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I am not sure Liberman is always rational.. It is ok to play hardball but all too often he comes across as a hot head.
It might be time not to depend on America, as long as Obama is president, but it is always in any nation's interest to seek other allies.
What Liberman fails to acknowledge is that the American people are Israel's best ally as is our Congress.(See 1 below.)
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Something dangerous and unsavory is going on in the black community and it must stop.
Don't even expect Obama and Oprah to speak out because they are too busy burying their head in the sand. (See 2 below.)
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Is this Representative a racist, a bigot or just plain telling the truth and reminding us of facts and things that actually occurred? You decide!
This clip is only about one minute long, and is right from the House Floor.
Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) took to the House Floor this past Monday and delivered a brief skewering of Barack Obama, his administration and his vice president. WATCH IT! Just 60 sec.
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Why is Obama willing to take his foot off Iran's neck? Just one more miscalculation or is he trying to win points from the Nobel Committee? You decide. (See 3 and 3a below.)
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Something to ponder and you decide!
==="We are told NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics."
BUT on the other hand... "We are also encouraged TO judge ALL Gun Owners by the actions of a few lunatics."
How disconnected can Obama be if he believes the government's site (HealthcareGov.com) pertaining to his health care program will be up and running by the end of Nov. ? (See 4 below.)
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Dick
1)Liberman: It's time for Israel to look for allies other than the United States
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Wednesday that Israel should focus on making new allies as opposed to relying solely on its relationship with the United States.
During a speech given at the Sderot Conference, Liberman stressed the importance of not putting too much focus on America as Israel's main ally. "For many years Israel's foreign policy was one directional towards Washington, but my policy has many more directions."
The foreign minister's comments came as Washington and Jerusalem have butted heads recently regarding sanctions and nuclear talks with Iran. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry have publicly disagreed about pursuing a diplomatic agreement with Iran.Liberman, who returned to his post last week after being acquitted of fraud charges, said "the Americans today are dealing with too many challenges and I wouldn't want to be in their place. They are busy in Iran and North Korea and also have economic and immigration problems."
Regarding the peace process, Liberman said "we can build peace but we can't force it. The order of priorities must be first Israeli security, afterward the Palestinian economy and then peace. We can't ruin this order. We will come to peace without negotiatiors when the economic situation improves".
Liberman also attacked the treatment of Israel at the UN: "If i were to take the simplest statistic...since the founding of the security council there were 49 condemnations against Israel and only 3 against Iran.
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2)A Very Dangerous Game
By Thomas Sowell
New York City police authorities are investigating a series of unprovoked physical attacks in public places on people who are Jewish, in the form of what is called "the knockout game."
The way the game is played, one of a number of young blacks decides to show that he can knock down some stranger on the streets, preferably with one punch, as they pass by. Often some other member of the group records the event, so that a video of that "achievement" is put on the Internet, to be celebrated.
The New York authorities describe a recent series of such attacks and, because Jews have been singled out in these attacks, are considering prosecuting these assaults as "hate crimes."
Many aspects of these crimes are extremely painful to think about, including the fact that responsible authorities in New York seem to have been caught by surprise, even though this "knockout game" has been played for years by young black gangs in other cities and other states, against people besides Jews -- the victims being either whites in general or people of Asian ancestry.
Attacks of this sort have been rampant in St. Louis. But they have also occurred in Massachusetts, Wisconsin and elsewhere. In Illinois the game has often been called "Polar Bear Hunting" by the young thugs, presumably because the targets are white.
The main reason for many people's surprise is that the mainstream media have usually suppressed news about the "knockout game" or about other and larger forms of similar orchestrated racial violence in dozens of cities in every region of the country.
Sometimes the attacks are reported, but only as isolated attacks by unspecified "teens" or "young people" against unspecified victims, without any reference to the racial makeup of the attackers or the victims -- and with no mention of racial epithets by the young hoodlums exulting in their own "achievement."
Sometimes the attacks are reported, but only as isolated attacks by unspecified "teens" or "young people" against unspecified victims, without any reference to the racial makeup of the attackers or the victims -- and with no mention of racial epithets by the young hoodlums exulting in their own "achievement."
Despite such pious phrases as "troubled youths," the attackers are often in a merry, festive mood. In a sustained mass attack in Milwaukee, going far beyond the dimensions of a passing "knockout game," the attackers were laughing and eating chips, as if it were a picnic. One of them observed casually, "white girl bleed a lot."
That phrase -- "White Girl Bleed A Lot" -- is also the title of a book by Colin Flaherty, which documents both the racial attacks across the nation and the media attempts to cover them up, as well as the local political and police officials who try to say that race had nothing to do with these attacks.
Chapter 2 of the 2013 edition is titled, "The Knockout Game, St. Louis Style." So this is nothing new, however new it may be to some in New York, thanks to the media's political correctness.
Nor is this game just a passing prank. People have been beaten unconscious, both in this game and in the wider orchestrated racial attacks. Some of these victims have been permanently disabled and some have died from their injuries.
But most of the media see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. In such an atmosphere, the evil not only persists but grows.
Some in the media, as well as in politics, may think that they are trying to avoid provoking a race war by ignoring or playing down these attacks. But the way to prevent a race war is by stopping these attacks, not trying to sanitize them.
If these attacks continue, and continue to grow, more and more people are going to know about them, regardless of the media or the politicians. Responsible people of all races need to support a crackdown on these attacks, which can provoke a white backlash that can escalate into a race war. But political expediency leads in the opposite direction.
What is politically expedient is to do what Attorney General Eric Holder is doing -- launch campaigns against schools that discipline a "disproportionate" number of black male students. New York City's newly elected liberal mayor is expected to put a stop to police "stop and frisk" policies that have reduced the murder rate to one-fourth of what it was under liberal mayors of the past.
Apparently political correctness trumps human lives.
Providing cover for hoodlums is a disservice to everybody, including members of every race, and even the hoodlums themselves. Better that they should be suppressed and punished now, rather than continue on a path that is likely to lead to prison, or even to the execution chamber.
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3)Precisely the Time to Squeeze Iran
Home Front Defense and Communications Minister Gilad Erdan's - Israpundit, November 16th, 2013
Israeli Spokesman Mark Regev on CNN with Jake Tapper, Nov. 19, 2013
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3)Precisely the Time to Squeeze Iran
Home Front Defense and Communications Minister Gilad Erdan's - Israpundit, November 16th, 2013
Homeland Defense Minister Gilad Erdan
(Photo: REUTERS )
(Photo: REUTERS )
No country has more to lose than Israel if there is not a peaceful solution to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. That is why Israel wants diplomacy with Iran to succeed.
But success must be measured by what diplomacy achieves. The goal is to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program. A deal should be a means to that end and not an end in itself.
The deal on the table (the details of which have been widely reported) makes more likely the very two outcomes its proponents seek to prevent – a nuclear-armed Iran or the use of force against Iran’s nuclear weapons infrastructure before it’s too late.
Some claim that the proposed deal will require Iran to freeze its nuclear program for six months in exchange for mild sanctions relief. Neither assumption will hold.
To freeze its program, Iran would not only have to stop the construction of its plutonium-producing heavy water reactor and add no further centrifuges. It would also have to halt all uranium enrichment, which Iran refuses to do. An agreement that allows Iran to continue enrichment of material for nuclear bombs while talks go on will not freeze Iran's nuclear program.
Nor is the sanctions relief mild. Allowing the Iranian regime access to billions of dollars would significantly ease the very pressure that has brought Iran to the table in the first place. In a tanking economy like Iran’s, these changes will make a big difference. The current sanctions regime took years to put in place and is likely to fray quickly once the proposed deal kicks in.
Thus this “first step” agreement would leave Iran closer to nuclear weapons and under less pressure not to produce them.
If Iran refuses to dismantle centrifuges and its plutonium reactor and to stop enrichment now, why would it agree to do so after the pressure on it has been reduced? If a deal this bad is the first step, what comes next? President Obama has made it clear that he is determined to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Israel shares that goal.
To meet our common aim it is essential to dismantle Iran's capability to produce such weapons.
Sanctions should continue to increase for as long as Iran continues to produce the infrastructure and fuel for nuclear weapons.
Anything less will make both Iran’s attainment of nuclear weapons and the use of force to prevent it more likely.
We should find no comfort in this week’s International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran’s nuclear activities. Some try to downplay the IAEA’s disturbing findings – that, contrary to six binding UN Security Council resolutions, Iran continues to enrich and amass fissile material, work on its heavy water reactor and deny inspectors access to facilities suspected of housing nuclear weapons-related activities. Furthermore, a slowdown in construction is meaningless when Iran already has all the infrastructure it needs to make fissile material for the nuclear weapons it seeks.
Contrary to the New York Times editorial, this is precisely “the time to squeeze Iran.” If the P5+1 do so and thereby succeed in reaching an agreement that peacefully and genuinely ends Iran’s nuclear weapons program, preventing it from becoming a threshold nuclear military power, we will all have Prime Minister Netanyahu among others to thank for their vigilance.
3a)Israel Warns US: Iran Building ICBMs for YOU, Not for Us
By Lori Lowenthal Marcus Israeli Spokesman Mark Regev on CNN with Jake Tapper, Nov. 19, 2013
Israel is openly opposed to the nuclear weapons deal the United States seems dead set on consummating with Iran. The goal of that deal is the easing of international sanctions on Iran in exchange for Iran taking limited steps suggesting a possible shift away from its goal of acquiring nuclear weapons.
The disagreement between the U.S. and Israel about the wisdom of this deal has become what many are calling a significant strain between the two allies.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned against the deal last week, calling it “a bad deal, a very, very bad deal,” and Israel remains steadfastly opposed. In turn, Secretary of State Kerry was quoted by senators as having told them to “ignore” what the Israelis were telling members of congress about the potential consequences of the deal.
Tuesday evening, Nov. 19, Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev told CNN’s Jake Tapper that it isn’t just Israel in Iran’s cross-hairs, but it is the U.S. itself that is an intended target of Iran’s nuclear weapon.
The interview began with Tapper quoting the Iranians who said that Israel is “trying to torpedo the agreement.”
Regev explained that Israel is certainly not opposed to an agreement that will end Iran’s rush towards nuclear weapons. But, he explained, what Israel wants is a good agreement.
Regev suggested that the alternatives aren’t between coming to an agreement and going to war. To illustrate, he offered the nuclear weapons agreement with North Korea that was entered into by the global community with great fanfare and celebration, but which turned out to be a very bad deal, as everyone learned.
North Korea, after having “shaken hands” on an agreement that barred it from developing nuclear weapons, within a year had not only developed those weapons, but exploded one. That was a spectacular display of what happens when a hopeful but naive global community places its trust in an inherently untrustworthy partner.
Israel’s goal is one Regev described as an agreement that actually, effectively, dismantles Iran’s nuclear weapons program, in contrast to the far more limited results the U.S. is seeking at this stage.
“Look, you can have an honest difference on what the estimates are,” Regev told Tapper, but the difference is not only about amounts, the difference is in direction. And Israel fundamentally disagrees with the U.S. view of the equation.
The U.S. view is that “the Iranians take small steps and then the international community, in parallel, takes small steps, to encourage them to move in the right direction.”
“The trouble with that equation is that it’s based on a falsehood,” because, Regev stated the Israeli understanding, it is simply not true that the Iranians are taking steps in the right direction.
And here’s the fundamental distinction: “All that we’ve seen, all the information that we have is that the Iranians are taking only cosmetic measures that in no way undermines their goal of having a nuclear weapon.
“They’re not willing to take any serious step. Not to dismantle a single centrifuge.”
That’s not just a difference in degree, it’s a difference in kind. It isn’t a question of how much, it is a question of “at all.”
The other significant concern which Regev touched on was that any easing of sanctions will actually lead to a complete collapse of the pressure on the Iranian economy, and therefore will mean there will be no pressure on Iran to even make the minor adjustments it has finally offered at this late stage.
But the really big news, the news that the Israeli government clearly wanted the American people to hear, is the direct consequences for Americans sitting in their homes in New York and Boston and Los Angeles and Houston.
This was the “okay, Washington, you may be willing to bet Iran won’t attack Americans in their homes, but the American people may feel a bit differently about that” approach.
Regev’s delivery and timing was perfect:
I mean, the Iranians are building intercontinental ballistic missiles. They’re not building them for us, they’ve already got missiles that can reach Israel. They’re building them for you! For targets in North America and Western Europe. It’s crucial that we don’t allow them to get nuclear weapons.
The interview ended with Tapper trying to get Regev to comment about the strain between the two nations, but Regev was not interested in that line of questioning. Instead, he ended the interview reminding the (American) audience that “Israel is directly affected by this. This is for us a core issue in our national security.”
Regev’s mission for this interview was to present the idea that it isn’t just Israelis in Tel Aviv and Haifa who need to worry about Iran having nuclear weapons. His message was that Americans need to see the problem of Iran becoming a country with nuclear weapons, one with its ICBMs pointed at the U.S., as a core issue for their national security.
Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the US correspondent for The Jewish Press. She is a recovered lawyer who previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools.
4) As much as 30-40% of Obamacare website never built
The deputy chief information officer with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Tuesday that he did not see a consultant's report in March that highlighted numerous problems facing the launch of the federal health care exchange. Chao also told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the tech team fixing HealthCare.gov still has to build 30% to 40% of systems needed to support the website
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