Biden, Being Biden, on Iraq

Biden being Biden of course is always a danger and he managed to annoy the Iraqis now. Maliki, the Iraqi PM, stated that Biden's criticism is "out of date."

Biden chided Baghdad for failing to settle disputes over the city of Kirkuk and to enact a law dividing oil revenue, among other issues.

Maliki fired back.

"I believe talk about applying pressure on the Iraqi government or taking hard measures against it no longer works."

He added: "Such speech is out of date, because the government of Iraq knows its responsibilities and acts accordingly in a strong way."

"It was we who launched national reconciliation," he said.

Biden has had a prickly relationship with Iraqi leaders since 2006 when, as head of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he proposed dividing Iraq into self-governing Sunni Arab, Shi'ite and Kurdish regions.

Iraqi leaders were furious at that proposal, known as the "Biden plan," which the Senate backed in 2007 but which has since quietly, and rightfully been mothballed.

Would You Like a Little Socialized Medicine with that Pork Stimulus America?

The new pork bill includes the development of a new agency to enable the government to "guide" physicians in their decision-making process. I hope no one was expecting to have Grandma or Grandpa around longer than the Federal Government approves of though.

This morning, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter--one of three turncoat Republicans--made an appearance on Fox News Channel during which a discussion with network anchor Megyn Kelly. He backpedaled as much as possible, even admitting the bill is a "rush to judgment," he lamented the possible "harmful effects" of the provision, and he called the legislation a "bitter pill to swallow." He noted the bill included poor features that need to be "clarified." Yet, he already committed to the bill so his goose is cooked. Oh, and by the way, so are Keystoners and the Americans.

Several of the provisions in the boondoggle arose from disgraced tax evader Tom Daschle. Moreover, a 9 February 2009 Bloomberg piece effectively dissected the porkulus maximus:

New Penalties

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time.”

Elderly Hardest Hit

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.

In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.

Hidden Provisions

If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.

The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).

Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”

Euthanasia is here.

Obama No-Show

Obama is handling the first natural disaster of his presidency--an ice storm that has claimed the lives of at least 59 people--from the White House, and so far has not visited the affected region.

Obama is disengaged and unemotional and his response to disaster is tepid.

Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Nancy Ward did not arrive in Kentucky until Feb. 4 – 10 days after the Jan. 26 storm struck.

In a campaign speech in New Orleans on Feb. 7, 2008, then-candidate Obama promised not to repeat the George Bush administration’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina.

“Across the city, we see the evidence that George Bush’s promises were empty,” Obama said.

“If catastrophe comes,” Obama said, “the American people must be able to call on a competent government. When I am president, the days of dysfunction and cronyism in Washington will be over.”

Bush was harshly criticized in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on the Louisiana coast on Aug. 29, 2005, including his decision to fly over the devastated region two days later on Aug. 31.

Obama is a no-show.

Netanyahu Warns Obama

Netanyahu warns Obama although I thought this was the guy who was going to get the U.S. respected again. Netanyahu, even before he may be Israel’s next prime minister, is sending a message to Obama that he won’t be pushed around.

Netanyahu has a different outlook on the Muslim world than Obama does.

If Netanyahu has a solid right-wing majority, there are going to be major disagreements.

Netanyahu -- popularly known by his nickname, Bibi -- was born in Tel Aviv and attended high school in suburban Philadelphia where his father, a historian, went to teach. After serving in the Israeli army as a commando, Netanyahu returned to the U.S. to study management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Obama Be Thy Name

In the more Kool-aid to drink department come the signs announcing the new Messiah.

Former Commanding Officer of U.S.S Cole

The former commanding officer of the USS Cole, retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold, "expressed disappointment" when he first learned of the decision to drop the charges and remained skeptical, faulting Obama for not consulting the families ahead of time.

Obama Gerrymander Attempt

According to law, the Commerce Department normally oversees the U.S. Census Bureau, but now the Obama administration is wresting control to the White House which seems to be an attempt to manipulate the redistricting of congressional seats.

The decennial census, taken every 10 years, generates maps and numbers then used to draw congressional districts. Ideally the census director conducts the count in a non-partisan manner under the authority granted by U.S. code to the secretary of Commerce.

Thomas Jefferson in 1802

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

Trouble in Paradise

Joe upstages Hussein. At the oath ceremony Biden knows Hussein is upset and he turns his back on him. Hussein is shocked and he can not hide his emotion. At least for once he seems engaged: anger, frustration, sadness, and at the end his day is ruined. Someone with a big ego is raining on his parade.

Obama's Muslim Agenda

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, welcomed Obama’s use of a quote from Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in his remarks at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast.

Obama quoted the prophetic tradition, or “hadith,” which states: “None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself. There is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being.”

This taqiyya implies that, although there is no religion whose central tenet is hate, there is no religion that teaches that the most important thing one must do in this world is hate someone or something else. Islam harshly considers others. The Qur’an intends ultimately that believers wage war against and kill or subjugate others. It states:

“O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.” — Qur’an 5:51

“O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him).” — Qur’an 9:123

“Those who reject (Truth), among the People of the Book and among the Polytheists, will be in Hell-Fire, to dwell therein (for aye). They are the worst of creatures.” — Qur’an 98:6

“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” — Qur’an 9:29

No one can change the words: they are pointed, and scary during a conflict.

Testy Press Testing Administration

The press is growing restless with the administration's obfuscation. The tone is getting more tense. Jake Tapper as a reporter is simply asking questions that Robert Gibbs is demonstrating that he is ill-equipped to handle at today's briefing.

Obama Is "AWOL"

Senator Graham states that Obama is "AWOL." He is against the process and how the bill is not receiving input.

"I Voted For Obama, I Think I Made The Wrong Decision"

Diane McDaniels lost her son James in the terrorist bombing of the U.S.S Cole in October 2000. 17 American sailors died in that terrorist attack. Ms. McDaniels refused an invitation to the White House to meet with President Obama today.

Obama requested that the charges against terrorist suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, being held in Guantánamo, be dropped. Judge Susan J. Crawford followed Obama's wishes.

Obama Invites Palestinians to the U.S.: Allocates $20.3 Million for Move

On the horn first to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas?

Apparently this was the first call to a world leader that Obama made in office.

“The spokesman for President Abbas revealed that Mr. Obama had told the Palestinian leader that their conversation was his first with a foreign statesman since taking office.” (TimesOnLine, Jan. 22, 2009).

Seven days later on 27 January, Obama signed Presidential Determination No. 2009-15, which allocates $20.3 million for Palestinian migration and refugee assistance.

Today a memo sent by Obama to Secretary of State Clinton notes the presidential determination which covers the “Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related to Gaza.”

“By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the “Act”), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 2 (c) (1) of the Act, that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza. (Italics CFP’s).

There is no mention of security measures to keep Hamas terrorists from gaining free access into the U.S.

Stimulus "Considerable Uncertainty"

The largest selling point to Obama’s boondoggle is the claim that it will create or save at least 3 million jobs. But the source for that number is a report produced by Obama’s top economic adviser who repeatedly stated that the jobs estimate carried “considerable uncertainty.”

The estimate for the number of jobs the stimulus would create, the report said, is based on the “rule of thumb that a 1% increase in GDP (gross domestic product) corresponds to an increase in employment of approximately 1 million jobs or about three-quarters of a percent.”

The report, published on Jan. 10, was co-authored by Christina Romer, who was then the nominee to become chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and Jared Bernstein, who then worked in the office of the vice president-elect. On Jan. 28, the Senate confirmed Romer as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and Bernstein now serves as an economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

Jefferson Opposes Deficit Spending

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.

Thomas Jefferson

Russia Against Bail-Out

Following several days of protests the Russian government has chosen a tack against a bail-out.

Moscow plans huge budget cuts in an attempt to limit its fiscal deficit-–rejecting pressure to follow the U.S. to try to stimulate the economy with a big boost in public borrowing.

The proposals suggest that Moscow is losing hope it can stave off the crisis with public spending and is instead battening down the hatches for what might be a prolonged recession.

The plans also indicate that the authorities are not giving in to a quick-fix response and are ready to resist pressure.

Obama Apology to Muslims

I had hoped that this speech was just a nightmare of the psychotic lunatic fringe on the right but it looks like the Obama speech in a Muslim country may happen after all. Its appalling, America is down on its knees apologizing for supposed sins and mistakes of the past. Its pathetic.

Iraqi Security Progress

Ordinarily, at this time of month, I post the Iraqi Order of Battle. However, this graphic time line seems to illustrate better how the Iraqis have been rising to the challenge of their own security.

Obama Orders Charges Dropped Against Terrorist

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri got what he wished for, the charges against him were dropped pending the review ordered by Obama. Although he should remain incarcerated, and charges may be filed subsequently, the message to the world is clear. Americans are weak and do not even prosecute terrorists. Al-Nashiri is the alleged "mastermind" behind the deaths of 17 U.S. sailors on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000.

Al-Nashiri was scheduled to go to trial on Monday. Prosecutors had asked for a continuance in the trial but Judge James Pohl had denied the request.

Pohl found the government's "argument for continuances were unpersuasive," according to a copy of his opinion. Pohl noted there had been no previous requests for a delay, and that the public's interest in a speedy trial would be harmed by further delay.

However, the convening authority for the Military Commission, Susan Crawford, withdrew the charges on her own Thursday night.