A mother, my daughter in law - and Stella Victoria
A grandmother - my wife - entranced by her new granddaughter.
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Another commencement address. (See 1 below.)
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Jim Rogers has no faith in the dollar.
I have written, on enumerable occasions, the only value of fiat is its antiquity value. Why? Because once you allow politicians the power to tax they will do so , defer paying for what they spend and eventually inflate the currency til it is worthless. That is the lesson of history. (See 2 below.)
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Obama infuriated the Poles when he decided to bow to Russia's demand vis a vis withdrawing a missile shield and now he has stuck it to them again vis a vis his reference to a Polish concentration camp. Just another day in a White House that continues to implode. (See 3 below.)
I just began reading "Amateur" and will comment when I finish but it is evident, before the first chapter, that even Bill Clinton can't stand him.
Before the election, Obama will have insulted Catholics, women, if they are awake and understand the subtle attacks on them, the military for not even understanding how to pronounce a member of their ranks, Wall Street for being dirty Capitalists, and Jews, if they to can cut the umbilical cord for claiming he knows more about Judaism than any former president. But there is plenty of time before the election so I am sure Obama and his crew will step on more toes as his/their multiple personalities unravel.
If Jews knew as much about Obama as he claims he knows about them they would throw him out of office in a heart beat. As for Debbie Wasserman, Obama's lap dog, she is an embarrassment. When I see her on television I immediately think of the Wasserman test for Syphilis.
Certainly Obama's policies continue to play havoc with coal miners, oil workers and the permanent unemployed - the unemployed have gone from 19 to 49 weeks before finding a job since 'Oyveh' became president. No wonder the ranks of the unlisted unemployed are growing. They are just giving up looking for work and when they do find a job the wages they receive are substantially lower than when they last were working . No wonder the 'confidence index' is sinking and the consumer has withdrawn.
Obama promised Hope and Change and the Change he has wrought destroyed all Hope. (See 3a and 3b below.)
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Obama is now concerned Western dalliance could lead to Syria's WMB being hijacked by al Qaeda operatives so he has appealed to Putin to keep this from happening. Another test for the 'reset button' Clinton proffered in her own bow to Russia.?
Is the October surprise going to be against Syria? (See 4 below.)
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Tom Sowell tags Attorney General Holder with the word 'chutzpah."
The Obama crowd's disdain for Americans is evident by the use of their tactics. When you respect someone you appeal to them at an intellectual level in the hope that your argument is emotionally persuasive as well.(See 5 and 5a below.)
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Have a great weekend and think about how Obama's Change has destroyed Hope.
His personal history does not connect with America's history. He is an apologist and, like his wife, does not understand our greatness as a people - warts and all!!
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Dick
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1)To the Class of 2012
Neil Howe delivered the following commencement address at the University of Mary Washington on May 12, 2012.
At a commencement address, speakers often go on too long. This I won't do. I may not succeed as well as Salvador Dali, who famously delivered the world's shortest speech, only four seconds long. He announced at the podium: "I will be so brief I have already finished," and then sat down.
Commencement speakers also like to intone about "today's youth generation." And this is fine. Except that they then go on to talk at length about their own experiences in their own youth and tell you: Because this worked for me in my generation, it will work for you in yours. This should alert you that these speakers have no idea what a generation is.
Let me clarify. A generation is a group of people who share a basic outlook on life shaped by their common age location in history, their common "generational setting." The renowned sociologist Karl Mannheim called this "eine Generationslagerung," which I promise you is both the longest word—and the only German word—that you will hear from me.
"Youth," on the other hand, is just an age bracket. It's like an empty hotel room that different generations move into with their own baggage, and then soon leave. Sometimes that room swells with sweet music, sometimes it throbs with death metal, and sometimes it's utterly silent. But it's never the same.
Bottom line: All of you Boomer and Generation X parents are essentially unlike your children—and were not the same even when you were kids. And you Millennial Generation graduates are essentially unlike your parents—and will not become like them as you grow older.
So how, exactly, are you different? Well, start with the obvious: pop culture. Believe it or not, parents, your kids have never known that America, Chicago, and Kansas are the names of rock bands, not just places. Or what about technology? Ever notice the blank stares when you tell them roll up the window, turn the channel, or dial a number? Or what about current events? For as long as Millennials can remember, NATO has been looking for a mission, China has been peacefully rising, Brazil has been building shopping malls, and Boomers Bill O'Reilly and David Letterman have been hating on each other in plain view of millions.
Now these markers are interesting, but if there's one big idea I want you to take away from my remarks, it's that generational differences go much deeper.
Consider.
You Millennials grew up in an era of rising parental protection, never knowing a time without bicycle helmets, electric plug covers, Amber Alerts, and fifteen different ways to be buckled into your minivan seat. We, the parents, grew up in an era of declining parental protection: Our moms and dads told us, "We don't care where you go so long as you're home for dinner." As for seatbelts, we were told if there's an accident to just throw up our hands to protect our heads. As kids, we never saw a "Baby on Board" sticker. "Baby Overboard" would have been more appropriate.
You Millennials were raised to be special—very special—and to trust your counselors, support groups, and smart drugs to keep you feeling pretty good about the world, like a Sims character having just the right digital balance. We, the parents, knew we weren't very special, didn't trust anyone to advise us, and thought staying away from counselors was a sign of toughness. When you came to college, there were long orientations and immersions, and many of your parents clutched teddy bears and wept. When we came to college, we jumped out of the car and tried to grab our suitcases before our parents sped off.
You Millennials were raised to be team players—and you are, with community service, group projects in the classroom, and clubs for everything. And, above all, you are team players with digital technology that connects you all to each other on Facebook, and smartphones that you take to bed with you. We, the parents, were a lot more into competition, rebellion, and defying the mainstream. We did not "friend" each other. Our generation invented the "personal" computer. Personal, as in "mine and not yours," and certainly not part of the corporate mainframe our own parents bequeathed to us. Growing up, our biggest fear was that Big Brother might someday install cameras in our rooms. Our biggest joy was hearing Steve Jobs announce that " 1984 won't be like 1984." And now, our biggest surprise has been to see our kids connect with each other by installing their own cameras in their own rooms!
As a generation, you Millennials have a surprisingly conventional outlook on life. Surveys show that as you grow older you wish to become good citizens, good neighbors, and well-rounded people who start families. Violent youth crime, teen pregnancy, and teen smoking have recently experienced dramatic declines, and for that we congratulate you.
Most startling of all, the values gap separating youth from their parents has virtually disappeared. You watch the same movies as your parents, buy the same brand-name clothing, talk over personal problems with them—and, yes, feel just fine about moving back in with them. When I travel around the country, I often ask people now in their 40s or 50s how many songs on their iPod overlap with what's on their kids' iPods. The typical answer is 30 to 40 percent. Let me tell you, back in my days on campus (later known as "the days of rage"), we did not have iPods, but if we had, the overlap would have been absolutely zero. Everything about our youth culture was intentionally hostile and disrespectful of our parents. That was the whole idea.
People sometimes ask me, "What does it mean that one generation is different from another—that Millennials, for example, are different from the Boomers or Gen Xers who raised them? Does it mean that some generations are better than others?" And I say: No. There is no such thing as a good or bad generation. Every generation is what it has to be, given the environment it encounters when it enters the world. History shows that whatever collective personality a new generation brings with it is usually what society needs at the time. As such, youth generations tend to correct for the excesses of the midlife generation in power, and they tend to refill the social role being vacated by the older generation who is disappearing.
To avoid speaking in code, let me rephrase this as follows. The Millennial Generation is correcting for the excesses of Boomers and Gen Xers who today run America. I need not remind you what those excesses are: leadership gridlock, refusal to compromise, rampant individualism, the tearing down of traditions, scorched-earth culture wars, and a pathological distrust of all institutions.
The Millennial Generation is also reprising many of the hallmarks of the original G.I. Generation, the so-called "Greatest Generation," who are now passing away. Like the Millennials, the G.I.s grew up as protected children and quickly turned into optimistic, consensus-minded team players who, in the dark days of the 1930s and ‘40s, saved our nation from turning in the wrong direction at the wrong time.
Igor Stravinsky once wrote that every generation declares war on its parents and makes friends with its grandparents. Yet again, that has happened.
So all of you parents out there: Be proud of this new generation. They aren't like you, but they are what America now needs. They don't complain about the storm clouds looming over their fiscal, economic, and geopolitical future; they try to stay positive. They don't want to bring the system down; they're doing what they can to make it work again. They worry about you a lot. And they want to come together and build something big and lasting, something that will win your praise. Beneath their tolerant, optimistic, networked, and risk-averse exterior lie attitudes and habits that may prove vital for our country's healing and for our country's future.
No one knows what challenges this Millennial Generation may eventually be asked to bear. Hardly anyone expects them to become America's next "Greatest Generation." But someday you can say you heard it from me: That is their destiny, to rescue this country from the mess to which we, the older generations, have contributed, perhaps a bit more than we ever intended—and, in so doing, to become a great generation indeed.
Thank you.
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2) The U.S. dollar may be in hot demand today, but it's still a "terribly flawed" currency belonging to an indebted nation, says international investor Jim Rogers, CEO and chairman of Rogers Holdings.Fears that Greece or Spain will exit the eurozone have rattled currency and stock markets worldwide, sending investors fleeing to the dollar in what they assume is a safe-haven asset.
The dollar is not a safe-haven asset, Rogers says, but he owns it merely because it's in demand.
"I do own the U.S. dollar. People see it as a safe haven, but it is not a safe haven. But people think that, and so therefore I own the dollar," Rogers says in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV.
"There is more turmoil coming out of Europe and other currency markets, so people, when they try to look for a place to flee, they flee to the dollar, so I fled to the dollar, too. The dollar is terribly flawed, terribly flawed over the next few years, so be very careful."
"I don't know how long I'll own it, whether I'll own it for a quarter or a year or two, but I own it at the moment."
The euro has plunged to levels not seen in close to two years thanks to the debt crisis roiling European and global markets.
Greeks go to the polls on June 17 to elect a new parliament in an election seen as a proxy on austerity measures that past administrations accepted in exchange for bailout money from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Widespread anger at those measures, which include painful tax hikes and layoffs, sent politicians from the leftwing Syriza political party snapping up votes in a May 6 election that failed to produce a coalition government, forcing the new ballot in June.
Polls put the more conservative New Democracy ahead now, which favors sticking with bailout policies, but surprises could mean an end to bailout and an end to Greece's membership in the eurozone.
That might not be a bad thing in the long run, Rogers says.
"I think it's the best thing for Europe and for Greece for Greece to go bankrupt and start all over again."
"To my astonishment I hear Greek politicians saying some of the same now. I doubt if it will work that way, because politicians usually like to take the easy way out."
"Nobody likes austerity and I don't like austerity either. But sometimes you have to face facts."
Should Greece exit the euro and default on its sovereign debts, the larger Spain, Portugal and Italy may feel pressure to follow suit, Spain especially.
In Spain, yields in government bond auctions have spiked close to 7 percent, which shows investors view the country as risky.
The government, already enduring harsh financial duress, a recession and unemployment rates over 24 percent, is now pondering selling debt to prop up its banking sector and possibly help regional governments refinance their debts.
Not an easy task for a country already facing sky-high borrowing costs.
"Several countries are essentially bankrupt — Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy and even France has problems. So can they afford it? No they cannot afford it. Will more people ask for bailouts? Yes, but eventually they are going to run out of other people's money. You can spend other people's money for a long time, but eventually the other people will start saying 'no more,'" Rogers says.
"Then you have to face reality, and that's the problem with Europe right now — most are trying to avoid reality," Rogers adds.
"I'm afraid you'll see other countries doing the same thing and cause more currency and economic turmoil for several more months and possibly years."
Facebook share prices have fallen on concerns that despite having 900 million users, Facebook will run into challenges monetizing that base and generating revenue.
"The idea that Facebook, with essentially no profits, with no anything, could come to the market with $104 billion, that's astonishing to me. It's astonishing that anybody would pay it, it's astonishing to me that it hasn't collapsed more," Rogers says.
"It just shows me that there is too much confidence in the American market."
Instead, investors should be focusing on fear-based trades these days, such as pending commodity shortfalls.
"The way you make money in the market, in any market, is when there is despair. When people are terribly worried. That's when you make a lot of money," Rogers says.
In his exclusive interview, Rogers also said:
• Even though gold prices have fallen by around 18 percent since peaking above $1,920 an ounce in late 2011, a shrewd investor will hold onto the precious metal.
• The "world is running out of farmers, so the price of agricultural products has to go up a lot ... or we're not going to have any food at any price."
• The nation's situation "is very, very dire" this year and neither Republicans nor Democrats can really solve the U.S. economic woes.
• "In 2013 or 2014, we're going to have another slowdown, whether it's caused by Europe or who knows what going caused it, but it's coming."
• The U.S. government makes up the official data it releases on unemployment and inflation.
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3)What the Jan Karski Gaffe Really Means
By Bruce Walker
In the 1976 presidential debates, President Ford stated, "Poland is no longer under Communist domination." Americans liked Gerald Ford, but this comment about Poland saddled him forever with the image of a clueless ignoramus. Ford's "Polish Moment" may well have cost him a close presidential election.
Barack Obama himself had a "Polish Moment" when, during a ceremony to honor the late Jan Karski, he spoke of "Polish death camps." Karski was an extraordinary man. His book, The Story of a Secret State, is harrowing, inspiring, horrifying, and noble. Karski, writing in the middle of the Second World War, tells how an entire underground government was created in Nazi-occupied Poland and how, under the grimmest situation possible, the Polish people not only resisted the Nazis, but created an elaborate organization which made the French Resistance look pathetically lame.
Karski, a Polish Catholic, also sought out Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto before the 1943 uprising and recorded their desperate cry to the civilized world. Karski was captured and tortured by the Gestapo, and except for the help of religiously devout Poles, he would have perished under Nazi interrogation. His life was a testament to the resilience of the Polish people -- Catholic and Jewish -- against totalitarianism.
Caught between two of the vilest systems in human history, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, the Polish people suffered in Nazi death camps, where six million Poles -- Jewish and Catholic alike -- died. The extermination of Polish Catholics in addition to Polish Jews is described in Sophie's Choice, a book and then a film.
Before the Nazis began exterminating Poles, the Soviets herded over 1.5 million Polish men, women, and children in cattle cars to Gulag camps, where most died, suffering from policies of deliberate starvation. The Soviets also murdered in cold blood 20,000 Polish officers via the Red Army in the Katyn Forest. After the war ended, the Polish people suffered forty-four years of Soviet enslavement (a fact which eluded President Ford in 1976).
Pope John Paul II, the "Polish Pope" who was a hero to Jews and Catholics alike, took his name from a Polish priest who volunteered to die for a terrified Polish man in a Nazi death camp. He, like many other Poles, resisted both Nazis and Soviets during the dark night of Poland which began in 1939 and ended in June 1989, when free elections effectively ended the power of the Communist puppet government and doomed the Soviet empire.
It is hard to imagine a more outrageously wrong statement than to speak of "Polish death camps." The conventional conclusion has been that Barack Obama is every bit as ignorant as conservatives have feared. About four years ago at a speech in West Lafayette, Indiana, Obama spoke of "the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor," with the clear implication that somehow this child of Hawaii had no clue at all about how the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor actually occurred.
This fits in which what J.R. Dunn wrote last August how Obama stares passively for long moments at the teleprompter until it feeds him the words to speak. "We're waiting," our president explains, as the electronic brain which guides his mouth begins to work. Think about what that means: when Gerald Ford made his boneheaded statement about Poland being free in 1976, it was in the middle of a nationally televised presidential debate, and it came from Ford's own mind, but when Obama talked of "Polish death camps" in his tribute to the Polish Catholic hero Jan Karski, this was not his mistake.
Barack Obama read those lines, which his brain trust had written for the teleprompter. His experts researched, drafted, vetted, and composed his egregious error, slandering an entire nation as well as the life of Jan Karski, the person presumably honored at the ceremony. These men behind Obama, apparently, are as profoundly ignorant as the president is.
This also means that when Tommy Vietor of the National Security Council explained on Wednesday that "[t]he president misspoke" about the Polish death camps, Vietor lied: Obama did not misspeak (nor did he misread). What he read reflected the historical knowledge his team of expert advisers knew, but these men know nothing beyond the rhetoric of rabid and radical leftism. A bright high school student could have reviewed the president's teleprompted address and seen the glaring gaffe, but our nation is not in the hands of people as informed or as wise as high school students. That is what the Jan Karski gaffe really means.
3a)Sybil Hussein Obama?
By Lauri B. Regan
On the same day that the Polish foreign minister called Obama ignorant and incompetent for referring to a "Polish death camp" during a ceremony intended to honor a Polish war hero, the POTUS substantiated the accusations as he declared before an audience of Conservative Jews that he "probably knows about Judaism more than any other president, because he read about it."
The man who apparently believes he is "The First Jewish President" has revealed yet another persona meant to wow a particular demographic. But by adding one more element to the amalgamation of the composite individual running the country, who evolves faster than Charles Darwin could say "natural selection," Obama is proving that he actually knows less about everything other than race-baiting and class warfare than any other president, because he learned about those things.
Obama's latest narcissistic assertion is not surprising from the man who bills himself as one of the top four presidents in the history of the country. But the most knowledgeable about Judaism? On what does Obama base such an absurd statement? And what has he been reading that has led him to make such a ludicrous pronouncement? We can certainly rest assured that his days spent in the pews of Trinity Church[i] did not involve studying the Old Testament. As Bill Kristol states:
His vanity boggles the mind. One could begin by citing Adams and Madison, who knew Hebrew, or Harry Truman, who knew Jewish history ... but it's silly to dignify this claim with a rebuttal. In thinking about the presidents since Truman, though, I'd guess the president who knew the most about Judaism was Jimmy Carter, who taught Sunday school and had a deep interest in religion. So let's stipulate that of the modern presidents, Carter and Obama "know" the most about Judaism. But what is it they know? In Obama's case, one could ask whether what he "knows" is what he learned from Rashid Khalidi and Jeremiah Wright.
So let's move on to the fact that every president until the modern era knew more about Judaism than Barack Obama because the Bible was the one book every literate person knew, and the Bible includes the books Christians call the "Old Testament," and a working knowledge of the Old Testament certainly is the best introduction to "Judaism" there is.
Obama apparently forgot how ridiculous he sounded when he stated that "nobody has spoken out more fiercely on the issue of anti-Semitism than I have." Jake Tapper pointed out at the time:
Really?No one?Elie Wiesel? Simon Wiesenthal? Alan Dershowitz?No One?Wow.
But all of this is coming from the man who proclaimed, "We are partners with God in matters of life and death." In that one arrogant and hubristic statement, Obama proved he knows absolutely nothing about Judaism, for while it may be that Islamic jihadists believe themselves to be partners with Allah in matters of death, individuals living under the teachings of Judeo-Christian beliefs and values know better than to declare themselves partners with the Almighty in anything. Perhaps Obama would have more press conferences if he could force the press corps to begin each meeting worshiping his holiness with "Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe"; however, even Chris Matthews would likely give up his tingle before reciting such nonsense.
There are additional indications that Obama knows very little about Judaism. Obama's gaffe earlier this week in which he called a Nazi concentration camp a "Polish death camp" certainly indicates a lack of understanding of history. And let us not forget that while running for office, Obama made the grandiose claim that he had an uncle who was part of the first American troops to liberate Auschwitz. The RNC quickly pointed out that unless Obama's uncle served in the Red Army, his story was a fabrication. Obama's spin-meisters quickly offered up the excuse that it was a minor mistake and his uncle had been at the liberation of Buchenwald -- the historian-in-chief should have known the difference.
One of Obama's most egregious misstatements was made in his infamous Cairo speech, when he used the Holocaust as the justification for Israel's existence while ignoring the Jewish people's biblical, historical, and legal connections to the Land of Canaan. And more recently, Obama graciously squeezed into his busy schedule a Hannukah party -- two weeks early -- and lit all of the candles on the Menorah, exclaiming that "we never need an excuse for a good party."
But even granting Obama his claims of brilliance, the label is meaningless. Plenty of Israel-bashers are knowledgeable about Judaism. Noam Chomsky, M.J. Rosenberg, and Peter Beinart could qualify as such but would never be called Israel's friends. Obama made up a ridiculous proclamation of self-interest while hoping the public would ignore his record that speaks volumes about the fact that he is in fact the least friendly POTUS to Israel since its founding.
While proclaiming his Jewish bona fides, Obama personality 15 did not stop there. The man who doth protest too much not only whined that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are not asked about their support for Israel, but went on to explain that many of his friends in Chicago are Jewish. This statement served to prove Obama's childish bona fides while at the same time using the lamest excuse in the book to deny that he is not a friend to Israel.
Even Obama, in infusing himself into the Trayvon Martin debacle, seemed to denounce the claim that George Zimmerman could not have been racially motivated since Zimmerman had black friends. In an article entitled "Trayvon Martin: The Problem with the 'Some of My Best Friends Are Black' Defense," Nowile M. Rooks wrote, "Research on racial perception proves that even the most diverse group of friends doesn't make one immune to race-based prejudice." Our brilliant president must have been hanging with the Choom Gang on the day that lesson was taught at Columbia.
And as long as Obama wants to discuss his friends, let us take a look at the individuals whom we know he surrounded himself with during his days in Chicago. There is of course Reverend Jeremiah "God damn America and Israel" Wright, who was Obama's spiritual advisor, mentor, and close family friend [ii]. Obama friends and domestic terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers are now supporters of the Free Gaza Movement, call Israel an apartheid state, and support the BDS movement. Then there is Palestinian [iii] Rashid Khalidi, of whom Obama spoke so warmly at Khalidi's going away party several years ago and with whom he and Michelle shared quiet dinners that he stated served as "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots."
In addition to Obama's anti-Semitic friends of whom we know, he also had friends in Chicago about whom we are still learning. In "The Chicago Way," John Fund discusses Obama's close relationship with "gatekeeper and spokesman for Obama's inner circle" Eric Whitaker, convicted felon Tony Rezko, intimate advisor Valerie Jarrett, and others. Interestingly, not one of Obama's friends whom we know as a friend or confidant is Jewish. The people in Obama's life who are Jewish serve as his useful idiots. Rahm "Dead Fish" Emanuel gave him cover and bragging rights, while Penny Pritzker is a campaign bundler hosting fundraisers for the billion-dollar man.
And while we know the president enjoys "a good party," the real question is whether he enjoys sharing them with Jewish people when they do not involve raising money for his campaign. In a New York Times report on the history of "the Obama Seder," candidate Obama joined several staff members in a small gathering during the Passover holiday that fell during the campaign[iv]. Obama invited several African-American friends who "peppered the outnumbered Jews at the table with questions...'We're not exactly crack Hebrew scholars,'" responded one of the Obama staffers. Apparently, the man who claims to know more about Judaism than the 43 U.S. presidents who preceded him was also incapable of responding to any of the questions relating to the Passover story. But the article does share with us that Obama took it upon himself to revise the Haggadah ending the Seder with "Next year in the White House!"
What we also learn from the Times story is that the Seder is now a WH tradition, and "[n]o one considered inviting prominent rabbis or other Jewish leaders; it is a private event." We also learn that "as in many Jewish households, the Obama Seder seems to take on new meaning each year, depending on what is happening in the world and in participants' lives." Wrong. The meaning of the Jewish holiday has not changed in thousands of years.
The man who claimed to "serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views" is nothing of the sort. He is more like Sybil, intentionally morphing into a different persona when he determines it politically expedient. He is certainly not knowledgeable about Judaism, he is not an honest man, and he has spent his life in the midst of some very bad people. Obama's personality will be vetted this time around whether he likes it or not. And grandiose statements made in the shadows of Greek columns will prove to be incapable of supporting his faux image and multiple personalities, just as the European Union has proven incapable of supporting the faltering Greek economy.
While the rest of the country is waking up to the fact that the smartest man to catapult to the highest office in the land may not actually be as brilliant as his handlers would have us believe, Obama has yet to take off his rose-colored glasses when he views himself in the mirror.
(Many thanks to Ed Lasky for his contributions to this article.)
[i] Obama did not seem to have a problem with Trinity Church's magazine carrying op-eds by Hamas leaders accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and whose charter calls for the killing of Jews wherever they may live.
[ii] This is the same Jeremiah Wright who gave an award to Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, who called Judaism a gutter religion, praised Hitler, and most recently promised that Allah will bring death unless the U.S. submits.
[iii] Recall that Obama stated that no one is "suffering more than the Palestinian people."
[iv] That may have occurred at about the time that West Bank Palestinians began making international get-out-the vote phone calls to U.S. residents.
3b)U.S. Employers Add 69,000 Jobs, Fewer Than Forecast
American employers in May added the fewest workers in a year and the unemployment rate unexpectedly increased as job-seekers re-entered the workforce, further evidence that the labor-market recovery is stalling.
Alstrom Heat Transfer LLC employee Edgar Caytano arc welds a component at the company's facilities in New York. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Peter Cook reports that American employers in May added the smallest number of workers in a year and the unemployment rate unexpectedly increased as job-seekers re-entered the workforce, further evidence that the labor-market recovery is stalling. Payrolls climbed by 69,000 last month, less than the most-pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, after a revised 77,000 gain in April. He speaks on Bloomberg Television's "In The Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Nigel Travis, chief executive officer of Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc., talks about the company's plans to boost hiring and develop new stores. He speaks with Erik Schatzker and Stephanie Ruhle on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
Payrolls climbed by 69,000 last month, less than the most- pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, after a revised 77,000 gain in April that was smaller than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today inWashington. The median estimate called for a 150,000 May advance. The jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent, while hours worked declined.
Stock-index futures and Treasury yields plunged as the figures showed a looming recession in the euro area and slower growth in China and Brazil are taking a toll on the U.S. Bigger job and wage gains are needed to jumpstart a self-sustaining increase in hiring and consumer spending.
“The labor market is clearly deteriorating,” Hugh Johnson, chairman and chief investment officer at Albany, New York-based Hugh Johnson Advisors LLC, whose payrolls projection of 75,000 was the closest to the May reading among economists surveyed by Bloomberg. “Confidence in the economy is declining. Businesses are extremely reluctant to add workers when there’s so much uncertainty.”
The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring this month slumped 1.7 percent to 1,286.7 at 9:08 a.m. in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped to 1.47 percent from 1.56 percent late yesterday.
Economists’ Estimates
Estimates of the 87 economists surveyed ranged from increases of 75,000 to 195,000 after a previously reported 115,000 rise in April. Revisions subtracted a total of 49,000 jobs to payrolls in March and April.
The figures follow data earlier today showing the global economy is struggling as Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis roils financial markets. A measure of manufacturing in the 17-nation euro fell to a three-year low, while measures of the industry in China, India, South Korea and Taiwan also weakened.
The jobs data also come five months before Americans head to the polls to either re-elect President Barack Obama or choose presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who has said White House policies have prevented a stronger economic recovery.
The unemployment rate was forecast to hold at 8.1 percent, according to the survey median. Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 8 percent to 8.2 percent. Unemployment has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, the longest such stretch since monthly records began in 1948.
Participation Rate
The participation rate, which indicates the share of working-age people in the labor force, rose to 63.8 percent from 63.6 percent.
Private payrolls, which exclude government agencies, rose 82,000 after a revised gain of 87,000. They were projected to rise by 164,000, the survey showed.
“The U.S. economy is recovering but at a stubbornly slow pace,” Carl Camden, president and chief financial officer at staffing provider Kelly Services Inc., said on a May 9 conference call. “Weakening European economies have shaken confidence here in the U.S. business, consumers and investors remain cautious.” Still, with demand increasing for skilled workers, “we remain optimistic about 2012,” he said.
Factory employment increased by 12,000, less than the survey forecast of a 15,000 increase.
General Motors Co. is among companies boosting payrolls. The world’s biggest automaker said last month it will add 600 employees to a second shift at an assembly plant in Lansing,Michigan, according to the Detroit News.
Service Employment
Employment at service-providers increased 84,000 in May. Construction companies cut 28,000 jobs, the most in two years, and retailers boosted payrolls by 2,300.
“I have been searching relentlessly and I can’t find anything,” said Dexter Favors, 57, of Atlanta. Favors has been out of work for three years, though his wife is employed. “It is kind of rough right now because she is pulling the load.”
Favors, who worked last as a grocery store department manager and is an Air Force veteran, said he has put out around 80 applications for work and continues to search.
Government payrolls declined by 13,000.
Average hourly earnings increased 0.1 percent, today’s report showed. Compared with May of last year, earnings climbed 1.7 percent, the smallest increase since December 2010.
The average work week for all workers fell to 34.4 hours from 34.5 hours.
Underemployment Rate
The so-called underemployment rate -- which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- increased to 14.8 percent from 14.5 percent.
The report also showed an increase in long-term unemployed Americans. The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more rose as a percentage of all jobless, to 42.8 percent from 41.3 percent.
Faster economic growth would help lay the groundwork for more hiring. Gross domestic product climbed at a 1.9 percent annual rate from January through March, down from a 2.2 percent prior estimate, reflecting smaller gains in inventories and bigger government cutbacks, according to revised Commerce Department figures released yesterday. The report also showed corporate profits rose at the slowest pace in more than three years and smaller wage gains at the end of 2011.
The pace of growth has been “disappointing” and “the headwinds retarding recovery are well known,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley said this week. He reiterated that he expects growth of about 2.4 percent over the next four quarters and said Europe’s sovereign debt crisis poses a downside risk to the outlook.
Today’s figures may put more pressure on the Fed to take further steps to boost the economy after their current maturity extension program, known as Operation Twist, expires at the end of June.
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4)Exclusive: Obama weighs action to prevent Al Qaeda grabbing Syrian WMD
US President Barack Obama, though widely expected to pursue direct action against Syrian ruler Bashar following the Houla atrocity, is preoccupied with what he regards as a greater threat to the world: a potential grab for the huge Syrian stock of chemical and biological weapons by Al Qaeda’s or other terrorist organizations.
The US president is trying to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept his new plan for the immediate assignment by the UN Security Council of 3,000 armed monitors to Syria to take charge of the six chemical and biological stores. Another 2,000 will join the team later.
To allay Putin’s suspicions of a trick to insert Western armed forces into Syria against Moscow’s will, Obama suggested that most of the monitors would be Russian or nationals of governments lining up with its support of the Assad regime.
Allegedly, in one of the conversations between the two presidents, Obama commented: “If only one barrel of anthrax reaches the hands of a Caucasian terrorist group, Russian will face its greatest terrorist threat in its history. Millions of Russians may perish.”
It was clear from this comment that Assad’s WMD are not stored as warheads, bombs or shells but kept in large barrels or kegs in six underground bunkers, holding Sarin (GB), Tabun (GA) and VX nerve gases, some four kinds of mustard gas and anthrax. The storage silos are spread out among Al Safir, the main Syrian missile base in the north; Cerin, a biological research center on the Mediterranean shore; military facilities at Hama and Homs; the Syrian naval base leased to the Russians at Latakia; and Palmyra, on the highway between Homs and Aleppo.
According to the information reaching US intelligence, three of these locations are situated in heavily embattled areas between the Syrian army and rebels, in addition to which, in the last two weeks, al Qaeda elements have penetrated the war-torn districts with a view to seizing some of the WMD stores.
Obama warned Putin that the jihadists have never been so close to getting hold of large quantities of such deadly unconventional weapons, especially now that the Syrian army’s 4th Division, commanded by Assad’s brother Maher, which guards those stores, is additionally assigned with suppressing the revolt and therefore inadequately manned for securing them.
If the Russian President buys his plan for 5,000 international monitors to take over the security assignment, Obama hopes he will also persuade Assad and even Tehran to accept it.
Early Thursday, May 31, the US president held a video-conference call on the subject with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, to brief them on his initiative and his talks with Putin.
Washington and Jerusalem add that Obama also sent personal messages to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak warning them that if al Qaeda or any other terrorist groups get hold of these weapons of death, they could be smuggled into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “Israel would be their number one target,” he said.
These messages were relayed to Israeli leaders this week through visiting senior US intelligence and government figures, with the president’s assessment that the danger of Syrian WMD falling into terrorist hands was now more acute than a nuclear Iran.
It provided the context for the IDF’s OC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Yair Golan’s remark Wednesday: “Within weeks or months we may face al Qaeda attacks from Syria.”
The Russian president has not yet given Obama his answer, still suspecting an American ruse for placing Western troops inside Syria. Hence his spokesman’s statement Wednesday: “Russia is not considering changing its stance on Syria and any attempts to apply pressure on Moscow are hardly appropriate.”
Tehran, taking this to meanPutin has not rejected Obama’s proposal, was put out enough for a forceful threat: “Western intervention in Syria would result in a regional upheaval that would undoubtedly engulf Israel," said Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani. “It would spread to Palestine and ash rising from the flames would definitely engulf the Zionist regime…US military officials should be aware of their dangerous game.”
This was taken by sources in Washington as an Iranian threat to burn Israel if Obama’s plan to post 5,000 armed monitors in Syria goes through. This threat was aimed equally at deterring Putin from cooperating with it.
Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, capped these veiled messages by warning the UN Security Council Wednesday night: “This becomes a proxy conflict with arms flowing in from all sides. And members of this Council and members of the international community are left with the option only of having to consider whether they are prepared to take actions outside of the Annan plan and the authority of this Council.”
By these words, the White House informed the Kremlin that if President Putin rejects Obama’s plan for posting 5,000 monitors in Syria, Washington will feel free to bypass the UN and the Russian veto and launch US-Western armed action in Syria in defiance of Moscow.
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5)Holder's Chutzpah
By Thomas Sowell
Attorney General Eric Holder recently told a group of black clergymen that the right to vote was being threatened by people who are seeking to block access to the ballot box by blacks and other minorities.
This is truly world-class chutzpah, by an Attorney General who stopped attorneys in his own Department of Justice from completing the prosecution of black thugs who stationed themselves outside a Philadelphia voting site to harass and intimidate white voters.
This may have seemed like a small episode to some at the time, but it was only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The U.S. Attorney who was prosecuting that case -- J. Christian Adams -- resigned from the Department of Justice in protest, and wrote a book about a whole array of similar race-based decisions on voting rights by Eric Holder and his subordinates at the Department of Justice.
The book is titled "Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department." It names names, dates and places around the country where the Department of Justice stopped its own attorneys from pursuing cases of voter fraud and intimidation, when it was blacks who were accused of these crimes.
If Mr. Adams is lying, he has taken a huge risk in citing individuals by name and quoting them directly. Yet, despite the fact that most of those he accuses are lawyers, apparently no one has sued him. Moreover, Adams has also testified under oath before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, on the racial double standard at the Department of Justice, when it comes to voting rights.
What Attorney General Holder has been complaining loudly about, and launching federal lawsuits about, are states that require photo identification to vote. Holder calls this blocking minority "access" to the voting booths.
Since millions of black Americans -- like millions of white Americans -- are confronted with demands for photo identification at airports, banks and innumerable other institutions, it is a little much to claim that requiring the same thing to vote is denying the right to vote. But Holder's chutzpah is up to the task.
Attorney General Holder claims that the states' requirement of photo identification for voting, in order to prevent voter fraud, is just a pretext for discriminating against blacks and other minorities. He apparently sees no voter fraud, hears no voter fraud and speaks no voter fraud.
Despite Holder's claim, a little experiment in his own home voting district showed how easy it is to commit voter fraud. An actor -- a white actor, at that -- went to a voting place where Eric Holder is registered to vote, and told them that he was Eric Holder.
The actor had no identification at all with him, either with or without a photo. He told the voting official that he had forgotten and left his identification in his car. Instead of telling him to go back to the car and get some identification, the official said that that was all right, and offered him the ballot.
The actor had the good sense not to actually take the ballot, which would have made him guilty of voter fraud -- and, being white, he would undoubtedly have been prosecuted by Eric Holder's Department of Justice.
5a)Holder's Racial Incitement
When looking for the Attorney General's motives, think lower.
The United States of America has a black President whose chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Eric Holder, is also black. They have a lot of political power. So how are they using it? Well, one way is to assert to black audiences that voter ID laws are really attempts to disenfranchise black Americans. And liberals think Donald Trump's birther fantasies are offensive?
"In my travels across this country, I've heard a consistent drumbeat of concern from citizens, who—often for the first time in their lives—now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up to one of our nation's most noble ideals," Mr. Holder said Wednesday in a speech to the Council of Black Churches. Voter ID laws and white discrimination, he added, mean that "some of the achievements that defined the civil rights movement now hang in the balance."
That's right. The two most powerful men in America are black, two of the last three Secretaries of State were black, numerous corporate CEOs and other executives are black, and minorities of many races now win state-wide elections in states that belonged to the Confederacy, but the AG implies that Jim Crow is on the cusp of a comeback.
It's demeaning to have to dignify this argument with facts, but here goes. Voter ID laws have been found by the courts not to be an undue burden under the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution. The landmark Supreme Court opinion, upholding an Indiana law in 2008, was written for a six-member majority by that noted right-winger, John Paul Stevens.
Associated Press
Attorney General Eric Holder
Black voter turnout increased in Georgia and Indiana after voter ID laws passed. Georgia began implementing its law requiring one of six forms of voter ID in 2007. According to data from Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the black vote increased by 42%, or 366,000 votes, in 2008 over 2004. The Latino vote grew by 140% or 25,000 votes in 2008, while the white vote increased by only 8% from four years earlier.
No doubt Mr. Obama's presence on the ballot helped drive that turnout surge in 2008, but then the black vote in Georgia also increased by 44.2% during the midterm Congressional races of 2010 from 2006. The Hispanic vote grew by 66.5% in 2010 from four years earlier. Those vote totals certainly don't suggest that requiring an ID is a barrier to the ballot box.
As for public opinion, an April 2012 Fox News survey found that a majority of Democrats (52%), Republicans (87%) and independents (72%) support voter ID laws. This is no doubt because Americans understand intuitively that ballot integrity is as important as ballot access to democratic credibility. Everyone's franchise is devalued if an election turns on the votes of the quick and the dead.
All of this honors Mr. Holder too much because the real key to understanding his speech is to think lower. A May 4 story in the Washington Post got to the heart of the matter: "The number of black and Hispanic registered voters has fallen sharply since 2008, posing a serious challenge to the Obama campaign in an election that could turn on the participation of minority voters."
In the 2008 heyday of hope and change, strong minority turnout helped push Mr. Obama to victory, especially in such swing states as Virginia and New Mexico. But as another election approaches, the minority thrill is gone. According to the Census Bureau, Hispanic voter registration has fallen 5% across the U.S., to about 11 million. The decline is 28% in New Mexico and about 10% in Florida, another swing state. Black registration is down 7% across the country.
The likeliest explanation is economic, as job losses and mortgage foreclosures lead to dislocation and migration to new areas. But it's also possible that many minorities are as disappointed as everyone else with the lackluster recovery. For all of Mr. Obama's attempts to portray Mitt Romney as out of touch, no one has suffered more in the Obama economy than minorities.
Which explains Mr. Holder's racial incitement strategy. If Mr. Obama is going to win those swing states again, he needs another burst of minority turnout. If hope won't get them to vote for Mr. Obama again, then how about fear?
Mr. Holder's Council of Black Churches address is merely the latest of his election-year moves that charge racial discrimination of one kind or another. These include voting-rights lawsuits to block voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina, intervention in immigration cases in Arizona, and various housing and lending discrimination suits. Whatever the legal merits of these cases, their sudden proliferation in an election year suggests a political motivation.
The courts will eventually expose much of this as meritless, but it's a shame the media won't call Mr. Holder on this strategy before the election. Imagine the uproar if a Republican AG pursued a similar strategy. It's worse than a shame that America's first black Attorney General is using his considerable power to inflame racial antagonism.
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