Giving Myself Food For Thought Without Food Stamps!

The joys of getting older!

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Dinesh continues to stay on Obama's case! Left click on 'latest American trailer' below.

New America Trailer Now Available!

The latest America trailer, which envisions an alternate timeline in which the American Revolution was lost and the United States never came into being, was screened for a CPAC panel audience this morning.

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If you haven't seen this before it is well worth your time to see what is happening in new methods of surgery.

New surgery from that "s----- little country"( this remark was made by a former French Ambassador at an English Formal Diplomatic Dinner"--

How exciting! This is quite remarkable. The  future of  medicine from  Israel.

http://www.safeshare.tv/w/DTAINyElxY

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This from a frustrated Conservative friend. (See 1 below.)

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This from another friend regarding the Ukraine. (See 2 below.)

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Obama is getting a lot of bashing lately and probably deservedly so but I would like to back off and give him the benefit of the doubt.

Perhaps he is right. America is exhausted, no longer wants to lead the world and it is time for us to come home and attend to our own knitting because we have a very unraveled ball of wool with which to contend and think about all those  unattended shovel ready projects.

The best way to emasculate our power is to increase spending on transfers and take it from the military. That should make the free world feel comfortable and endear us to those who wish to destroy us.

Perhaps Obama is right to put pressure on Israel.  After all, Israel is a small nation surrounded by enemies and constantly siding with them, even though they are a democracy and a strong ally, is just too costly. Better we make friends among radical Jihad Islamists who want to destroy us.

Perhaps Obama is right about income disparity.  Even those who work hard, achieve and are good citizens are just not doing enough.  They must do more to help those who are either unwilling to help themselves or, due to circumstances beyond their control, cannot help themselves.

If we are going to finally become a united land we must all work to unite ourselves in furtherance of bringing everyone up to the level of middle class so there will be no more poor.

How this worthy goal will be achieved has not been answered by Liberals and Progressives but maybe we just need to spend more money on the problem so maybe a $50/hour minimum wage would be the cure.

Perhaps Obama is correct in thinking America is the cause of much of the world's misfortune.  We took our land from Native Americans, then we invaded Mexico, enslaved Africans, many of whom were sent here by their own, then went to war to free them only to subsequently  segregate against them then freed them again by law.  We sank boats in Havana's Harbour but have a history of supporting allies when they are attacked by despots and rebuilt Europe after the Second World War.  

Maybe America should follow the path of those who govern China and Russia and their likes.  They are decisive, they make no bones about what their intentions are, though they do lie a bit about their actions, and the world obviously fears them. 

Perhaps it is better to be feared than respected .

Perhaps just because everyone seems to want to immigrate, legally or otherwise, to America they could be mistaken. Possibly the French were wrong when they gave us the Statute of Liberty and Tocqueville was wrong about that book he wrote.. 

Lately we seem not to care much for liberty or freedom.  Perhaps the IRS' effort to stifle dissent is the more virtuous path.

Perhaps Obama is right about education. It should be kept  under the thumb of unions and government bureaucrats because  "What difference does it make" if America grows another generation of 'dumbed down' kids as long as they are dependent and  beholden to government or fill our jails. After all, who else will pick up our  highway trash?

Also, unions are the financial  lifeblood of the Democrat Party and that permits  Democrats to enjoy power over the tax payer's purse.

Perhaps Obama is right about government.  Maybe it is not big enough and we should expand its powers and size so it can finally kill capitalism which helped make our country powerful and wealthy but then, all that wealth and power went to evil greedy capitalists.  Maybe we should try socialism because it has been more successful at fairly distributing misery.

Ah, but we are trying socialism.  Obama decided our health care system, which decidedly needed tinkering but was working fairly well, needed to be replaced by a more costly and ineffective "Affordable Health Care Plan, so government could intrude further into our private lives and control and additional  16% of our economy.

Perhaps Obama is right to prevent America from becoming energy independent. What better way to keep the unemployed unemployed and  make Putin and the Saudi Princes happy.  After all, high paying jobs grows the middle class and empowers families to choose, to enjoy the benefits entrepreneurs provide and freedom brings.  Most important of all, it keeps the  Green left wingers and mad science nut cases smiling because no blade of grass is injured.

Finally, perhaps Obama is correct in telling us we can spend beyond our ability to pay back because there is such a thing as a free lunch.  After all, look at how he has helped to expand the Food Stamp program.

I am not yet ready to buy into what I have just written in defense of our president. I will have to chew on it for a few more days but at least I have given myself food for thought and I didn't even need food stamps!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/rKsW6c_CgFY?feature=player_detailpage

Left Ccick here: ? On the Road: Ohio boy pays it forward with found fortune - YouTube

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Putin kicks Obama in the groin so he turns around and does the same to Israelis.  (See 3 and 3a below.)
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DUH!  What's new?  (See 4 below.)
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Roger Simon believes Rand Paul is popular with conservatives because: "

WHY RAND PAUL IS WINNING
	BY ROGER L SIMON
	It is this creativity that distinguishes Paul.  He seems future oriented, unlike the rest of the potential candidates who mouth platitudes, liberal and conservative, bashing each other in the most tedious manner imaginable. ===

Dick

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1)  "Cry me a river democrats, your leader is a loser.  The debacle playing out in the Ukraine is the icing on the cake of failed policy on the part of this entire administration, and is a clear indicator to any and all Patriotic Americans to wake up now, and prepare to oust BOTH as many democrats as possible, and ALL establishment Republicans.  They are both equally guilty of failing the American people to further their own financial and power grabbing goals.  Folks, the horse may have gotten out before the barn doors were locked, but now it's time to round up that horse, and make sure the same mistakes aren't made again this election cycle.  Too often, as elections loom, establishment republicans act conservative, lie about their stated goals and do everything they can to insure they get re-elected.  No more!  

If the likes of Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, etc., get elected again, it will mark the end of our chances to roll back Obamacare, and of stopping his agenda dead in its tracks.  His foreign policy is such a disastrous apparition that should this Nation continue down that road, we will find ourselves in waters more dangerous than the Pacific, pre Pearl Harbor.  From Hillary's "reset" to the red line in Syria, this administration has continued to demonstrate its utter lack of comprehension regarding international diplomacy.  Obama continues (with the "republican" Chuck Hagle) to cut our military off at the knees, while pushing his leftist, entitlement minded social agenda.  More and more Americans find themselves unable to meet financial obligations while keeping a roof over their families heads, keep food on the table and all the bills paid.  This is a direct result of the economy this President has created, and continues to foster.  Our only hope as a World leading Nation is to reverse course immediately, and that can only happen if we get the vote out in November.  Once a majority of true conservatives are in place in Washington, I suggest their first priority is to go after staffers, consultants, lobbyists, and all other "behind the scenes" people who are ultimately the cause of the continuing corruption in DC being rampant, and seemingly never ending.  How else could the corruption keep getting worse there, despite The People electing conservatives, only to find out later that those elected officials aren't doing the job they said they would do if elected?  Please write, or talk to those people you are voting for in November about this issue.  It is the only way we can expect to re-take our Capitol, and the operation of our Government.   

Meanwhile, Putin has already figured out all of this, and while today it is the Crimea region of the Ukraine, tomorrow it may well be Georgia, Lithuania, or any of the old Soviet Block Nation States that will be in his sights.  While some may argue that that shouldn't concern us, that our real troubles lie here at home, the big picture shows us that without a strong relationship with our allies, something this administration has nearly killed dead, a Russian bear to be afraid of will continue to grow larger, with sharpened claws and longer teeth.  

GOD BLESS AMERICA!  God Bless Israel!  We need Him now, more than ever before."

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2)Subject: Ukraine

One of my Ukrainian colleagues asked me if I was informing my friends back home about the situation here. I admitted that I've only talked to my wife much about it and he accepted that. I got to thinking and decided that I've been delinquent.

I came here in 2005 on a contract to help build a professional corps of NCOs for the Ukrainian Army. It was a dismal failure. The military budget couldn't support building the kind of NCO corps the US Army has. Ukraine just doesn't have the budget for the personnel and training changes that are necessary. also, ss a result of many years of European and Soviet style military doctrine, the junior leaders are officers. NCOs are just technicians. That's worked for them for a couple centuries. The current mid grade officers recognized that this wasn't the most efficient way of leadership, but they just can't convince the civilians to put enough in the budget to professionalize the force. Conscription stopped this year, but they are a long way from developing a small, professional army.

I left Ukraine and went back to Iraq, then Germany, then Afghanistan. I came back to Ukraine when I got the opportunity to work at one of the few diamonds in the rough that I'd seen in Ukraine on my earlier contract. I'm now a NATO procedures instructor at the Ukrainian Land Forces Academy, their version of West Point.

During my last 3 years here now, I've met and worked with several Ukrainian mid-grade (major through colonel) and junior grade (lieutenant and captain) officers. Plus a few hundred cadets. I've made friends, a couple enemies, and a lot of good colleagues.  I've met local civilians and have eaten in some fantastic cafes. I enjoy living in Lviv, here in western Ukraine. It has a history that goes back a couple thousand years and is rich in a culture that even Soviet occupation for 50 years could not destroy.

Ukrainians are almost as much of a mixed culture as is the USA. There are leftists, rightists, centerists, and a few idiots. There is a small but vocal group that bears resemblance to the Nazi Party in Germany in 1939. There are human rights activists, well educated professionals, business entrepreneurs, and criminals. Just like home. What amazed me, however, was the level of corruption. I expected it, after having worked in former socialist countries before, and have seen what happens when you toss out the communists.

The only groups ready to replace the communists ... the only groups with an formal/semi-formal hierarchy, organization, chains of command, resource procurement procedures, etc... the only groups immediately available... are the crooks and criminal organizations.  What usually happens is the crooks make their way into government positions, both elected and appointed, and just raise the level of their operations to a national level. The people usually get tired of it, and either vote them out, or kick their asses out. Once they do, the only groups ready to move back in and take charge are.... the old communists! They'll have a new name, but old styles. So the folks kick them out and the damned crooks come back in... usually with less power.

Ukraine has gone through these cycles. There is no civil service system here. When a new political party takes charge, everyone who works for the government expects to lose their job. Teachers, civil works technicians, cops, secretaries, postal workers, etc. If they don't offer a bribe to their new politically appointed boss, they will lose their paycheck.

Cops are a special thing. No city cops, no state cops, just the national police. and they get paid MUCH less than minimum wage. A cop does not chase criminals, he chases his boss's political opponents. A traffic cop does not enforce traffic laws, he fights to get assigned to a check point on a good street so he can stop new cars and extort money from the driver (obviously well off... he's driving a new car) using some trumped up charge. I've been stopped many times. They want me to blow into a fake breathalyzer so they can charge me with DUI. I was stopped once and they asked for my ID and drivers license. I unbuckled my seat belt to get to my wallet. The cop looked at my license and then wanted to charge me with not wearing my seatbelt. Normal Ukrainians normally pay the cop somewhere between $12 to $20 to get on their way. I show my US passport and start dialing the embassy on my cell phone. They usually let me go.

Businesses are extorted by officers attempting to enforce unwritten city codes. Driving schools don't teach kids to drive, the kids can buy a license for $50 and walk out the same day they enrolled in the course. everything is like that.

When I got here I was just flat amazed how deep the corruption was. My translator asked me how I would handle such a situation back in south Texas. I told him we had enforceable laws, much more accountability of officials ... and as a last resort, the .45 on my hip and the AR-15 in my bedroom gun cabinet. He sighed.... said we have none of that. We can't make changes.

Well folks. Ukrainians stood up on their hind legs these last few months, and they fought back against the crooks... and they won! More than one hundred of them died doing it. It'll take the new folks in government to change what they had. It's hard changing a nation, a culture of corruption, a business environment that doesn't know how to enforce contract law. But they want to give it a chance.

And now, Vladimir Putin has decided that he can't allow the new Ukrainians to succeed. Because if they do, Russians might decide to get rid of the criminals who are the Russian Mafia, and the people like Putin who are trying to rebuild... not the Soviet Union ... but the old Russian Empire. There are good geo-political reasons for him to desire that., but it comes at the cost of Ukrainian freedoms to chose.

The US will not, maybe cannot jump in here and oppose the Russians militarily (the US has zero tanks left in Germany, folks). The Germans, Brits, French, etc don't have the forces to do it either. Nor the political will. So a NATO military option is out of the question. The Ukrainian military is too small, too under-resourced, and too tied to old Soviet style doctrine to go it alone.

So, what is left?

That will be up to President Obama, the British Prime Minister, Ban-Ki-Moon at the UN, and, believe it or not, the people and prime minister of Turkey. The Poles might go up against the Russians. They've done it before. Polish military history is pretty brave. They've been outclassed and outmatched, but no one can ever accuse them of cowardice. If the Russians try to take western Ukraine, the Poles might surprise everyone.

I support what the Ukrainians are trying to do. I can't do much about it, except teach my cadets. Because of the semi-official position I work in, I can't do much more. If it gets too dangerous out here in western Ukraine, I have to go home. If it gets too politically strenuous for the US, the State Department might order us to go home. I'm not impressed with John Kerry whining that Putin doesn't respond to our super-civilized new world society. He is "stunned" that Mr Putin acted in the same old way that Russians have always reacted. By force. By making your enemies fear you. By taking action, not talking. I'm amazed that anyone with a clue really thinks that this 21st century is going to be much different than the 19th century. History shows us otherwise. Every. Damned. Time.

So, I've made my conscience easier by writing this. The old Ukrainian colleague who asked if I had written my friends is a retired colonel. A full professor. And he is itching to put his uniform back on and go defend Ukraine. Against the Russians. Against a force a hundred times bigger. He has a beautiful, thirteen year old daughter. Who wants to be a ballerina. And he wants her to have the opportunity to do it in a free, law-abiding, free-enterprise nation. And he's willing to go up against the Russian Bear to do it.

I just wanted you to know.

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3) One Week After Russia’s Crimean Invasion, US Imposes Travel Sanctions…Against Israelis

How do liberals explain this one? Obama has to be the most anti-Israeli leader we have ever had.
Check it out:

Read more at http://conservativebyte.com/2014/03/one-week-russias-crimean-invasion-us-imposes-travel-sanctions-israelis/#tKtx8m4GRFyHGPAD.99

At the same time the US State Department is relaxing entry requirements to visa applicants with Islamist terrorist connections, and reassuring President Putin of Russia that any sanctions against travel to the US placed upon those responsible for Russia's invasion Ukraine will be limited to no more than a "few dozen" named individuals, it is dramatically increasing its rejection rate of Israelis seeking visas to visit the US.

While the State Department denies it, Israeli officials now suspect  their country is being deliberately sanctioned as part of an unannounced administration policy to punish the Jewish state. This week their fears were publicly shared by none other than administration ally NY Senator Charles Schumer, who, in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry,  demanded an end to the “State Department policy of categorically denying young Israelis tourist visas that makes it nearly impossible for any young Israeli to visit the U.S.” 

The harsh and unexplained crackdown against Israeli tourists, first felt in 2009 has been tightening ever since, particularly, say those familiar with the matter, within the last year. When first imposed, the travel bans were extended to all young Israelis seeking to visit the US after completing their compulsory military service. Israeli reports examining such records show that, starting in 2012, rejections of Israeli visa requests were applied preemptively and categorically to all Israeli nationals of student age. 

The State Department confirms there has been a 400% increase in the visa refusal rate for Israeli citizens since 2007, when only 2.5% of all Israeli visa requests were denied, as compared to 2013 when 9.7% were. In fact, rejection rates for Israeli visa applicants were so high in 2013, that Israel was expelled from the State Department’s visa waiver program. Some of the countries whose citizens are eligible to participate the US visa waiver program, in addition to traditional and treaty allies like Canada and the UK, include Saudi Arabia and Qatar. 

3a)  Putin Carterizes Obama, Totally

The Democrats are vulnerable again on handling the world.

By Daniel Henninger

Air-dropping himself into Kiev Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the Russian seizure of Crimea is "not 21st-century, G-8, major-nation behavior." He said Mr. Putin should allow "international observers" to enter Crimea.

International observers?

This calls to mind Humphrey Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs facing the gang of Mexican bandidos in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre":

Dobbs: "If you're the police, where are your badges?"

Chief bandido: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges!"

We may assume Mr. Putin would say the masked Russians patrolling Ukrainian Crimea are "international observers."

As of this week, it's official. Vladimir Putin has turned Barack Obama totally into Jimmy Carter.

We may quibble over the timeline. Some might say it began when Mr. Obama whispered to then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev he'd have "more flexibility" after the 2012 election; others that it set in when the U.S. president took Mr. Putin's offer to let Bashar Assad escape the bombing of his airfields for using WMD against his own people.

Enlarge Image

A Russian-style international observer at a Ukrainian air base in Crimea. Getty Images

"Carterization" has a specific meaning in American politics. In 1980, Ronald Reagan delivered an August speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Chicago, just as he was starting his campaign to unseat Jimmy Carter, trapped then in the Iranian hostage crisis.

"The response from the administration in Washington" to foreign threats, said Reagan, "has been one of weakness, inconsistency, vacillation and bluff."

"Our allies are losing confidence in us, and our adversaries no longer respect us," he said. Our partners "are confused by the lack of a coherent, principled policy from the Carter administration."

The characterization stuck, helped by Mr. Carter's foreign adventures after his presidency. And in truth, Mr. Carter's team included sterner ballast in Defense Secretary Harold Brown and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Nothing similar exists today in the Obama administration.

The consequences of Mr. Obama's Carterization overseas are coming so fast it's hard to keep track. Ukraine, though important, is the tip of the iceberg. Here's what else happened in the week Mr. Putin captured Crimea.

Israel on Wednesday intercepted in the Red Sea an Iranian shipment to Gaza of dozens of Syrian-made surface-to-surface rockets. These are our new Iranian negotiating partners.

North Korea last Thursday test-fired four short-range ballistic missiles and another this Monday. Then on Tuesday it deployed a new multiple-rocket launcher that fired four missiles with enough range to hit American and South Korean military bases near Seoul.

In Moscow last Wednesday,Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia plans to use military bases in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua for its navy and to refuel strategic bombers. Three months ago, Secretary Kerry ostentatiously announced in a Washington speech, "The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over." Naturally the Russians took this as a green light to return to one of the Soviet Union's favorite playpens. The next day, a Russian spy ship, the Viktor Leonov SSV-175, slipped unannounced into Havana Harbor.

Then this Wednesday, a news bulletin: "China announces 12.2% increase in military budget." That boost comes within 24 hours of the Obama budget proposing a decline in U.S. defense spending.

This is all in one week!

Ah, one more thing happened. With Ukraine, in Vladimir Putin's word "stabilized," Mr. Obama went to Connecticut to campaign for an increase in the federal minimum wage and from there to Boston for a Democratic fundraiser. What, me worry?

Our allies have noticed. In December, Saudi Arabia separated itself from a decades-long alliance with the U.S. to arm the Syrian opposition because the Obama administration would not. That same month Vice President Joe Biden made a trip to Asia to reassure our allies there that the U.S. "pivot" to the Pacific is real. In February Secretary Kerry went to Asia to say it all again. This is unprecedented. Until now.

Democrats spent years trying to dig out from under the Carter foreign policy image and the blame-America-first Vietnam Syndrome. Because of the Obama determination to lead from behind—which is modern Democratic foreign-policy doctrine, not just one man's whim—they are politically vulnerable again on handling the world.

But Hillary Clinton, who has managed never to articulate anything resembling a strategic vision, may get lucky. Because opinion polls say Americans have foreign-commitment fatigue (the actual number in the oft-cited Pew poll is 52%), Republicans have gone into a defensive crouch over the U.S.'s world role. Every prominent Republican commenting on Ukraine felt obliged to disavow military action. That disavowal is dangerous. Any Republican thinking of being a successful U.S. president should read that Chicago speech.

A realistic hope for peace, Reagan said, is possible only if the U.S. maintains "the vital margin of safety." The margin of safety wasn't about public threats of war. It is about the marginal advantage gained when an adversary negotiating with a strong U.S. believed wemight act militarily. If friends and foes conclude no one in the U.S. believes this in 2014, the margin of safety is gone.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4) Economist Jeffrey Dorfman: Fed Helps Obama, Govt Run Up Huge Deficits

By Dan Weil

The Federal Reserve, through its purchases of Treasury securities and its refunding of all of its profits to the Treasury, enables the government to continue running irresponsible budget deficits, says University of Georgia economist Jeffrey Dorfman.

Until January, the Fed was buying $45 billion of Treasurys per month as part of its quantitative easing. Now it's $35 billion a month. That buying helps the government sell its debt at a lower interest rate, Dorfman notes on Forbes.com.

As a result, the government can continue to issue debt without a conscience, Dorfman says.

"Making the enabling behavior even worse, the Federal Reserve refunds its operating profit to the U.S. Treasury, a total of over $77 billion last year," he writes. 

"The Federal Reserve’s actions introduce a form of moral hazard, encouraging risky behavior by the federal government in the form of extra spending and borrowing," Dorfman says. That doesn't exactly jibe with the Fed's mandate to control inflation and boost employment, he says.

"Out of control government spending is hurting the economy. . . . By enabling such reckless spending, the Fed is contributing to the problem."

Meanwhile, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said this week that the economy still isn't up to speed.

"Too many Americans still can’t find a job or are forced to work part time,” she said at her ceremonial swearing-in event, Bloomberg reports. 

While the central bank’s mission of full employment and stable prices are clear, "it is equally clear that the economy continues to operate considerably short of these objectives," she said.

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