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It can all be traced back to President Obama

You may be shocked by the current revelations of security screw ups by the Secret Service, but you shouldn’t be surprised, because it can easily be traced back to the culture in the White House.

Obama (abcnews.go.com)

Evidence of a culture of “whatever” in the Obama White House continues to mount. (abcnews.go.com)

We have a president who regularly flouts the rule-of-law. He has made changes and waivers to existing law; he was found guilty by the Supreme Court for making illegal recess appointments; he traded five Guantanamo prisoners for Sergeant Bergdahl without Congressional approval; and he’s set to implement a broad amnesty on his own following the mid-terms.

On the morally unethical side, President Obama flew to a fundraiser in Las Vegas after our ambassador and three other Americans were killed in the Benghazi attack and, he was on the golf course just minutes after “grieving” with the parents of James Foley, who was beheaded by ISIS.

What kind of respect can government employees in our various departments and agencies have for a president who laughs off inefficiencies and in some cases criminal activities, as “phony scandals.” Continue reading →

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Leoni no Clinton in “Madame Secretary” role

I have generally avoided television and big screen depictions of political Washington D.C. in the past like “West Wing” and the recent addition, “Scandal,” but tease footage of an attack on our embassy in Yemen promoting the last segment of “Madame Secretary,” piqued my curiosity.  I confess. I watched it.

Tea Leoni, Tim Daly (zap2it.com)

Tea Leoni does a credible job as secretary of state in the new CBS series, Madame Secretary. She’s shown here with Zeljko Ivanek, who is perfectly cast as the President’s chief of staff. (zp2it.com)

I have been reading how it was part of Hollywood’s plan to pump up Hillary Clinton’s role as secretary of state, but the Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz gave it a pretty good review.

The show’s Executive Producer Lori McCreary said the inspiration for the show came from Morgan Freeman, who after watching Hillary Clinton during the Benghazi hearings, called McCreary saying, “What does she (Hillary) go home to, what does she talk about?”

I would have suggested that he might want to read Edward Klein’s book, Blood Fued, to get a pretty accurate picture. Continue reading →

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Netanyahu gets it

“Militant Islam’s ambition to dominate the world seems mad, but so too did the global ambitions of another fanatic ideology that swept into power eight decades ago.  The Nazi’s believed in a master race.  The militant Islamists believe in a master faith. They just disagree who among them will be the master of the master faith.”

Benjamin Netanyau (AP photo. Seth Wenig)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “It’s one thing to confront militant Islamists on pickup trucks with Kalashnikov rifles. It’s another thing to confront militant Islamists armed with weapons of mass destruction.” (AP photo/Seth Wenig)

So said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to an audience of less than half of the UN representation this morning.  I’m highlighting it here because I’m sure many of you didn’t hear it.

“There is one place where that could happen,” he said, “the Islamic State of Iran. For 35 years, Iran has relentlessly pursued the global mission which was set forth by its founding ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini, in these words. ‘We will export our revolution to the entire world until the cry –there is no god but Allah – will echo throughout the world over.’ “

Netanyahu also reminded the audience that it was Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who said, “Our imam did not limit the Islamic revolution to this country; our duty is to prepare the way for an Islamic world government. “ Continue reading →

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Finally, Holder to go!

Holder to go0011

On Jan. 2, 2012, my op-ed piece, It’s time for AG Holder to go, appeared on the editorial pages of the San Antonio Express-News.  And this week, we finally learned that Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to resign.

Holder goers (csmonitor.com)

Finally, Attorney General Eric Holder decided to resign. (csmonitor.com)

Clearly, it was good news, but oh my, the damage he has done to the rule of law in our country. Holder’s outrageous actions make the oft-criticized decisions of John Ashcroft,  Alberto Gonzales, and even Janet Reno, seem so insignificant.

While most Americans likely believe the disapproval of Holder is centered in the Republican Party, not so.  Just 15 percent of Americans have a positive or very positive view (6 percent) of Holder, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.  Thirty-two percent have a negative view of Holder while four times as may have a very negative view (22 percent). Continue reading →

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Obama: Making it up as he goes

“Obama’s incompetence is truly dangerous,” read the headline on a Washington Times op-ed written by Joseph Curl, I recently ran across while going through my tickler file as I prepared to write this post.

Coffe cup salute (usatoday.com)

The commander-in-chief shows outright disrespect for the military as he salutes with a Styrofoam cup in his saluting hand. (usatoday.com)

Recalling the bumbling of Jackie Gleason on the old “Honeymooners” show, “incompetence is funny, sometimes hilarious,” wrote Curl. “But in real life, incompetence can be dangerous, even life-threatening,” he added as he drew an analogy of a real-life Homer Simpson in charge of safety at a nuclear power plant.”

Curl reviewed the president’s long list of recent missteps in the Middle East beginning with his “impotent ‘red-line’ threat” that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons would prompt “enormous consequences.” Nothing. Continue reading →

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An unusual request for help at the UN

  “In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided.”

Unbelievably, those were the words of President Obama as he brought to a close his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday intended to seek support for the war against – my words – Islamic extremists.

“So yes, we have our own racial tensions,” he went on to say, “And like every country, we have our racial and ethnic tensions.”

Can you believe it? Comparing the Ferguson shooting to the beheading and mass killings by ISIL, al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist spin-offs?

Courtesy elektroka

(Poster courtesy elektroka)

Nine paragraphs into his speech, he finally gets to the point. “There is much to be done to meet the tests of this moment. But today I’d like to focus on two defining questions at the root of many our challenges – whether the nations here today will be able to renew the purpose of the UN’s founding (he’s dreaming); and whether we will come together to reject the cancer of extremism (not likely).”  He left them with this less than memorable quote, “For America, the choice is clear.  We choose hope over fear.”  “Hope,” where have we heard that before?

We are facing the most barbaric, evil terrorists we could have imagined, and our president is talking “hope?”

I was also taken aback by an earlier statement in his speech. “I have made it clear that America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism. Rather, we have waged a focused campaign against al Qaeda and its associated forces – taking out their leaders, and denying them the safe havens they rely upon.”  Then he said, “At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam.  Islam teaches peace.  Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice.  And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.”  Really, Mr. President?  How do you think Americans would respond to a poll on that? Continue reading →

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And she wants to be president, Part 6

Just four days ago I stated that the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty can be attributed to Hillary Clinton’s decision to cut back security at the Benghazi mission compound. (See my post Lack of security in Benghazi points to Clinton, 9/13/14.) Two more events tend to support my contention that confidants aided in the cover-up.

An after-hours document scrubbing at State

attkisson (realclearpolitics)

Sharyl Attkisson interviewed former state department official Raymond Maxwell about an after-hours document scrubbing. (realclearpolitics.com)

maxwell (whatamimissinghere.com)

Former state department official Raymond Maxwell told Sharyl Attkisson about an after-hours document scrubbing. (whatamimissisnghere.com)

Two days after that post, Sharyl Attkisson broke a story of a Sunday after-hours document scrubbing in the basement operations center at the State Department. Her source was former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell, who was a leader in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, charged with collecting e-mails and documents relevant to the Benghazi probe. He was a 21-year Foreign Service veteran at State.

Hearing about the document scrubbing effort, he decided to look into it. Upon arrival he observed boxes and stacks of documents and the presence of one of Clinton’s top advisors. She told Maxwell, “We are to go through these stacks and pull out anything that might put anybody in the front office or the seventh floor in a bad light.”  The seventh floor was where Clinton and her principal advisors were located. Continue reading →

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Lack of security in Benghazi points to Clinton

On March 28, 2012, U. S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz sent a cable to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton requesting additional security assets. The response, bearing Clinton’s signature, while acknowledging his request, instead articulates a plan to scale back security for the U. S. Mission in Libya, including the Benghazi Mission. – Source: INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT for the Members of the Republican Conference on the Events Surrounding the September 11, 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi, Libya

Gowdy (LIBERTYNEWS.COM)

Rep. Trey Gowdy will chair the House select committee on Benghazi that gets underway on Wednesday. (LibertyNews.com)

In the two years following the attack, Congressional hearings and media reports have, for the most part, concentrated on the night of the attack. They questioned whether we could have dispatched air assets in time, if there was a stand-down ordered and if so who ordered it?

While answers to those questions are important, my effort since that fateful night has focused on the failure to provide proper security despite five months of warnings. I firmly believe Hillary Clinton is clearly responsible for placing Ambassador Chris Stevens and other Americans in jeopardy not only that night but in the preceding months. Continue reading →

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Yes, Bin Laden is dead, but …

Dr. Afridi (mohammed rauf AFP getty images

Dr. Shakil Afridi was imprisoned for helping the United States identify the location of Osama Bin Laden. Three years of quiet diplomacy has not helped to secure his release. (Mohammed Rauf photo/AFP/Getty images)

“Bin Laden is dead”…. “we took out Bin Laden” How often have we heard those words over the past three years in speeches by President Obama, Vice President Biden and members of the national security team?

But what about Dr. Shakil Afridi? “Who’s he?” would likely be the response from most Americans.  Using the cover of a door-to-door vaccination program, Doctor Afridi, was the key to our locating Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The doctor was first tried for “conspiracy against the State of Pakistan and high treason;” charges that carry the death penalty. He was later sentenced to 33 years in prison for lesser trumped up charges. Continue reading →