Curbing Obama Power Grabs

Paul Driessen / Townhall Columnist

You’ve got to admire the sheer audacity: Democratic Senator Mark Begich telling Alaska voters that he stood up to President Obama and fought for oil drilling and jobs in his state. Maybe he had a few chats.

But he certainly knew his concerns and opinions meant nothing, changed nothing, accomplished nothing. And then he voted 97% of the time with Mr. Obama and Senate Majority Dictator Harry Reid

Reid has kept over 300 bills bottled up, squelched almost all proffered Republican amendments on anything that did move, and used the “nuclear option” to end the longstanding 60-vote rule and wipe out any chance that Republicans could block Obama nominees or prevent the President from packing the vital DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The three new liberal judges on that court can now be counted on to defer to Mr. Obama’s policies and “agency discretion” on future arrogations of power.

Ditto for Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. She bellyached from time to time about offshore drilling and the Keystone XL pipeline. But she also voted with Obama, Reid and their agenda 97% of the time, on everything from ObamaCare to Dodd-Frank to packing the DC Court.

The tally for other Democratic Senators running for reelection is revealing: Hagan (NC) 96% for the Obama agenda, policies and fiats … Merkley (OR) 96% … Pryor (AR) 90% … Shaheen (NH) 99% … Udall (CO) 99% … Warner (VA) 97%

Now they’re telling their constituents, next year will be different. Send me back to Washington, and next year I will stand up to Obama and support letting people keep their doctors and insurance, allowing more domestic drilling and pipelines, promoting economic recovery and fiscal responsibility, curbing the fraud and abuses at the Environmental Protection Agency, tackling Ebola and going after Islamic terrorists.

The IRS, Benghazi, Ebola and Middle East screw-ups and cover-ups seem to have set the tone. These Senators seem willing to say almost anything to get them past the elections. However, their votes have had real consequences for millions of Americans, especially the poor, minority, elderly and working classes they profess to care so much about. They should not escape accountability so easily.

A recent political ad by black Democrat-turned-Republican Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory lays it on the line. “While you dig through the couch looking for gas money,” Guillory says, Mary Landrieu “flies around in private jets funded by taxpayer dollars.” To her, “you are just a vote,” every six years.

Nor do liberal stereotypes fit. The four Democratic House and Senate candidates in Northern Virginia are all well-off, middle-age white guys. Republican candidates include one middle-age white dude, plus two working moms and a black man – who’s also Jewish and an 8-year Marine Corps veteran.

Few of us have any personal animosity toward any of these Democrat Senators. They’re all amiable people. But as President Obama himself says, “my policies are on the ballot, every single one of them.” Those policies have been dragging this country down, and as long as Harry Reid maintains his iron grip on the Senate, there can be no checks and balances or budgetary constraints on the Obama policies.

Troops Fight Obama’s Politically Correct War On Ebola

Katie Kieffer / Townhall Columnist

 

Two lawyers fight Ebola in the U.S. while our troops are forced to combat Ebola in West Africa. Americans may contract Ebola but rest assured: no one will sue the federal government.

Your president, a former constitutional law professor, is violating our brave troops’ natural rights in the name of political correctness. Bypassing Congress, Obama has ordered up to 4,000 troops to fight Ebola in West Africa and has named lawyer Ron Klain “Ebola Czar.”

I realize Obama may admire Russia, given his whispered exchange with outgoing president Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that was transmitted over a hot microphone in March of 2012: "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility." Alas, you and I aren’t Russians and our ancestors did not fight the Revolutionary War so that America could become the Land of the Czars.

Every human has a natural right to his or her own body, their first piece of private property, and the federal government’s role is to help protect your natural rights—not endanger them. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution acknowledges this natural right.

It’s infuriating that a man who has never served a day in his life in the military is abusing his executive privilege to compel our brave troops—including many Millennials of my generation—to risk their bodily health fighting Ebola in West Africa.

The president’s role is to keep Americans safe and defend our natural rights. If he’s able to keep Americans safe while also helping foreign countries, fine. But Obama’s current War on Ebola is jeopardizing American health. Below, I outline the unseen risks of sending U.S. troops to West Africa and offer a better solution:

Risks to troops and their families:

Pentagon officials boast of protocols to protect our troops and their families when they return from West Africa. However, the Pentagon’s protocols are subjective and porous—leaving too much up to the personal discretion of military commanders who lack medical experience.

Thousands of troops are expected to return home in late November or early December, after building 17 Ebola-treatment units. Given that Thomas Eric Duncan did not exhibit any symptoms of Ebola, including a fever, until a week after he arrived in the U.S. from Liberia—every single U.S. service member should be quarantined for 21 days to ensure their own and the public’s safety.

However, Stars and Stripes reported last week that the Pentagon is leaving quarantines up to the discretion of commanders and is only requiring every service member to undergo two comprehensive tests for symptoms prior to returning to their families and day jobs in the U.S. And, only one of these tests will be conducted by medical professionals.

Democrats in About-Face, Now Calling for Ebola Travel Bans

By Todd Beamon / NEWSMAX

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Democrats are now sounding more like Republicans on the Ebola crisis, with candidates in critical races calling this week for travel bans to avoid being tied to yet another Obama administration debacle as Election Day nears.

"It is just common sense that we need a travel ban from West Africa," Democratic pollster and analyst Doug Schoen told Newsmax on Saturday. "And Democrats have realized that in tight Senate races that hang in the balance it is common sense, not partisanship, that gives them the best chance of getting elected."

This is particularly acute "in a year where the president's job approval is at or below 40 percent in swing states," Schoen said.

Perhaps the biggest flip-flop came on Friday, when North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan called for a West African ban — two days after dismissing it as a way to contain the deadly disease.

"I have said for weeks that travel restrictions should be one part of a broad strategy to prevent Ebola from spreading in the U.S. and fighting it in Africa," Hagan said in a statement on Friday. "I am calling on the administration to temporarily ban the travel of non-U.S. citizens from the affected countries in West Africa.

"Although stopping the spread of this virus overseas will require a large, coordinated effort with the international community, a temporary travel ban is a prudent step the President can take to protect the American people, and I believe he should do so immediately," Hagan said.

But on Wednesday, Hagan said on a campaign stop in Charlotte that a West African travel ban was "not going to help solve this problem. That's not going to contain the epidemic that we see happening in Africa."

She also heaped praise on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, saying that they were "certainly giving us great guidance, but we've got to make sure the implementation is perfect."

Both organizations have come under harsh attack by Republicans for missteps in the Ebola crisis — and reports surfaced this week that poor communication and a leadership vacuum plagued the WHO's response to the outbreak in West Africa.

"When they talk about these breaches, we are going to learn from these mistakes," Hagan said on Wednesday. "These are life crises, mistakes that we cannot make."

Hagan's Republican opponent, North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis, immediately jumped on Hagan's turnabout on Friday, saying on Twitter: "When I came out strongly for an Ebola travel ban, Sen. Hagan said it wouldn't help. Now she agrees with me?"

Tillis first called for the travel ban on Oct. 2, The Weekly Standard reports.

Two Democrats also running in heated contests, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, who is trailing GOP Rep. Tom Cotton, and Georgia nonprofit executive Michelle Nunn, who is squaring off against Republican businessman David Perdue, have called for travel bans.

Both Republicans called for restrictions shortly after news reports surfaced that Thomas Eric Duncan had become the first U.S. Ebola patient. Duncan, 42, died on Oct. 8 in a Dallas hospital from the disease.

Islamic Burial Rituals Blamed For Rapid Spread Of Ebola

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

Americans who have been paying attention are well aware of the Islamic burial ritual. Obama made sure our troops gave Osama bin Laden the Islamic ritual burial — our soldiers had to wash and prepare OBL’s body in just this fashion.

This story is disturbing enough on its face, but the silence by the enemedia in reporting this story speaks to the ungodly lengths to protect and defend this brutal and extreme ideology.

“Islamic Burial Rituals Blamed For Spread Of Ebola,” By Paul Sperry, International Business Times, October 16, 2014 (thanks to all who sent this in)

Islam isn’t just at the heart of the terror threat posed by the Islamic State. The religion is also contributing to the other major crisis plaguing the...

Read the whole entry »

     

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U.S. humanitarian aid going to the Islamic State

Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

Does Obama not know this? Or does he just not care? Certainly the latter would be in line with his foreign policy, which has been consistent since the day he took office.

“U.S. Humanitarian Aid Going to ISIS,” by Jamie Dettmer, The Daily Beast, October 19, 2014:

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — While U.S. warplanes strike at the militants of the so-called Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq, truckloads of U.S. and Western aid has been flowing into territory controlled by the jihadists, assisting them to build their terror-inspiring “Caliphate.”

The aid—mainly food and medical equipment—is meant for Syrians displaced from their hometowns, and for hungry civilians. It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, European donors, and the United Nations. Whether it continues is now the subject of anguished debate among officials in Washington and European. The fear is that stopping aid would hurt innocent civilians and would be used for propaganda purposes by the militants, who would likely blame the West for added hardship.

The Bible says if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him something to drink—doing so will “heap burning coals” of shame on his head. But there is no evidence that the militants of the Islamic State, widely known as ISIS or ISIL, feel any sense of disgrace or indignity (and certainly not gratitude) receiving charity from their foes.

Quite the reverse, the aid convoys have to pay off ISIS emirs (leaders) for the convoys to enter the eastern Syrian extremist strongholds of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, providing yet another income stream for ISIS militants, who are funding themselves from oil smuggling, extortion and the sale of whatever they can loot, including rare antiquities from museums and archaeological sites.

“The convoys have to be approved by ISIS and you have to pay them: the bribes are disguised and itemized as transportation costs,” says an aid coordinator who spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition he not be identified in this article. The kickbacks are either paid by foreign or local non-governmental organizations tasked with distributing the aid, or by the Turkish or Syrian transportation companies contracted to deliver it.

And there are fears the aid itself isn’t carefully monitored enough, with some sold off on the black market or used by ISIS to win hearts and minds by feeding its fighters and its subjects. At a minimum the aid means ISIS doesn’t have to divert cash from its war budget to help feed the local population or the displaced persons, allowing it to focus its resources exclusively on fighters and war making, say critics of the aid….

Op-ed: 
Aiding and Abetting...and A Virus Called Ebola
By: Diane Sori

Oh dear...Barack HUSSEIN Obama...the very man who recently said his job includes protecting Africa and Africans...has now decided...without Congressional approval I might add...to admit Ebola-infected persons who are NOT American citizens into our country for high tech medical care and treatment. And guess who gets to foot the bill for this...'We the People' and our taxpayer dollars do.

Guess what Obama...our taxpayer dollars are NOT supposed to be used to bring those with a deadly disease into this country...period.

Planning to initiate what he calls "special waivers" to bypass existing laws and regulations that strictly prohibit the admission of non-citizens with a communicable disease...any communicable disease...into our country...Obama is going against his very oath of office where he swore to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the American people.

And if that wasn't bad enough we now have yet another of Obama's infamous and totally useless czars lording over us. Ron Klain, an attorney, party loyalist, and political crony of his...is a man who is NEITHER an infectious disease specialist nor a public health specialist...yet he is the very one Obama just appointed as his administration’s "Ebola response coordinator"...just fancy words for czar. And there's even more ludicrousness to this appointment as in guess who Klain will report to...NONE other than the 'wicked witch' of the Sunday morning talk show circuit...former U.N. ambassador, current National Security Advisor, and the very one who said Army deserter and Taliban 'wanna be' Bowe Bergdahl served with honor and distinction....you got it...Susan 'The Video Caused Benghazi' Rice.

Reporting also to Lisa Monoco of Homeland Security on the way up the food chain to answering to Obama himself, Klain has NO credentials whatsoever to be a czar of anything...and please see my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner and friend Craig Andresen's article at  http://www.thenationalpatriot.com/2014/10/19/liberals-have-the-mad-cow-over-ebola/ to see just how unqualified he really is. And you just know the reason he was picked is NOT only because he thinks Obama walks on water but because he is a master of the cover-up as well...as are most lawyers who currently orbit or did orbit around Obama...as in Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton to name just two.

Klain's responsibilities, according to the White House, are to "make sure that our efforts to protect the American people do NOT distract from the commitment Obama made to stopping Ebola in West Africa," but pray tell why should we be the ones that have to stop the virus in West Africa when to do this would mean a total clean-up of countries that wallow in filth and unsanitary conditions...the perfect medium for Ebola to thrive...countries with governments that do little to NOTHING to help their own people...and would cost countless millions if NOT billions of our taxpayer dollars to do so...to stop a virus that naturally waxes and wanes in its own due time as it has done many times before.

Simply, we should NOT.

And while it's one thing to send humanitarian and medical aid to the countries infected, it's quite another thing to put Africa's and Africans welfare ahead of the welfare of the American people...and this has NOTHING to do with race or color as the race-baiters like Eric Holder, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton love to claim, especially when their own neighboring African countries have locked down their borders to their fellow Africans from these so-called 'hot zones.'

“We can’t just cut ourselves off from West Africa...trying to seal off an entire region of the world—if that were even possible, could actually make the situation worse,” Obama said in his weekly radio address.

Oh YES we can and NO it will NOT make the situation worse...period.

Locking down their borders...African countries wisely know this is the best way to contain the virus until it naturally burns itself out yet this is the very thing Obama refuses to do...refuses to do because it would mean temporarily stopping all flights in and out of West Africa. Claiming that stopping the flights would prevent CDC health officials from being able to track people with symptoms...claiming that the stopping of flights would only delay the inevitable spread of the virus in order to make 'We the People' feel a bit safer for a few weeks...claiming that stopping the flights would become a logistical nightmare and could slow efforts to get critical medical supplies into West Africa...and claiming a flight stoppage could destabilize the economies of the very countries at ground zero of the current outbreak...Obama just does NOT get that 'We the People' do NOT give a damn about his excuses as we are more concerned about keeping Ebola out of this country than we are about his bloviations as to why we should NOT and will do the obvious.

And let's NOT forget that in our case locking down the borders goes beyond just stopping flights in and out of West Africa as it also means the immediate lock down of our unsecured southern border for it's been reported that hundreds of ILLEGALS from 'hot zone' countries have come across said border in recent months.

Locking down our borders to flights as well as to 'foot traffic' is the logical step to take, but when we are up against a man who simply does NOT get the fact that we Americans rightfully want to protect both ourselves and our families from those who arrive in our country from these 'hot zones,' we are sadly coming up against a dangerous political whore of sorts...a political whore who does NOT in the least care about those in his charge for he has sold out to those who are the enemy of his charges. And that selling out is witnessed by the total absurdity of screening passengers via temperature checks and interviews that he knows will in NO way catch those currently asymptomatic NO matter how much he tries to claim it will.

Unfortunately, this president...this political whore...thinks it's best NOT to stop his brethren of sorts...diseased as they might be...from entering our country. Willingly choosing to put the lives of over three hundred plus million Americans in medical danger by letting them in...by looking away...Obama is knowingly and maliciously 'aiding and abetting' the spread of Ebola while NOT giving a damn once again about the health, safety, and welfare of the American people who are the ones in his charge...as in those in Africa are NOT.

And to that affect I wonder if criminal charges of sorts could be brought against Barack HUSSEIN Obama for his failure to put in place the very travel restrictions and border closings that have successfully worked to stop the spread of the virus to the countries that one would logically assume would see it spread into...and could that be why Obama appointed a lawyer as his Ebola czar for he knows this distinct possibility could become a here and now reality as more and more Americans become infected with Ebola through NO fault of their own...but through complete and total fault of the very man who was supposed to protect them from harm.

Can you say law suits times hundreds or possibly times thousands.

Something to think about the next time the media reports that someone else has now contracted Ebola...someone that perhaps might be a person you know or love...just saying.