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It’s Getting Stupid on Iran

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From pretending only Republicans oppose a deal to pretending the U.S.’ reputation is in jeopardy, the stupid on Iran is reaching new highs.

Ed Krayewski|Apr. 6, 2015 12:15 pm

U.S., Iranian, and other negotiators from around the world are going to spend the next two and a half or so months hammering out a deal over Iran’s nuclear program. They spent the last several years hammering out the “outline” which the deal will follow but that doesn’t mean it’s a done deal—within days of the announcement of an agreement on the outline of a deal, Iranian and U.S. officials exchanged accusations that the other side was lying about what exactly had been agreed to in the outline. With six countries, including Iran and the U.S., involved in negotiations, and powerful forces in the U.S. and Iran against a deal that could eventually rob them of their favorite respective stalking horses, a deal is far from certain. It could fail for a litany of reasons.

Domestic opposition to a deal, in the U.S., in Iran, or in any of the other countries participating in the talks is unlikely to scutltle a deal on its own, but would be politically useful to blame by a government reeling from a failure. Domestic opposition, of course, is real. In the U.S. a significant amount of members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, oppose a deal. Liberals have tended to attribute domestic opposition solely to Republicans—Juan Cole laughably tried to connect billionaire donor Sheldon Adelson’s political activity to the prevailing anti-Iran atmosphere among Republican presidential candidates. Cole, like others on the left, are obsessed with Citizen’s United and corporations and other organizations of people spending money on political speech.

But the fact is an anti-Iranian mood has been around for longer than Adelson’s had an interest in presidential politics, and despite the popular media perception, is not exclusive to Republicans. Attributing Republican opposition to monied interests or to a hatred of Obama is intellectually lazy at best. If opposition to an Iran deal were limited only to Republicans then, even though Republicans now control both houses of Congress, it wouldn’t amount to much. When Fox News describes Obama and Congress on a “collision course” over Iran, that’s possible because of Democrat opposition to an Iran deal.

https://reason.com/blog/2015/04/06/its-getting-stupid-on-iran

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If Not Now … When? Will the GOP Majority Ever Stand for Anything?

Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act

Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act

If Not Now … When? Will the GOP Majority Ever Stand for Anything?

Jim DeMint / @JimDeMint / March 03, 2015

It is never the right time to do the right thing in Washington, D.C.

The phrase I heard most often from Republican leadership while serving in the House and Senate was, “This is not the right time to have this fight.”

Whether the issue was balancing the budget, school choice, patient-driven healthcare, eliminating earmarks, raising the debt limit, ending big, crony handouts like the Export-Import Bank or any stand against the continued growth, favoritism and intrusion of big government, conservatives were always told to wait. Wait until conservatives have the majority. Wait until we have the White House. Wait until we are reelected.

We’re seeing that “wait” attitude in practice today as the House votes on a “clean” Department of Homeland Security funding bill. Despite the fact that Republicans have majorities in both the House and the Senate that were elected on a pledge to fight against President Obama’s executive amnesty, and despite forcing through a big spending bill at the end of 2014 with the promise they would fight later on Homeland Security appropriations, they are now punting the issue entirely.

The phrase I heard most often from Republican leadership while serving in the House and Senate was, “This is not the right time to have this fight.”

On the other side of the aisle, I noticed a much different attitude, especially on big, liberal goals like government-run healthcare. Despite being faced with strong public opposition and the potential end to their political careers, the Democrats used false promises and every imaginable procedural trick to pass the government takeover of a sixth of America’s economy, along with one of the largest tax increases in our history.

Every Democrat in the House and Senate voted for Obamacare. And none of them even knew what was in it. Many have since lost their bids for reelection, but for liberals, the ends justify the means, and they are willing to accept huge political losses to advance their ideology.

Yet on the other side of the aisle—with the party that supposedly stands for individual freedom, limited government, free markets, American values and a strong defense—tomorrow never comes. Consider two major, pivotal issues in the future course of American history: Obamacare and executive amnesty.

The Republican leadership in Congress, K Street, Wall Street and all of their buddies in the media continue to rail that the conservative stand to defund Obamacare in 2013 hurt the party. But Republicans had one of their best elections in history in 2014, and one of the deciding issues in the election was repealing Obamacare.

The only evidence Republicans in Congress even had a pulse between the public lashing they received in 2012 and their overwhelming victory in 2014 was the fight they waged for a few days to defund Obamacare. And the leadership only pretended because of the pressure from conservatives who were demanding they follow through on their campaign promises.

However, there were times when I saw the Washington establishment will fight tooth and nail. They fight in bipartisan harmony against conservatives who push to eliminate earmarks.

I have seen the Washington establishment of Republicans and Democrats fight together for expensive bailouts, trillions in new debt, unfair and unaffordable amnesty, risky United Nations treaties, a misguided arms reduction treaty with Russia, a costly Internet sales tax, a new government travel promotion agency and more Washington control of education with No Child Left Behind.

I now hear some Republicans accepting and trying to “improve” Obamacare. And I see Republicans demanding that Congress fund the president’s unconstitutional executive amnesty and “move on to other things.”

What “other things” could possibly be more important than blocking the president of the United States from shredding our Constitution?

Some are saying we should leave it to the courts to decide, but Congress is a co-equal branch of government, and members all take oaths to defend the Constitution. If members believe these actions are unconstitutional, how can they in good conscience fund them?

Once the president succeeds in giving work permits, legal status, American jobs and public benefits to 5 million illegal residents, the next obvious steps will be to legalize and give voting rights to the more than 10 million illegal residents.

The only evidence Republicans in Congress even had a pulse between the public lashing they received in 2012 and their overwhelming victory in 2014 was the fight they waged for a few days to defund Obamacare.

Twenty-six states have taken a stand against the president’s action, and one federal judge has temporarily stopped the processing of work permits. But Obama’s Justice Department has demanded an expedited appeals hearing.

Do Republicans not know that funding the president’s unlawful actions now will allow the president to argue that Congress has confirmed his actions? Federal courts don’t often rule against the concerted action of the two other branches of government.

The absurdity of this situation is that fighting the president’s executive amnesty through Department of Homeland Security appropriations was the strategy created by Republican leaders.  Now that the time to fight has arrived, the generals are running from the battlefield and blaming the infantry they told to lead the charge.

If the Republican majority in both houses of Congress is not willing to take a stand and fight against the government takeover of America’s healthcare system or the president’s arrogant usurpation of the constitutional powers of Congress, then what will they fight for? Who will stand with freedom-minded Americans who sent this majority to Washington to fight for them? I hope my former colleagues will ask themselves: “If not us, who? If not now, when?”

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Obama refuses to acknowledge ‘Muslim terrorists’ at summit

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Obama refuses to acknowledge ‘Muslim terrorists’ at summit

By Geoff Earle

February 18, 2015 | 10:37pm

WASHINGTON — They’re burning and beheading victims in the name of Islam, but President Obama delivered a major speech Wednesday on combating violent extremism — while refusing to use the words “Muslim terrorists.”

“No religion is responsible for terrorism — people are responsible for violence and terrorism,” Obama told a crowd that included Muslim community leaders at the White House.

Following months of unrelenting atrocities by ISIS killers who released videos of themselves beheading US journalists and, most recently, 21 Coptic Christians, and burning a man alive, the president kowtowed to the audience by proclaiming that “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.”

“Generations of Muslim immigrants came here and went to work as farmers and merchants and factory workers, helped to lay railroads and build up America,” he said.

“The first Islamic center in New York City was founded in the 1890s. America’s first mosque — this was an interesting fact — was in North Dakota.”

https://nypost.com/2015/02/18/obama-refuses-to-acknowledge-muslim-terrorists-at-summit/

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The West’s Death Wish

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Young Palestinian Girls Carrying Rockets, Gaza, Hamas 

The West’s Death Wish
Aug. 03 
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
   
We’ve seen this movie before.

Israel is bombarded with rockets fired by Hamas-backed terrorists, flush with cash from international humanitarian aid efforts and the enemies of democracy lurking elsewhere, and hiding like the worst species of cowards among civilians in schools, mosques and hospitals: https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4553643,00.html

Understandably, Israel defends itself by moving into Gaza to destroy the tunnel networks and rocket sites utilized to terrorize and murder its population, the only peoples living in a health Middle Eastern democracy, all the while proving humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.  Wouldn’t we do the same if, hypothetically, Canadian terrorists began raining rockets down on Michigan tomorrow?

Amazingly the West’s answer isn’t universally affirmative.

Not everyone understands or wants to understand. The international community intervenes in the Israeli-Palestinian… by attempting to grab Israel’s wrists and inquiring, in an almost mocking fashion, “why are you hitting yourself?” while Hamas breaks one brokered cease fire after another with impunity. The international media, in turn, focuses on the collateral damage behind Gaza’s lines (remember: Hamas terrorists hide their munitions and fighters behind human shields) and ignores the 3.5 million Israeli citizens living under constant threat of annihilation.

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In a word, Save Jerseyans, the dynamic at work here is insane.

Deference to the “cause” of Hamas is so illogical, particularly in light of the latest broken cease fire, that I’m left to assume any support for Hamas is either (1) evidence of Antisemitism or (2) sufficient reason for a CT scan.

I think we’re seeing a LOT of both.

Young Palestinian Girls Carrying Rockets, Gaza, Hamas (Photo credit: IDF Blog)

Contemplate the “cause” as articulated by its supporters and draw your own conclusions. Hamas’s charter unequivocally calls for the destruction of Israel. Not the relocation of Israel, a “land-for-peace” swap with Israel, a political compromise with Israel, or even monetary reparations to be paid by Israel. All of the Jews in the Holy Land dead. That’s their stated goal. Again, you don’t have to take my word for it. They’ve written it down!

Homicidal actors always announce what they’re going to do before they do it. Hitler and his brown shirts were unabiguously violent anti-Semitic in the 1930s. Mass murders regularly disclose their rants online or to those around them in the run-up to the massacre.

– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/08/israel-gaza-palestinian-rocket-attack/#sthash.FmX4QNqC.dpuf