Friday, February 8, 2013

Sweet Tammy's Marches, God Made a Liberal!. Clowns!

Sweet Tammys continues to expand its Whole Food Store penetration and starting next week should be in their Friendship Heights and Wisconsin ave. stores in the D.C.- Maryland area.

Once again, if you have friends and/or family tell them to ask for Sweet Tammys' products.  You will be doing them a favor and I assure you they will thank you.
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Testimony of President 'Withdrawal's' various nominees and Cabinet members discloses a dangerous drift in our foreign policy stance.

In the case of former Sen. Hagel, it is evident he was ill prepared to explain why he should become Sec. of Defense even after assistance from The Committee's Chair. But then perhaps Hagel actually was telling the truth.  Obama has no plan to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons only some mythical concept of empty negotiations containing them once they achieve their goal.

Only yesterday, Iran's leader shut the door in President 'Withdrawal's' face vis avis engaging in more senseless negotiations. Iran knows with President 'Withdrawal' they have the upper hand.  We are now down to the wire and it will be the Israelis who are left tot take on Iran.  However,t based on recent conversations with someone very informed, the IAF needs a few more refueling aircraft and specific munitions to get the job done the way they want , ie. not  delay Iran's nuclear program but destroy it in its multiple locations.

Testimony  of Sec. Panetta, reveals President 'Withdrawal' overrode/rejected the advice of his entire intelligence advisors to engage  Syria's Assad  by assisting the rebels . Will Obama's historical legacy lay the slaughter of Syrians at his feet?  Time will tell. Yet, in Libya we heard from the same Obama how morality dictated we assist from behind. Why the distinction?

The world remains a dangerous place and  Obama's apparent willingness to re-allocate more of GDP to entitlements with funding taken from The Pentagon makes it even more so.

We are beginning to witness the unraveling consequences of the policies of our naive,confused and timid president who believes American foreign policy must be reshaped and that a Chamberlain like retreat will make the world a safer place in the face of  Islamist threats as well as those from N Korea and even China's military expansionist desires.

History proves this to be a mistaken course but then what does history know! (See 1 and 1a below.)

America's strongest ally in the Middle East is Israel.  America's most reliable ally in the Middle East is Israel. Israel is the equivalent of another aircraft carrier for America in the Middle East when one considers the intelligence benefits, the forward  base benefits and Israel's willingness to defend itself at the sacrifice of their own instead of American lives.  Foreign Aid to Israel results in high returns on investment unlike other wasteful foreign aid to corrupt officials and then there is Solyndra.
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Is it even possible to get intrusive government out of our hair?   Don't hold your breath!(See 2 below.)
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Destroying American economic competitiveness from within.

Many decades ago The Club of Rome, a groups of scientists etc., published a book about the fact that all resources were finite . The book was called: "The Limits To Growth."  At the end of the book there was a short sentence that stated everything the authors had written previously could be countered by technology developments.

Their thesis has been proven wrong , their fear has been proven right.

Technology continues to save us and in the next few decades technology in areas of energy development, of health care, cars driven by technology and even technology in warfare will bring costs down, extend lives, which could increase costs and might even reduce the cost of war's destruction through more targeted and focused attacks.

I continue to fear inflation because of world central bank efforts to flood the markets with worthless fiat but like the Club of Rome, I do not ignore the oil on troubled water effect of technology. (See 3 below.)
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Mark Levin shows the GOP how to talk back to Obama: Video: Levin: How To Talk To Barack Obama
2013-02-07 11:27:07-05


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Government  did not make a farmer but God made a liberal:   (Parody of the Paul Harvey ad, "So God Made a Farmer")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EUzMPlQb2G4
---Dick

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1)Send in the Clowns


Atop the Golan Heights, there are thousands of fruit trees, vineyards, acres of wheat, vegetables, herds of cattle and a half-million or more land mines. The livestock and produce were brought here and cultivated by Israeli citizen-soldiers -- people who beat their swords into plowshares to wrest farmland from a battlefield. The land mines were planted by the Syrian army. The Golan plateau is an object lesson for American policymakers who believe that the Israelis need only trade a little more land in exchange for peace. It just isn't so.
While we were en route to the Golan plateau, the U.S. Senate confirmed John Kerry as America's new secretary of state. Kerry says "the Mideast peace process" is his "No. 1 priority." By the time we returned to this ancient city beside the Sea of Galilee, the Senate Armed Services Committee had commenced confirmation hearings on former Sen. Chuck Hagel's fitness to serve as secretary of defense.
Watching "news" from the United States in a foreign country is often a surreal experience. My natural default mode when I'm overseas is to defend my country, but the Hagel hearings made this task challenging, to say the least. The Israelis watching the "highlight reel" frequently asked questions such as, "Why would Obama pick a person who hates Jews to be your secretary of defense?" What's the pro-American answer to that?
From here, Hagel looks "confused," "uncertain" and "ignorant of reality." And those are among the kindest observations appearing in Israel's English-language media. His bewildering, deer-in-the-headlights muddle about the Obama administration's "containment policy" toward Iran's nuclear weapons program was undoubtedly acclaimed by the ayatollahs in Tehran. But here in Israel, it affirmed the worst fears of people who see Iranian nuclear weapons as an existential threat to the survival of the Jewish state.
There were many other issues in which Hagel provided perplexing, even alarming, responses to questions posed by Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. For those of us who served in the Vietnam War, the exchange with Sen. John McCain about the "surge" in Iraq was simply bizarre. McCain asked Hagel whether he stood by a statement in 2007 that the surge in Iraq represented "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam." Before the surge, he said, "If it's carried out, I will resist it."
In a lengthy and heated back-and-forth, McCain repeatedly challenged Hagel on whether he still agreed that the Iraq surge was a mistake. Hagel refused to answer. Unfortunately, nobody asked a far more important question: What was it about Vietnam that Hagel considers to be a "blunder"?
The answer to that question might well have been more revealing about Hagel's perspective on current events than a debate over whether George W. Bush made the right decision in 2006 to put 30,000 more American troops into the fight in the Land Between the Rivers. Does Hagel -- a Vietnam War veteran -- think it was wrong that America honored its treaty commitments with the Republic of Vietnam? Does he recall that American combat troops were withdrawn from Vietnam in 1972? Does he recall that the North Vietnamese invasion and victory April 30, 1975, came less than five months after the U.S. Congress cut off all military aid to the Republic of Vietnam?
America -- and the Defense Department Hagel wants to head -- is now commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. There is no question about the outcome. After 12 years of war, the North Vietnamese finally conquered their southern neighbor. Millions died and fled the country we pledged to defend. But the war wasn't lost on the battlefields of Vietnam. It was lost in the corridors of power in Washington. Does Hagel consider the "blunder" of Vietnam to be our getting into the fight? Or was it our precipitous withdrawal and removal of all support?
Those are the kinds of questions that should have been asked -- and that Israelis are now asking privately as they await the outcome of these hearings. Hagel says, inexplicably, that he isn't going to be a "policymaker" if he becomes secretary of defense. Officials here know better -- but none of them is going to go on the record about Barack Obama's appointments.
Privately, they note: "There is chaos and turmoil all around us. Washington tells us sanctions will stop the Iranians from acquiring nuclear weapons. Forty years of sanctions haven't kept the North Koreans from building atomic bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Will the U.S. honor its commitments to us?"
After news broke about Obama's plan to visit Israel, one of my friends shook his head, took out his smartphone and pressed a button. From the tiny speaker came Frank Sinatra singing "Send in the Clowns."
Oliver North is the host of "War Stories" on Fox News Channel and the author of the New York Times best-seller "Heroes Proved." To find out more about Oliver North and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM

1a) Hagel: US Needs to 'Reverse Optics' in Relationship With Israel
By Rachel Hirshfeld 
The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations recently published a recording of a speech given by former senator Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama’s highly controversial nominee for secretary of defense, in which he said that the United States has to "reverse optics" in its relationship with the state of Israel.

In order to restore its credibility as an honest broker between Israelis and Palestinians, America has to “reverse optics” in its ties with the Jewish state, the former Republican senator from Nebraska said in 2007, as first reported by Breitbart.com.
"There's no question in the Arab-Israeli issue that Israel is a nation today as a result of the United States," he said, possibly referring to the decision by President Harry Truman to recognize the establishment of the State of Israel, as well as continued military, financial and diplomatic ties between the two countries.

While his remarks are not entirely clear, in context, it seems that Hagel was intending to reinforce perceptions of Israel as a client state of the United States, according to Breitbart.

It was recently revealed that Hagel made further staggering accusations against Israel, alleging that the Jewish state is keeping the “Palestinians caged up like animals.”

The highly controversial nominee does not elaborate on the claim or explain how he believes Israel is keeping “Palestinians caged up like animals,” according to the Journal Star report. The comment is, however, consistent with his long anti-Israel and anti-Jewish record.

The two-term senator chosen by President Barack Obama to replace current secretary of defense Leon Panetta, has come under intense fire for his record on Israel, Iran, Hamas, as well as his comments about “the Jewish lobby,” homosexuals and a myriad of other issues.

The Senate Armed Services Committee postponed a panel vote that was expected to take place Thursday on the contentious nomination after Republicans demanded that he release additional financial information, including details regarding compensation for speeches he delivered since leaving Capitol Hill.
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The next time a cashier asks "paper or plastic?" think of Abbie Schoenwetter. He spent more than six years in federal confinement for shipping lobster in plastic instead of cardboard.

There's no American law against doing so. But thanks to a vague, overly broad, and otherwise unjust federal criminal law, the U.S. government claimed it was upholding a Honduranregulation.

Abbie Schoenwetter's business, health, and family life (he has a wife and three kids) were wiped out because unreasonable federal prosecutors used an unjust law to target Abbie and a Honduran fisherman from whom Abbie purchased his seafood.

He's finally free now. But he notes that "The worst thing anybody can do to you is take away your freedom."

Indeed, the purpose of the U.S. Constitution is to secure the rights and liberties promised in the Declaration of Independence.

Today, though, the federal government has acquired a nearly unquestioned dominance over virtually every area of American life.

The scope and depth of its rules means that the national government increasingly regulates more and more of our most basic activities, from how much water is in our toilets to what kind of light bulbs we can buy. This is a government that is increasingly unlimited, undemocratic, and damaging to popular self-government.
Conservatives want to restore real limits on a government that is out of control.

This will not occur all at once or across the board. Nor will it result from one judicial decision, presidential order, or comprehensive piece of legislation. We will be strategic, defining and pursuing a realistic path that measurably reintroduces constitutional limits - by focusing government on its primary obligations, restoring its responsibility and democratic accountability, and correcting its worst excesses.

America's Opportunity for All, Heritage's new plan that we have been highlighting all week, includes rebuilding constitutional self-government. Some sensible steps include:
  • Policymakers should execute the law, not simply make it up. The President, judges, and Members of Congress all take oaths to uphold the Constitution in carrying out the responsibilities of their offices. That means the President should appoint, and the Senate should use its advice and consent role to confirm, only constitutionally faithful judges. Also, judges increasingly seek to impose their own policy preferences on the nation. Candidates and officeholders should promote robust debate regarding the importance of approving constitutionalist judges. 
  • Reverse the explosion of federal criminal law.Congress must halt the overcriminalization rampage and begin to eliminate vague, overbroad criminal offenses that punish individuals who, without criminal intent, violate one of these innumerable federal statutes. 
  • Dismantle the administrative state. Administrative agencies and vast bureaucracies operate as an unelected fourth branch of government. Congress should reassert its authority by taking responsibility for all laws and regulations that govern us. 
  • Build support for limited government. For too long, Congress has passed massive laws written behind closed doors, filled with arcane cross-references that most Members of Congress neither read nor understand. Our leaders should legislate clearly and openly. Each House of Congress should adopt a rule requiring the public posting of the text of each bill and major amendment not less than 72 hours before floor debate on that bill or amendment. 
  • Encourage federalism. Work with state legislatures and governors, especially to slow the implementation of Obamacare and instead develop real health care solutions that work

Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., is Heritage's vice president for American Studies and director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics.
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3)The EPA is destroying America
By  



Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), defying a court order, mandated that petroleum companies must add 14 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol to gasoline, in spite of the fact that commercial quantities of cellulosic ethanol do not exist. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided in favor of the American Petroleum Institute, which sued the EPA, deciding that the EPA “exceeded its authority by requiring refiners to purchase cellulosic biofuel despite the fact the next-generation fuel is not commercially available.”
 The Environmental Protection Agency, the home of junk science, environmental radicals, and political zealots, is active on many fronts promulgating regulations that will close down American industries, our electricity supply, and our economy. The EPA is not required by law to consider the economic consequences of its regulations. That oversight should be changed.
 Let’s take a look at some of EPA’s recent actions and proposals.
 The war on coal
 New regulations regarding emissions of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and ozone may greatly increase the cost of electricity, cause some power plants to close, and endanger our ability to produce adequate power. (See:http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/?p=874 http://tinyurl.com/bkccgpb )
 In Arizona, EPA is using alleged haze in the Grand Canyon as an excuse to target coal-fired electric plants and is particularly targeting the Navajo Generating station, near Page, AZ. EPA rejected Arizona’s proposal for modifying the plant and instead wants the plant to install “selective catalytic reduction” to control nitrogen oxides, at an added cost of $48 million per year. In spite of the additional cost, the EPA proposal will have no noticeable effect on haze as shown in my post: http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/?p=1451. This one plant supplies the electricity to run the pumps bringing water from the Colorado River to Tucson along the Central Arizona Project canal. If the plant survives and installs the mandated catalytic devices, the cost will raise our water rates (See Arizona Daily Star).
 The EPA is also harassing other coal-fired plants in Arizona. The State of Arizona is suing the EPA over this issue (see here). Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said of the EPA, “”This is an absurd action that would significantly raise utility rates for most Arizonans without providing any benefit to anyone.”
 In Georgia, the Georgia Power company said it will close 15 fossil-fuel-fired electric units, impacting nearly 500 jobs in the state, due to the high cost of complying with EPA regulations. In Texas, because of the EPA, Chase Power cancelled plans for a $3 billion coal-fired plant near Corpus Christi which would have employed 3,900 workers.
 Biofuels and invasive species
 The EPA protection of the environment apparently doesn’t apply in the realm of biofuels. The Heartland Institute reports that the EPA is proposing the introduction of two invasive grass species Arundo donax (giant reed) and Pennisetum purpureum (elephant grass), as advanced biofuel feedstock under the federal renewable fuel standard. Pennisetum purpureum is an African grass that thrives in warm climates, multiplies rapidly, and crowds out other vegetation. Arundo donax, native to India, is already a feared invasive plant well beyond the subcontinent. California, Colorado, Nevada, and Texas, classify Arundo donax as a noxious weed.
 ”These two species are already harmful invaders in parts of the United States and should not be incentivized for biofuel use,” said Doria Gordon, director of conservation for Nature Conservancy Florida. “Both species can become so dominant that they crowd out native species and alter habitats.” A group of more than 200 scientists have sent a letter to EPA warning them of the danger and unintended consequences of this proposed action.
 Maybe the EPA wants the invasive species because its mandate for use of non-corn, cellulosic (plant waste) ethanol has not been realistic. Use of cellulosic ethanol, made with crop residue, grasses or wood chips, is a provision of the 2007 Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) enacted by Congress. In 2012, EPA mandated that 8.7 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol be blended into gasoline. However, the ethanol industry was able to produce only about 20,000 gallons in 2012. Even though is was impossible to comply with the EPA mandate, the EPA none-the-less fined gasoline producers for compliance failure and will require they use 14 million gallons in 2013.
 Ethanol and your automobile
 There is more trouble with ethanol. Currently, gasoline is blended with 10% ethanol to supposedly curb air pollution. Now the EPA wants to increase that to 15%. However, the American Automobile Association (AAA) warns that use of E15 as the new blend is called, will damage the engines of most vehicles on the road.
 ”The number of vehicles approved to use E15 – only about 12 million out of the more than 240 million light-duty vehicles – is limited, while the use of the fuel blend in non-approved vehicles can compromise a vehicle’s warranty:
 ”Less than 5 percent of cars on the road are approved by automakers to use E15. Approved vehicles include flex-fuel models, 2001 model-year and newer Porsches, 2012 model-year and newer GM vehicles and 2013 model-year Ford vehicles.
 ”Five manufacturers (BMW, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen) say their warranties will not cover fuel-related claims caused by the use of E15.
 ”Seven additional automakers (Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo) have stated that the use of E15 does not comply with the fuel requirements specified in their owner’s manuals and may void warranty coverage.”
 ”AAA automotive engineering experts believe that sustained use of E15 in both newer and older vehicles could result in significant problems such as accelerated engine wear and failure, fuel-system damage and false ‘check engine’ lights for any vehicle not approved by its manufacturer to use E15.”
 Burning food for fuel
 Ethanol mandates are essentially burning food for fuel. Even the New York Times has noticed some unintended consequences:
 ”Recent laws in the United States and Europe that mandate the increasing use of biofuel in cars have had far-flung ripple effects, economists say, as land once devoted to growing food for humans is now sometimes more profitably used for churning out vehicle fuel.”
 ”With its corn-based diet and proximity to the United States, Central America has long been vulnerable to economic riptides related to the United States’ corn policy. Now that the United States is using 40 percent of its crop to make biofuel, it is not surprising that tortilla prices have doubled in Guatemala, which imports nearly half of its corn.”
 ”In a country where most families must spend about two thirds of their income on food, ‘the average Guatemalan is now hungrier because of biofuel development,’ said Katja Winkler, a researcher at Idear, a Guatemalan nonprofit organization that studies rural issues. Roughly 50 percent of the nation’s children are chronically malnourished, the fourth-highest rate in the world, according to the United Nations.”
Soot and Dust and illegal human testing
 Another EPA campaign is about fine particulate matter in the air, soot and dust, the so-called PM2.5 standard, which the EPA sets at 35 millionths of a gram (micrograms) in a 24-hour period. Most air in the U.S. averages about 10 micrograms.
 According to a story by Steve Milloy in the Washington Times, Outgoing EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson testified about PM2.5 before Congress in September 2011: “Particulate matter causes premature death. It doesn’t make you sick. It is directly causal to you dying sooner than you should.” “In scientific documents, the EPA has repeatedly concluded that any exposure to PM2.5 can kill, and it can kill people within hours or days of inhalation.” How does the EPA know? It conducted illegal human testing. (See:http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/?p=1517 )
 But, Milloy asks, if the particulate matter is so dangerous, where are the bodies? He was referring to recent air pollution in China: “Beijing’s PM2.5 levels peaked at 886 micrograms per cubic meter — an incredible 89 times greater than the U.S. daily average. Based on EPA risk estimates, we should expect the daily death toll in Beijing to have skyrocketed by 89 percent on a same-day and next-day basis.” Yet there have been no reports of a spike in deaths caused by breathing the heavily polluted air. Has the EPA has been exaggerating the danger?
Tucson doctor Jane Orient, in a Wall Street Journal article, “EPA Science Is the ‘New Homeopathy,’ Doctors State,” says:
The “evidence” for the harm is very weak correlations seen in epidemiologic studies done in 1993 and 1995. Findings are contradicted by other studies. The EPA is now apparently trying to prove harm by subjecting human subjects to diesel exhaust in an apparatus some say resembles a gas chamber.
“Either the EPA is lying to Congress about the lethality of PM2.5, or it is engaged in illegal and unethical human experiments, subjecting vulnerable patients to a substance it believes could kill them instantly,” states Jane Orient, M.D., president of Physicians for Civil Defense.
 EPA colluding with radical greens
 On another front, we see that the EPA (and other government agencies) are colluding with radical environmental groups.
 U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is warning of more secret “sue and settle” deals with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups. In a letter today, Vitter encourages Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell to join the 13 states’ AGs who recently filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with EPA asking for any and all correspondence between EPA and a list of 80 environmental, labor union and public interest organizations that had been party to litigation since the start of the Obama Administration.
 ”The collusion between federal bureaucrats and far-left environmental organizations entering legal agreements under a shroud of secrecy is the opposite of a transparent government,” Vitter said. “This is a problem across the country, but could quickly become a threat to Louisianans if we see the full weight of the EPA and Fish and Wildlife Service come crashing down on private landowners.”
EPA regulations are costly:
 A recent study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers critically assessed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s cost- benefit analysis with respect to six key regulations: Utility MACT, Boiler MACT, Coal Combustion Residuals, the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, Cooling Water Intake Structures, and Ground-Level Ozone. The NAM study details the significant differences between EPA’s cost estimates and those of industry sources, while highlighting problems and inconsistencies with EPA’s methodology. Most importantly for manufacturers, the study estimates the impact of EPA rules on the manufacturing industry, directly and through indirect macroeconomic effects.
A key finding of the report is that “the annual compliance costs for all six regulations range from $36 billion to $111.2 billion (by EPA estimates) and from $63.2 billion to $138.2 billion (by industry estimates).” Notably, the study was picked up in the trade press and recognized by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which reiterated the study’s finding that “major new EPA rules could cost manufacturers hundreds of billions of dollars and eliminate millions of American jobs.” (MasterResource)
 Pretending that carbon dioxide is a pollutant
 Of course, the biggest EPA stick is its “endangerment finding” contending that carbon dioxide emissions pose some danger in spite of there being no physical evidence to support that contention. The EPA violated both the scientific method and the Scientific Advisory Board statute intended to enforce the scientific method when it made its highly influential scientific assessment in the Endangerment Finding. That the endangerment finding is purely political is shown by the fact that the EPA is getting all worked up about carbon dioxide levels of around 400ppm. But submarine crews work efficiently in carbon dioxide levels over10,000ppm. A group of scientists is challenging the EPA’s endangerment finding. See: http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/?p=1660
 The EPA has long been a rogue, radical agency, and a very expensive one at that. They seem incapable of exercising common-sense and are now merely an unscientific political tool.  Proper environmental protection is important and desirable, but we are not getting it from the EPA. It is time to defund the EPA.
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