Friday, February 26, 2010

Executive Power, Obama's Czars, A Hussain as Obama's Special Envoy, & Pay Raises

A Washington Times Editorial opines that: "Exploiting executive power is nothing new for Mr. Obama. He has appointed more executive-branch policy "czars" than any of his predecessors. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a liberal West Virginia Democrat, sent a letter to the White House in February 2009 expressing concern that a surfeit of czars can "threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances." But last fall, Mr. Obama pressured Democrats in the Senate to kill legislation that would have brought his czars under congressional oversight."
Mr. Obama seems to have basic problems with democracy. He doesn't like it when people disagree with him; he resists compromise, and he seems to think he should be free to reshape the country to suit his vision. Those who challenge him are ignored, mocked or told to shut up.
During his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama said, "Let me be perfectly clear: I have taught the Constitution, I understand the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution when I am president of the United States." As president, however, he seems increasingly to view himself as a philosopher king. If Mr. Obama seeks to exploit executive power to ram through policies the American people oppose, they will hold him and his party accountable. There will be a lot for his successor to undo in 2013.

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In 2005 President Obama described the "nuclear option" of reconciliation as being a "majoritarian absolute power, and not what the Founders intended.
In 2005 Chuck Schumer said: We are on the precipice of a constitutional crisis.  The system of checks and balances, which have been at the core of the Republic, is about to be evaporated by the "nuclear option".
In 2005, Joe Biden said: "I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don't make the kind of naked power grab you are doing."
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My thanks to Rodney for this one:  President Obama has appointed 44 czars.  I could only find one of them on the White House Annual Report to Congress, @ $172,000 annual salary. Assuming that each Czar gets the same salary, $7,568,000 is being paid by us for these powerful unelected people.  If each Czar has 5 staffers at $40,000, then another $8,800,000 is being spent in this way.  Total - $16,368,000!
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Front Page Magazine covers the controversy involving Rashad Hussain, the president's appointee to serve as Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference. "The turmoil caused by Hussain's appointment centers around comments he purportedly made in defense of Sami Al-Arian, a convicted terrorist and former leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Now, questions are rightfully being raised as to how a terrorist sympathizer has risen to such a position within the president's administration.
It’s just “anti-Muslim discrimination” to be concerned about Rashad Hussain’s support for Al-Arian, a vicious suicide-bombing supporter who chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and clearly meant it. When two Islamic Jihad suicide bombers killed eighteen people in Israel in 1995, Al-Arian called them “two mujahidin martyred for the sake of God.”
is the Obama Administration wholly uninvolved – and unaware of the fact that the President has chosen as an envoy to the world’s leading organization of Islamic states a man who has openly declared his support for an admitted leader of a jihad terror group?"
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From an email making the circuit:  Some people got a Raise, I  did not.....   
   
Your U.S.  House & Senate have voted  themselves  $4,700  and  $5,300  raises.      

1.   They voted to not give  you a S.S. cost of living  raise in
2010 and  2011.

2.  Your Medicaid  premiums will go up $285.60 for the  2-years  and you
will  not get the 3% COLA: $660/yr. Your  total  2-yr loss and  cost is
-$1,600 or -$3,200 for husband and  wife           

3. Over 2-yrs, the House & Senate each get $10,000  raises

4.  Are you mad yet?

5.  WILL your  cost of drugs - doctor fees - local taxes -  food, etc.,
increase?  You  better believe they will!
WILL THEIRS...NO  WAY

6.   Do you  really think that Nancy, Harry, Chris, Charlie,  Barnie, et
al, care about  you?
 
IN  2010 YOU WILL HAVE A CHANCE TO GET RID OF THE  SITTING CONGRESS AND Up
to 1/3 OF  THE SENATE,  AND 100%  OF THE HOUSE.

MAKE SURE YOU'RE STILL MAD IN NOVEMBER  2010
Maybe it's time for........
Amendment  28:
"Congress shall make  no law that applies to the citizens of the  United
States that does not apply equally to  the Senators or Representatives,
and  Congress shall make no law that applies to the  Senators or
Representatives that does not  apply equally to the citizens of the
United  States ."
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The United States has unveiled plans for its new $1 billion high-security embassy in London — the most expensive it has ever built.  And hear I thought we were trying to save taxpayers' money.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for unknown reasons, pledged Monday to move slowly on the implementation of upcoming greenhouse gas rules. Could the fraud in the science be a reason?

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http://www.mda.mil/index.html                     Go to the above website to view the new Missile Defense Agency's logo, shown above on the left. 
Above on the right is the Islamic flag, with its crescent moon and a star.  Below is Obama's Presidential Campaign logo. Now notice that the new MDA logo looks to be a combination of the two. This is creating quite a firestorm on the Drudge Report.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Obama's Health Care Plan and Conservative Ideas


  • From Politico.com and other sources come some of the items on Obama's "new" health care plans for us all:
  •  
  • 1) Crack down on waste and fraud in Medicare
  • 2) Allow for abortions paid for by the government, on Indian reservations and at Community Centers, which will be funded with $11 Billion of our dollars (wherein there is no language disallowing these abortions).
  • 3)Close the “donut hole” for Medicare prescription drug beneficiaries.
  • Below are some of the other new taxes proposed in an effort to make the bill deficit-neutral.  The CBO cannot yet provide their estimate of cost because they don't have enough of the specifics.
  •  
  •  
  • Elimination of the Medicare Part D (prescription drug) deduction ($5.4 billion);
  • A tax on branded drugs ($22.2 billion);
  • An annual tax on the health insurers ($60.4 billion)
  • A 40 percent excise tax on "high value" health care ($149.1 billion in new taxes over the next 10 years); and joint earners over $250,000 ($53.8 billion);
  • Changes in health savings accounts (HSAs), ($5 billion);
  • A $2,500 cap on FSAs in cafeteria plans ($14.6 billion);
  • An increase from 10 percent to 20 percent in the penalty for early non-qualified HSA withdrawals ($1.3 billion);
  • A tax on companies that manufacture or import medical devices ($19.3 billion);
  • An increase in the floor of the medical expenses deduction from 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to 10 percent, except for seniors, who will stay at 7.5 percent ($15.2 billion); 
  • [None of these taxes will result in higher prices for us consumers, right?]
  • ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  • Charles Hurt of the NY Post writes: "Included in President Obama's latest stab at health-care reform released yesterday is one of the more astonishing admissions of political deception in recent memory. After months of swearing that his health legislation would lower the skyrocketing costs of insurance premiums, Obama finally acknowledged that actually it would not.
    So, instead, he has included a new provision that can simply outlaw premium increases his administration deems "unreasonable and unjustified." 
    While he's at it, Obama should go right ahead and outlaw unemployment. Then he could make foreclosures illegal. That would fix all our problems.
    Heck, if any problems remain in health care after he has jammed his bill through Congress before his co-conspirators get run out of town, Obama could just make sickness illegal."
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Monday, February 22, 2010

Marines, Taxes, Pay-offs, Sea Level Rise, Bribery by the President, and Executive Powers



Have you wondered how our Marines view a President who knows the difference between a "corpsman" and a corpse man, between a Commander in Chief who values what they do for our country and one who pays lip service to our military?  I believe they do know a friend from an impostor, as shown in the following uTube clip:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIHz5tevLAw
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The following was written by Charley Reese, a journalist for 49 years:  http://www.washington-report.org/archives/November_2008/0811038.html (by reading this, we know that Charley is no friend of Israel, for sure.  But his poem is a good one, about our government and its powers of taxation.  Check out taxandspendmustend.blogspot.com for more on excessive taxation):

      Put these words
      Upon his tomb,
      Taxes drove me
      to my doom...'

      When he's gone,
      Do not relax,                       
      Its time to apply
      The inheritance tax.

      Accounts Receivable Tax
      Building Permit Tax
      CDL license Tax
      Cigarette Tax
     
Corporate Income Tax
      Dog License Tax
      Excise Taxes
      Federal Income Tax
      Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
      Fishing License Tax
      Food License Tax
      Fuel Permit Tax
      Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
      Gross Receipts Tax
      Hunting License Tax
      Inheritance Tax
      Inventory Tax
      IRS Interest Charges
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
      Liquor Tax
      Luxury Taxes
      Marriage License Tax
      Medicare Tax
      Personal Property Tax
      Property Tax
      Real Estate Tax
      Service Charge T ax
      Social Security Tax
      Road Usage Tax
      Sales Tax
      Recreational Vehicle Tax
      School Tax
      State Income Tax
      State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
      Telephone Federal Excise Tax
      Telephone Federal Universal Ser vice FeeTax
      Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
      Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge=2 0Tax
      Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
      Telephone State and Local Tax
      Telephone Usage Charge Tax
      Utility Taxes
      Vehicle License Registration Tax
      Vehicle Sales Tax
      Watercraft Registration Tax
      Well Permit Tax
      Workers Compensation Tax
  

      
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.  We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

And I still have to 'press 1' for English!?
 
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President Barack Obama, as reported by Fox News and many others, is "unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.  Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.
The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.
At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority 
Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans."
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"The UK Guardian reports: "Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.
The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.  Announcing the formal retraction of the paper from the journal, Siddall said: "It's one of those things that happens. People make mistakes and mistakes happen in science." He said there were two separate technical mistakes in the paper, which were pointed out by other scientists after it was published. A formal retraction was required, rather than a correction, because the errors undermined the study's conclusion."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/21/sea-level-geoscience-retract-siddall
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The American Spectator's Jeff Lord reports the following:
"Whoever solicits or receives … any….thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both." -- 18 USC Sec. 211 -- Bribery, Graft and Conflicts of Interest: Acceptance or solicitation to obtain appointive public office
 
 "In the face of a White House denial, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak stuck to his story yesterday that the Obama administration offered him a "high-ranking" government post if he would not run against U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary."

For the second time in five months, the Obama White House is being accused -- by Democrats -- of offering high ranking government jobs in return for political favors. What no one is reporting is that this is a violation of federal law that can lead to prison time, a fine or both, according to Title 18, Chapter 11, Section 211 of the United States Code.
The jobs in question? Secretary of the Navy and a position within the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The favor requested in return? Withdrawal from Senate challenges to two sitting United States Senators, both Democrats supported by President Obama. The Senators are Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Michael Bennett in Colorado. [And I ask - isn't this the "Chicago way"?]       

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/02/22/specter-race-scandal-sestak-ac

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The Washington Times Editorial, in part:  "President Obama is readying to unleash a variety of executive powers to circumvent Congress and push his agenda. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said that a review of mechanisms was under way to "get the job done across a front of issues." The president claims he has to resort to extraordinary methods because of partisan gridlock, but he has learned the wrong lessons from his failed freshman year in office. Mr. Obama's initiatives haven't stalled because of partisanship but because they are transparently bad for America."
"Mr. Obama seems to have basic problems with democracy. He doesn't like it when people disagree with him; he resists compromise, and he seems to think he should be free to reshape the country to suit his vision. Those who challenge him are ignored, mocked or told to shut up.
During his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama said, "Let me be perfectly clear: I have taught the Constitution, I understand the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution when I am president of the United States." As president, however, he seems increasingly to view himself as a philosopher king. If Mr. Obama seeks to exploit executive power to ram through policies the American people oppose, they will hold him and his party accountable. There will be a lot for his successor to undo in 2013."