See 1 below.)
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We could have a second re-industrialization of America if Obama and his cronies would get out of the way. (See 2 below.)
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Even though history is often ignored and the rules are changed it is important to return to it in order to realize what is going on and to get one's bearings. (See 3 and 3a below.)
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Hagel's testimony was a disgrace for someone seeking one of the most important positions but , no doubt, the press, media and fellow Democrats will circle the wagon on his and Obama's behalf. Some will hold their noses, but he will be approved. (See 4 and 4a below.)
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Read this and you will get a better understanding why we need to send more weapons to Morsi. (See 5 below.)
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Dick
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1)Labor Unions Finally Read Obamacare Fine Print, Realize Costs Set To Spike, “Turn Sour” On Obama
It is a well-known fact that nobody in Congress ever reads, or even skims, any law, and especially not the fine print, it passes until long after it has been enacted into law. It appears the same is just as true for the biggest pillar of support for the Obama administration: America’s labor unions, whose liberal vote every election is instrumental to preserving the outflow side of America’s welfare state. As it turns out, it was the same labor unions who enthusiastically supported the primary accomplishment of the Obama administration in the past 4 years, Obamacare, only to realize, long after it has become reality that, surprise, their healthcare plan costs are about to go up. And, as the WSJ colorfully summarizes, they are now “turning sour.”
Union leaders say many of the law’s requirements will drive up the costs for their health-care plans and make unionized workers less competitive. Among other things, the law eliminates the caps on medical benefits and prescription drugs used as cost-containment measures in many health-care plans. It also allows children to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26.
So what are the Unions’ demands to offset what they only now realize will push their overall costs higher? What else: Moar!
To offset that, the nation’s largest labor groups want their lower-paid members to be able to get federal insurance subsidies while remaining on their plans. In the law, these subsidies were designed only for low-income workers without employer coverage as a way to help them buy private insurance.Top officers at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the AFL-CIO and other large labor groups plan tokeep pressing the Obama administration to expand the federal subsidies to these jointly run plans, warning that unionized employers may otherwise drop coverage.
But, but, they can’t – that’s the whole point, or didn’t they read that part too? Doesn’t matter – to them it is now unfair, nay “unacceptable”:
“We are going back to the administration to say that this is not acceptable,” said Ken Hall, general secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters, which has 1.6 million members and dependents in health-care plans. Other unions involved in the push include the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and Unite Here, which represents service and other workers.
So now that even the unions have understood that Obamacare is one big tax, maybe it is time to reevaluate its arrival at a time when the already strapped US consumer sees taxes rising, and has their savings extinguished.
Employers and consumers across the country will see big changes under the health law, which goes into full effect next year. Insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Most individuals will be taxed if they don’t carry insurance, and employers with at least 50 workers will face a fine if they don’t provide it. About 30 million Americans are expected to gain insurance under the law.John Wilhelm, chairman of Unite Here Health, the insurance plan for 260,000 union workers at places including hotels, casinos and airports, recalls standing next to Barack Obama at a rally in Nevada when he was a 2008 presidential candidate.“I heard him say, ‘If you like your health plan, you can keep it,’ ” Mr. Wilhelm recalled. Mr. Wilhelm said he expects the administration will craft a solution so that employer health-care plans won’t be hurt. “If I’m wrong, and the president does not intend to keep his word, I would have severe second thoughts about the law.”
Wait, no, you mean that in order to get your vote a career politician… lied? Say it isn’t true.
So what is an administration that has pandered to every demand for welfare increases ever, to do?
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2) Cheap Energy Could ‘Re-industrialize’ America
A new report paints a rosy picture of America’s energy future and points to some surprising repercussions for a nation suddenly awash in cheap oil and gas.
In its “Energy Outlook 2030,” the London-based energy firm BP asserts that the United States will be 99 percent energy self-sufficient by 2030, largely due to shale gas and oil produced by hydraulic fracturing.
As recently as 2005, the nation was only 70 percent self-sufficient.
“The U.S. will likely surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia in 2013 as the largest liquids producer in the world (crude and biofuels),” the report states.
Also, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has forecast that the nation could become a net exporter of liquefied natural gas as early as 2016, according to The Diplomat, a current affairs online magazine.
“The U.S. will not be increasingly dependent on energy imports, with energy set to reinvigorate its economy,” said BP’s chief executive Bob Dudley.
The shale gas boom has already cut household energy bills by an estimated $1,000 a year and spurred a wave of new industrial investment, reversing a 30-year period of declining manufacturing jobs.
At least five new U.S. steel plants are planned that would use gas instead of coal to purify iron ore, according to Bloomberg News.
Chemical and fertilizer companies also are said to be planning new gas-fueled plants.
“Other companies from around the world that consume gas may be attracted to move their facilities to the U.S. market, which would then provide even more steel consumption and manufacturing capacity,” said Aldo Mazzaferro, a steel analyst at Macquarie Capital USA Inc. in New York.
“It could result in a re-industrialization of the U.S.”
The BP report noted that significant exploitation of major shale gas and oil resources has taken place thus far only in the United States and Canada.
The natural gas boom in America will also lead to a significant reduction in greenhouse gases, since natural gas-fired power plants produce around half as much carbon emissions as coal-fired plants, and just 1 percent as much sulfur oxide.
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3)Understanding Middle East Peace!
What Part Of This Do You NOT Understand???
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SAN REMO MANDATE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmMmJ46O-3Q&feature=player_embedded <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmMmJ46O-3Q&feature=player_embedded>
The six day war!
An Amazing 46 Minute Documentary That Must Be Seen.
What Really Happened!!!
"Very interesting!
A little long, but very worthwhile to understand
the intricacies of the Geopolitical map of the
Middle East.
It is most interesting that this geopolitical map
hasn`t changed in the last 45 years."
"We in Israel still have to deal not only with our
enemies but with our " friends" to be able to stay
alive and survive."
"If you follow thru the whole film to the end, you
will understand that Israel never wanted "
territories", but only to be recognized as a
"Jewish State"... and most of all, to have
"Peace";
"To our regret we are obliged to maintain an
attitude of distrust and skepticism, and when -
and only when- our enemies and "friends" realize
that we are here to stay...then, there will be peace
in the Middle East.
3a)
http://www.youtube.com/embed/yd3V3JC35-U?feature=player_embedded%2a
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4a)Mr. President: Chuck Hagel!
This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison.
Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense should be withdrawn now. He delivered what may be the worst performance at a confirmation hearing ever given. He was described as “confused,” “befuddled,” and “self contradicting.” One of Mr. Hagel’s own backers deplored the lack of “charisma” the nominee showed during the hearings.
Was this just a "Bad Hair Day"for Mr. Hagel?
“Hagel, who can be hilarious, didn’t show much of that today,” said Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation. Let the record show that never before has “hilarious” been offered as a qualification for a Cabinet officer supervises America’s nuclear arsenal.
Perhaps the lowest moment of the entire dismal day occurred when an aide helpfully passed Sen. Hagel a note. We are not privy to its contents, but it prompted the embattled nominee to correct himself.
He did not—as he had just testified under oath—support the president’s containment policy toward an Iran with nuclear weapons. That was because the president has said over and over again: He favors preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, not containing a nuclear Iran. He does not have a containment policy.
In a chess game, you would turn over your king. In tennis, you’d hop over the net to congratulate your victorious opponent. In short, if you have to do something like that under the full glare of klieg lights, you’ve lost all credibility.
Before yesterday’s hearings, the Chuck Hagel nomination was simply very controversial.
He had made alarming statements and cast alarming votes during his Senate career. He had opposed economic sanctions against Iran. We have expressed our own skepticism about the efficacy of these sanctions.
But Sen. Hagel also opposed naming the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization. It is common knowledge that Iran backs Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Both of these outfits are terrorist gangs, so described routinely by the U.S. government. Naming the home office of Mideast terrorism a terrorist organization should not be hard. But it was too hard for Chuck Hagel.
After yesterday’s hearings, we have an entirely new set of concerns. Sen. Hagel has never administered any large organization—in private industry or in government. The Pentagon is a huge bureaucracy.
He seems to be telling us it isn’t a problem all the wild things I’ve said because I will not be in a policy-making position. If he is confirmed and not making policy, that fact would speak volumes about this administration’s lack of seriousness on national defense.
Since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947, the civilian head of the Pentagon has performed a vital role in the highest counsels of government. In 1948, it was the new department’s critically important task to integrate the U.S. Armed Forces—and to undertake the defense of encircled West Berlin through the now-famous Berlin Airlift.
Throughout the decades since, some Secretaries of Defense have been deeply controversial—like Robert Strange MacNamara during the Vietnam War. Some have been great and capable leaders—like Caspar Weinberger during the highly successful Reagan years. But we have never had a Secretary of Defense who promises on entering office to be inconsequential.
For President Obama to go forward with this deeply flawed nomination now is to take upon himself the responsibility for inviting chaos and confusion at a time of international peril. The prospect of nuclear weapons in the hands of the mullahs in Tehran who invented suicide bombing should concentrate the thoughts of even our distracted Washington policy makers.
Democrats should privately, or publicly if necessary, appeal to the president to reconsider this nomination. We are reminded of the brave stance of the late Paul Weyrich. This conservative leader testified against the nomination of former Sen. John Tower in 1989, not because of Tower’s record on defense issues, with which Weyrich largely agreed. But Weyrich said he had seen the Texan’s all-too-frequent inebriated state. It took courage for Paul Weyrich to put country above party then, and it’s what we ask of Democrats now.
President Obama has successfully avoided serious questioning about his foreign policy.
We have praised his raid to take out Osama bin Laden. We remain concerned that the president does not take seriously enough the menace of Iranian nukes.
Yesterday’s hearing makes clear why the Iranians might want Chuck Hagel leading the Pentagon; it does not make clear why most Americans should. It seems the president chose an old Senate chum who could be relied upon to rubber stamp the administration’s social engineering of the military.
The first duty of the President of the United States is to safeguard the American people and our Constitution. If he goes forward with this flawed nomination, President Obama will be saying loudly on national defense: Whatever.
Mr. President: Now is the time to prevent future grief for our nation and our all-volunteer military. Now is the time to withdraw this nomination. Chuck Hagel.
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5a)Morsi’s top aid: Holocaust a “hoax” concocted by U.S.
intelligence
Fathi Shihab-Eddim, a senior aid to Egypt’s president Morsi, said the other day that
Holocaust was “a hoax” concocted by the U.S. intelligence services. Shihab-Eddim also
said that six million Jews were never killed – they simply emigrated to the United States.
Fathi Shihab-Eddim, a senior aid to Egypt’s president Morsi, whose area of responsibility includes
editorial appointments at Egypt’s state-run newspapers, said the other day that Holocaust was “a hoax”
concocted by the U.S.intelligence services.
Shihab-Eddim also said that six million Jews were never killed – they simply emigrated to the United
States. “The myth of the Holocaust is an industry that America invented,” Shihab-Eddim said.
“U.S. intelligence agencies in cooperation with their counterparts in allied nations during World War II
created it [the Holocaust myth] to destroy the image of their opponents in Germany, and to justify war
and massive destruction against military and civilian facilities of the Axis powers, and especially to hit
Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bomb,” Shihab-Eddim said.
Efraim Zuroff, Israel Director of the Jerusalem-based Simon Weisenthal Center, told Fox News that the
comments reflect a dangerous, but common, mindset.
“Obviously, if a person in that position makes that ridiculous claim it is of concern,” Zuroff said. “The sad
truth is that these views are relatively common in the Arab world and are the result of ignorance on one
hand and of government-sponsored Holocaust denial on the other hand.”
Last week video tapes emerged of anti-Semitic remarks made by Morsi himself in 2010, when he was one
of the top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. In a TV interview, Morsi said that Jews are “the descendants of apes and pigs,” and in a speech the same month he said the tasks of Egyptian schools is to teach Egyptian children
to hate Jews.
Morsi aids said that these remarks were taken out of context, but Mohammed el-Baradei, one of the
leaders of Egypt’s secular opposition, criticized Morsi, saying: “We are all aware that those statements
were not taken out of context and that this discourse is very common among a large number of clerics and
members of Islamist groups,” El-Baradei said. “Apart from the remarks themselves, I am calling upon the
person who made them to courageously admit either the real stance he and the Muslim Brotherhood and
their followers adopt, or how mistaken they had been for all those years.”
Anti-Semitic comments are part and parcel of Egypt’s political discourse, with the Muslim Brotherhood
and other Islamist groups resorting to an especially crude form of anti-Semitism.
Thus, Youssef Al-Qaradawi, a popular Islamist TV commentator, said in a 2009 broadcast that “He
[Hitler] managed to put them [the Jews] in their place. This [the Holocaust] was divine punishment for
them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.”
Zuroff told Fox News that the latest remarks should cause countries to ask themselves what kind of
relationship they want to have with the Morsi regime. “Government-sponsored Holocaust denial is the
most dangerous…as opposed to attempts by individuals to convince people that the Holocaust did not
take place,” Zuroff said. “When it comes with a strict Islamic interpretation and one which is basically
anti-Semitic, then it becomes much more dangerous.”
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