This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

  • Obama to Pentagon; defeat ISIS this year

    Obama to Pentagon; defeat ISIS this year

    last convoy out of Iraq

    Chief Tango sends us a link to an article at The Hill by our buddy, Kristina Wong in which she reports that Ashton Carter, the Defense Secretary, told reporters at a Politico event, that the President has told him that he wants ISIS defeated before Obama leaves office so the next president doesn’t have to deal with the problem;

    “That’s what he said he wants. That’s what he told me and [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford]. He said, ‘Get this done as soon as possible. I’d like to not leave this to my successor,’ ” Carter said Friday an event hosted by Politico.

    He added that Obama called for the process to be accelerated last fall — about a year after the U.S. first began its counter-ISIS campaign.

    The administration now has only nine months left, but Carter said he’s optimistic.

    “I’m confident that we’ll do it. And we have an operational plan now,” he said.

    Yeah, that’s all they have to do – want something to happen and it’s done. Of course, the way that they get muddled reports from the Pentagon on the prosecution of the war, the White House may believe that ISIS is defeated long before ISIS believes they’re defeated.

    Meanwhile, another American servicemember has been killed during a rocket attack on a base in northern Iraq, according to AFP;

    The latest fatality came after an indirect fire rocket attack on a base at Makhmur, CNN said, citing a US official and saying that a “small number” of other American troops were wounded in the attack.

    It was not exactly clear how many and the Pentagon spokesman declined to give further details.

  • “El Chapo’s” rifle traces to Fast and Furious operation

    When drug kingpin, Joachim “El Chapo” Guzman was arrested recently, he had eight firearms stashed in his hideout. According to the FBI one of the two .50 caliber rifles in that arsenal traced back to the “Fast and Furious” gun-walking program that was designed to trace guns as they moved through the structure of the drug cartels. Many of the thousands of guns were lost by the Feds, but this one turned up, says Fox News;

    Federal officials told Fox News they are not sure how many of the weapons seized from Guzman’s house actually originated in the U.S. and where they were purchased, but are investigating.

    Out of the roughly 2,000 weapons sold through Fast and Furious, 34 were .50-caliber rifles that can take down a helicopter, according to officials.

    Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that ‘El Chapo’ would put his guardsmen on hilltops to be on guard for Mexican police helicopters that would fly through valleys conducting raids. The sole purpose of the guardsmen would be to shoot down those helicopters, sources said.

    Speaking of “Fast and Furious”, Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson rejected the Obama Administration’s claim of executive privilege in regards to withholding documents related to the Congressional investigation earlier this week.

  • So . . . We’re Screening Refugees “Thoroughly”, Eh?

    So the       gang of feckless fools and clueless tools running the show in DC today      current Administration tells us. Well, then, “Riddle me this, Batman – how did this happen””?

    Yep, you guessed it:  both of those “fine fellows” were reportedly admitted to the US as “refugees” from the Middle East.  In fact, one of them came via Syria – in 2012.  Hell, one of the two reportedly went back to the ME and fought for ISIS after coming to the US as a “refugee” – then freaking returned to the US after doing so.

    Both are now currently facing Federal charges related to supporting terrorism.

    But don’t worry.  We’re screening those Syrian refugees coming here today “thoroughly”.   According to the      mouthpiece for the clown krewe in charge      current Administration’s spokesman, Josh Earnest, “No one’s allowed to short-circuit this system.”

    Yeah, right.  You believe that BS, and I’ll make you a great deal on a bridge.

  • White House: New Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence and Make Our Communities Safer

    White House: New Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence and Make Our Communities Safer

    As promised, the White House released their proposal to enact a new Executive Order to increase gun control on gun buyers who obey the law. Aside from asking States politely to participate in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) it really does nothing to prevent gun violence. It says that more gun dealers will be bound to do back ground checks, so I’m sure the FBI will be getting a lot of requests from darkened parking lots and alleyways from guys selling guns from the trunks of their cars. The plan also restricts firearm sales on the internet. A show of hands; how many of you folks have purchased firearms on the internet without background checks? Yeah, me neither. Nor have I bought a gun at a Gun SHow when I didn’t go through NICS background checks.

    ATF has established an Internet Investigation Center to track illegal online firearms trafficking and is dedicating $4 million and additional personnel to enhance the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network.

    […]

    The Administration is proposing a new $500 million investment to increase access to mental health care.

    The Social Security Administration has indicated that it will begin the rulemaking process to include information in the background check system about beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons.

    […]

    The President has directed the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security to conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology.

    The President has also directed the departments to review the availability of smart gun technology on a regular basis, and to explore potential ways to further its use and development to more broadly improve gun safety.

    Basically, they’re just throwing money at the fringes of the problem. When the government involves itself into “smart-anything-technology” it will probably too smart for any of us citizens. They’re going to hire more people to answer phones at NICS, but if they don’t do their jobs, as in the case with the South Carolina shooting last summer, it doesn’t matter how many of them there are. They’re also hiring 200 more ATF agents for enforcement. In an environment where prosecutors are willing to trade off firearms charges in favor of other criminal charges in deals with criminals, enforcement doesn’t help.

    The only thing I see that might be helpful is;

    Remove unnecessary legal barriers preventing States from reporting relevant information to the background check system. Although States generally report criminal history information to NICS, many continue to report little information about individuals who are prohibited by Federal law from possessing or receiving a gun for specific mental health reasons.

    We’ll see how that works out, but I don’t have much hope. Mostly, I see this as a stop-gap for legislative action and just another step towards confiscation – when this doesn’t stop the next mass shooting or terrorist attack, the gun grabbers will claim that confiscation is the only option left for them to pursue.

  • Emails: Soros regrets backing Obama

    Emails: Soros regrets backing Obama

    george-soros

    Our buddy, Kristina Wong at The Hill reports that the Democrat Party boogey-man, George Soros told Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden that he regrets giving Obama $5 million for his campaign during the 2008 campaign. Not because he’s unhappy with Obama’s policies, but because he can’t get the attention from the President that he thought he was buying according to an email from Tanden to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton;

    “I told him I worked for you in the primaries and he said he’s been impressed that he can always call/meet with you on an issue of policy and said he hasn’t met with the President ever (though I thought he had),” Tanden wrote.

    “He then said he regretted his decision in the primary – he likes to admit mistakes when he makes them and that was one of them,” she added.

    “He then extolled his work with you from your time as First Lady on. You probably have heard this all before but on the off chance you haven’t, I thought I should let you know. Thanks again for doing the video!” she wrote.

    Wong’s article continues that Soros has had private meetings with Obama, but none of the easy access to the White House and the president’s ear that Soros admits that he thought he was paying for with his donations to the Obama campaign. But, hey, Soros likes Clinton, so that’s bound to help her in the campaign.

  • Obama criticizes aides for not communicating strategy against ISIS

    Obama criticizes aides for not communicating strategy against ISIS

    The Washington Post reports that, on their trip back from Asia in November, the President “scolded” his staff because they aren’t communicating well enough to the American public about the White House strategy in regards to battling ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

    Throughout the nine-day trip, which had begun less than 24 hours after the terrorist attacks in Paris, he had listened to critics at home and abroad charge that he had no coherent game plan. Some had even suggested that France, with tough talk and a series of retaliatory air strikes, was now leading the anti-terrorism fight.

    The message they had received on the road was “jarring,” said a senior administration official who was on the flight. The problem wasn’t the strategy, they agreed. That “was clear to all of us, sitting in the Sit[uation] Room, in briefings every day. We all know what we are doing.”

    What they needed was to do a better job of explaining it. Obama ordered what the official called an “uptick in our communications tempo.”

    Well that’s odd, because the President’s staff kept us informed about the President’s vacation and even his appearance on Jerry Seinfeld’s show. And, since it’s been more than a month since their “scolding” I haven’t heard anything that makes the strategy more clear.

    Apparently, the president had been watching news programs in Asia that weren’t members of the fawning American press and those programs made it appear that France had taken the lead against ISIS, well, I don’t have that impression, because I don’t see anyone taking the lead against ISIS. i watched his little talk to us a few weeks ago to explain his strategy and I didn’t know anything after he was done that I didn’t already know before he began.

    The last time I checked, the President’s sole job is to be the face of American policy, not some bunch of lowly perfumed aides. Maybe no one has been able to unravel the President’s strategy in Iraq and Syria because we’re all so confused about the myriad of other things that the President has seemed to put ahead of the most dangerous and important national security and existential issue of our time. He’s more worried about how he’s going to disarm Americans at home than destroying the scum of ISIS. He’s more concerned about shoving that non-proliferation pact with Iran shoved down out throats. He wants to shut down Guantanamo more than he wants to shut down ISIS. The social justice warriors have his attention on women in combat, transgender troops, gays in the military than the Pentagon’s commanders have his attention. His aides all have the talking points on climate change being a national security issue, but they are more concerned about what to call ISIS, ISIL or “daesh” than how to fight the enemy. He should be leading the country, but he’s just reacting to whatever social issue dominates the news on a given day. But, you know, when Jerry Seinfeld calls, he picks up the phone.

  • Laissez le bon temps économique à rouler. Par la suite. Peut-être.

    Well, we have some more economic “good news”, courtesy of those       feckless fools and naive tools calling the shots in DC these days       savants managing the US government and economy.  We have a revision to last quarter’s GDP growth figures.

    A downward revision.

    Federal economists now estimate that the US economy grew at an annual growth rate of 2% during the period July through September 2015.  Since the current quarter is looking about the same, we’re looking at an average growth for the US economy of around 2.2% for the year.

    Moreover, this will be the 10th straight year that US economic growth has been below 3% for the year.  That means it will be the longest period of sustained slow growth since World War II.

    I don’t think I really need to tell anyone who’s been running the show in DC for the last 7 of those years – or which party had the majority in both houses of Congress in 2007 and 2008.

    But wait, there’s more!

    The US labor participation rate last month was 62.5% .  That’s lower than all but two months since October 1977 – which was back during Jimmy “Clueless” Carter’s “wonderful stewardship” of the US economy.  And those two months that had a lower US labor participation rate?  Those would be September and October of this year, where the labor participation rate clocked in at 62.4%.

    We’ve now seen the US labor participation rate at below 63% for 20 consecutive months.  You have to go back to the Ford Administration and the post-Vietnam/post-Watergate economic slowdown to see that.

    But we must be on the verge of something.  The current Administration has raised taxes, and is raising interest rates – things known to retard economic growth.  That should certainly keep things from overheating, economically-speaking.  Gotta make sure that growth doesn’t spiral out of control!

    Yeah, as a nation we’re just doing “oh so well” economically.  Thanks for “letting the good times roll”, Mr. President.

  • “Red Line”, Eh?

    Former SECDEF Hagel is in the news again.  And this time, it looks like he’s talking about his former boss.

    In a recent interview, Hagel claims that he gave the OK in 2013 to plans for a strike on Syria – on Damascus, specifically.  Hagel indicates he OKed those plans on 30 August 2013, after Assad’s forces had apparently used chemical weapons. The POTUS had very publicly previously indicated that use of chemical weapons by Assad was a “red line” that would result in US action.

    Hagel claims, point blank, that the POTUS overruled him later that day, while forces were standing by awaiting orders to execute.

    Here’s what the Administration had to say in reply:

    A senior administration official defended the decision to Foreign Policy, saying Obama was not prepared to take military action without consulting Congress first – and the diplomatic deal that had Assad relinquish his weapons resulted in a Syria “free of its chemical weapons program.”

    Pure bullsh!t. The current Occupant, 1600 Penn Ave, Wash DC, and his enablers didn’t give a hoot in hell about Congressional authorization for the use of force when we conducted military operations against the government of Libya in 2011 – nor did they comply with the War Powers Act’s requirements for Congressional notification as the operation dragged on. The Administration’s claim here nothing but a transparently obvious attempt at spin. Nor do I believe for one minute that Syria has given up 100% of their chem weapons, either.

    Fox News has a longish article about Hagel’s claims. Regardless of what you think of Hagel, this one’s probably worth reading.