Tag: Administration

Biden Administration Planning to Allow Employees of the 1996-2001 Afghanistan Taliban Government to Enter Our Country

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Taliban BIden

“These aren’t the interpreters that we took. These were people that rushed into the planes, and they were so interested in trying to make it sound like ‘Oh, they’re doing a good job.’ These people, many of these people are going to be terrorists. Okay? They’re going to be terrorists. They were very powerful. They were very energetic in getting onto the aircraft.” – Former President Donald J. Trump

In an Exclusive, FoxNews.com reports that

The Biden administration is planning to allow some Afghan civil servants who were employed by the 1996-2001 Taliban government to be exempt from terror-related bans on entering the United States, according to a draft document obtained by Fox News. The administration continues to bring in tens of thousands of Afghans as part of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The draft U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) planning document, reviewed by Fox News, outlines how the Department of Homeland Security is planning on issuing a memorandum to allow Afghan civil servants who worked during the Taliban regime to be exempted from terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds (TRIG) if they fulfill other background and screening requirements.

TRIG places limits on individuals who are members of a terrorist organization or who have engaged in terrorism, making them inadmissible to the U.S. and ineligible for immigration benefits. The USCIS website says that the definition of terrorism-related activity “is relatively broad and may apply to individuals and activities not commonly thought to be associated with terrorism.” It means that TRIG would likely rule out those who worked under the Taliban regime, which ruled from 1996 until its ouster by the U.S. in 2001 due to its harboring of al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks.

“Many individuals who worked in civil service positions before the declaration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996 continued to do so after the declaration,” the document says in justification of the application. “Some did so under duress or other situations of hardship.”

“Some used their positions in humanitarian capacities to mitigate the repressive actions of the Taliban regime, often at great personal risk. Some of these civil servants later worked for or helped the International Security Assistance Force, the U.S. government or the Afghan government that was established in Dec. 22, 2001,” it adds.

The Taliban has regained control of Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, and the Biden administration has been bringing tens of thousands of Afghans into the U.S., including those who helped the U.S. mission and those deemed “at risk.” The administration has estimated it will bring in approximately 95,000 Afghans during this fiscal year.

The TRIG exemption authority for Afghan civil servants was finalized in the final days of the Obama administration in January 2017, but it was never published or applied to any refugees, the document says. USCIS says the guidance is being applied now as it anticipates increased filings from Afghan nationals. The authority allows USCIS officers to exempt terror-related inadmissibility grounds that result from employment by the Taliban as civil servants between Sept. 1996 and Dec. 2001.

An administration official emphasized to Fox News that the memo would not change the screening and vetting process in existence and that each individual would still be screened, evaluated and cleared by law enforcement and counterterrorism officials before being admitted into the U.S. The official also said that similar exemptions have been made with refugees from countries like the Soviet Union and Cuba, and that, without an exemption, Afghans who worked as teachers or in health care could be excluded from entering the U.S.

Considering that the Department of Justice under AG Merrick Garland is nothing but a Political Tool used by the Biden Administration and the Democrat Elite to intimidate average Americans, I am not getting the “Warm Fuzzies” from their reassurance that they will vet these former members of the Taliban Regime of Afghanistan.

Here’s a Million Drachma Question for ya: Why are the other Middle Eastern Countries not taking them in?

What do they know that The Biden Administration doesn’t?

I can answer those questions in two little words: “hijrah” and “taqujiyya”.

“Hijrah” refers to the undertaking of a pilgrimage to spread Islam to the World, such as undertaken by Mohammed between Mecca and Medina in 612 A.D., which is referred to as “The Start of the Muslim Era”.

“Taquiyya” is the Muslim Practice of purposeful lying to us “Infidels” in order to further the cause of Islam.

This situation, that Europe is still dealing with, and that we will be facing, with a possible Invasion Force, disguised as “Refugees”, can be traced back to Obama’s premature evacuation of Iraq.

It is no secret that Barack Hussein Obama is a vain and petulant man. It is also no secret that he was a Far Left Radical in his collegiate days and his early political career, only moving to the middle of the political spectrum while he was campaigning for the presidency.

Obama’s defense for America admitting undocumented and un-vetted Syrian “Refugees”, who, literally, as documented, tore apart Europe, is the scolding comment, which he and his Former Vice-President make time and time again,

That’s not who we are.

“We” who,?

Americans have been aware, since before the nightmarish 8 years of the Obama Presidency, that there is a great disconnect between the citizens of the United States and the Far Left Democratic Party and everything that they represent.

For example, Barack Hussein Obama was not raised like the majority of Americans.

He didn’t have rubber dart gun wars in the neighborhood backyards. He didn’t play Nerf football in the front yards. He didn’t go to Vacation Bible School. I don’t know if he was ever told to stand with his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance.

And, his Former Vice-President, the author of our current nightmare, Installed President #DementiaJoe Biden, is nothing but a puppet at the hands of his Far Left Masters, probably including Barack Hussein Obama.

It is this disconnect that is at the heart of the distrust that Americans have experienced and are experiencing, regarding these incoming refugees, entering our Sovereign Nation with their child brides.

Obama has never understood the shared values of average Americans, because the people who raised him did not share those values, either. It is the concern that we feel for one another, that shared American value system, that caused the great awakening which led to the election of President Donald J. Trump..

Allow me to tell you who “we”, the average Americans, who have been watching you tear OUR country apart for the last 9 months, are, Sleepy Joe.

We are the men and women, who landed on the shores of an unknown, uncivilized land, in order to be free from a tyrant and, in order to be free to worship the God of Abraham as we pleased.

We are the people who defeated that same tyrant and began a nation that, despite growing pains, and a war which pitted brother against brother, became the Greatest Nation on the Face of God’s Green Earth.

We are that small band of Tennessee Volunteers, who, with Davy Crockett at the Alamo, though hopelessly outnumbered, gave their lives in defense of freedom.

We are the sons and grandsons of those brave men who landed on Normandy Beach, turning the tide of World War II.

We are the people who are the most charitable people on Earth, contributing millions upon millions of our hard-earned money to private and faith-based charities, and, who personally help our family friends, and neighbors out, when disaster strikes…OUT OF THE GOODNESS OF OUR HEARTS, NOT PRESIDENTIAL DECREE.
.
We have taken in millions of immigrants, who came here legally, to start a new life in this blessed land, eager to assimilate into the American Way of Life, where, by God’s Grace…and hard work, they too could achieve the American Dream.

And, we are a nation, comprised of a population, of whom 75% STILL identify themselves as CHRISTIANS.
My father led me to Christ. He landed on Normandy Beach, on D-Day, as a Master Sergeant of an Army Engineering Unit. He was the finest man I have ever known.

God’s Holy Word tells us

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: – Ecclesiastes 3:1

Regarding the so-called “Refugees”, the overwhelming majority of which are military-looking ultra-fit men with cell phones,…

I am sick of how Liberals, like Biden, all of the sudden have such an interest in the Bible and what Christ has to say in a feeble attempt at trying to use the faith of three quarters of Americans to prove their political point.

Hey Liberals, when you’re yanking a baby’s head out from their mothers womb with a pair of tongs, do you give a rat’s butt about the God of Abraham and the tenets of Christianity, then?

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. – Matthew 7:20

America is a Nation of Laws, a Constitutional Republic forged from the sacrifices of men and women who loved Liberty and American Freedom more than life itself.

That’s who WE are, President Biden.

President Abraham Lincoln once said,

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

That is the situation that you find yourself in today, Mr. President.

Judging by your past actions during these last 9 months, including the clandestine dissemination of the “youths” from Central and South America, who have arrived here, parentless, across our open Southern Border, throughout our country, we “average Americans”, do not trust you and your people, when you say that you will “vet” these “Refugees”.

Especially, since the overwhelming majority of them are well-fit young men with cell phones, who look like soldiers.

And, that is why we are not very happy with your plans to disseminate these “Refugees” among us.

And, you wonder why the majority of Americans no longer trust you to perform your duties as President?
It’s a matter of SURVIVAL.

Please step down as President TODAY.

Until He Comes,

KJ

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Biden-Harris Administration Stereotypes “White Conservatives”, Will Launch COVID-19 Vaccination PSAs on “The Deadliest Catch”, NASCAR, AND CMT

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

See the source image

It appears that the Biden-Harris Administration learned noting from what happened to the Democrats in 2016.

Newsmax.com reports that

In an effort to drive vaccine distribution to “white conservative communities,” the Biden administration plans to drive COVID-19 messaging to the NASCAR and country music audiences, the White House announced Monday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted the administration’s struggles to reach rural and conservative areas in the country with its vaccine drives, and said it will publishing public service announcements (PSAs) on “The Deadliest Catch,” NASCAR, and Country Music Television (CMT).

“Often people think of that as just Black and brown communities and that it’s not,” Psaki told reporters at the daily press briefing. “As you’ve noted, also conservative communities, white evangelicals. It’s a range of communities around the country.

“We’re looking for a range of ways to get directly connected to white conservative communities. We won’t always be the best messengers, but we are still trying to meet people where they are, but also empower local organizations.”


Although stereotyping white conservative communities might be offensive to some, the White House’s stated goal was to strengthen vaccine confidence in people fitting that particular demographic, included the “white conservative communities” in her discussion of the “highest-risk and hardest-hit communities” by COVID-19.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a $10 billion investment to strengthen “vaccine confidence” in hardest-hit, highest-risk communities back in March, the Daily Caller reported.

So, there is a problem with “White Conservatives”, such as myself, not taking the vaccine?

There is a reason for that.

They do not trust the Biden-Harris Administration.

And, I do not blame them.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been lying all of their political careers…and that lying did not stop when they arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It got worse.

White Conservatives have been called Neanderthals by this President.

That hardly endeared Biden to Americans living in the Heartland.

And then, he lied about Georgia’s law designed to allow voters to vote while at the same time making it harder for cheaters to cheat.

Considering that there is not way in H-E-L-L that Joe Biden honestly won the 2020 Presidential Election, I understand why he is against making it harder to cheat in a National Election.

But, I digress…

I understand Conservatives not trusting the vaccine and its contents…especially after hearing stories about people getting sick after their second dose.

I believe that Biden and his Administration are once against showing their ignorance born out of arrogance as regards to what average Americans are like.

These sources, which they have picked to air their Vaccination PSAs on, are television programming which someone who believes that “White Conservatives” are uneducated Rednecks would choose as their marketing vehicle.

Y’know, boys and girls…Liberals are arrogant people who have nothing to be arrogant about.

And, this COVID-19 Vaccination Marketing Campaign demonstrates that perfectly.

Just as it was in 2016, the Far Left Democratic Party’s arrogance will be their undoing.

Until He Comes,

KJ

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Will Trump Ask Ted Cruz to Be His Next Attorney General?

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

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Is President Trump about to make a change in the position of Attorney General in his Administration?

Per the Washington Post on MSN.com…

President Trump has labeled his own attorney general as “beleaguered.”

“So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?” the president tweeted from his personal Twitter account on Monday morning.

Subscribe to the Post’s Must Reads newsletter: Compelling stories you can’t afford to miss

Over the past week, Trump has been attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions over of his decision months ago to recuse himself from the investigations into possible connections between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, supported Trump from the early days of his candidacy and became a trusted adviser. Ten days after the election, Trump nominated Sessions for attorney general and said in a statement that “Jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him.”

In March, Sessions announced that he would recuse himself from investigations related to the 2016 presidential campaign, including those into Russian interference in the electoral process. That announcement came the day after The Washington Post reported that Sessions twice met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign and did not disclose those meetings to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing in January.

The Russia investigations have swept up Trump’s eldest son and his son-in-law, greatly angering the president, who says the charges are unfounded and part of a “witch hunt.” Trump has been privately criticizing Sessions for weeks, and he said in an interview with the New York Times last week that he would not have appointed Sessions if he had known the attorney general would recuse himself, as he considers the decision “very unfair to the president.”

The president vented to the world in a series of tweets on Monday morning, lashing out not only at Sessions but also at Democrats and the media, whom he has blamed for hyping and continuing the investigations.

 

Yesterday, what might seem like a strange suggestion for a possible replacement for Jeff Sessions was being floated around: Ted Cruz.

Now, he would not be my first suggestion. That would be Rudy Giuliani. However, Giuliani let it be known that he would only except the Secretary of State Position in the Trump Administration, if asked.

On April 13, 2016, the following post appeared on legalinsurrection.com…

Noted liberal Harvard Law School professor (retired) Alan Dershowitz was on the Kelly File last night, and repeated what he has said before via News Max):

“He came into my class, literally his first day in law school with his right had up – not his left hand, his right hand,” Dershowitz said Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File.”

Cruz challenged his professor on everything, which made his job easier, Dershowitz said.

“I was against the death penalty, he’s in favor. I was in favor of the exclusionary rule, he’s against it,” he said. “And he made such brilliant arguments that I never had to play the devil’s advocate.”

Cruz “was one of the best students I ever had,” Dershowitz said.

Many of his liberal friends criticize him for praising the firebrand conservative, Dershowitz said, but he argues, “I have to tell the truth about my students, even if I disagree with their views – even if I’m not gonna vote for him. I’m not going to change history and pretend that this brilliant student was anything else.”

High praise from a man who knows more about the law than 99% of the practicing attorneys in our nation’s courts today.

Back in September of 2013, right before the disaster known as Obamacare was about to cost Americans their Doctors and Savings Accounts, Cruz held a filibuster on the Senate Floor against it.

His spirited defense of Americans’ right to decide their own health care, reminded me of the indefatigable Jefferson Smith, in Capra’s classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. Smith (the late, great Jimmy Stewart) says the following as he’s delivering his filibuster:

Just get up off the ground, that’s all I ask. Get up there with that lady that’s up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won’t just see scenery; you’ll see the whole parade of what Man’s carved out for himself, after centuries of fighting. Fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so’s he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race, color, or creed. That’s what you’d see. There’s no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties.

When you get down to it, what Senator Ted Cruz was speaking about was LIBERTY.

Our American Freedom has been endowed by OUR CREATOR. Obamacare was simply a step toward a totalitarian regime taking it away.

If Cruz can bring that same passion to the job of Attorney General and the task of going after the Queen of Mean, Hillary Clinton, and the corrupt crime spree which occurred while she held the position of Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, it should be something that will be talked about for decades to come.

I realize that political ambition and the heat of the battle tarnished him a bit during the Republican Primaries, but I believe that, if called upon, Ted Cruz would make a solid and formidable Attorney General.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Federal Appeals Court Tells Obama “No” to Amnesty E.O. Presidential Temper Tantrum Ensues.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

illegal immigration 7714The high-pitched wailing, which was heard around America yesterday afternoon, was not our Civil Defense Warning System being activated.

It was Petulant President Pantywaist himself, Barack Hussein Obama, having a Presidential Temper Tantrum, because he did not get his way.

The New York Times reports that

A federal appeals court on Tuesday denied the Obama administration’s request to lift a hold on the president’s executive actions on immigration, which would have granted protection from deportation as well as work permits to millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

Two of three judges on a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, left in place an injunction by a Federal District Court judge in Brownsville, Tex. The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by Texas and 25 other states against actions President Obama took in November. Many of the initiatives were scheduled to take effect this month.

The appeals court found that the states had sufficient legal grounds to bring the lawsuit and that the administration had not shown that it would be harmed if the injunction remained in place and the programs were further delayed.

Also denied was a request by the administration to limit the injunction to the states bringing the lawsuit. The ruling is a second setback for programs the president hoped would be a major piece of his legacy, raising new uncertainty about whether they will take effect before the end of his term and casting doubts on the confidence of administration lawyers that their case was very strong.

In a statement, Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, said Mr. Obama had tried to impose “a drastic change in immigration policy” without the consent of Congress. The appeals court decision is “a victory for those committed to preserving the rule of law in America,” Mr. Paxton said. “We will continue to fight the brazen lawlessness that has become a trademark of the Obama administration.”

White House officials said the ruling was not surprising, but they declined to discuss the next legal move for the administration.

“Today, two judges of the Fifth Circuit chose to misrepresent the facts and the law,” a White House spokeswoman, Brandi Hoffine, said. “The president’s actions were designed to bring greater accountability to our broken immigration system, grow the economy and keep our communities safe. They are squarely within the bounds of his authority and they are the right thing to do for the country.”

The Justice Department could appeal the ruling on the emergency stay to the full appeals court, but legal experts said it was more likely that the administration would skip that conservative court and ask the Supreme Court to allow the programs to proceed.

The legal wrangling suggests that Mr. Obama and his aides may have underestimated the legal and political challenges to offering protections to more than four million illegal immigrants without a congressional vote.

In the 70-page opinion, two judges wrote that Texas had shown it would incur significant costs in issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants who would be allowed to stay in the country. The judges, Jerry E. Smith and Jennifer Elrod, also rejected the administration’s argument that the programs could not be reviewed by the courts because they stemmed from policy decisions by the president on how to enforce the immigration laws.

Judge Stephen A. Higginson disagreed. He wrote that the administration was “adhering to the law, not derogating from it.”

Immigrant advocates supporting the president worried that the longer the initiatives are held up, the harder it could be to persuade immigrants to come forward to sign up.

So, with 40% of America’s Workforce giving up on the American Dream and dropping out of our workforce, King Barack the First decided that he would increase the competition for America’s jobs, by issuing a Royal Decree (Executive Order) granting amnesty to those who have illegally entered our Sovereign Nation, to the detriment of legal American citizens.

In 2013, brilliant American Economist and Political Pundit, Dr. Thomas Sowell, was interviewed by Laura Ingraham, on her syndicated radio program. Here is what he had to say about Amnesty and the Economy:

That’s incredible. I mean —first of all to an economist, it is incredible to speak about shortages without talking about prices, in this case wages…You know there, there have been so many predictions of shortages of so many occupations and the shortages don’t materialize. And why not? Because if there is a shortage, the wage rate goes up. That attracts in more people and lo and behold, the jobs are filled.

In agriculture, the farmers would obviously prefer to get workers who get low pay rather than workers they have to pay a higher wage. And as long as there are an unlimited supply of farm workers coming in from Mexico, they will never have to raise the wages very much. They say Americans won’t do these jobs. These are jobs Americans have done for generations, if not centuries. And it’s a time when millions of Americans are out of work, and are looking for any kind of work. And so this is utter nonsense.

…They constantly talk about immigrants in the abstract. You know, there are no such thing as abstract immigrants. There are immigrants from country a, b, c, d. They are radically different. People coming in from some countries almost never go on welfare. Immigrants coming in from other countries go on welfare to a great extent. If we’re going to have a rational immigration policy, then we have to be able to decide what people, what countries, what occupations — things like that, instead of rushing everything through.

The other main thing though is that if we don’t control the borders, we don’t have an immigration policy because regardless of what policy you put on paper, if people can just walk across the border when they darn well please, then your policy means nothing. The other thing that bothers me is the Republicans seem to think we will give — illegal immigrants citizenship if they do a, b or c. Democrats say x, y and z. I don’t know why we need promise anybody citizenship before we get control of the borders and have time to sit down and think and look at the facts, and then try to draw up some rational policy.

In 1903,  Jacob A. Riis,  a reporter who was born in Denmark in 1849 and immigrated to America at the age of 21, wrote the following about the immigrants who landed at Ellis Island,

The railroad ferries come and take their daily host straight from Ellis Island to the train, ticketed now with the name of the route that is to deliver them at their new homes, West and East. And the Battery boat comes every hour for its share. Then the many-hued procession-the women are hooded, one and all, in their gayety shawls for the entry-is led down on a long pathway divided in the middle by a wire screen, form behind which come shrieks of recognition from fathers, brothers, uncles, and aunts that are gathered there in the holiday togs of Mulberry or Division Street. The contrast is sharp-an artist would say all in favor of the newcomers. But they would be the last to agree with him. In another week the rainbow colors will have been laid aside, and the landscape will be poorer for it. On the boat they meet their friends, and the long journey is over, the new life begun.Those who have no friends run the gauntlet of the boarding-house runners, and take their chances with the new freedom, unless the missionary or “the society” of their people holds out a helping hand. For at the barge-office gate Uncle Sam lets go. Through it they must walk alone.

I know that you have heard America referred to as a Melting Pot.

That phrase was actually made popular in the 1908 play, “The Melting Pot,” a stage play by Israel Zangwill that encouraged assimilation into our nation’s culture by the immigrants of the time.

Zangwill was the London-born son of Russian Jewish immigrants. His play made its debut in Washington in 1908 and played in New York for four months the next year. The main character is David Quixano, a Jewish immigrant, orphaned by a pogram, which is a massacre of Jews. Quizano lives with his uncle on Staten Island and becomes smitten with the daughter of a Russian nobleman.

In the end, the good guy(David) gets the girl, which inspires him to shout from the rooftop of a Lower East Side settlement house that “America is God’s crucible” and to proclaim: “What is the glory of Rome and Jerusalem where all nations and races come to worship and look back, compared with the glory of America, where all races and nations come to labor and look forward!”

What Petulant President Pantywaist and his sycophantic Liberal supporters in Washington, the Main Stream Media, and elsewhere fail to realize, is that you can’t buy loyalty to a nation. 

The British found that out with their hired German Mercenaries, the Hessians, during the Revolutionary War.

In their self-absorbed Political Greed, America’s professional politicians are setting the stage for the possible fall of our nation.

Legal Immigrants earned their citizenship. They showed that they were willing to become a part of the Great American Melting Pot (from the Schoolhouse Rock video of the same name).

Illegal Immigrants do not respect the laws of our land, to begin with. Why would that change, if they were given the rights of citizenship?

And, what about the 40% of America’s Workforce, who have dropped out due to frustration, depression, and aggravation?

How about taking care of those whom you are supposed to be serving, first, Mr. President?

Until He Comes,

KJ

Memorial Day Weekend: America’s Chaplain Corp…”Fighting the Good Fight”

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

 

 

Chaplain CorpAs Memorial Day Weekend 2015 continues on this Sunday Morning, across the world, brave men and women, in service to our country, gather to worship the One Who made them.

They are led by a devoted team of men and women, known as “Chaplains”.

Now, these Men and Women of God are under attack, by the very Administration, who is supposed to be supporting them.

Fox News Insider reported in an article, posed on April 26th, that

Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) recently went to bat for an Army chaplain who he claims was wrongly punished for using religion in counseling services.Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn was issued a Letter of Concern that accused him of advocating for Christianity during a suicide prevention training session at the University of North Georgia last November.

Collins, an Air Force reserve chaplain who served in Iraq and who represents Georgia’s 9th congressional district, joined Anna Kooiman on “Fox and Friends Weekend” to share insight on what he sees as a larger movement against religion in the U.S. military.

Collins asserted that the Army’s refusal to remove the Letter of Concern from Lawhorn’s file is indicative of the military’s efforts to intimidate chaplains into not expressing their faith and doing the job they’re supposed to be doing.

“I think right now what we’re dealing with is people who claim to be tolerant are actually the most intolerant, especially when they have beliefs they truly don’t believe in,” Collins said. “Chaplains are there for everyone, whether they have faith or no faith, and the chaplains need to be able to operate under their own faith background and also operate within the military. And right now they seem to be under attack for doing just that.”

“We’re in an environment where our military needs to always be at the top of readiness, and readiness means not only physical well-being but also mental and spiritual well-being. And so that’s why it is important that chaplains are able to continue their role in the guidelines that have already been set forth,” Collins said.

“What you have now is basically a minority group that says this shouldn’t be part of the military.”

The Tyranny of the Minority, Indeed.

As I have written numerous times, especially during the last two years of the Obama Administration, the Faith of Christian Americans has been relentlessly attacked, with Christians basically being considered an “Enemy of the State”

Eric Metaxas nailed the matter in the following article, posted at ChristianPost.com:

In the first century, Jesus was asked whether the Jewish people, who were under pagan, Roman occupation, should pay taxes to Caesar. The Lord, of course, said we are to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s. But in 21st century America, Caesar is angling for a better deal—and he’s getting it.

Our old friend Chuck Colson sounded the alarm several years ago when certain political figures on the Left—including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton—began downsizing the First Amendment’s guarantee of our God-given right to freedom of religion into a more manageable “freedom of worship.”

Chuck feared—rightly, it turns out—that opponents of religious liberty were seeking to keep religion within the four walls of our churches, synagogues, and mosques—as if religious belief were no more than a purely private opinion with no practical implications for the real world. In other words, “Feel free to worship, if you like, but keep your religiously informed opinions and actions to yourself.”

It’s a totalitarian impulse, and you can see it in the intensifying efforts to force faith groups to pay for abortions, to shut down Christian businesses that don’t want to participate in so-called “gay weddings,” and so on.

And the totalitarians are getting bolder about it. In Victoria, Australia, doctors are required by law to perform abortions when asked, or refer the patient to a colleague who will. In Canada, meanwhile, the Ontario and Saskatchewan Colleges of Doctors and Surgeons want physicians forced to perform euthanasia—which is now a fundamental national “right”—if no one else is available to do it.

And the totalitarians—being totalitarians—will brook no compromise. According to Canadian bioethicist Udo Schuklenk, “The very idea that we ought to countenance conscientious objection in any profession is objectionable.”

Really? And alas, this totalitarian streak is not confined to the Great White North. Mrs. Clinton, who once said that abortion can be “a sad, even tragic choice,” now asserts that a so-called “right to reproductive health care” trumps religious freedom. “Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will,” she said at a recent meeting of the Women in the World Summit. “And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.” Religious beliefs have to be changed?

Now Caesar seeks to regulate not just our actions, but our thoughts as well!

New York Times columnist and gay-rights advocate Frank Bruni thinks we need to change our religious beliefs about marriage, too—since, he says, interpreting the Bible is filled with subjectivity and uncertainty. Therefore believers shouldn’t take it too literally on matters of sexuality. “So our debate about religious freedom,” Bruni says, “should include a conversation about freeing religions and religious people from prejudices that they needn’t cling to and can indeed jettison, much as they’ve jettisoned other aspects of their faith’s history, rightly bowing to the enlightenments of modernity.”

How nice that Mr. Bruni and other sexual totalitarians stand ready to “free us” from our prejudices. What’s next, re-education camps? If you think I’m exaggerating the totalitarian threat, in the same newspaper, David Brooks writes, “If orthodox Christians are suddenly written out of polite society as modern-day Bull Connors, this would only halt progress, polarize the debate and lead to a bloody war of all against all.”

My Earthly Father, whom I shall write more about, tomorrow, was the greatest, most wonderful man, I have ever known.

It was not just because he served in World War II, nor was it the fact that he brought home to me malted milk balls, warm cashews, or chocolate-covered raisins every Friday Night from the Sears Store where he worked.

He led me to Jesus Christ.

It was not just by his words, or the fact that he made sure that I was in Sunday School, every Sunday Morning. And, it wasn’t just the fact that some of my earliest memories of him revolve around listening to his beautiful Tenor Voice, echo through the kitchen, while he sang “The Old Rugged Cross”, as he made my breakfast.

He raised me, my sister, and my step-sister, in “the way in which we should go”.

By now. you’re probably asking, “So what’s the point of all this, KJ?”

On this Memorial Day Weekend, as we remember the sacrifices made by our Brightest and Best, we need to remember those who stand by their side, in the Field of Battle, armed with the Word of God, and a message of Love, Hope, and Fidelity.

America’s Chaplain Corps are out there making a daily difference in the lives of or brave Fighting Men and Women.

Their “Charge to Keep” transcends the cultural shackles imposed upon them by an Administration bowing at the altar of Political Correctness and Political Expediency.

We are given free will by our Creator…will to make choices and decisions on the direction of our lives. Being human, we often don’t make the right decisions and being human, those decisions have the potential to lead us down a dark path.

Whether is in the heat of combat on foreign shores, in the oppressive reality of our humdrum civilian lives, or strictly in the close quarters of our own consciousness, the path we choose to follow is up to us.

However, others, like the Chaplain Corps, our parents, family, and friends, can make a difference in our journey.

I thank God that through His Grace I was given a Father who made sure that I received loving instruction in The Way in which I should go.

We still live in the greatest country on the face of the earth and we still have a responsibility to one another.

The Light or the Darkness. The choice is up to each and every one of us.

America’s Chaplain Corps remain an integral part of the battle for America’s Soul.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:14 (ESV)

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

One Year Ago, Obama Administration Sided With Boko Haram Against the Nigerian Government

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

Boko Haram HashtagI have recently written about the horrible kidnapping of 234 Christian Nigerian Girls by the Muslim Terrorist Organization, Boko Haram, who are a part of al Qaeda, the Muslim Terroists behind the horrible day of September 11, 2001, when 3,000 innocent Americans were slaughtered.

On May 6, 2014, President Barack Hussein Obama told ABC News’ Ginger Zee…

You’ve got one of the worst regional or local terrorist organizations in Boko Haram in Nigeria, they’ve been killing people ruthlessly for many years now and we’ve already been seeking greater cooperation with the Nigerians – this may be the event that helps to mobilize the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organization that’s perpetrated such a terrible crime.

On May 10, 2014, the First Lady of the United States of America, gave the Weekly Address to the Nation on behalf of her husband, Barack Hussein Obama…

Hello everyone, I’m Michelle Obama, and on this Mother’s Day weekend, I want to take a moment to honor all the mothers out there and wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.

I also want to speak to you about an issue of great significance to me as a First Lady, and more importantly, as the mother of two young daughters.

Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night.

This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education – grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls.

And I want you to know that Barack has directed our government to do everything possible to support the Nigerian government’s efforts to find these girls and bring them home.

In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters. We see their hopes, their dreams – and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.

Many of them may have been hesitant to send their daughters off to school, fearing that harm might come their way.

But they took that risk because they believed in their daughters’ promise and wanted to give them every opportunity to succeed.

The girls themselves also knew full well the dangers they might encounter.

Their school had recently been closed due to terrorist threats…but these girls still insisted on returning to take their exams.

They were so determined to move to the next level of their education…so determined to one day build careers of their own and make their families and communities proud.

And what happened in Nigeria was not an isolated incident…it’s a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions.

It’s the story of girls like Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan.

Malala spoke out for girls’ education in her community…and as a result, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while on a school bus with her classmates.

But fortunately Malala survived…and when I met her last year, I could feel her passion and determination as she told me that girls’ education is still her life’s mission.

As Malala said in her address to the United Nations, she said “The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

The courage and hope embodied by Malala and girls like her around the world should serve as a call to action.

Because right now, more than 65 million girls worldwide are not in school.

Yet, we know that girls who are educated make higher wages, lead healthier lives, and have healthier families.

And when more girls attend secondary school, that boosts their country’s entire economy.

So education is truly a girl’s best chance for a bright future, not just for herself, but for her family and her nation.

And that’s true right here in the U.S. as well…so I hope the story of these Nigerian girls will serve as an inspiration for every girl – and boy – in this country.

I hope that any young people in America who take school for granted – any young people who are slacking off or thinking of dropping out – I hope they will learn the story of these girls and recommit themselves to their education.

These girls embody the best hope for the future of our world…and we are committed to standing up for them not just in times of tragedy or crisis, but for the long haul.

We are committed to giving them the opportunities they deserve to fulfill every last bit of their God-given potential.

So today, let us all pray for their safe return… let us hold their families in our hearts during this very difficult time…and let us show just a fraction of their courage in fighting to give every girl on this planet the education that is her birthright. Thank you.

Please notice that, at no time during her address, does “Mooch” mention Boko Haram or the fact that they are Muslim Terrorists, who are forcing these Christian Girls into slavery and into converting to Islam, upon threat of death….almost as if someone had told her not to.-

There is a reason for that.

Exactly one year ago, her husband, the President of the United States, was defending these barbaric, Radically Islamic Monsters.

According to thenigerianvoice.com,

SAN FRANCISCO, May 02, (THEWILL) – The United States Government has withdrawn military assistance to Nigeria citing various human rights violations by Nigerian security forces, particularly the military which is currently engulfed in a controversy over the killing of dozens and destruction of hundreds of residences in Baga, a town in Borno State during a clash with members of the Boko Haram.

The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Terence P. McCulley in a private meeting Thursday in Abuja with about ten members of the human rights community in Nigeria disclosed the US government position.

The US supports the Nigerian military and security agencies with training, intelligence and weapons.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report released in Johannesburg, South Africa, said its investigations into the fighting in Baga, showed that 183 people were killed, contrary to the claims by the military, which also investigated the incident and has maintained that 36 persons and a soldier died in the clash.

HRW which cited a community leader as its source, also said its analysis of satellite images of Baga, before and after the clash, showed that 2,275 buildings, majority of which were likely residences, were razed by fire with another 125 severely damaged.

THEWILL gathered from a source at the meeting who opted to remain anonymous that the Ambassador called the meeting to feel the pulse of the human rights community over the violations of basic rights of citizens by security forces under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

As the meeting progressed, Mr. Terrence announced to the activists that the US congress had previously passed a law that bars the United States from rendering military assistance to any government that violates basic rights of citizens. He said the Obama led US government has therefore ceased to assist Nigeria militarily in obedience to the law.

The source said Mr. Terence listened as his visitors expressed frustrations with the Nigerian government over its inability to bring to justice security operatives that have violated rights of fellow citizens.

The source further told THEWILL that the activists pleaded with the US Ambassador to cancel any invitation extended to President Goodluck Jonathan to attend any meetings of global world leaders in protest of the nation’s worsening human rights record.

The Ambassador however agreed with their position and assured the rights activists of the US government’s unflinching support for democracy and the rights of citizens. He assured them that their position would be communicated to the Department of State headed by Senator John Kerry.

Some of the activists at the meeting include Mr. Clement Nwankwo, Mr. Emmanuel Onwubiko of the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria; Kole Shettima of the MacArthur Foundation and Auwal Rafsanjani of the Executive Director at Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) amongst others.

So, what has changed in the past year?

Why did Obama get us involved in “hunting down” a group which he defended just one year ago?

Simple: Political Expediency.

Our involvement in the kidnapping of these poor Christian Girls in Nigeria is a ploy to distract the American Public from all of Obama’s scandals: Benghazi, the IRS, etc.

Which makes the Administration’s “concern” disingenuous at best and impeachable, at worst.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity: Obama Vs. The Little Sisters of the Poor

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics5 Comments

American FreedomWhen I was a child, I was taught by my parents to respect others. Quite frankly, I was raised to be a Southern Gentleman.

Any slip in saying “Yes, ma’am” or “No, sir” was met by a swift correction by my mother.

That same respect went out to everyone, regardless of their religion. I suppose that it was because my folks were members of America’s Greatest Generation, as I have recorded before, who all pulled together in the dark days of the Depression, the terrifying days of Word War II, and the uncertain days of the Cold War, when there was a nuke hidden around every corner.

They had to work hard, and with one another, for everything they had, and, in doing so, they became determined that their children would be raised with American values, principles, and ethics.

A couple of examples that I remember of that “mutual respect”, centered around my Mother. When I was in Second Grade, around 1965, she came down with severe Diabetes. Her doctor was a wonderful, old Jewish gentleman, whom my Mother had worked the Front Desk for.  He made sure that she got the best of care in the hospital, because she was not only his past employee, but his friend, as well.

While I was visiting my Mother in St. Joseph Hospital, in Memphis, TN, in walked this big, Black man, wearing a suit, with a red liturgical shirt and collar. His name was Parker, and he worked the loading dock at the 20 story Sears Building in Midtown Memphis, where my folks worked. He was another friend of their’s.

I remember his big old smile, and soft gentle demeanor, as his huge hands enveloped mine and my Mother’s, as he led us in a prayer for her recovery.

Not to beat a dead horse, but, please remember, this was Memphis, TN, in 1965.

Blows your Southern Stereotypes all to Hades, doesn’t it?

But, I digress…

Anyway, I was sitting at my desk in my office at work yesterday, when a Bing Update flashed across the top of my computer screen that President Barack Hussein Obama, still blowing $4,000,0000 OF OUR MONEY in Hawaii on his Family Vay-cay and his Administration, were urging the Supreme court to ignore Justice Sotomayor’s unexpected temporary injunction, stopping the Administration from forcing Catholic Institutions to provide free Birth Control, including abortiafacients, under Obamacare.

Politico.com summarizes the situation…

On New Year’s Eve, Sotomayor granted the Denver nursing home a last-minute, temporary reprieve from the health care law requirement that health coverage for employees include contraception. She will now have to decide whether to keep the temporary order in place, dissolve it, or take the issue to the other justices, who could decide to review the whole case in the coming months.

Justice Department lawyers in their response Friday said that the Little Sisters for the Poor Home for the Aged uses a Christian health insurer that is recognized as a church under U.S. employment law — and is already exempt from the Affordable Care Act contraception requirement.

“Applicants have no legal basis to … complain that it involves them in the process of providing contraceptive coverage,” government lawyers wrote to the court.“This case involves a church plan that is exempt from regulation” under a 1974 labor law that predates the president’s health care law.

The Little Sisters, in their reply to the government’s brief on Friday afternoon, said that signing a piece of paper allowing contraception — even if it doesn’t result in contraception being handed out —is itself a violation of their religious protections. That certification is part of the current legal process for religious non-profits that object to providing the contraception.

No matter which path Sotomayor takes, the central questions on contraception and religious nonprofits could eventually work their way through the legal system and return to the high court through this case or a different one.

The court has already agreed to take two separate challenges to the contraceptive requirement, but they involve religious owners of for-profit businesses, not religious nonprofits like this Denver nursing home. Dozens of religious-affiliated groups, dissatisfied with the Obama administration’s attempts to address their concerns, have petitioned federal courts to eliminate the requirement.

Anything the court does in the Little Sisters case could also affect nearly 500 religious non-profits that work with the Little Sisters and others on the lawsuit.

In all, more than 90 legal challenges have been filed around the country. A Supreme Court decision against the contraceptive rule would undercut but not cripple the health law. The birth control rule is a small piece of the overall law, but it’s been another source of ongoing political controversy for President Barack Obama’s signature law.

The Obama administration argues that employer health plans need to include contraception to ensure that women and their babies are healthy. Opponents of the policy — notably, the Catholic bishops — say that the administration is requiring some businesses to forgo religious beliefs against the use of contraception.

The case brought by the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged falls into an unexpected loophole in the ACA’s contraception coverage.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration tried through regulations to accommodate religious-affiliated nonprofits over contraception. It allowed groups like the Little Sisters to tell their insurance company or third-party administrator that they objected on religious grounds. The insurer or administrator would then have to provide contraceptives to the employees at no charge.

The premise was that an insurer or administrator would not have the same objection to providing such products. But the catch here is that the Little Sisters’ administrator — the Christian Brothers Employee Benefits Trust — is also run by a religious order.

The Christian Brothers, who joined the Little Sisters on the lawsuit, qualify as a church under employment law known as ERISA. And under that law, if they don’t want to provide contraception, the federal government has no recourse to force them to do so.

So, why is the Obama Administration so desperately trying to make Catholic Institutions provide services which are diametrically opposed tho the tenents of their faith?

I believe that it is all about respect for Americans’ Faith.

With this Administration, more so than any Administration which has gone before, the insensitivity and, downright blatant opposition to the role of Christianity in American Everyday Life, has led to the heretofore unthinkable situation of the Department of Justice and the American Court System being used as a bludgeon to keep us “uppity” Christians in line, so that we do not interfere with the plans of a Secular All-powerful State.

Sound familiar?

The Obama Administration’s ongoing war with the Catholic Church over providing these services is just one example of a deliberate movement to isolate Christianity from American’s Everyday Lives and regulate our relationship and following of Jesus Christ to a 2-hour window on Sunday Mornings.

However, try as it may, this Administration may have Pyrrhic Victories, but in the long run, it will not succeed.

Y’see….I know how this thing ends.  I’ve read The Book.

Until He Comes,

KJ 

Has Benghazigate Just Blown Wide Open?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics8 Comments

BenghaziGate3Our eternally campaigning President has been roaming the countryside recently, insisting that the scandals surrounding his Administration are phony, especially the scandals involving the IRS targeting Conservative Groups and the Administration’s Negligence of Duty concerning the night of September 11, 2012, at the US Embassy Annex in Benghazi, Libya.

For months, Americans have been sensing that there was more to the story of that horrible night, in which barbaric Islamic Terrorists savagely murdered 4 brave Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, of whom it is rumored that they sexually savaged, as well.

Yesterday, CNN’s Jake Tapper broke some news about that event, that if it is indeed true, could blow the lid completely off the Obama Administration’s cover-up of the event.

Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.

CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.

Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency’s workings.

The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.

It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.

In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, “You don’t jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well.”

Another says, “You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation.”

“Agency employees typically are polygraphed every three to four years. Never more than that,” said former CIA operative and CNN analyst Robert Baer.

In other words, the rate of the kind of polygraphs alleged by sources is rare.

“If somebody is being polygraphed every month, or every two months it’s called an issue polygraph, and that means that the polygraph division suspects something, or they’re looking for something, or they’re on a fishing expedition. But it’s absolutely not routine at all to be polygraphed monthly, or bi-monthly,” said Baer.

Among the many secrets still yet to be told about the Benghazi mission, is just how many Americans were there the night of the attack.

A source now tells CNN that number was 35, with as many as seven wounded, some seriously.

While it is still not known how many of them were CIA, a source tells CNN that 21 Americans were working in the building known as the annex, believed to be run by the agency.

Back on April 29th, Katie Kieffer, writing for townhall.com summed up what we knew, at the time,

We now know that President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-CIA Director David Petraeus were likely behind a mishandled gun-trafficking program that ended up arming the radical jihadist rebels who stormed the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya on that fateful day.

Our CIA is still playing the role of vetting which Syrian rebel groups will obtain arms including machine guns, ammunition, and rocket-propelled grenades. While Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are directly purchasing the weaponry, the Obama administration is aiding the Arab governments in shopping for these arms and transferring them from Libya, to Turkey, and finally into Syria.

Unfortunately the CIA has “vetted” shady intermediaries (including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood) and shady recipients of thousands of tons worth of military equipment and millions of rounds of ammo. Consequently, weapons have fallen into the wrong hands. In the case of Benghazi, anti-tank weapons appear to have landed in the hands of terrorists.

Now, Clinton is denying even knowing about the program, although the evidence indicates it was largely her idea. Of course everything happened under Obama’s watch and the buck stops with him.

Indeed.

From whitehouse.gov, “Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government”…

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public…

Remember…all of Obama’s promises have expiration dates. That promise was over the moment the words were written.

So, if the new revelation is true, what now?

More Senate hearings? More House Committee Meetings? More Dog and Pony Shows? More Bread and Circuses? More sound and fury signifying nothing?

Will Obama and his minions find another video to blame this new revelation on?

Think about this: A President of the United States, in the process of arming Islamic Terrorists, to bring about a takeover of countries run by Muslim Moderates, becomes responsible for the death of his own Ambassador and 3 other Americans, plus the wounding of 7 others.

And, that is just the tip of the possible treason. If this is all tue, that means that our Administration was working hand-in-hand with sworn enemies of the United States of America to topple foreign governments and surround our greatest ally, Israel.

It positively boggles the mind…and fills it with revulsion.

If all of this is true, we have moved beyond Congressional Hearings….well…all except for one kind of them:

Impeachment.

Ambassador Chris Stevens, Tyrone Woods, Glen Doherty, and Sean Smith remain unavailable for comment.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama: Choomin’…on a Sunday Afternoon…

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

Veteran presidential biographer David Maraniss, whose book about “Bubba” Clinton, First In His Class, is considered the finest recount of the life of young Bubba, now tackles the mysterious young life of the 44th President of the United States in Barack Obama: The Story.

Here are some excerpts: 

A self-selected group of boys at Punahou School who loved basketball and good times called themselves the Choom Gang. Choom is a verb, meaning “to smoke marijuana.”

…As a member of the Choom Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called “TA,” short for “total absorption.” To place this in the physical and political context of another young man who would grow up to be president, TA was the antithesis of Bill Clinton’s claim that as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford he smoked dope but never inhaled.

…Along with TA, Barry popularized the concept of “roof hits”: when they were chooming in the car all the windows had to be rolled up so no smoke blew out and went to waste; when the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling.

…When you were with Barry and his pals, if you exhaled precious pakalolo (Hawaiian slang for marijuana, meaning “numbing tobacco”) instead of absorbing it fully into your lungs, you were assessed a penalty and your turn was skipped the next time the joint came around. “Wasting good bud smoke was not tolerated,” explained one member of the Choom Gang, Tom Topolinski, the Chinese-looking kid with a Polish name who answered to Topo.

…[Choom Gang member] Mark Bendix’s Volkswagen bus, also known as the Choomwagon. … The other members considered Mark Bendix the glue, he was funny, creative, and uninhibited, with a penchant for Marvel Comics. He also had that VW bus and a house with a pool, a bong, and a Nerf basketball, all enticements for them to slip off midday for a few unauthorized hours of recreation…

…Barry also had a knack for interceptions. When a joint was making the rounds, he often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted “Intercepted!,” and took an extra hit. No one seemed to mind.

…Choom Gang members often made their way to Aku Ponds at the end of Manoa Stream, where they slipped past the liliko’i vines and the KAPU (keep out) signs, waded into waist-high cool mountain water, stood near the rock where water rushed overhead, and held up a slipper (what flip-flops are called in Hawaii) to create an air pocket canopy. It was a natural high, they said, stoned or not.

He was a long-haired haole hippie who worked at the Mama …Mia Pizza Parlor not far from Punahou and lived in a dilapidated bus in an abandoned warehouse. … According to Topolinski, Ray the dealer was “freakin’ scary.” Many years later they learned that he had been killed with a ball-peen hammer by a scorned gay lover. But at the time he was useful because of his ability to “score quality weed.”

…In another section of the [senior] yearbook, students were given a block of space to express thanks and define their high school experience. … Nestled below [Obama’s] photographs was one odd line of gratitude: “Thanks Tut, Gramps, Choom Gang, and Ray for all the good times.” … A hippie drug-dealer made his acknowledgments; his own mother did not.

…Their favorite hangout was a place they called Pumping Stations, a lush hideaway off an unmarked, roughly paved road partway up Mount Tantalus. They parked single file on the grassy edge, turned up their stereos playing Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, and Stevie Wonder, lit up some “sweet-sticky Hawaiian buds” and washed it down with “green bottle beer” (the Choom Gang preferred Heineken, Becks, and St. Pauli Girl).

…In the Honolulu of Barry’s teenage years marijuana was flourishing up in the hills, out in the countryside, in covert greenhouses everywhere. It was sold and smoked right there in front of your nose; Maui Wowie, Kauai Electric, Puna Bud, Kona Gold, and other local variations of pakololo were readily available.

On November 21, 2011, whitehouse.gov, President Barack Hussein Obama’s official website, reported the following in an article titled Alternatives to the “War on Drugs:” Obama Drug Policy and Reforming the Criminal Justice System:

Compared to their representation among the U.S. population, African Americans are disproportionately incarcerated for drug offenses. These two groups have consistently higher proportions of inmates in state prison who are drug offenders compared to whites – about 50% higher.

Over the past two months, we have met with African American leaders across the country – in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles – to listen to what they had to say. We discussed their concerns and ideas, and we outlined the Obama Administration’s approach to drug policy, presenting our view that it is guided by three indisputable facts: Addiction is a disease that can be treated; people can recover from drug addiction; and new interventions are needed to appropriately address substance abuse and drug-related crime. Simply put: We cannot arrest our way out of our Nation’s drug problem.

Addressing drug addiction as a public health issue will help us break the cycle of drug use, crime, and incarceration. And in keeping with a balanced public health and safety approach, the Obama Administration is taking unprecedented actions to restore balance to how we address our Nation’s drug problem and its disproportionate effects on communities of color.

…According to a recent survey, African American parents now consider youth drug use as the top concern for young people, ranking higher than gun related crimes, school violence, or bullying. We look forward continuing leading the Federal government’s collaborations with the African American community to reducing disparities and ensure that we can prevent drug use before it starts and work together to break the cycle of drug use and crime.

So, the Obama Administration concluded that drug use is a serious problem among black youth?  

They should know.