold specific program oversight hearings only a few hours each month and generally focus attention on only one or two programs each year — neglecting many programs under their jurisdiction.
• Without proper legislative oversight, wasteful government spending continues its meteoric climb as more and more power is ceded to the unaccountable executive branch to govern the programs. No oversight translates into a bureaucracy jobs program — paying federal workers billions to implement programs that have outlived their original mission.

  Incredibly, it’s been revealed that the government does not actually know the exact number of agencies, offices and government corporations it comprises. (A cursory count on various lists shows the number is in the several hundreds).”

 

 

 

Read more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Al-Qaida Continues To Gain Control In Yemen , Taking Over Military Base , Airport , Seaport & Oil Terminals

Amid Chaos, Al-Qaida Consolidates Hold Of Yemen Province

 

 

 

 

 

” Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen consolidated control over much of the country’s largest province on Thursday, capturing a major airport, an oil terminal and the area’s main military base, and striking an alliance with local tribal leaders to administer the region.

  The gains highlight how al-Qaida has exploited the chaos in Yemen, where Shiite rebels are battling forces loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. A 3-week-old Saudi-led air campaign in support of Hadi has so far failed to halt the rebels’ advance.

  Military officials and residents said al-Qaida fighters clashed briefly with members of one of Yemen’s largest brigades outside Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, which the militants overran earlier this month. The militants then seized control of Riyan airport and moved to secure their hold on the city’s main seaport, which is also an oil terminal.

  The security officials, speaking from Sanaa on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press, said the leaders of the brigade in charge of protecting the entire area fled.”

AP News has more on Barack’s latest foreign policy “triumph”

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Despite $300 Million/6 Year “Optimism” Campaign Army Morale Is In The Dumper

Army Morale Low Despite 6-Year, $287M Optimism Program

 

 

 

 

” More than half of some 770,000 soldiers are pessimistic about their future in the military and nearly as many are unhappy in their jobs, despite a six-year, $287 million campaign to make troops more optimistic and resilient, findings obtained by USA TODAY show.

  Twelve months of data through early 2015 show that 403,564 soldiers, or 52%, scored badly in the area of optimism, agreeing with statements such as “I rarely count on good things happening to me.” Forty-eight percent have little satisfaction in or commitment to their jobs.

  The results stem from resiliency assessments that soldiers are required to take every year. In 2014, for the first time, the Army pulled data from those assessments to help commanders gauge the psychological and physical health of their troops.

  The effort produced startlingly negative results. In addition to low optimism and job satisfaction, more than half reported poor nutrition and sleep, and only 14% said they are eating right and getting enough rest.

  The Army began a program of positive psychology in 2009 in the midst of two wars and as suicide and mental illness were on the rise. To measure resiliency the Army created a confidential, online questionnaire that all soldiers, including the National Guard and Reserve, must fill out once a year.

— Forty-eight percent or about 370,000 soldiers showed a lack of commitment to their job or would have chosen another if they had it to do over again. Only 28% felt good about what they do.

— About 300,000 soldiers or nearly 40% didn’t trust their immediate supervisor or fellow soldiers in their unit or didn’t feel respected or valued. Thirty-two percent felt good about about bosses and peers.”

 

USA Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hope&Change™ Strikes , Albeit Unintentionally As Israel And Moderate Muslims Leave Obama Behind

‘Arab-Israel Alliance’ Leaving Obama Isolated

 

 

 

” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has jabbed President Barack Obama with a stinging remark that although Israel and the United States are friends, fears of Iran and the ISIS have forged a “new partnership” of Israel and “many of our Arab neighbors.”

  Netanyahu took the opportunity of being charged with the responsibility to form a new government to say:

  We very much appreciate, and will take care to preserve, our alliance with the best of our friends, the United States; however, we will continue to work to prevent the agreement with Iran, an agreement that endangers us, our neighbors and the world. We see eye to eye with many of our Arab neighbors regarding the danger posed by Iran and we also view positively the benefit that this new partnership could have for the region.

  The chaos in Yemen has once again embarrassed the Obama administration by exposing another colossal foreign policy failure that has made President Obama increasingly isolated in the region.”

 

 

    This article from today’s Jewish Press amply demonstrates that our “Dear Leader” sides , not with all Muslims , but only with the extremist factions … Iran , Palestinian terror groups and jihadists , while Israel forges alliances with the more moderate Muslims of the mideast in the interests of self-preservation.

    One side seeks only to be left in peace while the other works ceaselessly towards a Global Caliphate with the active collusion of our “commander-in-chief” … President “Peace Prize” , who claims to seek peace in the middle east is in actuality ensuring  , whether by incompetence or design , that war is coming ala Neville Chamberlain .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hope & Change In Yemen: From September Celebration To March Miasma

Losing Yemen

 

 

 

 

 

” The last US special forces have been withdrawn from Yemen without exciting much notice from the US press.  Max Boot tweets: “All US SOF evacuating Yemen. Huge win for AQAP, huge defeat for US. How many foreign policy disasters can we handle?” Reuters reports, “the United States has evacuated its remaining personnel, including about 100 special operations forces, from Yemen because of the deteriorating security situation there, U.S. officials said on Saturday.”  This means that the last vestiges of what the Obama administration only recently touted as their model counter-insurgency operation are gone.  The collapse has flown largely under the media radar.

  Last week Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post reported that $500 million dollars in American supplied weapons are now in the hands of “Iranian-backed rebels or al-Qaeda”.  The Islamist blitzkrieg is living off huge quantities of captured US materiel.

  BS News reported that an “Obama administration’s senior counterterrorism official acknowledged Thursday that the U.S. intelligence community was surprised by the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Yemen.”  Nobody saw it coming, but the very same people assure the public they know what is to come.  They’re in intelligence, right?

  Nick Rasmussen, who directs the National Counterterrorism Center, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Yemen’s American-funded army failed to oppose advancing Houthi rebels in the same way the U.S.-supported Iraqi military refused to fight Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants last year.

  What happened in Iraq with the onslaught of ISIS “happened in Yemen” on “a somewhat smaller scale,” he said. “As the Houthi advances toward Sanaa took place… they weren’t opposed in many places…. The situation deteriorated far more rapidly than we expected.” “

 

 

   Read more on the latest , of many , foreign policy failures of the Obama administration from Richard Fernandez

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Another Statist Fast Food Ban Instituted For “Your Own Good” Proves A Failure

Study: Fast-Food Curb Did Not Cut Obesity Rate In South LA

 

 

 

 

 

 

” A much-hailed law that restricted the opening of new stand-alone fast-food restaurants in one of the poorest sections of Los Angeles did not curb obesity or improve diets, a new study found.

  City lawmakers passed the zoning ordinance in 2008 that limited the opening or expansion of fast-food outlets in a 32-square-mile area south of Interstate 10 that struggles with high obesity rates and other health problems.

  The law, believed to be the first effort of its kind by a major city to improve public health, did not ban new eateries in strip malls.

  The research by the Rand Corp. think tank found that obesity rates in South Los Angeles continued to rise after passage of the law.

” It had no meaningful effect,” Rand senior economist Roland Sturm said. “There’s no evidence that diets have improved more in South LA. Obesity and overweight rates have not fallen.” “

 

The money quote:

 

” Before the fast-food ordinance, 63 percent of South Los Angeles residents reported being overweight or obese compared to 57 percent in other parts of the county. Three years after the ordinance went into effect, 75 percent of South Los Angeles residents reported being overweight or obese compared to 58 percent in other parts of the county.”

 

 

 

 

  Yet another piece of feel-good legislation impinging on the people’s right to choose proves a failure , read the rest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Report: Obama Admin Knew James Foley’s Location For Months And Dithered

Hostage Family: White House Had Information On Location For Almost Four Months

 

 

 

 

” Just how long did the White House sit on intelligence on where ISIS held American hostages? Allahpundit asked that question yesterday, when the difference in sources put it between four and seven weeks. The mother of James Foley tells the Daily Beast’s Jamie Dettmer and Shane Harris that it may have been closer to four months:

  But Diane Foley, the mother of James Foley, who was the first American to be shown murdered on camera, also raised questions about the timing of the rescue effort, telling The Daily Beast that French officials had developed information about the hostages’ location as early as March, but that the U.S. government didn’t act on it.

“ That was part of our frustration,” she said. “The State Department said they were connecting with the French and everybody at the highest levels.” And yet, there was no movement on the U.S. side. “Very specific information was available as early as mid-March. And that’s what’s been so tough for us as families, because apparently they were held in the same place all those months,” Foley said.”

 

 

Hot Air has more

 

 

    Does anyone find it peculiar that the only ones that seem to benefit from Obama’s vaunted “smart diplomacy” are the “non-existent” radical muslim extremists ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Majority Of Americans Polled View Obama As A Failure

Most Americans Label Obama Presidency A Failure

 

 

 

 

” In another sign of President Obama’s deteriorating public support, more than half of Americans now say that he is failing as president, the latest IBD/TIPP poll finds.

  The poll, which ended Friday, found that 53% characterize Obama’s presidency as a failure vs. 41% who rate it a success. Just 6% say that they aren’t sure.

  Obama’s standing among independents is even worse, with 58% calling his presidency is a failure. Half of those who live in states that voted for Obama say that his presidency is failing.

  Broken down by age, only those age 18-24 say that Obama has been a success (77% of this group believes that). His worst showing is among those 25-44, of whom 59% describe his presidency as failing.

  Another striking contrast: Most single women (54%) judge his presidency a success, but only 32% of married women do. “

 

 

Investors Business Daily has all the details

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Priorities: Obama Skips 58% Of Intel Briefings , 0% Of Tee Times

Obama Has Missed Over Half His Second-Term Daily Intel Briefings

 

 

 

 

 

” A new Government Accountability Institute (GAI)report reveals that President Barack Obama has attended only 42.1% of his daily intelligence briefings (known officially as the Presidential Daily Brief, or PDB) in the 2,079 days of his presidency through September 29, 2014.

  The GAI report also included a breakdown of Obama’s PDB attendance record between terms; he attended 42.4% of his PDBs in his first term and 41.3% in his second.

  The GAI’s alarming findings come on the heels of Obama’s 60 Minutes comments on Sunday, wherein the president laid the blame for the Islamic State’s (ISIS) rapid rise squarely at the feet of his Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“  I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” said Obama.

According to Daily Beast reporter Eli Lake, members of the Defense establishment were “flabbergasted” by Obama’s attempt to shift blame. “

 

 

 

 Below is the gist of the report from GAI which puts Obama’s dereliction on stark display …

 

 

 

Click for PDF of report

 

 

    Here is the balance of 2012 thru September 29th 2014 .

 

 

Click for PDF of report

 

    As anyone can see  , 2014 with all the failures of his foreign policy blossoming around him , from Ukraine to Crimea , from Gaza to Syria , from the Mexican border to Ebola the man has set an all time low in attendance to the most important briefings of his work day .

 

 

    This from the man who’s primary job is NOT fundraising for the democratic party but protecting the security of the American people and territory .

 

  By contrast “Dear Leader” hasn’t missed a tee time in years …

 

 

 

 

 

   The total figure of 140 rounds played in the above graphic does not include all of 2013’s duffing nor any of 2014’s golf outings of which there have been 35 through August 23 , which gives him a grand total of plus or minus 192 rounds of golf since he took office . 

 

 

 

 

Obama (#GOLFTUS) Golf Outings
	Round		Date		Venue	US Casualties in Afghanistan
	194		Guess	–	Guess	Since last outing
	193			–
	192		23-Aug-14	–	Farm Neck Golf Club – One More Round before going back to White House for #GOLFTUS
	191		21-Aug-14	–	Farm Neck Golf Club – What to do after all the critism? Golf
	190		20-Aug-14	–	Vineyard Golf Club – 20 Minutes After Beheading Presser, #GOLFTUS is Golfing, Smiling
	189		15-Aug-14	–	Farm Neck Golf Club – 1 Hour Biking With Obama Ladies, Then Golf
	188		14-Aug-14	–	Vineyard Golf Club – #GOLFTUS Calls for Calm in Ferguson, Skips Gen Greene Funeral, Golfs
	187		12-Aug-14	–	Vineyard Golf Club – Just another vacation day… golfing
	186		10-Aug-14	–	Farm Neck Golf Club – 10 of First 30 Hours on Vacation Spent Golfing
	185		9-Aug-14	–	Farm Neck Golf Club – 30 Minutes after arriving on Martha’s Vineyard, Golf
	184		2-Aug-14	–	Andrews Air Force Base – #GOLFTUS celebrates birthday on golf course, of course
	183		26-Jul-14	–	Congressional Country Club – #GOLFTUS Playing Golf at Congressional	1
	182		20-Jul-14	–	Fort Belvoir – The world’s on fire and #GOLFTUS is on the green
	181		12-Jul-14	–	TPC Potomac Golf Club – #GOLFTUS Heads Out to the Golf Course of Course
	180		5-Jul-14	–	Andrews Air Force Base – #GOLFTUS Golfing with Old Friends
	179		28-Jun-14	–	Fort Belvoir – It’s Saturday, of course #GOLFTUS is Playing Golf	1
	178		21-Jun-14	–	Fort Belvoir – #GOLFTUS Heads Out to Play	3
	177		15-Jun-14	–	Rancho Mirage, CA – #GOLFTUS Weekend Tally: Two Golf Outings
	176		14-Jun-14	–	Rancho Mirage, CA – Exhausted #GOLFTUS Golfs as Terrorists Flood Baghdad	6
	175		7-Jun-14	–	Fort Belvoir – #GOLFTUS rushes back from Normandy to work on illegal immigrant child refugee situation..and golf game	2
	174		31-May-14	–	Fort Belvoir, VA – #GOLFTUS Golfs with Money Buddy, Wall St banker Robert Wolf	1
	173		24-May-14	–	Andrews Air Force Base – #GOLFTUS Rolls Out of Bed to Play Golf
	172		17-May-14	–	Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Gainesville, VA – #GOLFTUS Motorcade Gets The Finger	3
	171		10-May-14	–	Andrews Air Force Base – Golf as Usual
	170		3-May-14	–	Fort Belvoir, VA – Yes, We’re Playing Golf	3
	169		19-Apr-14	–	Andrews Air Force Base – It’s Saturday #GOLFTUS	1
	168		12-Apr-14	–	Andrews Air Force Base – #GOLFTUS Playing Golf on a Perfect Saturday
	167		5-Apr-14	–	Andrews Air Force Base – #GOLFTUS Spends Saturday Playing Chess	1
	166		17-Mar-14	–	Andrews Air Force Base – Golf season in Washington is underway
	165		9-Mar-14	–	Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo, FL – Russia invades Ukraine, #GOLFTUS golfs
	164		8-Mar-14	–	Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo, FL – #GOLFTUS links up with celebrities for golf game	2
	163		17-Feb-14	–	Rancho Mirage, CA – #GOLFTUS Golfing in California
	162		16-Feb-14	–	Rancho Mirage, CA – #GOLFTUS Golfing in California
	161		15-Feb-14	–	Rancho Mirage, CA – #GOLFTUS Golfing in California	10
	160		4-Jan-14	–	Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course, Hawaii – #GOLFTUS Squeezes in One More Round	1
	159		2-Jan-14	–	Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course, Hawaii – #GOLFTUS Has Played Golf Every Day of 2014
	158		1-Jan-14	–	Mid Pacific Country Club, Hawaii – Video || #GOLFTUS Putts on the 18th	1

 

Above list courtesy of The Obama Golf Counter

 

 

 

Read more at Breitbart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Liberals Make Excuses For Obama

Nobody’s Fault

 

 

 

 

” All of a sudden, people have noticed that we are in trouble, and many are saying it isn’t the president’s fault. All the bad news, from Iraq to Ukraine, from Libya and Syria to the Mexican border, just seems to have happened: Obama was standing there, golfing or shaking hands with donors, and, like a burst of bad weather, the winds blew, the skies opened, and things went to hell. Mysterious forces conspired against him, terrible setbacks occurred for no reason, and we were left with effects without a cause. His supporters commiserate with him and note his bad fortune at being in office at a time when events make his life difficult.”

 

 

    Now that the fact that the world is heading to hell in a hand basket can no longer be denied and the “blame Bush” card has expired the Obama sycophants must resort to the old standby , bad luck in finding excuses for their failed “leader” .

 

 

” The reasons offered for why bad things aren’t his doing fall into three different categories: (1) The system is broken, the country is polarized, and the Republicans have become too insane to deal with; (2) stuff happens, and no one at all can do much about it; and (3) people think that the president ought to be Superman and solve all their problems, which is really expecting too much.”

 

 

Read the whole thing from Noemie Emery and see the newest ploy to shield their boy from any hint of responsibility .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This Falls Under The “Fish Rots From The Head” Department

Gen. Dempsey’s ‘Failures In Leadership’ Cited In Benghazi Disaster

 

 

 

 

” Congress generally has given the Pentagon a pass on failing to come to the aid of Americans in Benghazi — that is until now.

  Six Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, led by Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, have issued a blistering criticism of Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, who as Joint Chiefs chairman is the nation’s highest-ranking officer and chief military adviser to President Obama.

  Under the heading “Failures in leadership — General Dempsey,” the senators singled out the four-star officer for not having an emergency plan in place in al Qaeda-infiltrated North Africa, including Benghazi, Libya.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More Evidence of Drug War Failures

Ted Galen Carpenter Writes :

” In an article over at CNN.com, I discuss a new study that confirms that the war on drugs is an expensive failure. That report from BMJ Open, an affiliate of the British Medical Journal, reaches the damning conclusion, supported by compelling evidence, that drug warriors have consistently failed to achieve their stated objectives.

Among other findings, the report documents that inflation-adjusted and purity-adjusted prices of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin have all decreased dramatically since 1990. That was true in such geographically distinct areas as Europe, the United States, and Australia. In other words, illegal drugs are plentiful and cheap around the world, and there is no indication that the trend is likely to change.

We need to recognize that our second fling with prohibition, this time with respect to such drugs as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, hasn’t worked any better than the first. Indeed, the current version has led to even worse consequences. It is well past time to terminate the futile, disastrous war on drugs. The BMJ Open study gives an abundance of new evidence why the United States needs to set a good example and lead the world away from the folly of drug prohibition.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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US Reliability Questioned Overseas

That “Smart Diplomacy” Is Really Paying Off

 

 

 

 

” An unmistakable sense of unease has been growing in capitals around the world as the U.S. government from afar looks increasingly befuddled – shirking from a military confrontation in Syria, stymied at home by a gridlocked Congress and in danger of defaulting on sovereign debt, which could plunge the world’s financial system into chaos.

While each of the factors may be unrelated to the direct exercise of U.S. foreign policy, taken together they give some allies the sense that Washington is not as firm as it used to be in its resolve and its financial capacity, providing an opening for China or Russia to fill the void, an Asian foreign minister told a group of journalists in New York this week.

Concerns will only deepen now that President Barack Obama canceled travel this weekend to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Bali and the East Asia Summit in Brunei. He pulled out of the gatherings to stay home to deal with the government shutdown and looming fears that Congress will block an increase in U.S. borrowing power, a move that could lead to a U.S. default.

The political turbulence in Washington and potential economic bombshells still to come over the U.S. government shutdown and a possible debt default this month have sent shivers through Europe. The head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, worried about the continent’s rebound from the 2008 economic downturn.

“We view this recovery as weak, as fragile, as uneven,” Draghi said at a news conference.

As Europe worries about economics, Asian allies watch in some confusion about what the U.S. is up to with its promise to rebalance military forces and diplomacy in the face of an increasingly robust China.

Global concerns about U.S. policy came to a head with Obama’s handling of the civil war in Syria and the alleged use of chemical weapons by the regime of President Bashar Assad. But, in fact, the worries go far deeper.”

 

 

 

Read the whole scathing piece on the diminution of the USA under Obama.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Newsweek : “Hit The Road Barack”

Niall Ferguson: Obama’s Gotta Go

” In his inaugural address, Obama promised “not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.” He promised to “build the roads and bridges, the electric grids, and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.” He promised to “restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.” And he promised to “transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.” Unfortunately the president’s scorecard on every single one of those bold pledges is pitiful.

In an unguarded moment earlier this year, the president commented that the private sector of the economy was “doing fine.” Certainly, the stock market is well up (by 74 percent) relative to the close on Inauguration Day 2009. But the total number of private-sector jobs is still 4.3 million below the January 2008 peak.”

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“Phony Scandals” and “Distractions”

Obama Blames Five Years of a Bad Economy on “Phony Scandals” and “Distractions”

 

 

” President Obama did his best to shift his administration’s focus to the economy today during a speech at Illinois’ Knox College by blaming the anemic economy on Republicans and “phony scandals.” 

As predicted, Obama gave America the same speech he’s been giving for five years, saying the country needs more infrastructure spending due to crumbling roads and bridges, that we must fight poverty, that CEOs are making too much money while the poor suffer etc. He even went so far as to tout “saving the auto industry” one week after Detroit filed for bankruptcy.

Funny, I’m not sure the IRS targeting American citizens (with the help of one of Obama’s political appointees) for political purposes or four dead Americans killed in Benghazi count as “phony” but hey, “what difference, at this point, does it make?” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Witness The Endgame Of Liberal Governance

Once-great Detroit collapses, files for biggest city bankruptcy in U.S. history

” Detroit, once one of the great power centres of North America, has collapsed, filing for what would be the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

  The city’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, today asked a court to put the municipality into bankruptcy protection, what is known as a Chapter 9 filing.

  The move followed negotiations with creditors, including those asked to take a substantial haircut on their debts.”

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These Are The Victims Of A Failure Of Government

 

The Wall Street Journal

 

The Fatalities

Officer Sean Collier , Martin Richard , Lingzi Lu and Krystle Campbell clockwise from upper left .

 

 

 

 

    Of course that’s not the way the WSJ put it , but face it , Tamerlan Tsarnaev was arrested for Assault & Battery in 2009 and could have been deported then . In 2011 the FBI , at the request of a foreign government , investigated him and allegations that he was an adherent of Radical Islam and again dropped the ball . Is that effective terror prevention ? 

 

 

” Late Friday, the FBI posted this statement on its 2011 interview ofTamerlan Tsarnaev, the suspected Boston bomber who was killed in a police shootout. Here is the statement:

 

2011 Request for Information on Tamerlan Tsarnaev from Foreign Government 

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, age 26, was previously designated as Suspect 1, wearing a black hat. Dzhokar A. Tsarnaev, age 19, was designated as Suspect 2, wearing a white hat. Both were born in Kyrgyzstan.

Once the FBI learned the identities of the two brothers today, the FBI reviewed its records and determined that in early 2011, a foreign government asked the FBI for information about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The request stated that it was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups.

In response to this 2011 request, the FBI checked U.S. government databases and other information to look for such things as derogatory telephone communications, possible use of online sites associated with the promotion of radical activity, associations with other persons of interest, travel history and plans, and education history. The FBI also interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and family members. The FBI did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign, and those results were provided to the foreign government in the summer of 2011. The FBI requested but did not receive more specific or additional information from the foreign government.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Government Assistance … Humph

Poverty has won the War On Poverty

” Here’s the real reason, folks: Government
welfare isn’t an effective method for fighting
poverty. In fact, it looks like welfare is
keeping poverty alive.
Check out the chart, from Economist Daniel
Mitchell’s International Liberty website.
LBJ’s War On Poverty was the equivalent of
spreading top-notch fertilizer on a weed
patch. Poverty was dying until Washington
D.C. got involved in killing it. Incredible,
isn’t it? ”

By all means read the whole thing .

Should We Have Expected Otherwise ?

Obama, Clinton Escape Blame In Benghazi Report

 

 

” “Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place,” says the report, which was written by the “Accountability Review Board for Benghazi.”

“However, the Board did not find reasonable cause to determine that any individual U.S. government employee breached his or her duty,” state the report’s authors, all picked by the administration. “

 

 

Related articles

• Benghazi verdict: grossly inadequate security and systemic failures of leadership (powerlineblog.com)
• The Fix is in: Hillary’s Benghazi cover-up – like Vince Foster death investigation (canadafreepress.com)
• Clinton won’t testify before Senate on Benghazi attack..Her head hurts.. (seeker401.wordpress.com)
• Benghazi Review Puts Blame Squarely on State Department for Systemic Failures (thegatewaypundit.com)
• Report: Clinton to miss testifying on Benghazi attack (itv.com)
• Megyn Kelly Revives Benghazi ‘Controversy’ As Respite From Newtown Shootings (newshounds.us)

Hillary Clinton Is An Idiot … Part ?

Hillary Clinton Claims Legalization Not Solution To Drug War

” Clinton also said that even if the drug cartels were driven from the drug trade they would find other areas in which they could make money:

“When you’ve got ruthless, vicious people who have made money one way and it’s somehow blocked, they’ll figure out another way.”

This reply seems to admit that legalization would block the cartels from making money drug trafficking and actually grants critics one of their points in favor of legalization.

 Clinton also spoke about the Obama administration’s response to the recent legalization of marijuana in referenda in Colorado and Washington saying:

“We are formulating our own response to the votes of two of our states as you know — what that means for the federal system, the federal laws and law enforcement.”

Related articles

• Hillary Clinton Reminds a Hurting Latin America That She Is Opposed to Drug Legalization (reason.com)
• Drug Treaties Do Not Empower Congress To Override Or Repeal State Referenda Legalizing Marijuana (volokh.com)
• Calderon: ‘Impossible to end drug trade’ (washingtonpost.com)
• From Mexico to Moscow, the World Turns on to U.S. Marijuana Legalization (world.time.com)
• Marijuana Legalization Could Cut Cartels’ Earnings By As Much As 30 Percent, According To Mexico-Based Study (huffingtonpost.com)
• The Lords Of The Global Drug Trade (panoffolin.wordpress.com)
• Feds Worry That Legal Pot Will Be Too Cheap and Too Expensive (txwclp.org)

Successful At What ?

7 Questions That Will Determine the Success or Failure Of Barack Obama’s Second Term

 

 

 

” When British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was asked what might knock his administration off course, he famously responded, “Events, dear boy, events.” There’s a lot of truth to that. At any point in time, an unexpected event can throw the political world into turmoil. However, more often than not, it’s not the blindside hit that gets you so much as the freight train you’ve seen coming for miles.

When Barack Obama came into office, he had a number of serious challenges to deal with and not only has he effectively addressed very few of them, many of them have worsened on his watch. In fact, the thing Barack Obama has proven most adept at in his first term is pointing the finger elsewhere. He may have been able to shift the blame from himself to George Bush, the filibuster, the Supreme Court, Republicans in Congress, Rush Limbaugh, ATM machines, the economy in Europe and everything under the sun, but after four years and counting in office, more and more of the American people are going to be interested in results rather than excuses. How Barack Obama handles those issues may not only determine how he’s viewed by the American people, it could conceivably impact the reputation of the Democratic Party for decades.

1) When does the economy recover? “

 

 

John Hawkins Is Always Worth A Read

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• Arizona Gun Store: If You Voted For Barack Obama, “Turn Around and Leave” (conservativeread.com)
• Limbaugh On Obama Win: ‘I Went To Bed Thinking We’ve Lost The Country’ (oldschool945.com)
• The man who made us care about America… (standard.co.uk)
• FLASHBACK: At Least Petraeus Wasn’t Having An Affair With The Mistress Of A Soviet Spy (businessinsider.com)
• Events Will Save The GOP (dickmorris.com)
• If a scandal falls in the forest, and the press doesn’t think so… (legalinsurrection.com)

BREITBART EXCLUSIVE – INSIDE ORCA …

… HOW THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN SUPPRESSED ITS OWN VOTE

 ” As Republicans try to explain their Election Day losses in terms of policy, tactics, and strategy, one factor is emerging as the essential difference between the Obama and Romney campaigns on November 6: the absolute failure of Romney’s get-out-the-vote effort, which underperformed even John McCain’s lackluster 2008 turnout. One culprit appears to be “Orca,” the Romney’s massive technology effort, which failed completely.

A source within the Romney campaign agreed to share his reflections on Project Orca with Breitbart News:

It’s easy to point fingers after a loss and I wouldn’t normally do it, but consider what happened.

Project Orca was supposed to enable poll watchers to record voter names on their smartphones, by listening for names as voters checked in. This would give the campaign real-time turnout data, so they could redirect GOTV resources throughout the day where it was most needed. They recruited 37,000 swing state volunteers for this.”

Related articles

• Romney Camp Pushes Back on Orca Claims (nationalreview.com)
• FUBAR Republicans: How Mitt Romney’s campaign accidentally suppressed his own vote! (dangerousminds.net)
• Fail Whale Leaps From Twitter, Lands On Mitt Romney (wired.com)
• Inside Project ORCA (powerlineblog.com)

Obama needs to come clean on Benghazi

Jennifer Rubin

  ” So how about it, Mr. President — who called off a rescue and why?
President Obama, a little more than a week before the election, won’t
tell Americans what happened. Well, why should he — the press
doesn’t hound him, the liberal elite still rushes to his defense, and
his White House attack dogs bark “Politics!” whenever legitimate
questions are asked.

  Meanwhile, the father of slain SEAL Tyrone Woods is furious with
the administration, demanding to know why his son wasn’t saved
when “apparently even the State Department had a live stream and
was aware of their calls for help. My son wasn’t even there. He was
at a safe house about a mile away. He got the distress call; he heard
them crying for help; that’s why he and Glen risked their lives to go
that extra mile just to take care of the situation. And I’m sure that
wasn’t the only one received that distress call — you know, ‘Come
save our lives.’” ”

Posted by John Galt

Sunday Steyn

  The Incredible Shrinking President

” You’ll recall that a near-month-long attempt to blame an obscure YouTube video for the murder of four Americans and the destruction of U.S. sovereign territory
climaxed in the vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden’s bald assertion that the administration had been going on the best
intelligence it had at the time. By then, it had been confirmed that there never had been any protest against the video, and that the Obama line that Benghazi had
been a spontaneous movie review that just got a little out of hand was utterly false. The only remaining question was whether the administration had knowingly lied or was merely innocently stupid. The innocent-stupidity line became harder to maintain this week after Fox News obtained State Department e-mails revealing that shortly after 4 p.m. Eastern, less than a half hour after the assault in Benghazi began, the White House situation room knew the exact
nature of it.

  Why would Obama and Biden do such a thing? Because to launch a military operation against an al-Qaeda affiliate on the anniversary of 9/11 would have exposed the hollowness of their boast through convention week and the days
thereafter — that Osama was dead and al- Qaeda was finished. And so Ty Woods, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Chris Stevens were left to die, and a decision taken to
blame an entirely irrelevant video and, as Secretary Clinton threatened, “have that person arrested.” And, in the weeks that
followed, the government of the United States lied to its own citizens as thoroughly
and energetically as any totalitarian state, complete with the midnight knock on the door from not-so-secret policemen sent to haul the designated fall-guy into custody. “