The Obama Era, Part 4: Memories From The Worst Presidency Ever?

We are coming up on the end of another year so I thought it might be a good time to review everything that I remember about the Obama administration. He has been in office for seven years, seven long years that in my opinion have been horrific in so many ways. This was someone who entered office with approval ratings that were above 70% and who represented the so-called “hope and change” that many Americans were seeking.

Seven years later hope has become very scarce and change has almost always been for the worst. Now, before someone says that I am just a sour grapes Republican, conservative, or neo-con, understand that I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life (I started voting in the 1970s). Up until 2010, I had never voted for Republican for national office in my life. I fully support gay rights and respect a woman’s legal right to an abortion. Thus, none of what you are about to read over the next few days comes from a Republican sour grapes perspective.

But unless you have had completely had your head in the sand or elsewhere, this has been the worst Presidency that I have experienced in my lifetime. From horrid legislation (e.g. Obama Care) to a failed foreign policy (e.g. Syria) to daily lawlessness on the part of this administration (e.g. use of unsecured email accounts by high ranking administration members), the ineptness and ineffectiveness of this administration is mind boggling.

Thus, given this set up, in no particular order, this is what I will remember about the Obama Presidency, the last of four posts that were needed to cover all of the failures, disasters, and law breaking of the worst Presidency of my lifetime:

- I will remember a Presidency that gave us one of the most inane Vice Presidents of all time, Joe Biden, who in turn left us with the following nuggets of nonsense:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/joebiden/a/top-10-biden-quotes.htm

- "A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States — Barack America!" --Joe Biden, at his first campaign rally with Barack Obama after being announced as his running mate, Springfield, Ill., Aug. 23, 2008 

- "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." –Joe Biden, referring to Barack Obama at the beginning of the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Jan. 31, 2007

- "A successful dump!" --Joe Biden, explaining his whereabouts (dropping deadwood at the dump) to the reporters outside his home, Wilmington, Del., Aug. 20, 2008

- "His mom lived in Long Island for ten years or so. God rest her soul. And- although, she's- wait- your mom's still- your mom's still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul." --Joe Biden, on the mother of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who is very much alive, Washington, D.C., March 17, 2010

- "You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent....I'm not joking." --Joe Biden, in a private remark to an Indian-American man caught on C-SPAN, June, 2006

- "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened." –Joe Biden, apparently unaware that FDR wasn't president when the stock market crashed in 1929 and that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time, interview with Katie Couric, Sept. 22, 2008 

- "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me." --Joe Biden, speaking at a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, Sept. 10, 2008

- "Look, John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs." --Joe Biden, Athens, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2008

- "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya." –-Joe Biden, to Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair, Columbia, Missouri, Sept.

- "This is a big fucking deal!" --Joe Biden, caught on an open mic congratulating President Barack Obama during the health care signing ceremony, Washington, D.C., March 23, 2010 

- I will remember a President who spied on Congress, an act that still baffles why it is not illegal, impeachable, or treasonous.

- I will remember a President who defied the Constitution and repeatedly tried to shred the Second Amendment even though the majority of Americans are against his actions on gun control.

- I will remember a President that could not construct any semblance of a Syrian and ISIS strategy and plan despite most of the world standing strongly against ISIS activities and existence, a foreign policy failure of epic proportions.

- I will remember a President who left over two dozen Americans to die in Benghazi and then conspired with his Secretary of State to lie about the underlying cause of the dereliction of duty to protect a political talking point.

- I will remember a President who allowed a top staff refer to the prime minister of Israel as a “shith$%#” and suffer no repercussions from insulting our longest standing Middle East ally and the only true democracy in the Middle East.

- I will remember a President who spied on our longest standing Middle East ally and the only true democracy in the mIddle East during the Iranian nuclear arms negotiations.

- I will remember a President who was taken to the cleaners in the Iranian nuclear arms negotiations and who left four Americans to rot in Iranian jails as a result of being hoodwinked during those negotiations.

- And most of all I will remember why this President insisted in calling ISIS “ISIL,” a distinction that is explained below and which will have horrible consequences for America, Israel, and the world in the coming years:

**************************

I.S.I.S or I.S.I.L

What is the Difference and Why Does Obama Always Say I.S.I.L.

Here is an explanation of the difference between the terms ISIS and ISIL.

ISIS = Islamic State of Iraq and Syria . Iraq is to the east of Jordan (shaped like the hatchet) and Syria is to the north. 

ISIL = Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant . Iraq is still to the east of Jordan, and “the Levant” is a term that comes from “the rising (of the sun, i.e., to the east)” - and is basically the land along the Mediterranean - that includes Lebanon , Israel , and those countries along there.

By saying ISIL, you “negate” Israel as its own country and lump it in with the rest of the countries along the Mediterranean - and Israel sort of disappears (loses its sovereignty) and becomes part of “the Levant ” - which is therefore part of ISIL.

If you've wondered, as I have, why all government agencies and especially BHO calls it ISIL and even spells it out every time it's used, instead of ISIS as the rest of the world here's the answer.

In one press conference after another, when referring to the Muslim terror super-group ISIS, United States President Barack Obama will use the term ISIL, instead of their former name ISIS , or current name Islamic State.

Have you ever wondered about that? Here is the difference:

What makes up the near exact center of the Muslim Levant ? Israel . 

ISIL stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.

Now, to us Westerners we don't really make much of a distinction, do we?

No, honestly from our perspective it’s all about the same. But how would a Muslim living in the Middle East view it?

Just what is the Levant anyway? Let’s take a look.

The geographical term LEVANT refers to a multi-nation region in the Middle East . It’s a land bridge between Turkey to the north and Egypt to the south.

If you look on a map, however, in the near exact middle of the nations that comprise the Levant , guess what you see? Come on, guess!

It’s Israel. When Barack Obama refers over and over to the Islamic State as ISIL, he is sending a message to Muslims all over the Middle East, that he personally does not recognize Israel as a sovereign nation, but as territory belonging to the Islamic State.

Now you know why Obama says that he has no plan, no goal, and no stated aim for dealing with ISIS . But he does have a plan. Obama’s plan is to drag his feet for as long as he can, doing only the bare minimum that Congress forces him to do. His plan to buy ISIL as much time as possible to make as many gains as they can.

Listen as Obama and his press secretary and the spokesperson for the State Department and his Joint Chiefs of Staff painstakingly spells out the letters I-S-I-L so there is no doubt in your mind.

And it’s working.

The Islamic State has garnered millions of dollars, a vast cache of weapons, and in their latest foray have captured Syrian fighter jets and now 12 commercial passenger planes. With each passing day that Obama fulfills his stated aim of doing nothing, the Islamic State grows by leaps and bounds. The ultimate goal, of course, has not changed and will never change.

The ultimate goal is the destruction of Israel.

Now you know a little bit more about why Obama chooses his words so carefully.
*****************************

I will remember a lot about this Presidency, almost all of it very forgettable, regrettable and often disgusting, as we have discussed over the past three days. President Obama could have been one of the most impactful Presidents of all time. He came into office with sky high popularity and approval ratings. His party had a sizable majority in the House Of Representatives. He had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. The country was ready to turn away from the Republican party.

But let’s review. We have had a President who sits silent and allows ordinary Americans with intelligent, informed, contrary opinions to be slandered and demeaned by his political allies. 

He uses deception as he tries to incite different segments of America against each other for his political gain. 

Every one of his economic policies have been failures. 

It is always all about him.

He tramples on the principles laid out in the Constitution, ignoring the rule of law as he sees as convenient, often trampling the liberties and rights of Americans in the process. 

Often it seems like his golf game, his fund raising trips, and his vacations are more important than running and leading the country.

His foreign policy activities have mostly been failures, failures that are dwarfed by the unfolding disaster known as Obama Care.

He has not resolved, or even come close to presenting coherent plans to address the major issues of our times while the faulty operational aspects of the Federal government continue to be redundant, wasteful, inefficient, and ineffective. 

But the biggest reason for his disasters is his narcissistic inability to take personal responsibility for his actions and subsequent failures. It is never his fault. Someone else always ruins his plans. This lack of humility means a person never looks inward to see how he or she could improve. And a President without the ability to self evaluate and improve ends up leading a country that does not improve. 

And that is what I will remember most: this country, our freedoms, our democracy, and our financial well being are in far worse shape today than they were on that long ago day in January, 2009 when the Obama Error began.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

December, 2015, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Expensive Presidential Vacations, Presidential Absences, and Another Major TSA Screwup

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

So let’s get started with the latest insanity:

1) When Obama was running for President he promised that he would devote his entire life, every waking moment to being President. He claimed it was such an honor that he would forego vacations while in office, that is how dedicated he would be. His actual promise in his own words can be viewed at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68WS5B19LC4

But as with just about every other Obama promise, this one was broken so very soon after he entered office and continued to be broken for the next seven years. Documents obtained by Judicial Watch show just how far he has fallen short of that promise by obtaining the cost to the American taxpayer of the Obama vacations that were never supposed to happen:

• The President spent over $2.1 million in taxpayer money just on transportation to take a golf vacation for just himself to Palm Springs, California in June, 2015.
• In addition, he incurred an additional $1 million in transportation costs to vacation at Martha’s Vineyard and in New York City this past summer.
• Judicial Watch President Tom Fillon had the following comments on the President’s vacation costs: “President Obama evidently cares not one whit about the costs to beleaguered taxpayers for his personal and political travel. Barack Obama is enamored with the presidency’s trappings of power, and taxpayers are left holding the tab.”
• These costs do not include the cost of security for the many Obama vacations since the Secret Service has yet to comply with Judicial Watch’s request.
• So far, the Obamas and Bidens have incurred over $70 million in vacation expenses since they came into office in 2009.

This comes out to a whopping $10 million a year in Presidential and Vice Presidential vacation costs by a President who promised not to take any vacations prior to his election. All of these expenses are being incurred while millions of Americans need food assistance every month, millions of veterans are not getting the medical care they were promised, and millions of Americans are homeless and unemployed. I am sure this $70 million could have been better spent on needy Americans vs. a President who wasn’t supposed to take any vacations to begin with.

2) A few weeks ago the President gave an interview on ABC News where he claimed his actions and strategies had indeed “contained” the threat from ISIS, the most vicious and well financed terror group in the history of the world. Later that day ISIS unleashed the worst violent attack on the residents of Paris since World War II, killing over a hundred French citizens and injuring hundreds more.

How could he have been so clueless and out of touch with reality as it applied to terrorism? Well, possibly that question was answered by a recent report from the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) where they asserted that Obama has attended only 42.1% of his daily intelligence briefings during the length of his Presidency. In fact, he has attended a lower percentage of these daily briefings in his second term, 41.3%, vs. his first term, 42.4%.

This is not surprising since three years ago Breitbart reported that Obama had not attended his daily terrorism briefings in the five days leading up to the attack at the U.S.consulate at Benghazi where our ambassador and three other Americans were killed. In addition, an Obama White House staffer recently told a Daily Mail reporter: “Unless someone very senior has been shredding the President’s daily briefings and telling him that the dog ate them, highly accurate predictions about ISIL have been showing up in the Oval Office since before the 2012 election.”

Thus, it is pretty clear that the American taxpayer had paid for a lot of intelligence gathering processes that the President either ignored or chose not to listen to. And who does he blame for his inattentiveness? Certainly not himself, this President cannot accept the concept that he could ever make a mistake. 

In an interview on “60 Minutes,” Obama blamed his Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, for his ignorance of what was going on the the world of terrorism: “I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria.” That’s right, he does not attend over 55% of the intelligence briefing sessions that people like Clapper put together and when he issues stupid statements that blow up in his face it is the people who write the intelligence that he does not listen to.

According to Daily Beast reporter Eli Lake, a former senior Pentagon official told him that, members of the intelligence and defense apparatus were “flabbergasted” by Obama’s attempt to shift blame: “Either the president doesn’t read the intelligence he’s getting or he’s bullshitting.” How pathetic. A President who does not leverage the resources available to him and then blames the resources when he screws up. Unfortunately, as the victims at Benghazi found out, his inattentiveness to terrorism is often fatal.

3) We have often wondered which Federal government entity is the most inept. Top candidates usually include the Social Security Administration, Medicare, Medicaid, the IRS, and others. However, it is usually the Transportation Safety Agency (TSA) within the Department of Homeland Security that usually rises to the top of the incompetency list. 

The most glaring shortfall of the agency, that we previously covered, involved a test of the security procedures that the TSA uses. In that test of planting fake bombs and weapons on government agents posing as airline travelers, the TSA failed to detect those fake bombs and weapons a whopping 95% of the time. Since a primary function of their job is detecting fake bombs and weapons, failing to execute that job 95% of the time represents unparalleled incompetence.

But just when you thought the TSA could not perform any worse, they surprise you and sink even further into mediocrity. As reported by Newsweek, a review of TSA employee records revealed that 73 of their employees were on both the Federal terrorist watch list AND were on the TSA employee payroll. Thus, the very organization that was formed to protect us from terrorists has over six dozen potential terrorists on their payroll. You cannot make this insanity up, I swear. 

Furthermore, think about this in light of the national debate going on about allowing 10,000 Syrian refugees into this country and the fear that some of them might be terrorists. How are we able to trust Obama and the Federal government when they promise that they can scrub the refugee flow of any terrorists when this same Federal government actually just recently found out that potential terrorists are Federal employees. Insane.

That will do it for today’s insanity, we are certainly off to a good start. We have the Federal agency responsible for protecting us from terrorists actually hiring a bunch of them, we have a President so out of touch with the world of terrorism, quite possibly because he fails to attend over 55% of his intelligence briefings, and we have a President who said he would not take vacations if elected but has incurred over $70 million in vacation costs so far and still counting. More insanity tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2015, Part 1: Politicians Say The Darndest Things

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme, “Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” 

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

So let’s take a look at the latest darndest things that American politicians are saying today:

1) Most often politicians say the darndest things in an asinine view, proving that they often do not have a concept or reality or what they are talking about. However, we start today with a politician’s quote that is just down right mean, uncaring, and pathetic. Katie Steinle was recently killed on the streets of San Francisco by an illegal immigrant that had seven felony convictions and who had been deported five times. Obviously, a serious criminal element.

When he reentered the country, he headed for San Francisco since that city is a so-called “sanctuary city,” a term that means that city has unilaterally decided to disobey standing immigration law and not aggressively, or not at all, seek to send illegal immigrants back to their home country. As a result, a young American lady, Kate Steinle, is dead because of this law breaking and the continued presence of this illegal immigrant on the streets of America. 

This is a tragedy in so many ways, not the least of which the grief and mourning that has been caused to rain down on Ms. Steinle’s friends and family. A young lady cut down in the prime of her life because of the illegal doings of the national and local political class. But that sadness is only compounded by a quote from a Hispanic Illinois Congressman, one who has been in the forefront of making life easy for illegal immigrants, Luis Gutierrez: “Every time a little thing like this happens, they use the most extreme example to say it must be eliminated.”

A woman’s murder is a “little thing” to this heartless bastard of a politician. I bet it is not a “little thing” to her parents, her brother, her boyfriend, and other her family members and friends. I dare this low life to say this in front of those that have been grieving and will be affected for the rest of their lives by this tragedy. How would he feel if his daughter had been shot on the street by someone who should have been in jail or shipped out of the country permanently, would it still be a “little thing?” Yes, sometimes politicians say the darndest things and this case, they say the most heartless, uncaring, and ignorant things. 

The politicians have denigrated themselves so much that human life is now secondary to their political ambitions and goals. To hear the actual quote out of the politician’s mouth go to:

http://joeforamerica.com/2015/07/angry-racist-democrat-illinois-senator-calls-murder-white-girl-illegal-little-thing/

2) Martin O’Malley used to be the Governor of Maryland and now thinks he is worthy of being the Democratic Party nominee for President in 2016. Consider his latest darndest quote, as reported by Bloomberg News: “One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms — or rather the conditions of extreme poverty — that has now led to the rise of ISIL and this extreme violence” 

Ah, climate change/global warming, the cause of every problem in the world. As we have said countless times in response to Al Gore-type climate hysteria, correlation is not causation. Just because a weather or climate event happened, it does not mean it caused other events to happen that seem to occur at about the same time. 

I am sure that throughout time, the Middle East and Syria have suffered through mega droughts long before the concept of man made climate change was even a thought. I am also pretty sure that those previous meg droughts did not give rise to the deadliest terrorist group of all time.

Rather than use faulty correlation/causation logic and political hysteria, let’s take a look some real analysis and do a reality check based on facts. According to the George C.Marshall website: “The George C. Marshall Institute was established in 1984 as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation to conduct technical assessments of scientific issues with an impact on public policy.

In every area of public policy, from national defense, to the environment, to the economy, decisions are shaped by developments in and arguments about science and technology. The need for accurate and impartial technical assessments has never been greater. However, even purely scientific appraisals are often politicized and misused by interest groups.

The Marshall Institute seeks to counter this trend by providing policymakers with rigorous, clearly written and unbiased technical analyses on a range of public policy issues. Through briefings to the press, publication programs, speaking tours and public forums, the Institute seeks to preserve the integrity of science and promote scientific literacy.”

So, here is a 31 year old science based organization, indicating that they have a long track record of doing what they say they do. They must be doing something right to be around for so long. They might be a good place to check in to see if O’Malley’s assertion has any validity: “In summary, the climate-security argument is dangerously overstated and designed to serve a domestic political purpose more than filling a void in strategic thinking,” writes Marshall Institute president Jeff Kueter, the author of the study.

Wow, strategic thinkers think O’Malley’s assertion is basically unfounded garbage. How about another strategic analysis firm, the Cato Institute: “It is not until you dig pretty deep into the technical scientific literature, that you find out that the anthropogenic climate change impact on drought conditions in the Fertile Crescent is extremely minimal and tenuous—so much so that it is debatable as to whether it is detectable at all,” according to Chip Knappenberger and Patrick Michaels, climate scientists at the libertarian Cato Institute in a writing of theirs from March 5, 2015.

Now, some readers might claim that these two organizations are not liberal enough in their views and their science is skewed. Fair enough, but until these readers or O’Malley can produce contrary evidence, science-based evidence, to support his point, something he has not done, we will assume that O’Malley is just saying the darndest thing without any valid science supporting his politically biased and likely incorrect position.

3) Sometimes people talking about politicians say the darndest things and we include those quotes also in this series. The one we are using today is from a cable news person operating out of San Diego, Tomi Lahren. In a closing segment recently on her show, she took the President to task relative to the recent murder of four U.S. Marines in Tennessee by a homegrown terrorist. She minces no words and probably shows more courage, honesty, and insight to a real world problem than any politician in Washington, up to and especially including the President has shown, on the whole Middle East/Islamic terrorist crisis:

“Four United States Marines are now dead. Climate change didn’t kill them. Lack of free community college didn’t kill them. The income gap, wage inequality — nope, not those things either. Gay marriage? Nope. Oh, white racism? Not that either. So what did?” Lahren asks before addressing the president. “President Obama, if you won’t say it, I will: Radical Islam.”

One of the darndest and insightful political statements made recently and made by a non-politician. The video of her quotes and excellent lesson in reality can be seen at:

http://www.teaparty.org/newswoman-sweeps-internet-with-blistering-viral-slap-down-of-obama-2-minutes-of-wow-108794/#sthash.32deJPK5.dpuf

That will do it for today’s darndest political quotes. A Washington politician that has no compassion and basically no heart relative to a murdered innocent young American, a politician whose spouts off a theory without any basis in reality, and a brave young newsperson who says more truth in two minutes than most Washington politicians say in a lifetime.

We will continue this update tomorrow, focusing on some recent Obama quotes which show just how out of touch he is with reality, a bad reality that was almost all of his doing with a little help from others in Washington.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

October, 2014 Political Class Insanity, Part 1: No To Chocoloate Milk, Failures In Geography, Over Taxation, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time to check in with the American political class to see what insanity they have wrought over the past month or so. It is always amazing to follow the exploits, quotes, and actions of our politicians and the government entities they operate to see how often idiocy, incompetence, and heartbreak are almost always the output from their actions.

We started dong these updates several years ago, usually taking one or two days every month to get all of their insanity covered. Unfortunately, over time, the insanity has seemed to accelerate almost exponentially, causing us to now have to take six or seven posts each month to get it all in. This month will be no different. As our foreign policy implodes, the economy stagnates, and the midtem elections approach, the insanity levels are intensifying daily.

To check out past instances of political class insanity in this post, simply go to the first week of each month and check out the posts that begin, “Political class Insanity.” For the latest insanity, read on:

1) The Tax Foundation recently published the first ever global statistic called the “International Tax Competitiveness Index.” Details about this latest index measure include the following points and facts:

• This index measures two financial criteria, competitiveness and neutrality, by examining “the extent to which a country’s tax system adheres to”, these “two important principles of tax policy”.
• To do the calculation, the index than analyzes 40 tax positions and policies in each nation studied. 
• The United States does not come off well at all, relative to other countries, finishing an obscene 32nd out of the 34 nations analyzed.  
• Two of the most damaging reasons for ranking the United States near the very bottom of the list include the highest corporate tax rate (39%), as well as the “rare demand that money earned overseas should be taxed as if it were earned domestically”. 
• Thus, the United States outranked out only Portugal and France out of 34 industrialized nations.

Thus, one reason for the tepid/anemic economic growth over the past five years could be the fact that heavy taxation is forcing companies to move their operations and focus to other countries or not investing in U.S. markets since anything they earn will be taxed at very high levels relative to the rest of the world.

How bad and oppressive are U.S. business tax rates and policies? According to analyses done by the accounting firm KPMG, only one country in the entire world has a higher overall corporate tax rate than the U.S. The United Arab Emirates’ 55% rate is an exception, however, because it usually applies only to foreign oil companies.

High taxes = lower economic growth, it is not a hard concept that has been proven over and over, both at the state level in this country and at the country level around the world. Everybody gets it except…. for the Washington political class. And that is likely a main reason why the real unemployment rate is still over 10%, why about 17 million Americans are unemployed or under employed and why we have not annual economic growth over 2% for what seem like forever.

2) It has been a recent, continuing news stories that both the Bush and Obama administration have been providing military grade weapons and armored vehicles to local police forces. This so-called “militarization of American police forces” has created concern and opposition from people throughout the political spectrum.

But according to a recent article by the Education Action Group EAG), it is not just police forces that are getting military grade weapons and armaments. According to a recent EAG article by Victor Skinner, almost two dozen legal, civil rights, and education advocacy organizations have sent a letter to the U.S. departments of Defense, Justice and Education to plead with Federal officials to stop sending military equipment, weapons and armored vehicles to public schools.

It seems that many of school districts across the country have taken part in the Department of Defense’s Excess Property Program, commonly known as the 1033 program. The Huffington Post reported that at least 20 schools have taken in military-grade equipment, from grenade launchers to laptops, since the program started in 1997. The equipment is given to schools, public university police forces and local police agencies free of charge.

This story hits quite home for me since as a resident of Pinellas County, Florida, the article documented the fact that Florida’s Pinellas County School District, received almost two dozen M16 rifles under the program. Really? M-16 rifles for a school system that is responsible for educating kids from kindergarten through high school? 

What possible situation could arise that would require school district personnel to break out M-16 rifles? Shouldn’t that be a job for local police and local SWAT teams, not art teachers? Possibly even worse, American tax dollars were used, and wasted, to provide armored personnel vehicles capable of withstanding mine explosions to San Diego and Los Angeles school districts.

I do not get it. I doubt any personnel in any school system is properly trained to handle M-16 rifles and armored personnel carriers. I can think of not situation in my entire lifetime where a school principal lamented that if only they had had a dozen or so M-16s on site they could have better handled the situation. 

I have yet to hear a teacher complain that the lack of an armored personnel carrier resulted in lost lives. The probability that these situations ever arise is too small to measure since they have never happened before. Wasting of taxpayer money, endangering of our kids.

3) Connecticut legislators recently passed state legislation that bans chocolate milk in the state’s cafeterias. The bill was passed in response the Michelle Obama-driven Federal standards for healthy lunches. Supposedly, those who supported the ban said chocolate milk isn’t suitable for children because of high levels of sodium.

Really? Chocolate milk has too much sodium which makes it a health danger? What happens when kids that only like chocolate milk no longer drink ANY milk and start having calcium deficiencies: “What concerns me is that if chocolate milk is not one of the available options, then students will decrease consumption of milk overall,” said Lonnie Burt, the head nutritionist in Hartford’s school district.

Fortunately, the governor has repeatedly said he will not sign this bill into law. Do state legislators have nothing better to do in this difficult economic times than worry about chocolate milk? Especially since their remedy is to deny kids access to a great and nutritious option at meal time? Political class insanity is not restricted to Washington. 

4) The Obama administration recently started bombing suspected terrorist sites within the sovereign country of Syria. The sales job included the fact that ISIS terrorists within Syria could attack other countries including our own and that is why they needed to be destroyed now even if it meant attacking another country.

This is very serious stuff. It involves endangering the lives of U.S. military personnel and probably billions and billions of dollars of American taxpayer wealth in this pursuit to destroy a perceived enemy. One would hope that the Obama administration had all of its ducks in a row in order to do the best job possible. 

But it seems that hope of any kind left this administration long ago. Despite the gravity and seriousness of the situation, during a recent press briefing, a senior Obama administration official, who was not identified by name under well-established rules, was speaking on a conference call with reporters about ISIS when he made the geographic screw up when he said: “ISIL has been, I think, a galvanizing threat around the Sunni partners in the region. They view it as an existential threat to them. Saudi Arabia has an extensive border with Syria … So what we have here is a galvanizing threat from ISIL that is, I think, leading our Sunni partners in the region to join us along the range of potential capabilities that my colleague mentioned.” 

The screw up is that Saudi Arabia does not have an extensive border with Syria, in fact it is NO border with Syria:




If you are going to lead your country into a war, don’t you think you would have a better grasp of basic geography of where you are leading the country to? Leaves a big doubt in one’s mind that the administration knows what it is doing if it has no concept of where we are doing it.

Steven Bucci, who knows his way around the Middle East as a former Army Special Forces officer and who now oversees foreign and defense policy at The Heritage Foundation, called the senior official’s comment “embarrassing” as the White House prepares for military action in the Middle East” “It is not reassuring when the leaders of the Obama administration, on the day of a huge address by the President, make a gaffe this embarrassing.” 

That will do it for today. Chocolate milk as a priority, failing grade in geography, excessive taxation, and armaments in schools. The scope and variety of political class insanity never ceases to amaze us. And rest assured, you will be amazed even more over the next week or so as we have only scratched the surface of the latest insanity from Washington and elsewhere.

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