“US does not object” to Lebanese government that includes Hizballah

Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

No surprise here. This is consistent with Obama’s foreign policy throughout his presidency. “Hook, line, and sinker,” by Tony Badran for Now, January 23:

The Obama administration finally got what it wanted as the Geneva II conference kicked off yesterday with the stated purpose of joining together the Assad regime and the opposition in a transitional government. At the same time, another farcical production is underway in Beirut, as efforts continue to form a unity government including Hezbollah and the March 14 bloc. As with its Syrian iteration, the formation of such a Lebanese government appears to have US backing. Sensing a convergence with American preferences, Hezbollah is playing up to Washington, seeking to leverage the US position to its advantage.

Renewed talk of a national unity government took many in Beirut by surprise, especially when former Prime Minister Saad Hariri appeared open to the idea. So far it remains unclear what motivated Hariri’s decision, but what is curious is that a potential partnership with Hezbollah in government looks to be receiving approval from Washington.

Over the past several weeks, the pro-Hezbollah media has published alleged quotes by David Hale, US ambassador to Lebanon, as well as by another unnamed US official weighing in on the question of forming a unity government. Last December, as there was talk of President Suleiman forming a neutral government, the pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar newspaper published what it claimed was Ambassador Hale’s counsel on the matter to Suleiman’s advisor. According to Al-Akhbar, Hale allegedly expressed “America’s understanding of Saudi Arabia’s rejection of Hezbollah’s participation in any government. However, America fears the reaction of Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran to such a step. For these reactions could lead to a total loss of stability, and maybe worse, to total Hezbollah and Syrian control over Lebanon.” Hale, Al-Akhbar proceeded to say, then counseled Suleiman’s advisor to support the efforts of Walid Jumblatt, who was working for a unity government with Hezbollah.

Then earlier this month, the pro-Hezbollah newspaper As-Safir quoted another unnamed US official making that point more explicitly. “If the obligatory gateway to forming a new government in Lebanon is partnership with Hezbollah, then the US does not object, especially since the reality and composition of Lebanon attest without a doubt that there is no possibility to form a government without Hezbollah.”

It’s tempting to dismiss these quotes as the pro-Hezbollah media’s self-serving propaganda, even if the US embassy has not yet publicly denied them. At the same time, however, they reveal how US policy in the region is allowing Iran and its assets to leverage Washington’s posture to press their advantage. The US considers Sunni Islamist groups to be the principal threat to stability in the region. The White House approach is to work with functioning governments to prevent extremists from emerging or growing.

Accordingly, Tehran and its allies from Baghdad to Beirut have zeroed in on a single message, which they understand resonates well in Washington: fighting terrorism. Iran’s regional assets understand that this brings the US onside to undercut their domestic, Sunni, adversaries….

The US Chamber of Commerce Versus America

Michelle Malkin  / Townhall Columnist

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a politically entrenched synod of special interests. These fat cats do not represent the best interests of American entrepreneurs, American workers, American parents and students, or Americans of any race, class or age who believe in low taxes and limited government. The chamber's business is the big business of the Beltway, not the business of mainstream America.

If you are a business owner who believes your country should strictly and consistently enforce its borders and deport illegal immigrants who violate the terms of their visas, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't represent you.

If you are a worker who believes the feds should punish illegal aliens who use fake documents to obtain jobs instead of rewarding them with "legal status," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't champion you.

If you are a parent or educator who opposes top-down federal education schemes such as Common Core that undermine local control, dumb down rigorous curricula and threaten family privacy while enriching big business and lobbying groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't speak for you.

If you are a taxpayer who has had enough of crony capitalism and publicly funded bailouts of failing corporations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't work for you.

Last year, the chamber poured more than $52 million into K Street lobbying efforts on behalf of illegal alien amnesty, Fed Ed Common Core programs and increased federal spending. This year, chamber bigwigs are paving the perilous pathway to GOP capitulation. The left hardly needs to lift a finger against tea party candidates and activists who are bravely challenging the big government status quo. The chamber has already volunteered to spend $50 million subsidizing the Republican incumbency protection racket and attacking anti-establishment conservatives.

Allow me to say, "I told you so." In 2010, when President Barack Obama hypocritically attacked the chamber for accepting "foreign donations" just before the midterm elections, many on the right rushed to the group's side. But as I warned then, the purported enemy of my enemy is ... sometimes my worst enemy. Barely three months after their Kabuki campaign fight, Obama and the chamber had already kissed and made up.

The chamber joined hands with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations on a joint campaign to support Obama's increased government infrastructure and spending proposals, stuffed with Big Labor payoffs.

The chamber is one of the staunchest promoters of mass illegal immigration, and joined with the AFL-CIO and American Civil Liberties Union to oppose immigration enforcement measures.

The chamber opposed E-verify and sued Arizona over its employer sanctions law.

The chamber supported a pro-Obamacare, pro-TARP, pro-stimulus, pro-amnesty Democrat in Arizona over his free-market GOP challenger.

The chamber supported the George W. Bush/Obama TARP, the Bush/Obama auto bailout and the billion-dollar, pork-stuffed stimulus.

This isn't about letting the best ideas and businesses thrive. It's about picking winners and losers. It's about "managing" competition and engineering political outcomes under the guise of stimulating the economy and supporting "commerce." What's in it for the statist businesses that go along for the ride with Obama and his team of corruptocrats? Like they say in the Windy City: It's all about the boodle -- publicly subsidized payoffs meted out to the corruptocrats' friends and special interests.

In the case of Common Core, the chamber has made common cause with the left-wing, corporate-bashing Center for American Progress in a new Baptists and Bootleggers coalition. They are seemingly strange bedfellows who both profit from increased federal government intervention. For giant corporate publishers, such as Pearson and other big-business ventures backed by the chamber, it's all about cashing in on the public schools' Common Core captive guinea pigs in testing, teaching, data collection and data analysis.

For big government advocacy groups, such as CAP, it's all about diminishing state, local and parental control over local education and curricular decisions; expanding Washington's regulatory reach into the classroom; and ensuring the perpetuation of the Fed Ed bureaucracy.

When businesses get in the government handout line, it's not a "public-private partnership." It's corporate welfare. Venture socialism. Whatever you call it, it stinks as much under Democrat administrations as it does under Republican ones.

Always beware of Washington business-boosters wearing false free-market facades.

Drilling More Holes in Obamacare’s Sinking Ship

Daniel J. Mitchell / Townhall Columnist

The President’s main “accomplishment” has been such a disaster that I wonder whether it’s time to feel sorry for Obama.

And if you looked in the dictionary for a definition of Schadenfreude, you might find a picture of me reading a story exposing more evidence that Obamacare isn’t working.

Heck, I’ve even shared Hitler parody videos (two of them!) mocking the law.

But to paraphrase Mae West, there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing.

Today, we’re going to look at the opinions of two experts, both of whom expect further bad news for Obamacare.

Here’s some of what Michael Tanner, my Cato colleague, wrote for the New York Post.

…“the State of ObamaCare” is growing ever more troubled. For starters, it’s falling far short of the goal of universal coverage. …just 1.5 million have actually completed the ObamaCare checkout, including payment. Worse, surveys indicate that less than a third of those enrolling were previously uninsured. …Even using the most optimistic reading of these figures, fewer than 11 percent of uninsured Americans have gotten coverage because of the ObamaCare law; most likely, fewer. This is what we’re getting for the $2.7 trillion that ObamaCare will cost over the next 10 years? Plus, we should subtract the roughly 500,000 Americans who, by the White House’s own count, have lost insurance because of ObamaCare.

And Mike expects things will get worse over time.

…that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because those policy-killing rules will hit another part of the market over the course of this year — namely, the “small group” market, where employers now buy health policies that cover about 78 million Americans. Many of those with cancelled plans will ultimately end up with similar, if more expensive, employment-based policies, but some are likely to simply wind up uninsured. …Then there’s the bad news about who is enrolling in ObamaCare plans — or rather, who isn’t: not enough of the young and healthy folks that the program needs to overpay for insurance so as to offset the costs of covering older and sicker people. …Oh, and a Reuters survey finds that new enrollees are also less healthy than ObamaCare’s designers hoped, too. Humana, one of the nation’s largest insurers, reports that so far enrollment in its exchange-based plans has been far “more adverse than previously expected.”

Megan McArdle of Bloomberg is similarly unimpressed with how Obamacare has developed.

Enrollment is below expectations: According to the data we have so far, more than half of the much-touted Medicaid expansion came from people who were already eligible before the health-care law passed, and this weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that the overwhelming majority of people buying insurance through the exchanges seem to be folks who already had insurance. Coverage is less generous than many people expected, with narrower provider networks and higher deductibles. The promised $2,500 that the average family was told they could save on premiums has predictably failed to materialize. And of course, we now know that if you like your doctor and plan, there is no reason to think you can keep them.

But it’s going to get worse, she writes.

The Barack Obama administration is in emergency mode, pasting over political problems with administrative fixes of dubious legality, just to ensure the law’s bare survival — which is now their incredibly low bar for “success.” Although the fixes may solve the short-term political problems, however, they destabilize the markets, which also need to work to ensure the law’s survival. The president is destroying his own law in order to save it.

It's time to take our country back!

Op-ed:
Verification needed instead of thanks given
By: Diane Sori

Fact: Barack HUSSEIN Obama has said al-Qaeda has been “decimated,” and “on the path to defeat” at least 32 times since the attack in Benghazi.*

Oh the hypocrisy of it all for while Obama and John 'Swiftboat' Kerry were busy twisting Israel's arm to free terrorists so the Palestinian Authority...terrorists in their own right... would be placated (bribed actually) to stay at the negotiation table, Israel was doing what they do best...breaking up terrorist plots...and this latest one was a plot targeting the US embassy in Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Convention Center, and a bus line that connects Jerusalem with a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

And this attack was conceived and orchestrated by none other than the Obama claimed "decimated" terror group...al-Qaeda...and Israel just saved Obama's butt from being called to task for yet another attack on a US Embassy.

And this thwarted attack was different than other al-Qaeda attacks as this was the first time they planned an attack on Israeli soil proper, but thankfully those involved were caught before their plans could be carried out. And as Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency lifts an in-place gag order, many of the specifics of the planned attack that do NOT jeopardize Israeli national security are coming to light. And this is what we know so far...the plot was conceived by the infamous (nowhere near "decimated") terrorist group al-Qaeda...in fact it was conceived by none other than al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri himself...the three terrorists (two from East Jerusalem and one a Palestinian from Gaza) caught and arrested were recruited through....are you ready for this...Facebook...and were given their 'marching orders' via Skype by an al-Qaeda operative named Ariv Sham, who was based in the Gaza Strip.

“The Gaza Strip has become a terror base for al-Qaida, while in the West Bank the group’s activities are still in early phases and can be stopped,” said a Shin Bet official...to which I say they can only be stopped if this farce of so-called peace talks are put to rest that is.

According to what's being released, the plot involved sending three suicide bombers to the Jerusalem Convention Center, then sending a truck bomb and two suicide bombers to the U.S. Embassy. And isn't it odd that none of this...NOT one bit of it...was picked up by our intelligence agencies even with some of the group ready to go to Syria to put together final preparations for the attacks nor did we pick it up even after the attack was thwarted, as this attack was to have taken place back in December.

Probably smart of BiBi NOT to give anything away when you think about it what with Obama still having the knife dug deep into Israel's back.

But when Obama was finally informed about the foiled attack, instead of outwardly thanking Israel for potentially saving American lives, he had the State Department issue a statement that did NOT confirm Israel’s claims but one that said that it was "just beginning efforts to understand the alleged plot" and referred questions to Israeli authorities.

"Our folks are still looking at it," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said at a hastily arranged press briefing. "I'll let the Israelis speak for what evidence they have...I don't have reason to believe it’s not true; I just don’t have independent verification.”

Oh please....and what constitutes 'independent verification' pray tell...Israel just saved the lives of Americans who might have become more notches on al-Qaeda's belt, but I guess to Barack HUSSEIN Obama if Americans had been killed they would have just been more 'bumps in the road.'

al-Qaeda...the anything but Obama said "on the path to defeat" terror group is determined to wreck havoc and carnage on a worldwide scale. And in these five years since Barack HUSSEIN Obama became America's president (gag) they have been fueled on and encouraged by his total ineptitude in office, his leading from behind (when and if he leads at all), his appeasement of anything his muslim brethren do (as in where is his outrage over the slaughter of Christians throughout the Middle East and North Africa), his moral weakness of character, and his outright refusal to take a stand against islam itself...the once and forever true enemy of America.

NO...al-Qaeda is thriving because of Obama NOT in spite of Obama.

And just as Hillary seemed to have wiped her hands of Benghazi...or so she thinks...Obama is wiping his hands in regards to the threats Israel...and Americans living and working in Israel...currently face because of him. To Obama any Americans killed in Israel at the hands of al-Qaeda...just like the four killed in Benghazi...or killed at the hands of the Palestinians for that matter...will be carefully hidden amongst a LIE concocted to completely dismiss it....a LIE whose groundwork will probably be laid by Valerie Jarrett...the one truly pulling Obama's strings. Valerie Jarrett...the very one those on the left look to to make sure that Israel NEVER is able to declare victory over al-Qaeda or over the Palestinian terrorists...the one the left looks to to make sure that Israel loses even more land to those whose ultimate goal is to wipe them off the map.

Barack HUSSEIN Obama should be praising Israel...should be thanking Israel...for doing their due diligence in saving American lives. In fact he should be sending our intelligence agencies over there to learn how Israel thwarted what we didn't. And just maybe Obama should now order the NSA to stop spying on 'We the People' and pay attention to and focus on the communications of al-Qaeda and other terror groups...the true danger to both Americans abroad and to all here at home.

But then again in doing that Obama would be going against those to whom his true allegiance lies...and that is the saddest thing of all...besides BiBi NOT being our president that is.

* (http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-touts-al-qaeda-s-demise-32-times-benghazi-attack-0)