Obama salivating over $19.4 trillion in U.S. savings

On the heels of our recent post Pay attention: Cyprus gov’t raids 60% of private accounts, we have even more alarming news much closer to home. There is a concerted effort playing out within the Obama administration to separate Americans from their hard-earned savings

This May 2010 article in Human Events titled Republicans Sound Alarm on Administration Plan to Seize 401(k)s, provides important background, including a letter sent to the secretaries of the U.S. Treasury and the Department of Labor by over a dozen Republican members of Congress, including House Speaker John Boehner, expressing “our strong opposition to any proposal to eliminate or federalize private-sector defined contribution pension plans, such as 401(k)s, or impose burdensome new requirements upon the businesses, large and small, who choose to offer these plans to their employees.”

Author Connie Hair writes, “Now the backdoor bulls-eye is on your 401(k) plan and the trillions of dollars the government would control through seizure, regulation and federal disbursement of mandatory retirement accounts. Boehner and the group are sounding the alarm, warning bureaucrats to keep their hands off of America’s private retirement plans.”

January 2013 even Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings.

Government thieves masquerading as nannies are knocking loudly on our doors reminding us of Ronald Reagan’s legendary maxim: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

This article, The Feds Want Your Retirement Accounts, written by John White was published just last month in American Thinker. It begins with these unsettling words, “Quietly, behind the scenes, the groundwork is being laid for federal government confiscation of tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs.”

The world has just witnessed the outrageous actions of the government of Cyprus as it seized the bank accounts of its citizens in order to fund their massive debt.  As we stated yesterday, “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.”

We urge you to read the linked articles in Human Events, American Thinker and the Bloomberg report. You owe it to yourself and your family.

Knowledge is power.

H/T Commenter euby

Joyous Easter wishes

 We send our sincere best wishes for a joyful Easter.

Your friends at Seeing Red AZ

Pay attention: Cyprus gov’t raids 60% of private accounts

Socialist contagion ripples forward

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.

Gov. Jan Brewer: Doing Obama‘s job in AZ

Gov. Brewer is showing her allegiance to the Obama agenda in various ways — all of them troubling.  We recently wrote about the numerous statewide Legislative Districts and County Executive Committees that have passed resolutions in opposition to the Governor’s Medicaid Expansion (AHCCCS) in support of ObamaCare — which includes expansion of funding for abortion providers. We noted it was an odd step for the pro-life governor.

The entire Democrat caucus supported this outrageous and economically unsustainable government overreach.

Now Republican Brewer is touting her signing of HB 2425, a gigantic leap in implementing the Obama administration’s insidious Common Core Standards so beloved by the left. Every Democrat in both the AZ House and Senate voted for this bill, also. The Maricopa County Executive Guidance Committee unanimously passed a resolution opposing Common Core.

It is interesting to note that Gov. Brewer took 10 days before signing SB1070 into law.  Yet she took less than 10 hours to sign legislation supporting the Obama education plan endorsed by uber-liberal U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Conservative Columnist Michelle Malkin has a series devoted to this program, which she has aptly named Rotten to the Core. Gov. Brewer must have missed an installment or two.

H/T:  “Surrender art” GilbertWatch

Illegal invasion: AZ República blames security efforts

In a tribute to convoluted thinking regarding the dangerously porous U.S.-Mexico border, today’s edition of the Periódico de la República de Arizona (Arizona Republic) front pages a report by another of its open border enthusiast staffers. This latest piece of deception posing as news is titled “Tight border discourages migrants from going home.”

File that headline –as well as the entire fallacious report — under “bizarre.”

It’s not worth going into the depth of the absurdity that undergirds this most recent dose of snake oil — dishonestly packaging illegal aliens as mere “migrants” — that is being sold to the newspaper’s few remaining readers. The headline says it all.  For help in deciphering such drivel, our popular post Lingo, a primer on decoding Republicese is indispensable.

The bottom line is this: For desiring to have our sovereign national borders secured and respected — which the Obama administration and our own Arizona Sens. Juan McAmnesty and his toady Jeff McFlake — are working diligently to subvert, it is American citizens who are to blame.

The Arizona-Mexico border is the major portal for drugs, crime and illegal invaders who come not only from Mexico and a wide array of Latin American countries, but also from those which sponsor terrorism.

In 2011 we posted Hezbollah on our doorstep: Radical Muslims in border towns. It was based on this troubling report by San Diego’s ABC News 10.

As far back as October 2001, WND reported in an article titled “Arab terrorists crossing border,” that there has been a “tremendous increase in OTM’s (law enforcement’s term for ‘Other Than Mexicans’). Illegals from the former Soviet Union, Asia, and the Middle East are joining the flood of Mexicans, Central and South Americans — all slipping in through our incredibly accessible and porous Southern border. Apprehensions have included illegals from the Sudan, Iran, and even Iraq.”

Note that the 2001 article by J. Zane Walley was datelined Cochise County, Arizona — where rancher Robert Krentz was murdered on his family property.

Formers meet to pile on Arpaio — again*

The effort to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio has the potential to be deadly serious as evidenced by the negative impact on the public safety of Maricopa County citizens. But the news conference hastily assembled Wednesday, featuring a load of out of work “law enforcement officials,” provided much needed comic relief to the shaky endeavor.

In an article titled Law-enforcement veterans join Arpaio recall, the Periódico de la República de Arizona (Arizona Republic) writes, “Respect Arizona released statements purported to have been provided by retired Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris and retired Phoenix Assistant Police Chief Bill Louis, accusing Arpaio of misleading supporters by taking sole credit for community safety. Former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Paul Charlton and former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard were also quoted in the group’s statements.”

And since there was sure to be a microphone and cameras present, former Phoenix Mayor Philly Gordon, the object of a recall himself, for his steadfast support of sanctuary city status for the city’s illegals, showed up. He did little of that when he was in office.

The key words are “purported,” “retired” and “former.” This gathering of has-beens, as badly in need of resuscitation, as the recall group, could only engender news coverage at the equally declining AZ República.

The group assembled in an attempt to make book on a fundraising letter sent out by Sheriff Arpaio’s campaign.

The new movement to undercut elections by way of recalls got its initial steam when a single legislative district, scorched by newly imposed boundaries, waged a successful recall of Senate President Russell Pearce, architect of Arizona’s popular SB1070. Those who get their daily dose of leftward bias from the liberal newspaper might think the word preceding the bill number is “controversial.”

Know this. It all revolves around illegal immigration — an issue which the “formers” can not get their fill of.  They despise Sheriff Arpaio for his enforcement of immigration laws — exactly why the rest of us support him

*Read Quartet of rancorous “formers” pile on Arpaio.

McCain, Flake, gangsters, take absurd PR border tour

In a newscast nearly as vacuous as Arizona’s amnesty twins John McCain and Jeff McFlake, reporter Navideh Forghani glowingly describes the scene at the Arizona-Mexico border where “this kid” hopped the fence  The Republicrats took a couple of their “Gang of 8” Dem cohorts for a stroll along the border yesterday afternoon. Chuck Schumer (NY) and Michael Bennet (Colo.) got an eyeful as they watched illegals jumping the fence that is woefully inadequate in providing security.

Forghani said, “One of the key tools these senators want to do is provide agents with the right technology to help them patrol the vast border along Mexico. And it’s technology like that tower,” she said pointing off in the distance, “that the senators are talking about, and they tell me that technology will pay for itself because they’ll be charging those hi-tech companies to be a part of border security.”

Doesn’t it seem they should be paying for the services instead of charging the providers?

As if on cue, the reporter pronounced that these wizards are “90 percent complete with the proposed immigration reform.”

New Yorker Schumer who can return to his home 3,000 miles away from the porous border, inanely stated, “Secure the border, and once the border is secured by specific metrics, then people can become citizens.” He said, “What I learned today is we have adequate manpower, but not adequate technology. Technology will work.”

Schumer must have been asleep five years ago when former Homeland Insecurity Chief Michael Chertoff promised the $20 million technology newly put in place was “looking good.” But the “virtual fence” turned out to be a virtual flop. Two months after completion, the feds announced plans to replace the highly touted “virtual fence” with new towers, radars, cameras and computer software, scrapping the brand-new and costly system because it didn’t work.

McCain and Schumer promised this overhaul would pay for itself, while cautioning that their proposed border security package would be costly. “Nobody is going to be totally happy with this legislation, no one will be because we have to make compromises,” John McMaverick said.

Bennet added the Gang of Eight are opposed to double-sided fences along the length of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Makes sense. That might be more difficult to navigate.

In his most sincere tone, Flake opined: “It is difficult sometimes to get a good picture of where we are. We just know we aren’t there yet. We have to do more, but we’ve come a long way.”

Indeed.

AZ Medicaid expansion takes a major blow

Abortion funding assured under Gov. Brewer’s surrender to ObamaCare

In addition to the continually mounting grassroots opposition of Republican activists in counties and districts across Arizona to Gov. Jan Brewer’s reckless Medicaid expansion, we now have this letter from M. Casey Mattox, Senior Counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Mattox’s letter is in response to a request for clarity from State Rep. Justin Olson (R-LD 25). In it, Mattox unequivocally defines the impact of the proposed expansion on funding for abortion providers, stating, “In our judgment, expanding Medicaid pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) would necessarily result in increased funding of abortion providers in Arizona and would subsidize abortions.”

It doesn’t get much clearer than that. The facts contained in his legal response also raise some key questions:

Why would Gov. Brewer, regarded as one of the most pro-life governors in the country, be pushing this agenda that will result in death to countless pre-born Arizona babies?  Will this news cause the Arizona Conference of Catholic Bishops to rethink their support of the expansion?

We also include this letter to Gov. Brewer and AZ House and Senate leadership from Cathi Herrod, President of pro-life, pro-family Center for Arizona Policy. Oddly the organization “remains neutral” on the massive and costly federal intrusion into our personal health care delivery system, although offering alternative language to the Medicaid legislation, to guarantee “no increased funding to abortion providers results” from the implementation of the health care scheme.

We applaud all pro-life efforts, on either end of the life cycle. But taking a resolute stand against the encroachment of socialism in no way diminishes the importance of honoring the sanctity of life.

And although Obama vowed the new law will bring costs down, a startling  new study released by the Society of Actuaries says claims cost, the most important driver of health care premiums, will jump an average 32 percent, with the costs to many soaring much higher. (Read paragraph four in the link).

GOP LDs slam Gov. Brewer’s Medicaid Expansion

Attempts to sell ObamaCare scheme to AZ Republicans falls on deaf ears

Monday night Legislative Districts 20 and 30 joined Maricopa County GOP LDs 1, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 25, and 27, Pima County Republican LDs 2, 3 ,4, 9, 10, 11, 14, the Coconino Republican Executive Committee, along with the Pinal, Cochise and the Cochise County Republican Committees —  in passing resolutions in opposition to the Governor’s Medicaid Expansion (AHCCCS) in support of ObamaCare. Pinal County Republicans passed their resolution back in February.

The fact that the entire Democrat caucus supports this outrageous and economically unsustainable government overreach tells “the rest of the story.”

The resolutions can be read here, courtesy of the Maricopa County Republican Committee. Check out their informative “Briefs,” posted daily by Communications Director Frosty Taylor.

Are any of these poor excuses for Republicans pretending to represent you? Give them a call, drop them a line. Since we pay their salaries, they should be all too happy to hear from us.

Senate supporters:

LD16   Rich Crandall  rcrandall@azleg.gov  (602) 926-3020

LD18   John McComish  jmccomish@azleg.gov  (602) 926-5898

LD28   Adam Driggs  adriggs@azleg.gov  (602) 926-3016

House supporters:

LD1   Karen Fann kfann@azleg.gov  (602) 926-5874

LD8   Frank Pratt fpratt@azleg.gov  (602) 926-5761

LD9   Ethan Orr eorr@azleg.gov  (602) 926-3235

LD17 Thomas Forese tforese@azleg.gov  (602) 926-5168

LD17 JD Mesnard jmesnard@azleg.gov  (602) 926-4481

LD18 Jeff Dial jdial@azleg.gov  (602) 926-5550

LD18 Bob Robson brobson@azleg.gov  (602) 926-5549

Appeared with Brewer in support of this expansion:  

LD1  Steve Pierce spierce@azleg.gov  (602) 926-5584

LD15 Heather Carter hcarter@azleg.gov  (602) 926-5503

LD16 Doug Coleman dcoleman@azleg.gov  (602) 926-3160

LD20 Paul Boyer pboyer@azleg.gov  (602) 926-4173

LD25 Bob Worsley bworsley@azleg.gov  (602) 926-5760

LD28 Kate Brophy-McGee kbrophymcgee@azleg.gov  (602) 926-4486

Mark Kelly’s caught on film woes: Assault dogs & guns

Mark Kelly, husband of Gabrielle Giffords, has cultivated a close friendship with Barack Obama.  But even that imposing association isn’t enough to keep the former astronaut from making headlines away from outer space or the heady halls of Congress — where he has been a frequent visitor, as he touts his Second Amendment restrictions for America’s law-abiding gun owners.

First the co-founder of “Americans for Responsible Solutions,” (ARS) an advocacy group with the sole purpose of suppressing gun rights, was photographed March 5, in his own “oops” moment. Kelly, the gun restrictor, was hypocritically caught at Diamondback Police Supply in Tucson, AZ, making weapons purchases, including “high capacity” magazines, an AR-15 and a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol.  When the photo went viral, he claimed his purchase was intended as an illustration of the need for more stringent gun laws and to make a political point about how easy it is to obtain the kind of firearms he’s lobbying Congress to ban.

On its website, ARS states: “High capacity magazines are a deadly factor in gun violence,” advocating that “Congress should act to limit the sale of high capacity magazines, which are not needed for hunting or self-defense, but have proven very lethal.”

After being outed, liberal activist Kelly announced on his Facebook page that he was not going to keep the AR-15, which he has yet to pick up from the store. Kelly couldn’t immediately take possession of the rifle because the shop had bought it from a customer, entailing a 20-day waiting period.

Now gun store owner Doug MacKinlay has rescinded the purchase, questioning Kelly’s actual intent. MacKinlay said Monday in his own Facebook post that he “determined that was in my company’s best interest to terminate this transaction prior to his returning to my store.”

Not only has his pickup of his hypocritical weapons purchase been denied by the Tucson gun store owner, but a Kelly family dog has been involved in a vicious attack resulting in the death of an innocent.

Kelly’s “captured on film” troubles have continued as evidenced by this disturbing video. During a Kelly family vacation in the seaside resort community of Laguna Beach, his daughter’s 65-pound American Bulldog (a close relative of the notorious Pit bull) leaped down upon a baby seal, mercilessly attacking and killing the defenseless animal.

How long before Kelly will be moved to start an organization outlawing the breed?