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#2
The question shouldn't really be about drones. A military strike against the 9-11 hijacked civilian planes was in fact ordered by Dick Cheney. It was in the context of a military operation against the US (the hijacked planes had crashed before the order could be implemented). The real issue is under what conditions a military strike of any kind (drone or no drone) could be issued by the President, whether it is Obama or any other President.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/06/2013 17:03 Comments ||
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While the Obama administration is struggling with sequester-mandated cuts that are nipping into everything from air traffic control to combat-pilot training, it has also tucked a one-time $65 billion pledge to the International Monetary Fund in the most recent budget resolution sent to Congress. Chump change.
The administration has asked lawmakers to approve a permanent increase in the U.S. contribution to the agency -- a step the fund has been waiting on for about three years so it can move ahead with other changes approved in 2010. Those changes have since been ratified by most of the rest of the world.
As it stands, the United States -- the fund's largest shareholder and a blocking vote for any major reforms like this -- is the only holdout to what is a broader and carefully crafted deal. Along with more money for the IMF, the changes would shift voting power within the organization so that big developing nations such as China and Brazil get more say in IMF affairs. It would also let developing nations in general replace a few old-line European countries on the fund's executive board. More money - which we have SO much of, and less control, which is what O likes. A win-win for the progressive socialist! We give more money so that China and Brazil decides where it goes. What's not to like?
But in tight fiscal times -- and when the IMF is lending historic amounts to euro-zone nations that can ostensibly look after themselves -- the idea of boosting U.S. support for the agency is politically sensitive.
With the presidential election out of the way, the "fiscal cliff" averted and the sequester now a fact of life, Treasury officials decided they needed to finally submit the three-year-old reform package for congressional approval.
Not that it was advertised. News of the submission was released indirectly when the Bretton Woods Committee -- a high-level group of political and economic officials that monitors IMF issues -- released a letter sent to congressional leaders urging approval. How embarrassing! A Trunk Trick?
"The IMF has always been a valuable tool for advancing U.S. national interests globally," the committee wrote -- perhaps inadvertently validating one of the arguments China, Brazil and others have made for why they need a greater say at the fund. The best use of the IMF is to be the designated bully when a government somewhere does stupid economic things. Letting China and Brazil run the place will remove that tool, and thus the IMF won't be as useful to us.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/06/2013 10:01 ||
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At a news conference last Friday, President Obama claimed that, starting tomorrow, the folks cleaning the floors at the Capitol had just got a pay cut because of the automatic federal spending cuts known as the sequester.
The president very quickly earned Four Pinocchios for that statement, especially after senior officials at the Architect of the Capitol (AOC), the federal agency that employ janitors on the House side, and the office of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA), which employs janitors on the Senate side, issued statements saying the presidents comments were not true.
Still, the White House has kept up its spin offensive, claiming that a cut in overtime was a de facto pay cut and thus the president was right or at least not wrong.
So, we wondered: How much overtime do Capitol Hill janitors actually make?
The Facts
First of all, we should note that the White Houses story kept evolving as we reported last weeks column. Its almost as if the presidents aides had to scramble to come up with reasons why the president could be correct, without actually knowing the facts.
So, when we forwarded to White House aides an AOC memo saying no furloughs were planned, White House aides latched onto a line about overtime reductions. For a couple of hours, we were also told that the janitors were on contract and contracts were being curtailed. But that line of reasoning turned out to be incorrect. Then, after the statements from the Capitol were issued, there was no longer any response.
But, as seen by the quotes above, the talking point about overtime did not fade away. The WaPo completely dismembers the White House staff and - to a lesser degree - their fearless leader. Conclusion:
The Pinocchio Test
We dont try to play gotcha here at The Fact Checker. When Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was ridiculed for saying last week that 170 million jobs would be lost because of the sequester, we dropped our inquiry when we realized she had corrected her statement to the official Congressional Budget Office estimate of 750,000 jobs later in the same news conference. Everyone makes mistakes, and thats understandable.
The quicker the mistake is cleaned up, the better. As Education Secretary Arne Duncan showed this week, a little humility, even a bit late, can be a good thing.
But a clean-up brigade shouldnt simply try to deflect and obfuscate. Apparently, the president assumed incorrectly that the janitors on Capitol Hill would get a pay cut. Rather than admit an error, White House aides doubled down on their talking points about overtime being essential to their livelihood, without actually knowing the truth.
Clearly, the sequester is hurting segments of the government and will cut the pay of some government workers. It would be better to focus on those people rather than imaginary victims.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/06/2013 09:55 ||
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#1
They gotta throw a negative one out there once in a while. Otherwise people may start thinking that they are biased or something.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce, Senate Finance, and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees today released a joint report on "The Price of Obamacare's Broken Promises." The report, which is based on a compilation of over 30 studies and analyses, outlines estimated premium increases for all 50 states that will result from the rigid mandates and price controls imposed by the president's health care law.
Obamacare Projections Show Massive Premium Increases
In the case of young adults, premium increases will be even more painful than those imposed on the population broadly. Recent college graduates with entry-level jobs who are struggling to pay off student loan debt could see their premiums increase on average between 145 and 189 percent. Some studies estimate young adults could experience premium increases as high as 203 percent. Any increase, let alone tripling current costs, could break the bank for young adults who have just started out on their own.
Why Americans Will Pay More Under Obamacare
Price controls and requirements to purchase government-approved plans are the lead contributors to more expensive premiums. The law also imposes $165 billion in new taxes and fees on plans, drugs, and medical devices that will be passed onto consumers in the form of higher premiums and prices.
Repeating History's Costly Mistakes
In the mid-1990s, eight states -- Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Washington -- enacted Obamacare-like "reforms" such as guaranteed issue and community rating in their insurance markets. As a result, the residents of these eight states faced unaffordable premiums and reduced choices. For example: In 1993, a 30-year-old male and female in New York paid, on average, annual premiums of $1,200 and $1,800 respectively. One month after passing Obamacare-like reforms, premiums skyrocketed to $3,240. For some, premiums increased by 170 percent.
The Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing on March 7, 2013, will now meet at 9:45 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office building to discuss the issues raised in the report. For more information, click here.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/06/2013 14:50 Comments ||
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#3
Yep , the liar won't get anything done the rest of his term, we're onto him now.
And he knows it, watch for a HUGE wailing and gnashing of teeth "Why won't the REPUBLICANS help me.(Whine, whine)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/06/2013 15:05 Comments ||
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#4
That would be a hoot if people learned to live without so much government in their lives, and when the tragedy is magically solved and the gov comes calling on bended knee, those people tell the gov to sod off.
#5
IIRC [paraph], FOX NEWS segment this Guam AM showed Rush Limbaugh saying that he's convinced "this Admin actually wants America + Americans to f-e-e-l suffering".
Wehell, iff true its consistent wid what I've timES said or inferred about Chaos + Anarchy being used as a method by anti-US, anti-sovereign Globalists + aligned to force regional Govts-States to become interdependent on one another for COMMON/ORDINARY SURVIVAL, to "justify" OWG + NAU + Trans-Pacific + Trans-Atlantic Union + related.
As per OWG NAU 2015 + any TRans/Interime levels of Global Governance, US FEDERAL/GOVT-LED SOCIALISM, PERVASIVE INTERVENTION + REGULATION, IS THE NEW "SOVEREIGNTY".
Officially, the US will have physical legal "borders" = geographic or territorial lines of demarcation, but as a matter of OWG + Global Economics it will be subjectively or surreally "borderless".
THE "CANTONIZATION/ENCLAVIZATION" OF AMERIKA.
PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT WILL BE DONE WIDOUT NEED OF HAVING TO ASK THE FORMAL CONSENT OF THE US NATIONAL ELECTORATE, AKA THE "VOTERS", AKA THE "WILL/CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE" OR THE "GOVERNED".
> "Black Boxes" + "Voice Recorders" for both Private + Commercial Vehiiickles.
> Massive bulk purchase of ammo by DHS, FEMA.
> MRAP Vehicles.
> Drone strikes in the US?
? RFID Implant Chips for Any + All Americans = Amerikans.
#6
US AG ERIC HOLDER N-O-T being able to give a straight "Yes" or "No" to whether DOMESTIC US DRONES AS A MATTER OF OFFICIAL US GOVT. POLICY WILL BE USED TO HUNT DOWN + KILL US CITIZENS ON US SOIL WIDOUT DUE PROCESS.
#1
Just remember when (and eventually you will) lose power, the guy at the other end of the launch button will not feel anymore constrained about pushing it than you do now.
#3
works both ways is right. Some young serviceman may easily get a happy trigger finger with a drone in the sky. Let's just say Bradly Manning with an attitude and xbox controller.
#5
Eric couldn't give a straight answer to a direct Congressional question on TV.
ERIC JUST GAVE US CIVIE MILITIAS THE BEST RECRUITING POSTER THEY COULD POSSIBLE HAVE OR GET WIDOUT ASKING OR MAKING THIER OWN.
Once again, "2014" = when US State-Local Govts start filing formal petitions to de facto secede from the US. NO FED APPPROVED SECESSION = "CIVIL WAR II".
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
While the Obama administration is struggling with sequester-mandated cuts that are nipping into everything from air traffic control to combat-pilot training, it has also tucked a one-time $65 billion pledge to the International Monetary Fund in the most recent budget resolution sent to Congress.
At a news conference last Friday, President Obama claimed that, starting tomorrow, the folks cleaning the floors at the Capitol had just got a pay cut because of the automatic federal spending cuts known as the sequester.
