Op-ed:
Obama's Retaliatory Tentacles
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on CPR Worldwide Media / cprworldwidemedia.net

"I'm not going anywhere...I'm angry and ready to fight because today contradicts my public service career and my entire life." 
- New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez's words after being indicted on public corruption charges

Two Democrats...one appointed and one elected...both facing criminal charges...but only one dared to speak out against Obama's economic and foreign policies...dared to defend Israel...thus making the outcome for that one quite different than the outcome of the other one.

In the first case, in yet another of the Obama regime's attempts to sweep the IRS targeting scandal under the rug, early last week Ronald C. Machen, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, informed House Speaker John Boehner that he will NOT...I repeat NOT...bring criminal contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner. NO big surprise folks as Lerner did exactly what she was told to do knowing full-well that Obama and his cronies would protect her. Lerner...the main figure in the targeting of Conservative and TEA Party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status...extra scrutiny simply because they opposed Obama during both his 2008 and 2012 presidential election bids... was rewarded for a job well done in that she got to use one of her many Obama and Holder supplied 'get out of jail free' cards...all while questions continue to be raised and continue to go unanswered about Obama's in-our-face ability to ignore a congressional directive.

It's now been almost a year since the House approved a contempt resolution against Lerner arising from her decision NOT to answer questions during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing where she invoked her Fifth Amendment right NOT to testify. This led then committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to rightfully say that Lerner had waived that right by asserting her innocence during an opening statement and then refusing to be cross-examined by committee members. But U.S. Attorney Machen...a Democrat and obviously an Obama supporter...insisted that Lerner only made “general claims of innocence” and that the Constitution would provide her, in his legal opinion, with “an absolute defense should she be prosecuted.”

In his letter to Boehner, Machen claimed his decision NOT to bring said charges against Lerner was NOT a rejection per se of the House’s constitutional powers to call witnesses and hold them in contempt when and if they violate the rules, but that the facts in Lerner's case “undercut” the House decision...translating into Machen's opinion that Lerner did NOT waive her Constitutional protection. But know this case is surely NOT going to simply fade away as it continues to raise questions about the powers of Congress and whether the president and the rest of the executive branch have 'discretion'...as in an obligation...to follow orders of Congress. I believe they do as the executive branch must answer to Congress and Congress must in turn answer to 'We the People.'

In the second case involving Democratic New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez the outcome was quite different as a federal grand jury turned a longtime friendship into a corruption case. Indicting Menendez on 14 public corruption charges ranging from bribery to making false statements to conspiracy and more relating to “dealings and interventions” he 'supposedly' made on behalf of his friend and senatorial campaign contributor, Dr. Salomon Melgen, a West Palm Beach, Florida, ophthalmologist, who now is also facing criminal charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Leslie Caldwell in announcing the indictments said that Menendez never disclosed any of the 'reportable gifts' he received from Melgen on the required financial disclosure forms. And so unreported gifts turned into indictments claiming that Menendez intervened on Melgen’s behalf in a dispute with federal regulators over Medicare billing charges and irregularities, and in a bid by Melgen to secure a port security contract in the Dominican Republic. Menendez, as expected, denied any wrongdoing and said that any of the close to one million dollars in gifts he received from Melgen...which included almost $600,000 in campaign contributions...were given to him solely because of their close personal friendship of over 20+ years.

And Menendez must be presumed innocent until proven guilty because charges contained in an indictment are only an accusation NOT a verdict. In the meantime, Mendendez, one of our leading voices on foreign affairs, has stepped-down as the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee but will remain a committee member. And the Foreign Relations Committee where Menendez dared to call Obama to task over his anything but a strategy in combating ISIS; where he opposed Obama's efforts to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba; and where he loudly voiced that he wants increased sanctions placed against Iran (“Iran is clearly taking steps that can only be interpreted as provocative...yet the administration appears willing to excuse away any connection between these developments and signs of Iran's bad faith in negotiations.”); is at the crux of Menedez being called to task. And why...because Menendez had the fortitude and audacity to publicly and on the record oppose Obama...and if you oppose Obama you must pay the price for that opposition even if you are a fellow Democrat.

And you must pay a big price if you dare to oppose Obama's stabbing Israel in the back, as Menendez did recently at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's national convention, where he pledged that Iran would "never threaten Israel or its neighbors, and it will never be in a position to start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Not on my watch."

Fighting words our traitor-in-chief will NOT let go unpunished. And we know the Obama regime is notorious for punishing those who disagree with them, oppose them, or speak ill of them...and party affiliation matters not. One case in point is Mary Landrieu and her bid to win a fourth term as one of Louisiana's senators. Remember, Obama himself, his people, their money, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee...who pulled their TV advertising in support of her...cast her aside come runoff time simply because she spoke out in support of the Keystone Pipeline...which Obama and the liberal environmentalists are vehemently against.

Also, remember when New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer second-guessed both Obama and his signature piece of legislation... ObamaCare...by saying, "We took their mandate and put all focus on the wrong problem - health care reform," and even went so far as to say that since only about 5% of registered voters in the United States lacked health insurance before the implementation of the law, that to focus on a problem affecting such "a small percentage of the electoral made no political sense." In other words, Schumer publicly voiced his opinion that Democrats should NOT have passed ObamaCare when they did because the country was still in the throws of a recession even after the passing of the 2009 stimulus bill, and that a logical follow-up to said bill should have been legislation to help the middle class. In fact, Schumer even stated that only later on in the Obama presidency should the issue of health care have been addressed.

And the fallout from the regime for his words...first, then House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi publicly stated that there are "14 million reasons why" Schumer is wrong...referencing the number of Americans 'newly insured' under ObamaCare but of course leaving out the millions of folks who lost their insurance because of ObamaCare...and second, Menendez was chastised in the media for daring to speak out against the 'anointed one.' And the media payback went so far as to accuse Menendez of grandstanding for his own self-interest, personal gain, and political ambitions, to the effect that some in his own party publicly came out to accuse him of saying what he said simply because he wanting to be Hillary's VP choice when she ran.

And then there's Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, a twice-deployed Iraq War veteran, who criticized Obama for downplaying the ISIS threat. Saying, “Every soldier knows this simple fact: If you don’t know your enemy, you will not be able to defeat him...our leaders must clearly identify the enemy as Islamist extremists, understand the ideology that is motivating them and attracting new recruits, and focus on defeating that enemy both militarily and ideologically,” the retaliation was swift in coming.

Almost immediately after Gabbard spoke these words the Obama 'attack machine' led by Bob Jones of the Oahu-based Midweek newspaper ran his editorial stating, “I take serious issue when somebody who’s done a little non-fighting in Iraq, and is not a Middle East or Islamic scholar, claims to know better than our President and Secretary of State how to fathom the motivations of terrorists, or how to refer to them beyond the term that best describes them — terrorists.” And Democrat Michael Perry of Hawaii’s KSSK radio said he's worried about the political payback for what he called Gabbard's "mortal sin" for her daring to speak out against Obama. “While Gabbard is correct in her ‘emperor has no clothes’ moment, she may have lost her future seat on Hawaii’s political bench,” he said...words that sound like a threat of sorts to me.

And let's NOT forget that some Democrats are speaking out against Obama's executive order on immigration...on amnesty...including Clair McCaskill (MO), Joe Donnelly (IN), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), and Independent but caucuses with the Democrats Angus King (MA) amongst them. And the retaliation against them will surely come for NO one dares to cross Obama or his cronies and gets away with it.

So the bottom line in all this is that even Democrats are NOT safe from the retaliatory tentacles of a man and his cronies who think of themselves as  gods...never to be questioned...never to be crossed...and above all never to be second-guessed.

Op-ed: 
Sanctions on Iran vs Obama's Pen 
By: Diane Sori

“Congress needs to show patience.” 
 - Obama's words to veto any new sanctions being placed against Iran

In what amounts to a threat...YES a threat...Barack HUSSEIN Obama warned Congress they dare NOT cross him by putting any new sanctions on Iran...the very country who calls America the 'Great Satan'...because he says new sanctions would “undermine” international unity against Iran.

I never knew there was international unity against Iran...did you...didn't think so.

And in his claiming that new sanctions would also prevent or at least delay any deal-in-the-making from being reached to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, Obama has gone so far as to announce to Congress that he will veto any and all legislation that places sanctions against Iran, and he will do so even though many Democrats are on board with this. And so once again he's bending to the will of Iran and their negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said that reaching a comprehensive deal depends on Washington showing “good will” towards his country and will happen only if global powers, as in the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council-the U.S., UK, Russia, China, and France-plus Germany), stop pressuring Tehran.

And if they do NOT stop pressuring Tehran and if a sanctions bill does pass Congress, some Iranian lawmakers have threatened they will push their government hard to resume unlimited uranium enrichment.

In fact, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in an effort to make that threat stick, recently said on Iranian state television that,“If the Western countries want to negotiate with the Islamic Republic of Iran, they must make a political decision, which for some could be difficult, and stop with the pressure.” And Obama, good little islamist that he is, of course will acquiesce and is more than willing to go along with a 'weak' deal...any deal...instead of NO deal at all, ignoring the fact that it would set a dangerous precedence in regards to the issue of nuclear proliferation. And lets NOT forget that he could then also pat his narcissistic self on the back and say to the world, 'see I disarmed Iran.'

So Obama's saying that, “The likelihood of the entire negotiations collapsing is very high if sanctions are reinstated" is just empty words because the current ongoing negotiations are being conducted with Tehran expecting that NO new sanctions would be put in place against them, thus equating to the fact that Obama both acknowledges and cowers in fear to the threats being issued by Iran. Cowering to threats while at the very same time willingly choosing to ignore the fact that Iran will do whatever they damn well please NO matter if deals are reached and put in place or NOT.

And his being threatened and then cowering to Iran afforded Obama the very opportunity he needed to now threaten the new Congress hoping they in turn will cower to him...giving him back, in his eyes alone, a bit of his manhood.

And NOT unexpectedly, British Prime Minister David Cameron...a fellow liberal-in-denial albeit one with an oh so proper English accent...also believes further sanctions would hurt the talks saying new sanctions would, “fracture international unity.” And Cameron truly hopes that the new Republican controlled Congress...a Congress that he's personally lobbied NOT to implement sanctions...will bow to Obama's and his wishes.

But hopefully this new Republican controlled Congress will NOT.

And guess what...imposing further sanctions is actually what's needed...strict crippling unrelenting economic sanctions plus a whole lot more...as in it's time to go in...hand-in-hand with Israel (who Iran calls the 'Little Satan')...and seriously kick some Iranian butt because who are they to be holding the (for now anyway) free world hostage with their incessant demands and threats that NO deal will be reached if sanctions against them are still even a possibility.

Holding the world hostage while at the same time continuing to threaten to wipe Israel of the map. Yeah...we need to negotiate with these people...NOT.

And like I said, some Democrats are finally seeing the light and recognizing the danger we here in America face with a nuclear armed Iran...a danger Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken about for years. In fact, Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) told Obama in NO uncertain terms that if Congress waited too long to do what needs to be done that sanctions could NOT be put in place fast enough to have any effect if the talks...as Obama says...collapse. And Obama's saying that he would deal directly with Congress if talks do fail...that he would “tighten the screws” if that happens...is a joke at best for this president has done NOTHING of substance all these years to halt yet alone slowdown Iran's moving forward with its uranium enrichment program for the simple fact is he does NOT want to slow it down.

You know it...I know it...Israel knows it...and now some Democrats in Congress are finally starting to know it as well.

And that along with Iran's very actions...actions including their ongoing aggression towards Israel, their constant threats of war, and their outward monetary and military support for worldwide terrorism...shows proof positive that any true and binding agreement with them will be just about if NOT impossible...and that if a deal by some chance is reached it won't be worth the paper it's printed on.

So the bottom line remains that we need to economically choke Iran so severely that they are brought begging to their knees until we finally have the courage and fortitude to go in and do what we and the world know needs to be done.

But...and this is a big but...with Obama as America's President and Commander-in-Chief...traitor-in-chief actually...in addition to his 'supposedly' being the leader of the free world...what needs to done will NOT now or anytime on his watch be done simply because this man will NEVER step on his brethren's toes. With Barack HUSSEIN Obama, his muslim blood is thicker than any minuscule amount of allegiance he may have to the country he was elected (gag) to serve.

And when you have none other than islamic cuddlier Secretary of State John 'Swiftboat' Kerry as head negotiator you just know that any deal reached will NOT be in America's best interest and will most likely be reached for Obama's face-saving political expediency alone. And knowing that Europe is (rightfully) NOT too happy with America and Obama right now, Iran will actually now have the upper hand in negotiations and will use that to their advantage when they call once again for a 'comprehensive' lifting of nuclear sanctions against them along with wanting access to trade, technology, finance, and energy. And the only thing 'our side' will get in exchange will be Iran's agreeing to...with fingers crossed behind their back of course..a "mutually defined enrichment program with mutually agreed parameters"...parameters you just know they will NEVER honor.

So as Kerry continues on with this 'dog and pony' show in Geneva, Obama is getting his veto pen ready all while the centrifuges Iran already has continue in operation moving them ever so closer to their becoming a nuclear power...and a rogue nuclear power at that.

Are you scared now...you damn well better be.