Don’t Mistake Tea Party Birth Pains for Death Throes

Star Parker  / Townhall Columnist

With, most recently, incumbent Republican Senators Pat Roberts in Kansas and Lamar Alexander in Tennessee winning their respective primaries, Tea Party challengers failed in all attempts in this primary cycle to defeat Senate incumbents.

Now we’re starting to hear eulogies about the Tea Party movement.
But let’s not confuse birth pains with death throes.

The Tea Party is on its way in, folks, not on its way out. Change is hard and doesn’t happen overnight. The undeniable facts are that America has huge problems, that these problems have been growing and festering for years while being ignored by our political class in Washington, and the American people are very unhappy with the state of affairs.

The failure of any Tea Party candidate does not negate these truths and what they point to – the profound need for change in America and for political leadership with the clarity and courage to make it happen.

Three of four Americans say they not satisfied with the direction of the country and the most recent Gallup approval rating for Congress stands at 15 percent.

Usually, despite disapproval of congress in general, most Americans approve of their own congressman. But a new Washington Post-ABC News poll reports, “A majority of people don’t like their own member of Congress. For the first time ever.”

For the first time since this poll has been conducted, more than half of Americans, 51 percent, express disapproval of their own congressman.

The Tea Party captures a groundswell of dissatisfaction with business-as-usual in how our country is being run. These emotions are as strong, and as legitimate, as ever.

Typical of deeply misguided analysis about what is happening is a column by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank where he writes, “The tea party movement was a setback because it elevated extreme individualism over collective responsibilities and because it tapped into nativism and further undermined trust in American institutions.”

The truth is opposite from every claim made here.

Tea Party sentiments point to troubles in America flowing from the erosion and undermining of American institutions. It is about restoring strength and viability to our institutions – certainly not undermining trust in them.

The most central of American institutions is our constitution. A priority of lawmakers and political leadership should be to work within its framework, not try to skirt around its edges.

But skirting the constitution defines our political leadership today.

Central to the Affordable Care Act is the provision that uninsured who do not purchase health insurance pay a fine. But the Wall Street Journal now reports that 90 percent of 30 million uninsured Americans will pay no fine in 2016 because of the pile of exemptions issued by the Obama administration.

The constitutionally defined job of the executive branch is to carry out the law, not rewrite it. It is not the Tea Party undermining America’s most fundamental institution, but our national leaders.

Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff recently wrote in the New York Times about “America’s Hidden Credit Card Bill.”

Government taxes citizens and promises future pension, health care, and other benefits in return.

Except the future costs to provide these benefits far exceed the taxes now being paid.

Kotlikoff calls this the “fiscal gap,” which is not formally reported anywhere. He estimates this gap today to be $210 trillion, which would require an immediate increase of 59 percent in tax revenue to cover it.

Did America wind up with 12 million illegals living here overnight? This happened over years.

America is sinking while our so-called political leadership is fiddling.

“Extreme individualism” is about feeding at the public trough indifferent to our ability to replenish it.

Exactly what the Tea Party is not about.

The movement for major change in America is not going away. Anyone who thinks the Tea Party is history has got to feel the same way about our country.
 

White House Fiction Department Calls Obamanomics a Success

Michael Schaus  / Townhall Columnist

 

Brace yourself… Skepticism, doubt and criticism of Obamanomics (all of which are, undoubtedly, based in racism) will be cast aside. 

Why? Because, according to the 20-something-year-old White House intern that is in charge of the official White House twitter account (also known as the White House fiction department), Obamanomics is a rousing success! 

 

I know, right? Pretty awesome statistic. (Gloss over the fact that the President is referring to private enterprise as “our businesses”.) But before you rush out to slap an Obama ‘16 sticker on your car (are those stickers available yet?), you may want a little bit of context for this stunning validation of Keynesian economics.

This “10 million new jobs” number starts to sound even more impressive when you ignore that job growth under Obama has been roughly half the average pace of the previous 10 recoveries in American history. So by ignoring the fact that, according to historical trends, we should have 7 million more jobs, things start to look pretty rosy… But wait, there’s more!

Real per capita GDP is up roughly 6 percent. Great news, right? I mean, it might be true that we’ve grown slower than historical trends by roughly $1.6 trillion, but c’mon: We should be thrilled by that “10 million new jobs” statistic, right?

Sure, you might be tempted to point out that 11.4 million people have dropped out of the labor force (meaning that over 92 million Americans are no longer working, or even looking for work); but that’s not really unprecedented. I mean, it happened in 1978…

Yeah, it might be true that the number of involuntary part time workers has increased to 7.5 million, according to the bureau of Labor Statistics, and real weekly earnings for full time workers are down by three percent… But c’mon: “10 million new jobs”!

If you still have doubts about the vibrancy of this recovery, it could be possible that you are somehow missing out on this Obamanomics success story in your every-day life. And, let’s face it, that’s pretty possible. Real hourly wages have seen virtually no noticeable increase; real median household income is down almost four percent; and basic life necessities have seen an average of 10 percent price inflation. (In fact, milk is 25 percent more expensive, meat prices are 27 percent higher, and gasoline has jumped in price roughly 40 percent since 2009.)

Or, maybe, you’re just not feeling the beneficial impact of those “10 million new jobs” because your home value has just barely increased above the rate of overall inflation. Or, maybe you’re one of the 2.9 newly impoverished individuals since the recession officially ended. (Are you one of the 11 million new food-stamp recipients?)

Well… Just hang in there. I mean, the economy has grown by roughly $1.1 trillion in the last five years. (Just ignore the fact that the Federal Reserve has injected more than $2 trillion into that same economy, and we’re still barely able to squeak out any consistent GDP growth.)

Even though you’re part of a smaller workforce, making less money, working fewer hours (with less cash in the bank), and the cost of living has gone up, at least we’ve created 10 million new jobs in the last 52 months! That might not even be enough to keep up with population growth, but at least it’s something, right?

“Obamanomics! A fiscal policy that could always be worse!” Are you a believer yet?
</SarcasmFont End>

Obama says it was not his decision to withdraw troops from Iraq

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shruggs

Isn’t this the same guy who did a victory dance after he inherited a stable Iraq (post-surge)? Isn’t this the same guy who refused to sign a status of forces agreement to keep Iraq stable? Isn’t this the same guy who cut and run and left our newly-built ally in the lurch?

Uh, no, it wasn’t him. Now he is blaming “the previous administration.”

Doesn’t this contemptible creep know about google search? What a spineless, feckless coward.
Flashback: December 2011



GUARDIAN: Barack Obama declares Iraq war a success

Barack Obama marked an end to a war he once described as “dumb” by declaring the conflict in Iraq a success and saying the last US troops will leave in the coming days with their “heads held high”.

Mission accomplished: Obama ending Iraq war | theGrio

“Obama says it was not his decision to withdraw troops from Iraq,” Robert Spencer,  Aug 9, 2014

Note how he says that if we still had troops on the ground in Iraq, they would increase his headaches, as they’d have to be reinforced. He doesn’t consider the possibility that if he had not left Iraq so precipitously and then boasted about doing so, the Islamic State might not exist today. This is not to say that the Iraq misadventure was any better conceived or better executed than the one in Afghanistan. It would never have been possible to establish a stable secular republic there. But there is no doubt that Obama’s weakness...

Read the whole entry »

Newsmax                                                                              Thousands of Yazidis Saved From Certain Death on Iraq Mountaintop

By Greg Richter

A rescue effort has freed 20,000 of the Yazidi refugees trapped on a mountain in northern Iraq and surrounded by ISIS forces, CNN reports,  but thousands remain trapped with limited food and water supplies.

As the U.S. military hit ISIS targets on Sunday, the Kurdish military was able to reach some the Yazidi Iraquis and help them board trucks. They were then taken to the Syrian border town of Hasaka, Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights spokesman Kamil Amin told CNN.

From Hasaka they were taken to the Iraqi border city of Dohuk, where they were given shelter.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 Yazidis remain on Mount Sinjar, where they fled after ISIS attacks last weekend. The U.S. military is airdropping food and water to the Yazidis after President Barack Obama announced the humanitarian effort late last week.

The United States also is using limited airstrikes against ISIS targets, which were getting closer to Irbil, the regional Kurdish capital where American advisers are based.

Kurdish forces also recaptured the towns of Mahmour and Gweyr, which had fallen into ISIS hands last week, but the Kurds lost ground in other areas, including the strategically important town of Jalawla, CNN reported.

Militants with ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, have claimed large portions of Iraq and Syria and have declared a caliphate, or religious state, in the region. They also have vowed to raise "the flag of Allah" over the White House.

Their brutality has included forced conversions to Islam and beheadings, and some reports claim ISIS members have buried Yazidi families alive.

The Yazidis follow an ancient monotheistic faith rooted in Zoroastrianism that has elements of Islam, Christianity, which it predates. Yazidis are targeted as devil worshipers by ISIS because they believe in seven angels, one named Shaitan, the Quran's name for Satan.

Iraq's Yazidis have been threatened with death at the hands of ISIS if they refuse to convert to Islam. ISIS also has forced thousands of Christians to flee, convert, or be killed.

The Regime Uses Words And Phrases Designed To Bamboozle Us All

by Bob Livingston / Personal Liberty Digest

THINKSTOCK

Most longtime readers know that I have often warned that our government has evolved into benevolent totalitarianism.

This is a gentle term for fascism. No, we don’t have the jack boots and the swastika. Our system is far advanced from that. Our fascism today is so advanced over Nazi Germany and fascist Italy of World War II that our system actually appears benevolent.

How could this happen? The answer is: reverse semantics. Every writer and every talking head in America refer to the U.S. as a democracy of free market capitalism and individual privacy and property rights. This is a big laugh to any sober, thinking person.

Well, the system and its paid politicians still repeat those high-sounding terms. They use the terms like “privacy” and “free market” as sedatives to the crowd. The terms “private” and “freedom” no longer mean what they once did. They are cruel deceptions that fool the mind yearning for human freedom.

The fact is that in America we have massive regulation and regimentation. But, of course, it’s “in the public interest.” It all spews forth out of “democracy” as if a biblical word and a holy sanction.

We live in a fiction of freedom perpetuated with semantic corruption that has evolved us into economic fascism and tyranny. Language and words that support a free society have been turned inside out.

With this propaganda of reverse semantics, opposition has been neutralized. True words, true meanings of patriotism and freedom have become the farce and illusion of fascism.

A “Patriot Act” is the cover for treason. “Free healthcare” is the cover for collectivism and forced medication. “Gay rights” is a cover for stolen liberty, increased State control and the creation of thought crimes. We have bought organized crime with a pretty face and twisted language.

And I say to you, millions of “educated” and vain intelligentsia, you bought the scam of American fascism too, the same as the millions of illiterates — if you weren’t busy perpetrating it.

Here are more examples of reverse semantics at work:

• Free press: Six mega-corporations control 90 percent of all that you read, watch or hear. This is down from more than 50 companies 30 years ago. The so-called “journalists” from those organizations operate in an echo chamber founded by a left-wing activist, Billy Wimsatt.  More than 1,000 of these front-line “journalists” and editorialists from such organizations as CNN, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Thomson Reuters, The Nation, Al Jazeera America, U.S. News & World Report, among others, along with members of progressive (i.e., socialist) think tanks and activist organizations like Center for Media and Democracy and the American Legislative, Issue Campaign Exchange and American Sustainable Business Council, are members of a secretive and closed Google group called Gamechanger Salon in which they meet online to exchange information, ideas and strategy to promote progressive ideas, policies and candidates.

Obama is upset that Benjamin Netanyahu’s poll numbers are so much higher than his

Bare Naked Islam

 

Barack Hussein Obama has opined in a New York Times interview that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is too popular with the Israeli public at the moment to make compromises with Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. ‘If he doesn’t feel some internal pressure, then it’s hard to see him…taking on the settler movement,’ Obama said.

INN  Asked whether he should be more vigorous in pressing Netanyahu, and the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbasto reach a land-for-peace deal, Obama said that this has to start with them. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s “poll numbers are a lot higher than mine” and “were greatly boosted by the war in Gaza,” Obama said. “And so if he doesn’t feel some internal pressure, then it’s hard to see him being able to make some very difficult compromises, including taking on the settler movement. That’s a tough thing to do. 

 

With respect to Abbas, it’s a slightly different problem. In some ways, Bibi is too strong [and] in some ways Abbasis too weak to bring them together and make the kinds of bold decisions that Sadat or Begin or Rabin were willing to make. It’s going to require leadership among both the Palestinians and the Israelis to look beyond tomorrow. … And that’s the hardest thing for politicians to do is to take the long view on things.”

 

Asked if he is worried about Israel’s “long term survivability,” Obama said: “It is amazing to see what Israel has become over the last several decades… Think about the dream of the early Zionists and to have scratched out of rock this incredibly vibrant, incredibly successful, wealthy and powerful country is a testament to the ingenuity, energy and vision of the Jewish people.

 

“And because Israel is so capable militarily, I don’t worry about Israel’s survival.”

 

See video here:http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/08/11/obama-is-upset-that-benjamin-netanyahus-poll-numbers-are-so-much-higher-than-his/

Op-ed: 
Israel's Allies and Enemies: The Truth
Exposed...Part 1 of 3
By: Diane Sori

"I will make you (Israel) a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:2,3)

"Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are - northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see, I give to you and your seed forever." (Genesis 13:14,15)

The true borders of Israel have been breached as per the word of God...the current borders of Israel mean NOTHING to those out to kill us all.

And so sides have been taken and alliances of sorts made, but while the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan appears on the surface to support Israel in its current battle with Hamas, all is NOT as it appears for below the surface facade lies Jordan's deep ties with Israel's enemies, and with a king who speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

"We condemn the Israeli aggression and we support the Egyptian cease-fire proposal," King Abdullah II said last week...seemingly taking both sides yet taking NO side (remember, Egypt's proposal favors Israel over Hamas)...in other words trying to appear neutral but being neutral in this case is in reality Jordan's king being what he really is...a wolf in sheep's clothing. And in this battle for Israel's very survival, you either stand with Israel or you stand with Israel's enemies, and Jordan's king is in fact Israel's enemy NO matter how the media tries to paint him as Israel's friend.

To understand this one must look at the modern history of Jordan starting with Israel's birth as a nation in 1948, and one must also look at who Hamas' friends and enemies are. It's easy to say who Hamas' friends are...as the battle in Gaza goes beyond the obvious battle of muslims versus Jews. Now with this battle...this proxy war...becoming a true ideological battle of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, and their backers Iran, Qatar and Turkey against Israel and the more moderate muslim nations of Egypt and Saudi Arabia...Jordan falls somewhere in between friend and foe with foe actually being their dominant role.

For example, the infamous oil rich nation of Qatar (who Obama made the keeper of the five terrorists he exchanged for one American traitor) outwardly funds Hamas. Giving $400 million to Hamas in 2012 alone, the Qataris do NOT hide the fact that they support and fund other radical islamist groups as well, including the Muslim Brotherhood under whose umbrella Hamas falls. And Turkey...a nation with deep philosophical ties to the Muslim Brotherhood yet a nation at odds with its desire to become part of the western world...has as its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads what in actuality is an islamic government, and who is a man that outwardly criticizes Israel's rightful military action in Gaza. And Iran...the very nation who vocally expresses its desire to wipe Israel off the map...while being muslim but NOT being an Arabic nation...is a nation once at odds with Hamas who did NOT share their support of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria...is a nation who Hamas has now made amends with and who has now pledged to rearm Hamas as their weapons...their rockets...run low.

But what of Jordan...a country who made peace with Israel in 1994. The Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty signed on October 26, 1994, guaranteed Jordan the restoration of its occupied land by defining it’s western borders, and assured it an equitable share of water from the Yarmouk and Jordan rivers. But this was a treaty signed by King Hussein only because he could NO longer afford to go to war against Israel. Remember, during the Six-Day, War Jordanian forces suffered a humiliating defeat after they attacked Israeli-held West Jerusalem. By the third day of the war, the IDF had completely forced the Jordanian and Iraqi armies...the Iraqis who had come to aid the Jordanians...out of the West Bank, and the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank, with its one million Palestinian population, came under Israeli military occupation. As a result 300,000 or so Palestinian refugees then fled to Jordan...a country who on the surface outwardly appears to support Israel but who we...my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner and friend Craig Andresen and myself...believe is using that support as a front to hide the truth about their deep ties and continuing support and tolerance of the Muslim Brotherhood and of Hamas itself.

The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological parent and monetary supporter of Hamas, is Jordan's largest political group, with Jordan's branch being founded in 1945. Loosely connected to its Egyptian counterpart, and supporting the Palestinian cause and rejecting Western influence on both its domestic and regional affairs, the Muslim Brotherhood...and now Hamas...has been allowed to operate to one degree or another by the Jordanian monarchy on a continuous basis. And the Muslim Brotherhood's political party...the Islamic Action Front...has the largest number of seats of any party in the Jordanian parliament, and uses to their advantage that most...6.4 million...of the roughly seven million people living in Jordan are of Palestinian origin...as in they or their parents were expelled or fled to Jordan in both the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel and in the '67 Six-Day War with Israel.

Tolerating their actions while other Arab countries such as Egypt ban and dissolve them (this past Saturday Egypt’s highest administrative court dissolved the political party of the previously banned Muslim Brotherhood and ordered its assets liquidated), Jordan's kings have accepted and even encouraged the Muslim Brotherhood’s presence within its country even if it meant just looking the other way to their 'questionable' dealings at times. In fact, in 2008, the Jordanian government banned any existing political or newly formed party unless it had five hundred members and branches in five of its counties. This allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to increase their stronghold throughout the country, and today the Muslim Brotherhood has a large following in Jordan's major cities, while Hamas has large grassroots support in the Palestinian refugee camps. And while both private and public institutions and businesses have raised millions of dollars for the Palestinians in Gaza, King Abdullah II has donated blood though Hamas to aid those wounded in Gaza, and in Jordanian mosques prayers have been said to commemorate those killed in Gaza by Israel.

Also remember, Jordan is the only Arab country to grant Palestinians the right to Jordanian citizenship (this followed Jordan's annexation and occupation of the West Bank)...making them by all legal accounts Jordanians...making this fact key to where any nation called 'Palestine' should be...even though many (1.4 million) currently continue to live in refugee camps scattered throughout the West Bank and the northern part of Jordan.

Now as far as Jordan's direct relation with Hamas is concerned, remember, Hamas was founded during the First Intifada (1987-1991)...the first uprising by the Palestinians against Israel after the '67 war that led to the transfer of the West Bank and Gaza to Israeli control. But when Israel captured these territories they were NOT Palestinian states, but was territory annexed by Jordan after the 1948 war and all residents there were granted Jordanian citizenship. Gaza was annexed by Egypt in 1949, although its residents held a refugee status in Egypt and when Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, Israel actually offered to return Gaza to Egypt but the Egyptians refused NOT wanting the added burden of dealing with the Palestinians. And so Jordan maintained its claim over the West Bank until 1988, when it formally withdrew its right over the territory after conceding to the Palestinian people’s demand for independence...which was voiced through the Intifada...which was voiced though the stones they threw.

So for Jordan siding with Hamas is personal...as in a personal vendetta against Israel for taking over territory that was once theirs...a personal vendetta that must be hush-hushed if King Abdullah II is to remain in power...and know that there are indeed factions within Jordan that most assuredly want him to go. More on that in part-3 of this investigative report.

So as the current situation escalates between Israel and Hamas...as Hamas breaks cease-fire after cease-fire...make notice of the fact that there has been nary a word said or action taken by Jordan in support of Israel. The very country whose outward appearance leads one to believe they side with Israel has in NO way stood up for Israel beyond the simple fact that Israel's Jordanian ambassador has NOT be expelled...yet that is.

And herein lies the truth of where Jordan's...of where King Abdullah II true allegiances lie...and that is indeed with the Palestinians...who in fact are Jordanians by all legal and ethnic accounts...and to whom Hamas controls. Simply, if one sides with the Palestinians...with Hamas...one by defacto cannot side with Israel NO matter how many times the media says they do. And that fact holds the key to how to solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Bottom line...King Abdullah II..the very man who supports the Palestinians 'right of return'...is the lynch pin that is stopping the creation of a Palestinian homeland because he will NOT give up any Jordanian land for the people his own father made citizens...a people who in fact hold 'yellow cards' and 'green cards'... residency permits allowing them to live and work in Israel while they maintain their Jordanian citizenship...is the king who will NOT give up any land to the very people who are actually Jordanian by blood.

And this is where today's political unrest stems from...in Abdullah's immense ego fueled on by his need for payback...while at the same time Jordan being where a true and lasting two-state solution could be found.

More on today's political landscape and how it affects the Israeli/Palestinian conflict will be explained tomorrow in Craig's Part 2 of our 3-part series, 'Israel's Allies and Enemies: The Truth Exposed.'