Abby - Dagny's Mother! When Will Obama's Blunders Cease?

Abby is our daughter and she has done quite well considering her age and no prior experience.

The article re Abby  did not paste well Sorry!
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Third Liberal mindset article by Sowell.  (See 1 below.)
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More on Morsi and Egypt.

Every time Obama seems to be gambling he loses our shirt! (See 2 - 2c below.)

Just one more blunder on the part of our community organizer trying to play at being president.  (See 2d below.)
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Dick
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1)The Mindset of the Left: Part III
By Thomas Sowell 

Editor's note: This is Part III in a series. Part I can be found here. Part II can be found here.

The fundamental problem of the political left seems to be that the real world does not fit their preconceptions. Therefore they see the real world as what is wrong, and what needs to be changed, since apparently their preconceptions cannot be wrong.

A never-ending source of grievances for the left is the fact that some groups are "over-represented" in desirable occupations, institutions and income brackets, while other groups are "under-represented."

From all the indignation and outrage about this expressed on the left, you might think that it was impossible that different groups are simply better at different things.

Yet runners from Kenya continue to win a disproportionate share of marathons in the United States, and children whose parents or grandparents came from India have won most of the American spelling bees in the past 15 years. And has anyone failed to notice that the leading professional basketball players have for years been black, in a country where most of the population is white?

Most of the leading photographic lenses in the world have -- for generations -- been designed by people who were either Japanese or German. Most of the leading diamond-cutters in the world have been either India's Jains or Jews from Israel or elsewhere.

Not only people but things have been grossly unequal. More than two-thirds of all the tornadoes in the entire world occur in the middle of the United States. Asia has more than 70 mountain peaks that are higher than 20,000 feet and Africa has none. Is it news that a disproportionate share of all the oil in the world is in the Middle East?

Whole books could be filled with the unequal behavior or performances of people, or the unequal geographic settings in which whole races, nations and civilizations have developed. Yet the preconceptions of the political left march on undaunted, loudly proclaiming sinister reasons why outcomes are not equal within nations or between nations.

All this moral melodrama has served as a background for the political agenda of the left, which has claimed to be able to lift the poor out of poverty and in general make the world a better place. This claim has been made for centuries, and in countries around the world. And it has failed for centuries in countries around the world.

Some of the most sweeping and spectacular rhetoric of the left occurred in 18th century France, where the very concept of the left originated in the fact that people with certain views sat on the left side of the National Assembly.

The French Revolution was their chance to show what they could do when they got the power they sought. In contrast to what they promised -- "liberty, equality, fraternity" -- what they actually produced were food shortages, mob violence and dictatorial powers that included arbitrary executions, extending even to their own leaders, such as Robespierre, who died under the guillotine.

In the 20th century, the most sweeping vision of the left -- Communism -- spread over vast regions of the world and encompassed well over a billion human beings. Of these, millions died of starvation in the Soviet Union under Stalin and tens of millions in China under Mao.

Milder versions of socialism, with central planning of national economies, took root in India and in various European democracies.

If the preconceptions of the left were correct, central planning by educated elites with vast amounts of statistical data at their fingertips, expertise readily available, and backed by the power of government, should have been more successful than market economies where millions of individuals pursued their own individual interests willy-nilly.

But, by the end of the 20th century, even socialist and communist governments began abandoning central planning and allowing more market competition. Yet this quiet capitulation to inescapable realities did not end the noisy claims of the left.

In the United States, those claims and policies reached new heights, epitomized by government takeovers of whole sectors of the economy and unprecedented intrusions into the lives of Americans, of which ObamaCare has been only the most obvious example.

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2)Morsi Removed, Muslim Brotherhood Down…but is it out?

By Frank Spano

After millions of Egyptians took to the streets to protest the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamic rule, the Egyptian military, under the command of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, removed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi from office Wednesday. In his place, the army's transition plan calls for Chief Justice of the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court Adly Mansour to take over until new elections can be held.

According to Egypt's Al Ahram, el-Sisi said the army plan calls for:

1. "Suspending the constitution;

2. Holding early presidential elections. The High Constitutional Court head will be in charge of the country until then;

3. Forming a national coalition government; and

4. Forming a committee to look into amendments of the constitution."

Morsi's whereabouts were not immediately known, but El-Sisi's televised remarks prompted cheers and fireworks throughout Cairo's packed Tahrir Square. El-Sisi was joined by Ahmed El-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University – a bedrock of Sunni theology, and Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II. Copts increasingly found themselves under physical and legal attacks during Morsi's year in office. 

The Constitutional Court, meanwhile has stood in staunch opposition to Morsi in the past and may be in position to develop a more diverse and moderate government focused on Egypt's economic needs.

Morsi was seen as failing in that regard, distracted by attempts to consolidate power for the Muslim Brotherhood and impose religious law on Egypt's 80 million citizens.

Here's what we know about Mansour; born in 1945 and a 1967 graduate from Cairo Law, Mansour wasappointed to the high court by Morsi to replace outgoing Chief Justice Maher el-Beheiry. He has served on the court since 1992 but just took over as chief justice on Monday.

In addition to Mansour, the Supreme Constitutional Court has 10 additional justices. As a proactive force in the Egyptian legislative process, the court has the duty to review all legislation for constitutionality and approves or rejects election laws before they go before parliament and the president.

While many Muslim Brotherhood media outlets remain offline and under the control of Egyptian military forces, a Twitter feed speaking for Morsi called the army's action a coup "rejected by all free men who struggled for a civil democratic Egypt."

And a popular Muslim Brotherhood website had this to say:

"Urgent: Conspiracy against legitimacy…A military coup which thwarts the people and returns Egypt to tyranny…Millions respond sit in the squares of Egypt in support of legitimacy...and Ulema (educated Muslim legal scholars) condemn the coup and stress the obligation of supporting the elected President..Figures of the former regime are returning to the scene on the blood of the martyrs of the revolution of January 25..'For, God always prevails in whatever be His purpose: but most people know it not.' (Quran 12:21)"

Similarly, Mohamed El-Betagy, a member of the Brotherhood's ousted Freedom and Justice Party, questioned the legitimacy of the coup and called for a "rejection of the coup with complete peacefulness and adhering to our just position." El-Betagy went on to paint the Muslim Brotherhood as the victim of attack and mob-rule that could have been accomplished through "peaceful democratic mechanisms."

But the Egyptian military's move, and the massive euphoria it generated, marks a stark rejection of Muslim Brotherhood rule and makes the 80-year-old Islamist movement's future unclear. It remains the best organized political group in Egypt and likely will remain viable in some way. But how it reacts to Morsi's ouster may determine whether it retains any political influence.

Frank Spano serves as the Director of National Security Policy for The Investigative Project on Terrorism.

2a) Brace For Terror

Al-Qaeda's Jihad on Anti-Morsi Egyptians

By Raymond Ibrahim

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Since Islamists have tasted power -- Salafis, Muslim Brotherhood or al-Qaeda -- it is unlikely that they will quietly release the reins of power without a fight.

Now that the Egyptian military appears to have granted the nation's wish—to be rid of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, as millions have been chanting, "Irhal" ["Leave office"] -- al-Qaeda appears to have stepped in.

Hours before Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was sidelined by the military council, Muhammad al-Zawahiri, Egypt's al-Qaeda leader, declared that the terrorist organization would wage a jihad to save Morsi and his Islamist agenda for Egypt. (They would not be the first Islamic terrorists to come to his aid; Hamas members were earlier arrested from inside Muslim Brotherhood headquarters, where they opened fire on protesters.)

According to a July 2 Veto Gate report, "al-Qaeda, under the leadership of Muhammad Zawahiri, is currently planning reprisal operations by which to attack the army and the Morsi-opposition all around the Republic [of Egypt]." The report adds that, hours before this information was ascertained, Zawahiri had been arrested and was being interrogated—only to be ordered released by a presidential order. He has since fled to the Sinai, where al-Qaeda is stationed—not to mention where Morsi had reportedly earlier summoned thousands of foreign jihadis to come to his aid whenever necessary, and where he may even have smuggled Muhammad Zawahiri's brother, Ayman Zawahiri—al-Qaeda's supreme leader.

In another report, Muhammad Zawahiri "offered joy to our Muslim Brothers in Egypt, for in all circumstances, we will not lose, Allah willing- - quite the contrary." He added that "if matters reach a confrontation, then to be sure, that is in our favor -- for we have nothing to lose. And at all times and places where chaos reigns, it's often to the jihad's advantage." Zawahiri concluded by saying that even if many and important jihadis and Islamists are arrested, it matters not, "for we sold our souls to Allah" -- a reference to Koranic verses like 9:111 -- "and welcome the opportunity to fight to the death."

In the context of all these threats, many Egyptians are understandably worried. Right before the military intervened, a Tahrir TV host frantically and repeatedly called Morsi a "murderer," and the Brotherhood, a "gang of murderers," adding, "Oh Minister of Defense -- move! Move! Move and save the country! There is no time!" This may also explain why so many leading Islamists -- including Morsi himself -- have been arrested and held by the military, on the charge of inciting Muslims against anti-Morsi demonstrators, by portraying them as "apostates" who must be fought and killed for are trying to resist the implementation of the Sharia of Allah.

They may also be being held as hostages to dissuade al-Qaeda from waging an all-out jihad, as many of those arrested -- Safwat Hegazy, Hazim Abu Ismail, Tarek al-Zomor, Khaled Abdullah -- are open friends of Muhammad Zawahiri.

On the other hand, although the Brotherhood has been portrayed in the U.S. as "just another" political party -- or, in the mystifying words of James Clapper, Obama's director of national intelligence, "largely secular," which is the last thing it is -- it is folly to think that Morsi, the Brotherhood, and all their Islamist and jihadi allies are going to go peacefully.

Now that the Islamists have tasted power -- Salafis, Muslim Brotherhood, or al-Qaeda -- it is unlikely that they will quietly release the reins of power without a fight. History has proven that many jihadis never give up -- unless they are in prison or dead. And as Egyptian al-Qaeda leader Muhammad Zawahiri pointed out, not only have they long been inured to sufferings and deprivations -- they have nothing to lose.

Raymond Ibrahim is author of the new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, 2013). A Middle East and Islam expert, he is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, associate fellow at the Middle East Forum, and author of The Al Qaeda Reader.

2b) Remember,

 the third of July

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was the spearhead of a series of Islamist victories in the ‘Arab Spring.’ As of Wednesday, that’s over.

By AVI ISSACHAROFF

The third of July 2013 will likely go down as one of the most significant days in the period of Middle East history known as the “Arab Spring.” A dramatic day not just for Egypt, but for Islamist movements all over the region.

Roughly two and a half years after Islamist parties conquered one Arab state parliament after another, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood — the most dominant representative of the ideological stream — is having to acknowledge the limits of power. The movement’s continued rule in Egypt now depends on the good will of the very institution it has despised for decades: the military and security establishment.

If President Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood man, decides to respond to the army’s Wednesday ultimatum and consent to call new elections as the opposition demands, there will be repercussions for the standing of Sunni movements in Tunisia, Gaza and even Syria.

Even if he doesn’t capitulate to the pressure, and opts to remain in office, he will be a weak president, bereft of real authorities or freedom to act, and he will eventually have to give up his seat.

As of Tuesday night, Morsi does not seem willing to give an inch. His speech was clear; he intends to stay in power and will not surrender. But by Wednesday afternoon, many things may change.

Either way, the Muslim Brotherhood’s success story from a year ago, transformed into today’s resounding failure, will likely mark the path of sister movements across the Middle East.

Neither of the two July 3 options open to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership are favorable. But in light of the millions of people flooding Egypt’s cities for the third day in a row Tuesday demanding his ouster, the US’s call on Morsi to declare early elections, and the wave of resignations amongst his own officials, calling for new presidential elections appears to be the lesser evil.

If Morsi accepts the will of the demonstrators and the military now, there is still a plausible chance that the president or another Muslim Brotherhood candidate can prevail. The movement’s leadership is aware of this, and so there have been voices calling on Morsi to give in to the public’s demands. The secular opposition, it is worth noting, has yet to agree on a single candidate to represent it.

Meanwhile, the army has continued pretending to play the role of impartial broker between the Brotherhood and the opposition. The army’s High Command issued a statement forbidding soldiers to participate in protests while in uniform and Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with Morsi. All very dignified and professional. However, simultaneously, a senior army official leaked to Reuters details of the “Road Map” that al-Sisi planned to present Morsi if the president proves unable to find a solution to the crisis by Wednesday afternoon.

In essence the military’s plan is for Morsi to accept the opposition’s demands in their entirety: the dissolving of parliament, freezing the passage of the new constitution, establishing an interim government to be headed by Supreme Constitutional Court chairman Adly Mansour (Morsi’s rival), and calling presidential elections.

The leak may have been partly a test balloon, meant to push Morsi and the brotherhood deeper into the corner, but it’s safe to assume that the “Road Map” the army will present on Wednesday will not be much different.

The army’s ultimatum expires on Wednesday afternoon. Al-Sisi and his men hope Morsi will agree to early elections before then. Even if the president refuses to do so, the chances that the army will order its forces to take over government installations are very low, at least for now.

The army is, however, expected to give a “green light” for protesters to take action against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. And it is doubtful that the security forces watching over Morsi in his safehouse will continue to do so loyally if he refuses to do what the military expects of him — essentially, to obey orders. If such a scenario unfolds, the protests we have seen so far, which have already led to the death of seven people and the injuring of 144 others, may become more violent.

2c)Obama 'Bet on Wrong Folks' in Egypt

By Todd Beamon and John Bachman

The military coup in Egypt shows that “the Obama administration has thoroughly failed when it comes to handling the post-Arab Spring revolution,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen tells Newsmax TV.

“They've bet on the wrong folks time and time again,” the Florida Republican tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview. “Many of us in Congress were saying: ‘Guys, look at the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a group that's going to take over — and it's not going to be what you think.’”
On Wednesday, Egyptian Army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi announced that President Mohammed Morsi had been removed and was replaced with the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court. He also suspended the Islamist-backed constitution and called for early presidential elections.

Morsi’s ouster as the nation’s first elected leader comes two years after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in another popular uprising.

The Arab world's most populous nation has been in turmoil since the fall of Mubarak as Arab Spring uprisings took hold in early 2011, arousing concern among allies in the West and in Israel, with which Egypt has a 1979 peace treaty.

First elected to the House in 1989, Ros-Lehtinen is the senior woman Republican in the lower chamber. She was chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and currently is chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia.

“The Obama administration is adrift when it comes to policy in the Middle East or North Africa,” she tells Newsmax. “Morsi came in with the Muslim Brotherhood. What does that mean?

“They were anti-Christian, anti-minority, anti-women — and one year after Morsi won in ‘his election’ and all of the millions of dollars that the Obama administration badly wasted in this government, the people have risen up and said: ‘No, you have failed us. We want you out. We want to try again.’”

The United States sends $1.5 billion annually in military and economic assistance to Egypt.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, said on Wednesday that federal law prohibits aid being provided when a democratically elected government is deposed by military coup or decree.

The Egyptian support would be reconsidered in upcoming budget talks, Leahy said.

But the issue has long been settled, as far as Ros-Lehtinen is concerned.

“It is way past time to suspend the aid,” she tells Newsmax. “Why are we giving money to theocratic regimes or to autocratic regimes? It's not like we don’t have a lot of problems here at home. Let's use the money wisely. Let's leverage it so we can help countries become stronger and freer and more democratic, which is in our national-security interest.

“Giving money to someone who's a thug and wishing and hoping and praying that they're going to turn into a Jeffersonian Democrat is wrongheaded. It’s foolish and it's never worked — and it's proven again with Egypt,” she says.

When she chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ros-Lehtinen tells Newsmax that she put holds on aid to Egypt and similar rogue nations, but that the Obama White House always “went over our heads” to obtain the assistance.

She frets whenever President Barack Obama or Secretary of State John Kerry visit foreign nations, too.

“They give money away as if they were Santa Claus, giving people millions of millions of dollars,” Ros-Lehtinen says. “We need transparency. We need accountability. We need to see that the money that we're using to help us build friendships and keep our country strong is a really effective way of using American taxpayer dollars.”

Because the Obama administration backed the deposed president, it became clear to the Egyptian people whose side the United States was on, Ros-Lehtinen says.

“We gave Morsi a lot of money. We just threw that money down a rabbit hole. It's wasted. They know that the U.S. government was standing firmly with Morsi — and look what the Egyptian people did? They rose up.

“Now, it doesn't mean that all the folks demonstrating there are good guys,” she cautions. “There are going to be a lot of hot-headed factions there, but it's important for the United States to be cautious to not do anything that will exacerbate the violence.

“This could lead to a very bloody road and what the Egyptian people want it to live in freedom and democracy,” Ros-Lehtinen tells Newsmax. “Who does not want to live in freedom? That's everybody's dream — and it's a dream that should be fulfilled for all oppressed people throughout the globe.”

2d)WSJ: We're Sorry We Were Too Soft on Obamacare

By Sandy Fitzgerald

The Wall Street Journal, a leading and persistent critic of Obamacare, apologized to its readers Thursday for not being too soft over the law.

"These columns fought the Affordable Care Act from start to passage, and we'd now like to apologize to our readers. It turns out we weren't nearly critical enough," the paper said in an editorial on its website. 

"The law's implementation is turning into a fiasco for the ages, and this week's version is the lawless White House decision to delay the law's insurance mandate for businesses, though not for individuals."

That decision, announced Tuesday evening,  is the latest in a series of blunders by the Obama administration, the paper said. 

The change was revealed in a blog post by Mark Mazur, a deputy assistant Treasury secretary, and came just as Washington "began to evacuate for the long Independence Day weekend."

White House Spokeswoman Valerie Jarrett tried to handle the fallout from the surprise announcement with a blog post of her own, saying Obamacare is still on track.

"That's true only if she's referring to the carelessness and improvisation that have defined the law so far," the Journal said.

And while Mazur blamed the delay on the "complexity" of the bill, the paper points out that Treasury's computers and technology aren't ready to take on the checks required of the extensive healthcare act's provisions.

"This is more than a typical government snafu. It relates directly to the design of the law, which was thoughtlessly written and rammed through Congress with instructions for the bureaucracy to figure it all out," the editorial said.

The paper has published dozens of editorials and Op-Ed columns slamming the Affordable Health Care.

For example, on June 20, writers Al Lewis and Vik Khanna wrote about how Obamacare calls for workplace wellness plans as a way to cut insurance costs — and how the plans seldom have any success even without employer mandates.

Just the day before, a review and opinion piece pointed out the "Obamacare Trail of Tears," saying there is no way the government would be able to start the mandates involved by October.

These and several other editorial pieces through the past months have pointed out the publication's strong opinions about Obamacare, which, according to Thursday's scathing piece were not strong enough.

"Obamacare has become a rolling 'train wreck,' in Sen. Max Baucus's memorable phrase, and it gets worse the more of it the public sees. The employer mandate is terrible policy, as the law's critics said before it passed. 

"Now the Administration is all but admitting it can't implement it properly, and the task for opponents is to press the concession and begin to delay the rest of the law and dismantle it piece by piece.


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