I am sure most of you saw the headlines about how a CIA informant managed to stop a terror plot against a U.S. airliner.  This has the ugly odor of another story leaked by the Obama administration to try and foster the image that Obama is a great defender of liberty.  They have quickly backed off, probably because Diane Feinstein wants the person who leaked this information prosecuted.  The CIA mole story is now less popular than Fast & Furious and the administration is practicing its “Silence of the Lambs” sequel. 

If that is not bad enough, it turns out it wasn’t even our mole. 

http://news.investors.com/article/611449/201205150812/underwear-bomber-mole-was-not-a-cia-agent.htm

It was a British sting operation.  Bottom line is that the Obama administration had zero, zip, nada to do with stopping this terrorist plot, yet still managed to screw things up by leaking classified information.

Brilliant! 

TDM

Democrats have been fighting desperately against voter ID laws.  They claim there is no evidence of voter fraud.  They constantly talk about voter ID laws as intended to disenfranchise minorities.  Frankly, few people are buying this.  The last time I checked more than 70% of people in both parties support voter ID.  Now the worm has turned big time because someone figured out how to audit voting records.  When people get a drivers license in Florida they have to clarify whether or not they are a U.S. citizen.  So Florida ran a list of drivers license numbers for people who voted in Florida and then checked to see if they were actually U.S. citizens.  Seems pretty darn logical.

They didn’t find a handful of people.  The found thousands of people.  If this article is accurate, they may have found close to 200,000 people.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_VOTERS_NON_CITIZENS_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=

When 200,000 people who are not citizens may have illegally voted in an election, it is hard to define that as anything other than widespread voter fraud.

I bet that starting tomorrow some clever Republicans in every state are going to take a close look at the “Florida experiment.”   Don’t be surprised to learn about similar voting record tests in a lot of other states.  Democrats will scream bloody murder, but even for liberals it is hard to generate sympathy for non-citizens voting in our elections.

Just think of the possibilities if we limit voting to one vote per legally registered voter.  Perhaps it’s just me, but it sure looks like Democrats may lose those valuable votes from dead people, illegal aliens and convicted felons.  How will they ever win another election, other than in places like Chicago.

TDM

Some people dream of the day when Republicans and Democrats will join hands across the aisle and do the right thing for America.  That actually happened, for about five minutes, after 9-11.  The sad truth is that it takes a major threat at that level before politicians in any party will drop the partisan bickering.  That also means when you do see this happen, something big is going down.  According to the Washington Post, this is exactly what is happening is Israel:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/echoes-of-67-israel-unites/2012/05/10/gIQA9tUaGU_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions

We should point out that Israel also called up reserves a few days ago.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/knesset-approves-call-up-of-22-idf-battalions/

I do not know what Israel is planning to do, but it looks very serious.  It also looks imminent.  It would seem obvious that if Israel was planning to attack Iran, they would take steps to secure their border with Egypt.  Of course Israel’s relationship with Egypt is also deteriorating rapidly. 

 Israel has shown a willingness to take on military risks no other nation would consider.  When they say “never again” they mean “NEVER AGAIN.”   Israel didn’t wait to get attacked in 1967.  It also didn’t wait to attack Iraq’s nuclear program and it didn’t wait to attack Syria’s nuclear facility.  The Israeli’s are not big on waiting for the U.S. to save their bacon.

If recent reports are accurate, it took President Obama nearly ten months to work up sufficient courage to order the attack on Osama bin Laden.  Obama refused to give the order until he felt the CIA could absolutely guarantee that bin Laden was really there.  Even then, he apparently gave the order only after having Leon Panetta prepare a carefully crafted CYA memo so Obama could blame someone else if things went south.  How much proof do you think Obama would require before attacking Iran? 

 Now picture yourself Prime Minister of Israel.  Consider the following report that Iraq may be getting close to having a nuclear weapon.

 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/10/photo-suspicious-activity-iranian-military-site/

 Would you risk the future of Israel on Obama being ready, willing and able to do the necessary ?

Remember, this is only what has leaked to the main stream media.  They are almost certainly other intelligence reports on the subject.  Odds are, these are even more alarming.  If you were Iran, would you rather deal with President Obama or President Romney?  It sure seems like a lot of incentive to get while the getting’s good?  I don’t know what is going on, but from here  it looks like there’s a bad moon on the rise.

TDM

Tiger Woods was one of the most admired athletes in the world. We knew he was a great golfer and based on media reports, he looked like a great person. We should have known better. It is now clear that there was a major cover-up. Unfortunately, for Tiger, when his wife beat up his car after she learned about his out-of-control sex life, the protective shield around his private life was breached. All of a sudden we learned a lot about the private Tiger Woods, and it was mostly bad. He has never recovered.

 Barack Obama had media treatment very similar to Tiger Woods. He was consistently portrayed as calm, cool and collected. He was presented as a brilliant leader and a great family man. The media went to great lengths to avoid even discussing his private life. Anyone who dared criticize Obama was dismissed as a racist. That is why, in spite of pathetic job performance, his likeable ratings were still very high. Just like with Tiger Woods, most people saw only the carefully crafted imagine, they never saw the man behind the façade. That all changed with his campaign’s decision to run a commercial praising Obama for daring to authorize the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. More damage was done by Obama flying to Afghanistan to brag some more about it. Suddenly, the truth became impossible to ignore. Obama is a self-centered narcissist who simultaneously blames all problems on someone else and takes all glory for himself. This was so obvious that even Arianna Huffington noticed.

The media coverage has changed remarkably. During a recent White House briefing reporters demanded Obama take a position on gay marriage. Press Secretary Carney was beyond flustered. Obama’s protective shield has been pierced and it can never be replaced. His number one asset, personal likeability, is evaporating faster than it did for Tiger Woods. Late night comedians no longer hesitate to skewer Obama. Ed Rendell, the former democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, told Obama to “man up” on gay marriage during an MSNBC interview.

http://townhall.com/video/ed-rendell-obama-should-man-up–say-position-on-gay-marriage

Rendell is very close to the Clintons, so it is unlikely that they didn’t know about this. CNN ran very negative reports about the unemployment rate and just dismissed the Obama administration’s claim that things are improving. Now they are pummeling Obama with regard to gay marriage. Of course CNN wants Obama to “come out” in favor of gay marriage, but that would be a political disaster. The bottom line is that Obama has fallen, and he can’t get up. Instead of getting the loud sustained standing ovation he expected for making the obvious decision to off Osama bin Laden, he is under a withering assault. When the shield around Tiger Woods was finally pierced, his public image was permanently shattered. We are going to learn a lot more about Obama, and my hunch is this is going to get really ugly.

Note: Obama did come out in support of gay marriage, but equivocated by saying that while he personally believed in gay marriage, he apparently had no plans to do anything to make it legal. Basically he punted to the states.

 TDM

When Obama decided to go on ABC to discuss gay marriage I thought it was a huge mistake.  My theory was that those people desperate to see gay marriage legal in the United States were allready in Obama’s court.  No matter what Romney did or said, those folks were sticking with Obama.  But people who are definitely opposed to gay marriage would be infuriated by another politician determined to force everyone to accept gay marriage.  I was wrong.  It was even dumber than I thought.  The problem is that Obama can’t ever give a straight answer about anything.

Anyone who has paid any attention to Obama already knew he was for gay marriage .  He admitted that back in 1996 when he was running for the Illinois State Senate.  He just started lying about it when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate and realized this position was political poison.  Suddenly Obama got religion and decided gay marriage was wrong.

Joe Biden already mouthed off on the subject putting Obama between a rock and a hard place.  Obama did what he always does when faced with a difficult choice.  He equivocated.  He said he is personally for gay marriage, but thought the states should decide.  Perfect.  That impressed no one and angered people on both sides of this issue.

Obama’s grand announcement is drawing more flak from the supporters of gay marriage than from conservatives.  This is probably because conservatives knew Obama’s real position all along.  Following from the Gawker is typical:

http://gawker.com/5909002/barack-obamas-bullshit-gay-marriage-announcement#13366064585933

In the ultimate irony, Obama has simultaneously energized the conservative base opposed to gay marriage while alienating the extreme left that views gay marriage as the new civil rights movement.  It is a rare politician who is capable of creating hate and discontent for people on both sides of a controversial issue.  Obama has raised political incompetence to a new art form.

TDM

There always seems to be another “poll” out showing a tight Presidential election between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.  This always causes concern among those who feel that Obama is the worst President in U.S. history.  Following is the link to the latest polls from Real Clear Politics:

 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/

 Fortunately, these polls are beyond meaningless.  To those of you, who like me, question whether the country can survive another four years with Obama as President, I submit the following two questions:

1.  Does Obama have more or less support from Democrats than he did in 2008?

2.  Does Obama have more or less support from Republicans than he did in 2008?

I have yet to meet a single person, from either party, who thinks Obama is doing better with Democrats than he did in 2008.  I have yet to meet a single person from either party who thinks Obama is doing better with Republicans than he did in 2008.  All the recent polls show that Mitt Romney has a double digit lead among independents.

I do not know what will happen in November, but as of right now, Obama is in deep political trouble.  He would not only lose to Mitt Romney, he would lose by a record amount. 

Forget the polls.  For one thing they measure registered voters, not likely voters.  Instead, reflect on those two questions.  Then smile! 

 TDM

Khalid Sheik Mohammed was water boarded.  As a result of that procedure, he started to talk.  Eventually he gave up the name of Osama bin Laden’s couriers.  That is just how these things work.  If there had been no waterboarding, we would have learned nothing from Khalid Sheik Mohammed.  Only in the delusional world of the liberal left do terrorists give up this kind of information because we are nice and kind.  But once he started talking, he eventually gave up information that really mattered.

For years the CIA watched for this name.  Then in 2010, the courier made a phone call.  The U.S. intelligence agencies were waiting.  It is important to note that this was part of the program implemented by President Bush, over the strenuous objections of Democrats.  Just prior to the 2008 elections, Barack Obama promised to end warrantless wiretaps:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9845595-7.html

“For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and ‘wiretaps without warrants.’”

But Obama already knew these wiretaps were necessary, that is why he voted for the FISA Amendment legislation in the summer of 2008 approving these wiretaps.  Senators Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton voted against this legislation:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/blogtalk-obamas-fisa-vote/

It has recently been reported that almost immediately upon being elected, Obama learned of a credible assassination plot against him.  While a mere threat National Security was apparently not enough to get him excited, a personal plot aimed at him got his attention.

Prior to 9-11, the United States tried to treat terrorism as a criminal activity.  After 9-11, President George Bush realized that we were in a war and that treating terrorism as a criminal activity had been a terrible mistake.   That is also the conclusion reached by the 9-11 commission.  That is why he bypassed the FISC courts, and started wiretapping on calls made from within the United States to suspected terrorists overseas. 

Osama bin Laden was living in a house in Abbottabad that the CIA had known about for years.  They didn’t care, because they assumed that Osama bin Laden would be surrounded by armed security.  They were wrong.  In 2010 that courier finally made a mistake.  He called someone the NSA was monitoring.  As a result of this phone call, the CIA was able to finally locate him.   It does not take much imagination to realize that this was one of those people wiretapped by the evil George Bush.  This courier eventually led them to the house in Abbottabad:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/how-did-the-cia-find-bin-laden-a-phone-call-a-courier-and-years-of-detective-work/

The CIA thought they had found bin Laden in August of 2010.  It certainly was the best lead in years.  One would think that this was enough information to send in a team.  The United States has numerous Special Forces units fully capable of handling such an assignment.  I suspect that President Bush would not have hesitated to authorize that mission.  But Obama demanded proof positive.  As Bill Clinton pointed out in Obama’s self-congratulatory campaign commercial, Obama was concerned that if the Navy Seals were killed, or captured, it might make him look bad.  Think about that.  There was this house, clearly designed to hide someone significant, and one of the few people in the world who knew how to contact Osama bin Laden went there.  That should have been more than enough.  I suspect we have sent our guys over on far more dangerous assignment s with much less intelligence.

But even though it was obvious that someone important probably bin Laden, was in that house, Obama demanded more proof.  So the CIA organized a fake vaccination program in an elaborate scheme to get DNA from someone in that house.  The following article describes this adventure:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/11/cia-fake-vaccinations-osama-bin-ladens-dna

Perhaps I am wrong, but it sure looks like a really stupid and high-risk plan.  Here we had a strong lead, with regard to the location of bin Laden, and the President waffles demanding more proof. In desperation, the CIA develops this fake vaccination plan.   It is a miracle that Osama bin Laden was not tipped off by this bizarre scheme. 

By the way, this scheme will cost thousands of lives.  There are world-wide humanitarian efforts to wipe out small pox and polio.  In some countries, kids are even dying from measles.   One of the big barriers to achieving this goal has been the reluctance of people in places like Pakistan to let their children get vaccinated.  There are myths commonly repeated in the radical Muslim movements that these vaccines are a western plot to poison children.  As a result of the use of humanitarian efforts to try and find bin Laden, parents all over Pakistan are refusing to let their children get immunized: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/13/bin-laden-vaccine-plot-cia

The story is crystal clear.  Obama was far less worried about killing Osama bin Laden than about his own political future.  That is why there was such a long delay in authorizing the raid.  It is also why he went on national TV to gloat about the great success.  It is why he is now running this tasteless commercial.  It exposes an incredible lack of character in the President of the United States.

 TDM

Hosea 8:7  “For they sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind.”  In 2014, Obama care requires every employer in the United States, with more than 50 employees, to provide “qualifying health insurance.”  If employers fail to comply, they will pay a tax of $2,000 per employee ($3,000 if employee receives coverage through an exchange).  The plan was to force businesses to provide health care to employees.  That is far from true. 

The people who dreamed up this puppy probably thought this would force everyone into a government run single payer health care system before anyone realized it was happening.  The fine is clearly inadequate to cover health care costs, so this is a classic bait and switch operation.  In a very short period of time the employer fine would have been increased to cover actual costs, but employees would have lost employer sponsored health care in the meantime.

However, the negative impact of this mandate will send shock waves through the economy long before 2014.  The people who wrote this are absolutely clueless with regard to how business operates in the U.S.  Most companies with a lot of employees are publicly held and many of them are also unionized.  As a CEO of a publicly held corporation, you are required to maximize equity for stockholders.  Since many of these companies are paying up to $12,000 per employee, per year for health care, they will be required to cancel their employee sponsored health care and pay the fine.  Failure to do that would result in massive litigation from attorneys filing D & O claims.  Directors & Officers liability claims are already a major problem for publicly held corporations.  Even if the CEO thinks this will be devastating to employees, they will still do it, because they have a non-delegable duty to stockholders. 

If the firm has a significant number of union contracts, the problem becomes worse and the problem develops much sooner.  If a union contract comes up for renewal now, and the contract will last through 2014, the CEO of the company will have to address the issue now.  We should expect to see union contracts negotiated with a stated intent by the company to cancel employee sponsored health care in 2014.  A lot of people who are more than happy with their employer sponsored health care plans are in for a very rude awakening.

Obama care also appears to be designed to eliminate Medicare Advantage programs. 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gracemarieturner/2012/04/27/obamacare-a-dozen-more-damaging-disclosures/

This year Medicare Advantage was already cut, but the Government Accounting Office used $8.3 billion from a slush fund to make up the difference.  That is because if Medicare Advantage programs were cancelled during an election year the results would be catastrophic to Obama.  Of course this is exactly what will happen in the near future.

Many people are terribly concerned by the blatant attempt to shove socialist medicine down our collective throats by Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.  Remember that Obamacare passed without a single Republican vote.  Even then, it required the illegal prosecution of Ted Stevens, the re-writing of the law in Massachusetts, the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase to get enough votes to pass this monstrosity.  The Democrats own Obamacare, lock, stock and barrel.   It is now obvious that Democrats have made an enormous blunder.  The problem is that when liberals gain power is that they have no clue with regard to the real world.  Obamacare is so flawed that it is about to implode under its own weight.   Yes, they definitely planned to force us into socialized medicine.  But they are hopelessly incompetent and that is becoming increasingly obvious.

So far very little of Obamacare has been implemented.  People are still concerned because of the “predictions” by opponents.  That is about to change.  Obamacare is far worse than anyone is reporting and the impact will be even more devastating.  It will soon become impossible to disguise the enormous failure of this monstrosity.  Obama’s only hope of re-election is to delay the negative impact of this legislation until after the election.  That is why they “borrowed” $8.3 billion for Medicare Advantage.  But they are out of time and they are also out of money.  This is so bad that the Supreme Court overturning Obamacare may be the best thing to happen to Obama. 

TDM

The Obama campaign is running a television commercial praising President Obama for authorizing the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.  The implication is that this was an act of great personal courage.  This doesn’t pass the giggle test.  That had to have been one of the easiest decisions in the history of the U.S. Presidency.  As Mitt Romney pointed out, even the weak and pathetic Jimmy Carter would have authorized that mission. 

The more we learn about this mission, the more obvious that Obama was weak and indecisive.  In the commercial, Clinton describes how brave Obama was because he risked damage to himself politically if the mission failed.  There is no mention of the risk to the participants.  There is no discussion of risk to our national security.  There is no mention of concern regarding a potential for the loss of innocent lives.  The only concern mentioned is the political risk for President Obama.  There is a word for people who have no problem putting other people in jeopardy, but are terrified at the slightest personal risk.  The word is coward.

It should be obvious to everyone that the Clintons despise Obama.  Bill Clinton is a lot smarter than Barack Obama.  Perhaps, just perhaps, he chose the wording very carefully, to give the illusion of praising Obama, while instead exposing him as a totally self-centered leader.  Whether Clinton did this deliberately, or not, the result is the same. 

I doubt that anyone will be convinced that Obama is a great Commander-in-Chief because of this piece of fluff.  I think even fewer people will be convinced that Mitt Romney would have been afraid to give the order.  If this election is about which candidate is stronger on national security, Mitt Romney wins in a walk.  The only people who will buy this nonsense are already solidly in Obama’s camp.

Regardless of how this plays out politically, President Obama has revealed himself as a self-serving opportunistic coward.  That should be apparent to anyone paying attention. 

TDM

This was so predictable.  There is new anti-profiling legislation, co-sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin that would expand federal law enforcement guidelines against profiling and mandate training on racial profiling at all federal law enforcement agencies:

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/18/long_time_coming_trayvons_law/singleton/

It is another example of a solution in desperate search of a problem.  This is all based on a monstrous and deliberate distortion of the facts in the Trayvon Martin case.  The following paragraph is typical of how this is portrayed by the liberal left:

“He was profiled, followed, chased, and murdered,” said Federica Wilson, the cowboy hat-wearing congresswoman from Miami where Trayvon lived with his father. “This case has captured international attention and will go down in history as a textbook example of racial profiling.”

So far, there is zero evidence that Trayvon Martin was profiled; in fact, it is not entirely clear that George Zimmerman committed any crime at all.  He may be guilty of nothing more than self-defense.  The most recent picture, released in court today, shows a bloodied George Zimmerman with significant injuries on the back of his head.  These pictures were taken within 3 minutes after the policy arrived at the scene.

The following article from PJ Media shows just how bad this has become:

http://pjmedia.com/blog/walking-papers-the-incredibly-thin-speculative-zimmerman-affidavit/

One has to ask why the liberal left jumped in with both feet on this case.  I think it is because there is an embarrassing lack of racial profiling abuses.  This is the same reason they hyperventilated about that Harvard professor.  It is also why the Duke Lacrosse team was pillared in the media.  As demonstrated by Dick Durbin, the liberal left has all this neat anti-profiling legislation burning a hole in their pocket, and they are desperately in need of a high profile incident.

The indictment against Zimmerman is not only bad, it is laughably bad.  But this is not funny.  It certainly isn’t funny to George Zimmerman who literally has a bounty on his head from the New Black Panthers.  But it also isn’t funny because liberals are now trying to use this gross misrepresentation of facts to pass irresponsible legislation.  The proposed legislation is not just wrong, it is dangerously wrong.  If police cannot profile against those who are most likely to be a threat, they must treat everyone as a threat.  It is precisely this kind of logic that resulted in a 95-year-old grandmother humiliated into removing her soiled adult diaper so some TSA agent could be sure she was not a threat:

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=44467

I am unaware of the TSA stopping a single terrorist attack.  There are certainly people who have been caught with weapons, but most of them are celebrities who leave handguns in their carry-on luggage.  The real terrorists, such as the shoe bomber and the diaper bomber, managed to get on planes rather easily and were only stopped by outraged fellow passengers.  Perhaps the terrorists were so intimidated by the mere presence of the TSA that they didn’t even try, but I suspect not.  I think terrorists now know that fellow passengers are on the alert, and they won’t hesitate to fight back.  The 9-11 hijackers only succeeded because official policy, up until then, was to cooperate with hijackers.  Now that aircrews and passengers understand what is at stake, it is going to take more than a box knife to take over an airliner.  I strongly suspect as long as we use good metal detectors and look for handguns and hand grenades, we will be pretty safe.

In addition, there is a shortage of people stupid enough to try and bring down an airliner by blowing their balls off midflight yet smart enough to pull it off.  People that stupid can fool the TSA, but they are unlikely to fool their fellow passengers.  In the meantime, the liberal left wants police to treat everyone as a potential criminal so we won’t risk offending those who actually are criminals.  Of course, if we are talking about white Christians, then profiling is not only acceptable, it is required. 

In 1770, John Adams was the defense attorney for the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre.  He took the job because none of the “Tory” lawyers were willing.  The following is from his defense argument:

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

If we are right about the facts, liberals are doomed to defeat.  If we are wrong, they deserve to win.  Those who ignore the facts are incapable of governing effectively.  That is why liberal governments are always voted out of office.  It is only a matter of time.  Eventually, all those strategies based on false assumptions are doomed to failure.  That’s just the way it is.

TDM