Bi-partisan acknowledgment that the nation’s legal immigration system is also in need of repair
Earlier this week, as the nation was still reeling, trying to absorb the grisly aftermath of the Boston marathon bombings, Ann Coulter wrote a cogent column titled: The problem isn’t just illegal immigration, it’s legal immigration, too. Coulter’s fact-filled commentary is our “Weekend reading guaranteed to make you smarter” recommendation.
Bob Beckel, ubitquitous liberal commentator and co-host of ‘The Five,’ appeared to catch his co-hosts off guard as he echoed similar thoughts. Beckel advocated for the temporary ending of student visas for foreign Muslim students as a means of combating homegrown terror.
Taking a cue from his boss Barack Hussein Obowma, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry bows before South Korean officials before meeting with President Park Geun-hye. Kerry used the occasion to admonish North Korea, telling the lunatic regime which starves and enslaves its own people, it would be a “huge mistake” to test launch a medium-range missile, warning the United States would never accept the nation as a nuclear power.
Does anyone think they care? In February North Korea set off its third nuclear test and intensified long-range rocket launches — clearly saber-rattling aimed at the United States — which the despotic government has described as the “sworn enemy of the (North) Korean people.”
Kerry, like others in the Obama administration, has played down an assessment from the Pentagon’s intelligence agency that North Korea already has a nuclear missile capacity.
Taking anything this lightweight says seriously requires amnesia. No doubt the North Koreans remember John Kerry as blasting the U.S. military with false testimony at congressional hearings and at rallies where he joined with Jane Fonda — the thespian who previously sat astride a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun — aimed at our U.S. service personnel.
With Obama in the White House, we have no one in charge.
Thinking Americans are becoming increasingly alarmed regarding the shaky state of the economy and soaring national debt amid Barack Obama’s mounting and unsustainable federal spending. Anxiety levels have amplified as we’ve watched the seizure of the bank accounts of private citizens as a government bailout scheme to keep the nation of Cyprus afloat in the European Union. Who could not experience anxiety over likely parallels right here at home?
Former U.S. Rep. David Stockman, who served as Ronald Reagan’s budget director from 1981 to 1985, has written a must-read op-ed commentary in the New York Times, titled “State-Wrecked: The Corruption of Capitalism in America.” Stockman’s somber, funereal op-ed lays out his conviction that the American economy has already driven off the cliff, that we’re now in a slow freefall, just a few crises away from slamming into the ground.
A takeaway from David Stockman’s op-ed:
“Without any changes, over the next decade or so, the gross federal debt, now nearly $17 trillion, will hurtle toward $30 trillion and soar to 150 percent of gross domestic product from around 105 percent today. Since our constitutional stasis rules out any prospect of a “grand bargain,” the nation’s fiscal collapse will play out incrementally, like a Greek/Cypriot tragedy, in carefully choreographed crises over debt ceilings, continuing resolutions and temporary budgetary patches.
The United States is broke – fiscally, morally, intellectually – and the Fed has incited a global currency war (Japan just signed up, the Brazilians and Chinese are angry, and the German-dominated euro zone is crumbling) that will soon overwhelm it. When the latest bubble pops, there will be nothing to stop the collapse. If this sounds like advice to get out of the markets and hide out in cash, it is.”
Then for additional sobering advice, check in with American Thinker’s column “We Happy Few” by Lee DeCovnick, who suggests three actions Americans should take to prepare for the coming financial meltdown. This is important information.
He includes this analysis:
“Americans are at dangerous crossroads, as the previously fixed constitutional safeguards between a citizen’s individual rights and rapacious government overreach are being swiftly dissolved. The hard progressive Left’s bizarre drive to micromanage our bodies, our air, our food and water, our private property, our guns and even our thoughts reveal the Orwellian hell in store for America. All the while the MSM tells us that our newly affixed handcuffs and leg irons are necessary tools to ensure safety and fairness, and to end the disproportional disparity in outcomes that white working men have devised in their pursuit of a racially pure, homophobic, misogynistic society.
We are being forced to our knees by the radical ideas daily forwarded by this malignant Administration, hell bent on disarming citizens, muzzling dissent, impoverishing working Americans, and purposefully creating economic chaos to foment a proletariat revolution. But then, what will happen to those racists white working bourgeoisie who paid their taxes, attended church and voted against Big Brother?
We few, we happy few, we band of Bill Ayers’s incorrigible 25 million capitalists, we will then recall the blood soaked baskets of the Place de la Concord.”
The tiny island of Cyprus is a stunning example of the ravages of the financial crisis that has ridden like a dark horse through much of Europe. A deal to prevent Cyprus from leaving the shaky European Union and abandon the euro needed financing to overt a catastrophic financial meltdown. The small nation’s hefty banking sector, which is over eight times the size of the economy is reliant for its survival on Germany — the EU’s leading economy. All very complicated.
First some background: The thrust behind the 1992 treaty that formed the union, was the belief that the 17-nation EU group would grow into a world power based on joint financial strength — with the euro as the controlling currency. That entailed surrendering the national currencies of the union’s members. As an example, France gave up its franc, Italy abandoned the lira and Germany its detusch mark on the promise of this strength. The EU became the reigning government of the European community with a controlling Parliament and Court of Justice, mutual Foreign and Security Policy, and Justice and Home Affairs — as the nation states retained little more than their own languages.
In the past couple of years the situation was further exacerbated by the longstanding socialism that undergirds the European countries. When the mechanism for funding health care and other social benefits upon which the masses had become reliant began to deteriorate, hundreds of thousands rioted in the streets, furious over talk of austerity and government cuts. Great Britain, Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal experienced violent demonstrations. Although plagued by the same economic problems, Great Britain is not a member of the EU.
The Heritage Foundation’s Foundry notes that Cyprus’s government spending has increased markedly since it joined the EU in 2004. Read more here.
Individual, private bank accounts above 100,000 euros have been seized by the government and earmarked to pay the bailout. The accounts are expected to yield 4.2 billion euros ($5.5 billion). It was previously reported that account holders would suffer an estimated 40% loss of their own assets. Under today’s regulations the news worsens. Depositors in the Bank of Cyprus will get shares in the bank worth 37.5 percent of their deposits over 100,000 euros. The rest of their deposits may never be repaid. The bottom line is that officials now acknowledge that these private account holders will lose 60% of their own money, saved in their own bank accounts — and now confiscated by their own government. Reuters has more here.
After being shutdown for nearly two weeks, banks reopened Thursday as Cyprus negotiated what is being called a ”rescue package.” Cypriots are permitted daily withdrawals of 300 euros.
Think it can’t happen here? We are seeing the future in Europe. Obama has been laying the groundwork for such a power grab as he demonizes the wealthy and encourages class warfare — while continuing to spend over $11 billion a day and saddling Americans with nearly $17 trillion in debt, with no end in sight.
Check out the U.S. Debt Clock here. By moving your cursor over each set of figures, the sources for the calculations will appear. Arizona’s ticking clock can be viewed here.
Worldwide goodwill, sportsmanship fly out the window
Sporting News MLB reports on the riotous baseball brawl that took place earlier this afternoon at Phoenix’ Chase Field. The vicious fight involved several players — and even fans — as the melee erupted in the ninth inning of Canada’s 10-3 clobber of Mexico in the World Baseball Classic.
The event was reminiscent of the June 2011 melee, as Mexican fans — most of whom resided in America — jeered the U.S. team and chanted obscenities at the goalkeeper, as they blared air horns and bounced beach balls during the playing of our national anthem at the Gold Cup Final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The U.S. team was roundly booed as a vast majority of attendees supported Mexico in the U.S.-Mexico soccer match. It was regarded as a Mexican “home game” held on U.S. soil.
The attendance of 93,420 was the largest for a Gold Cup game in the United States. Shamefully, the entire post-match ceremony was conducted in Spanish. The U.K. Daily Mail’s incredulous report on that pathetic event can be read here. Be sure to scroll through the shocking photos.
NBC News reports that hours before Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died at age 58, his second-in-command accused Chavez’ enemies of giving him cancer and announced the expulsion of two U.S. diplomats for an alleged plot to destabilize the government.
“There’s no doubt that Commandante Chavez’s health came under attack by the enemy,” Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in an address to the nation from the presidential palace.
Americans will remember the repressive leader for his mocking 2006 denunciation of President George W. Bush before the United Nations General Assembly — calling him “the devil” who thinks he is “the owner of the world.”
“Yesterday, the devil came here,” said Chavez, alluding to Bush’s appearance before the General Assembly the previous day. “Right here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.”
In rambling remarks translated from Spanish, he said the United States is “the gravest threat looking over our planet, placing at risk the very survival of the human species.”
Then Chavez dramatically made the sign of the cross, brought his hands together as if in prayer and glanced toward the ceiling. “It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us, and I embrace you all,” he said. “May God bless us all. Good day to you.”
Flamboyant former NBA celeb Dennis Rodman is notorious for a lot of things. Brilliance and international diplomacy are not among them.
During a recent trip to the repressive, communist-controlled dictatorship of North Korea, Rodman dined, drank and watched a basketball game with the country’s leader Kim Jong Un — apparently unconcerned that the head of the totalitarian regime has sworn to annihilate the United States. Last month’s third nuclear test and intensified long-range rocket launches are clearly saber-rattling aimed at the United States — which the despotic government has described as the “sworn enemy of the Korean people.”
Yet on Friday Rodman called Kim Jong Un an “awesome guy” and said his father and grandfather were “great leaders.”
In an airport interview on his way to Beijing, Rodman said it was “amazing” that the North Koreans were “so honest.” Along with calling Kim Jong-il and Kim il-Sung, North Korea’s founder, “great leaders,” Rodman proclaimed Kim Jong Un “a friend for life.”
“He’s proud, his country likes him — not like him, love him, love him,” Rodman said of Kim Jong Un. “Guess what, I love him. The guy’s really awesome.”
Does the cross-dressing, woman-beating, alcoholic who is behind nearly $1 million in child support payments have any idea that if North Koreans don’t “love him” they don‘t get a second chance?
Jonathan Kay writing for Canada’s National Post reports on the hideous gulags in the country where torture, lack of basic necessities and starvation are a way of life. We urge you to get the information our MSM often neglects to provide.
H/T Associated Press video
The grossly pierced and tattooed Dennis Rodman apologized on behalf of North Korea’s repressive leader during an interview today with George Stephanopoulos on ABC‘s This Week. Kim Jong Un, who can’t pick up the phone himself, told Rodman he “wants Obama to call him.” Rodman’s minuscule mind focuses on “He’s a great guy….He loves basketball…Obama loves basketball. Let’s start there.”
How about we starthere: According to North Korea Freedom Coalition, an estimated 3 million North Koreans have perished under the country’s brutal dictatorial regime since the mid-1990s. Families continue to starve to death as the North Korean government withholds food rations to entire regions of the nation. The government arbitrarily detains, tortures, and executes its citizens, including children, in a large network of prison and forced labor camps.
Listen closely as Rodman responds to Stephanopoulos’ questions about forced labor prisons, by saying. “We do the same thing here.”
“Guess what?” “Guess what?” “Guess what?” says deep thinker Rodman.
On gun policies, only 42% of Americans approve of Obama’s “solutions” while 54% disapprove.
Taxes? 41% approve and 57% disapprove.
On the economy, 39% approve and 60% disapprove.
He fares no better in his handling of the strife in the Middle East, 36% approve and 55% disapprove.
And on the federal budget deficit, Obama’s numbers plummet significantly as only 31% approve and 65% disapprove.
The only area in which Obama gains the support of a majority is on national defense issues, although the poll was conducted before North Korea reportedly tested a nuclear weapon on Monday. Obama seeks to diminish America’s nuclear arsenal.
Scroll down the Gallup page for job approval ratings by party affiliation. Registered Independents represent a core of voters dissatisfied with Obama’s handling of the issues of major importance.
Check out Obama’s approval ratings in depth and compare them with those of past presidents in the Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center. Scroll over the photo of each president from Truman to Obama to view graphs.
Tom Lopez, the principal at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, Colo. defends the action of the Cultural Arms club to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic. He says the club seeks to “destroy the barriers and embrace the cultures” that exist within the high school. Lopez says “We have a tremendous amount of diversity in our school.”
It would be interesting to know if anyone has taught these fledgling goodwill ambassadors to diversity that their grand vision is not realized in any Arabic/Muslim society, where women are repressed and tyrannical Sharia law is strictly enforced.
Do they know that although the building of Islamic mosques are celebrated with glowing news coverage here, new construction of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues are disallowed in Muslim controlled countries. The churches that do exist are ancient, decaying tourist stops, and permission to repair them is denied by the Islamic Imams. There are no vibrant congregations.
Yet when parents expressed outrage, Lopez said he was getting “worn down” by the complaints and the sense of “hate” among some of the critics. “I’ve been shocked with prejudicial statements that have been made,” he said. ” I’ve been shocked with the lack of seeking understanding.”
On the school’s website under “History,“ it boasts: “Rocky has always been on the cutting edge in terms of innovations and new ideas. It’s the Lobo way.” Of particular interest is the fact that Rocky Mountain High School shockingly graduates its students with 120 credits – far below the mandatory pre-college requirements of 170. (See page 13 of 34 in this report). The same report (page 15) advises students taking the ACT Prep College Admission test, “If you don’t know the answers…guess.”
Lopez would be wiser to incorporate more education and less innovation. Our future depends on it.
High stake treachery is nothing new, but terrorism is 21st Century matter
Mata Hari was an exotic dancer regarded as the epitome of the seductive female spy, and considered a hot number during World War I. She intentionally obscured her Dutch background, passing herself off as an East Indian born in a sacred temple. But her well constructed hoax, which included lovers who were high raking military officers of various nationalities, eventually crumbled. After being found guilty of spying for Germany against the allies, she was executed for espionage by a French firing squad in 1917.
Mata comes to mind in view of Debbie Schlussel’s exposé of a pair of her modern day equivalents, the twin Khawam sisters, Jill Khawam Kelley and Natalie Khawam, spies for Lebanon and the Arab world. These babes, both married wealthy Americans, and were able to party hearty as they hosted lavish soirees with top American military brass, among them two top generals in the Middle East, David Petraeus and John Allen.
Schlussel substantiates — with links to the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal — that Kelley was seen by Muslim Mid-East nations, especially Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, as the “go to” woman to push their agenda on top American generals.
The Khawam sisters aided the infiltration of Central Command at MacDill Air Base in Tampa by Islamic terrorists. Islamic Jihad founder and convicted Islamic terrorist, Sami Al-Arian, was an instructor on the Middle East to our top generals at MacDill.
Kelley’s sister, Natalie Khawam, was married to a top Bush administration official, Grayson Wolfe, Director of Broader Middle East Initiatives and Iraqi Reconstruction at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. She frequently accompanied him on trips to the Middle East, including to Pakistan. Before that position, Wolfe was the Bush-installed Manager of the Private Sector Development Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq.
This information originated last month, but is the groundwork for many as yet to be reported stories. Take the time to acquaint yourself with Debbie Schlussel’s blog posting. Knowledge is power.
Posted by seeingredaz 
