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Let The good times roll and the lies be revealed! (See 1 below.)
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Israel just celebrated it 65th year of existence but most of the world, and all of the Arab/Muslim world, find nothing favorable. Arabs from all over receive Israeli medical treatment etc, but all they do is carp and complain. Oh well, that is Israel's cross to bear. (See 2 below.)
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Weapons flowing out of Libya are all over according to a U.N.report. (See 3 below.)
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Our living high on the hog president, his wife and kids.
If lawyer Welch was still living he would probably be repeating what he said to McCarthy "Have you no shame sir?" (see 4 below.)
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Sen. Paul took his message, a few days ago, to Howard University. It took political courage on his part to remind black students about history and the role the Republican Party played in bringing about their civil rights.
It is easier for Democrats to offer free things and thereby, gain votes and loyalty than to offer something more subjective and less tangible like personal freedom in order to garner to gain votes.
In the last memo I sent out I posted Larry Elder's: "Five Decades of Lies Help Dems Create Monolithic Black Vote."
The problem is when you appeal to a largely unsophisticated and less educated group that are getting freebies and you offer them freedom you have already lost the battle.
This is why education is critical. Our black citizens are being deprived of a good education because Democrats know they would lose them if they were capable of better reasoning and were less emotional in their voting patterns.
Black Americans are being lied to and played for fools and the suckers keep coming back for more. How sad indeed and yet, they have no one to blame but themselves and many of their ministers and leaders who are on the take.
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Dick
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1)Obamacare Exchanges Costs Double: $4.4 Billion
By Paul Scicchitano
As a number of Republican governors continue to say “no” to Obamacare, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) on Wednesday acknowledged that the president’s signature healthcare law is racking up twice the costs to set up the all-important insurance exchanges.
HHS more than doubled its previous cost estimate of $2 billion for the amount it expects to spend to help states set up insurance exchanges, which is a central component of Obamacare.
The agency now expects to spend $4.4 billion by the end of the year, reports The Hill.
Despite the projection overruns, the department is "determined to make them work," said HHS Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources Ellen Murray of the exchanges, when asked to comment on the possibility that Congress might deny the funding request, according to the publication.
As Newsmax reported in February, the federal government must play an even bigger role in Obamacare than anticipated because of the health exchanges it must operate for states declining to set up their own.
Exchanges were envisioned as places where private consumers, who aren’t necessarily covered by an employer healthcare program, can compare and purchase healthcare coverage.
Since a number of Republican governors have opted out of the new law, HHS will be responsible for running exchanges in those states that choose not to participate, according to The Hill, which notes that only 17 states and the District of Columbia have been approved to run exchanges.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters on Wednesday that the implementation funding is an "ongoing conversation with Congress" and "I'm hoping Congress will see that this is the law of the land.
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2)Op-ed: 'Palestinian' is always poor, accusing side; Israel's job is to take it in stride, practice restraint
Elyakim Haetzni
Ramallah has announced that it "doesn’t trust" the Israeli pathologists who ruled that Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh, a life prisoner terrorist, died of cancer. Even before the autopsy was completed, they already rushed to condemn the medical care the terrorist received in jail. Yet they are not the ones I'm complaining about, but rather the authorities and those influencing our public opinion.
Our hospitals are filled with Arab patients, from the Hamas-ruled Gaza as well. In the Israeli prison murderers enjoy medical treatment which they never dreamed of having, they come out with new, expensive sets of teeth, acquire an education and study languages. And the prison? It's a combination of a sanatorium, an academia and a school of terrorism – both theoretical and practical.
And yet, despite all that, when their leader Mahmoud Abbas impudently and shamelessly disregards the professional integrity of our doctors, we remain silent. Because those are the rules of the game we have set: The "Palestinian" is always the poor person, and in any case the accusing one. Israel's job is to take it in stride, restrain itself, and in the best-case scenario – defend itself unwillingly. We will still apologize to the dead terrorist's family and pay them damages.
The entire world denounces the "apartheid roads" in Judea and Samaria, although in broad daylight Jews and Arabs share every road open to Jews. On the other hand, large signs in bright red ban Jews from travelling on roads in areas specified by the Oslo Agreements for Palestinians. Route 443 has been opened to Arabs as well following a High Court order, but a nearby road – which would have cut the time it takes to travel from Gush Dolev-Talmonin to Jerusalem by at least 30 minutes – remains closed to Jews to this very day. Both apartheid and racism: Israel's Arab citizens are free to enter Jenin, while a Jew will be prosecuted.
When was the last time a state official took journalists on a tour on the ground, to get them to realize that the apartheid on the roads of Judea and Samaria is exclusively against Jews. And which of our media outlets ever exposed the shamefulness of their apartheid: That God forbid should a Jewish-Israeli set foot in Nablus or in 90% of Hebron or in any Arab village? Because that's the rule: The state of the Jews should be brought to trial. Why? Because it put itself there in the first place.
Guilt complex
Ramallah's propaganda mouthpieces won't stop calling us "Nazis." Why hasn't a single government spokesman or Israeli media outlet confronted them with the truth – that their leader, the founder of their national movement who they admire to this very day, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was a real Nazi – an associate of Hitler and Himmler, the founder of the SS divisions, the man in charge of Nazi Germany's broadcasts to the Arab world throughout the entire war and an active collaborator in the annihilation of Jews? And who will remind them that the Arabs longed for Hitler to win? That to this very day they are the biggest consumers of "Mein Kampf" and that their cartoons could give a good fight to "Der Stürmer"? Where did the damned guilt complex come from, preventing us from telling the truth even to ourselves?
"Peace is made with enemies"? Would the British and Americans have reconciled with the German enemy had it erected the Heinrich Himmler square in the heart of Berlin or held a state-military funeral for Mengele as the Palestinians did for Abu Hamdiyeh? The gentiles are not the ones who invented "peace with enemies." That is our own pathology
In his speech, Obama told us: "It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. He also said that "it is not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; to restrict a student’s ability to move around the West Bank; or to displace Palestinian families from their home." Each of these accusations is a lie and libel, and yet we have not heard even a polite tweet of denial.
When will we realize that the world will not respect us as long as we do not respect ourselves, and that the material independence, which we are about to celebrate, has no use without mental independence?
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3) UN panel: Libyan weapons are spreading at an alarming rate to new areas and fueling conflicts
Edith M. Ledere
Libyan weapons are spreading at “an alarming rate” to new territory in west Africa and the eastern Mediterranean including Syria and the Gaza Strip where they are fueling conflicts and increasing the arsenals of armed groups and terrorists, a U.N. panel said.
In a report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Tuesday, the panel said cases of illicit transfers from Libya in violation of a U.N. arms embargo that have been proven and are still under investigation involve more than 12 countries and include heavy and light weapons such as portable air defense systems, explosives, mines, and small arms and ammunition.
Since the uprising that ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, the panel said, “Libya has over the past two years become a significant and attractive source of weaponry in the region.”
It said civilians and militias remain in control of most weapons in Libya, adding that “the lack of an effective security system remains one of the primary obstacles to securing military materiel and controlling the borders.”
“In the past 12 months, the proliferation of weapons from Libya has continued at a worrying rate and has spread into new territory: West Africa, the Levant and, potentially, even the Horn of Africa,” the panel said. “Illicit flows from the country are fueling existing conflicts in Africa and the Levant and enriching the arsenals of a range of non-state actors, including terrorist groups.”
The five-member expert panel made 28 visits to 15 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East including 10 visits to Libya. The 94-page report details arms trafficking cases that violate the embargo imposed after the 2011 uprising began as well as efforts to track down the financial assets of individuals and companies linked to Gadhafi and his regime that are on the U.N. blacklist.
The panel said it also examined evidence of the delivery of weapons and ammunition from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to support the anti-Gadhafi revolutionaries during the uprising and considers that both countries violated the U.N. arms embargo, despite Qatar's denial that it transferred any military materiel.
It cited a case of the transfer of ammunition to Libya involving the United Arab Emirates, Armenia, Albania and Ukraine, a separate case involving Sudan, and the reported transfer of a drone to the Libyan opposition by a Canadian company which Canadian authorities say is under investigation.
Last month, the Security Council eased sanctions on non-lethal military equipment for the Libyan government but warned that the country is awash with illegal weapons.
The panel said the increased availability of Libyan weapons has empowered a variety of “non-state actors” engaged in conflicts against national authorities, and it expressed concern that extremist armed groups, who are the best financed, are strengthening their position.
“The lack of political and security stability, the continuing absence of control over stockpiles by the national authorities and delays in disarmament and weapons collections encourage illicit trading and have generated considerable money-making opportunities for traffickers,” the panel said.
It said the post-Gadhafi outpouring of arms has helped fuel the conflict in Mali where secular Tuareg rebels took half of the north as a new homeland in 2012 only to be ousted months later by Islamist Jihadists, many linked to al-Qaida. When they suddenly headed south, France launched a military operation in January that routed them, though remnants remain.
The most regular transfers of significant quantities of arms are going to Egypt and the Sahel, the panel said, with less regular transfers to Chad and Syria.
The panel said it received confidential information that 30 portable air defense systems from Libya were bought from traffickers in Chad, and some were transported to the capital Ndjamena.
In a new trend, it said, illicit arms are being transferred by both land and sea toward the Levant in the eastern Mediterranean.
Egypt is facing an influx of arms from Libya, which present “a threat to its internal security” because some arms are likely to remain in Sinai for use against the government by insurgents, the panel said.
But it said the destination for the majority of arms from Egypt is the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the militant Islamic group Hamas.
Syria, where a conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people is now in its third year, is also “a prominent destination for some Libyan fighters and Libyan military materiel,” the panel said.
It said weapons transfers have been organized by a range of actors in Libya, Syria, and in countries neighboring Syria.
In the Horn of Africa, the panel said it had received evidence that various types of ammunition originating in Libya have been found in Somalia, where the Islamic extremist rebels of al-Shabab are still fighting the government.
Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zidan told the Security Council last month that the government has controlled its borders with Algeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan and Egypt and is training police, the military and a national guard that will take security responsibility outside urban areas.
But despite efforts by the government to improve security, the panel said, “the proliferation of weapons from Libya continues at an alarming rate.”
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4)The Obamas live the 1 percent life
By Joseph CurlANALYSIS/OPINION:
Being president of the U.S., the most powerful man in the world, is often most about perception. The man (or, one day, woman) in the job takes actions large and small every day, but it is the perception of the man that seeps into the everyday lives of working Americans.
That’s why presidential candidates always hit Philadelphia for a cheesesteak during campaigns (Democrats to Pat’s, Republicans to Geno’s). Sure, they’re running billion-dollar operations trying to win the White House, but one picture of them wolfing down a Cheez Whiz-covered glob of meat on a Philly street hits home with millions of voters: “Hey, that guy’s just like me! He loves him a Pat’s [or Geno’s] cheesesteak, too!” (Unless you’re John F. Kerry and order Swiss cheese — then everyone hates you.)
Sometimes, that perception cuts to the core. Like when President George W. Bush stopped playing golf in 2003, at the height of the Iraq War.
“I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal,” he said years later. “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them.”
That’s also why Mr. Bush did two other things, without fanfare or praise. First, he never headed home to his Texas ranch until after Christmas, instead going to Camp David for a few days. That way, the hundreds of people revolving around him at all times — White House staff, Secret Service agents, reporters, photographers, all the others — could spend the holiday with their families in and around Washington, D.C. No one ever reported that — until this column.
Second, he rarely attended sporting events, although he once owned a baseball team and was a self-confessed stats junkie. His thinking there was the same: If he went to a baseball game (right down the street from the White House), his mere presence would mean hours and hours of extra security for fans. He once stopped off at the Daytona 500 and the metal detectors through which every fan had to pass left thousands outside in line when the green flag fell; he didn’t attend many sporting events after that.
But something remarkable has happened with these occupants of the White House: Neither President Obama nor first lady Michelle appear to give a damn about perception. They won the White House and, by God, they’re going to enjoy their time there, no matter the cost. And who cares what you think, anyway?
How else to explain the nonstop vacations the pair keep taking during what Mr. Obama calls the “worst financial crisis since the Great Depression”? In 2013, the First Family has already enjoyed three vacations — that’s one a month. (Sorry, Joe America, you might have to forget your week at the beach again this year, but make sure you get those taxes in on time!)
The Obamas ended 2012 and kicked off 2013 in an $8 million, 6,000-square-foot house in Hawaii (they left well before Dec. 25, by the way). There, the president played five rounds of golf (breaking the 100-rounds-as-president threshold). Scarcely a month into Term 2, Mrs. Obama headed off for Aspen, taking along the couple’s daughters. Vice President Joseph R. Biden also hit the Colorado slopes. While the girls (and Joe) were gone, Mr. Obama nipped down to Florida for a four-day boys weekend of golf, teeing it up with his buddies — and Tiger Woods. He hit the links again this weekend, then dropped in for an NCAA tournament game in Washington.
Jumpin’ Joe, for his part, spent New Year’s in the Virgin Islands and popped off over the Easter weekend for a golf outing at the glorious Kiawah Island, S.C. (where rounds of golf on the spectacular Ocean Course run $353 — nearly $20 a hole). His third vacation of the year came the same week as reports that he and his entourage spent $460,000 for a single night in London and $585,000 for a night at a five-star hotel in Paris.
Then, last week, reports emerged that the Obama girls were kicking it in the Bahamas for spring break. Days later, a Colorado news station, KMTV, reported that the girls were now skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho. The White House flacks didn’t like that one bit.
“From the beginning of the administration, the White House has asked news outlets not to report on or photograph the Obama children when they are not with their parents and there is no vital news interest,” said Kristina Schake, communications director to the first lady. “We have reminded outlets of this request in order to protect the privacy and security of these girls.”
At their demand, the station scrubbed the report without explanation. What losers.
To be clear, this has nothing to do with the daughters. Never has. They are wonderful girls. The issue is use of taxpayer money, especially since Mr. Obama has shut down the White House to visitors, citing the cost of security. All these trips cost millions for Secret Service protection; couldn’t they just skip a few vacations so taxpayers could visit “America’s House”?
But no, the Obamas don’t care a whit about that, or the perception of them living high on the hog while many hardworking Americans are struggling to get by — and hoping to save enough for just one vacation this year.
And that perception, juxtaposed with reality, more than nearly anything else, tells you an awful lot about this president.
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