Tag: Obama

The most divisive president in U.S. History.

Greasing the Wheels: Obama Delays ACA Employer Mandate…Until After the Mid-Terms.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamadoctorObamacare, or, as the Liberals refer to it, the Affordable Care Act, is hanging over America like an F5 Tornado about to touch down, leaving a barren landscape, as far as the eye can see.

Mark J. Mazur is the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, in the U.S. Treasury Department. He is responsible for developing, analyzing, and coordinating Treasury’s and the Administration’s agenda, policies, and guidance on tax issues.

Yesterday, Mazur made the following announcement on the Treasury Department’s Blog:

Over the past several months, the Administration has been engaging in a dialogue with businesses – many of which already provide health coverage for their workers – about the new employer and insurer reporting requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively. We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so. We have listened to your feedback. And we are taking action.

The Administration is announcing that it will provide an additional year before the ACA mandatory employer and insurer reporting requirements begin. This is designed to meet two goals. First, it will allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law. Second, it will provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees. Within the next week, we will publish formal guidance describing this transition. Just like the Administration’s effort to turn the initial 21-page application for health insurance into a three-page application, we are working hard to adapt and to be flexible about reporting requirements as we implement the law.

Here is some additional detail. The ACA includes information reporting (under section 6055) by insurers, self-insuring employers, and other parties that provide health coverage. It also requires information reporting (under section 6056) by certain employers with respect to the health coverage offered to their full-time employees. We expect to publish proposed rules implementing these provisions this summer, after a dialogue with stakeholders – including those responsible employers that already provide their full-time work force with coverage far exceeding the minimum employer shared responsibility requirements – in an effort to minimize the reporting, consistent with effective implementation of the law.

Once these rules have been issued, the Administration will work with employers, insurers, and other reporting entities to strongly encourage them to voluntarily implement this information reporting in 2014, in preparation for the full application of the provisions in 2015. Real-world testing of reporting systems in 2014 will contribute to a smoother transition to full implementation in 2015.

Per a report completed by the Washington Council of Ernst & Young…

  • According to Treasury Notice 2011-36, any employer with 50+ full-time equivalents is considered a large employer. For each calendar month of the preceding calendar year, employers must:

1. Calculate full-time employees (including seasonal): (30+ hrs/wk/month)

2. Full-time equivalents: aggregate number of hours worked by non-full-time employees (including seasonal) ÷ 120

3. Add the number of full-time employees and FTEs calculated in steps (1) and (2) for each of the 12 months in the preceding calendar year.

4. Add the monthly totals and divide by 12. If the average exceeds 50 FTEs, determine whether the seasonal employee exception applies (see below).

5. Seasonal employee exception: If an employer’s workforce exceeds 50 FT employees for 120 days or fewer during a calendar year, and the employees in excess of 50 who were employed during that period of

no more than 120 days (four calendar months, for this purpose only) were seasonal employees, the employer would not be an applicable large employer.

6. If the seasonal exception does not apply, the employer is an applicable large employer for the current calendar year.

  • If a large employer does not offer coverage to their full-time employees and their dependents, employers face a penalty of:

$2,000 x the total number of full-time employees (FTE) if at least one FTE is receiving a premium assistance tax credit

  • If a large employer offers coverage to their full-time employees and their dependents but the coverage is unaffordable to certain employees or does not provide

minimum value, employers face a penalty of:

  • The lesser of $3,000 x the number of FTEs receiving a premium assistance tax credit or $2,000 x the total number of FTEs

We’re talking big money here.

So, what would trump the Federal Government’s well-known penchant for avarice?

Their all-consuming survival instinct.

Obama and the rest of the Democrats know what a train wreck this ironically-named “Affordable Care Act” is going to be.

And, if they dare allow it to unfold on schedule, there will never be another Democrat elected again for decades, even if they bring in millions of replacement voters from Mexico, as they are trying to accomplish with the Senate Gang of 8’s horrendous Amnesty Bill.

Even time.com had to tell the truth about this move:

The so-called individual mandate is unaffected by the rule change. That provision requires the vast majority of Americans to purchase insurance or pay a penalty, with tax credits provided to those who can’t afford coverage.

Republican former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin called the move “deviously brilliant,” by removing a potential electoral impediment from in front of congressional Democrats before the midterms.

“Democrats no longer face the immediate specter of running against the fallout from a heavy regulatory imposition on employers across the land,” Holtz-Eakin wrote. “Explaining away the mandate was going to be a big political lift; having the White House airbrush it from the landscape is way better.”

Uh huh.

So, by delaying this incredible tax burden aimed directly at the heart of our economy…America’s “Large” Employers…the men and women who actually provide us with jobs, the Democrats are hoping that American Capitalists have short memories, and absolutely no foresight.

Just as the Vichy Republicans believe that former illegal aliens will be so grateful for the passage of the Amnesty Bill, that they will actually vote for the GOP, so Democrats believe that America’s Businessmen will ignore the Employer Mandate that’s is hanging directly over their heads, like the blade of a guillotine.

I believe that both political parties are counting their chickeeeens….before they come home…to roost!

 

Obama: Just Another “Face in the Crowd”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

obamacarterLike the rest of you, I have been watching, slack-jawed, as the 45th President of these United States, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) hit the ground running, in this, his second term.

Obama has been a whirling dervish in his unrelenting push to take away , or, at least severely limit our Constitutional Rights. The three big issues in front of us are Illegal Immigration, Abortion, and Gay Marriage, all to be found under the subtitle, “Obama’s War Against Traditional American Values”.

These battles are still being fought by his sycophants, on both sides of the aisle. However, the fall-out from Obama’s all-out war against the American people, is the slippage of his popularity ratings, as well as his mask, as a cool calm collected, suave debonair, educated sophisticate, to reveal a petulant, didactic, vengeful, shallow-minded, Marxist milk sop, former Community Organizer, and living, breathing example of the Peter Principle personified.

As Obama and his family wrap up their paid vacation in Africa (Our money. Their Frequent Flyer Miles.), his reception in the land of his bir…err…ancestors, can be described as tepid, at best. African Leaders are neither desiring, nor accepting his advice.

My, how the “new messiah” has fallen.

I was immediately struck by how similar the rapidly devolving presidency of Barack Hussein Obama was to the classic movie “A Face in the Crowd”:

afaceinthecrowdAndy Griffith makes a spectacular film debut in this searing drama as Lonesome Rhodes, a philosophical country-western singer discovered in a tanktown jail by radio talent scout Patricia Neal and her assistant Walter Matthau. They decide that Rhodes is worthy of a radio spot, but the unforeseen result is that the gangly, aw-shucks entertainer becomes an overnight sensation not simply on radio but, thereafter, on television. As he ascends to stardom, Rhodes attracts fans, sponsors and endorsements by the carload, and soon he is the most powerful and influential entertainer on the airwaves. Beloved by his audience, Rhodes reveals himself to his intimates as a scheming, power-hungry manipulator, with Machiavellian political aspirations. He uses everyone around him, coldly discarding anyone who might impede his climb to the top (one such victim is sexy baton-twirler Lee Remick, likewise making her film debut). Just when it seems that there’s no stopping Rhodes’ megalomania, his mentor and ex-lover Neal exposes this Idol of Millions as the rat that he is. She arranges to switch on the audio during the closing credits of Rhodes’ TV program, allowing the whole nation to hear the grinning, waving Rhodes characterize them as “suckers” and “stupid idiots.” Instantly, Rhodes’ popularity rating plummets to zero. As he drunkenly wanders around his penthouse apartment, still not fully comprehending what has happened to him, Rhodes is deserted by the very associates who, hours earlier, were willing to ask “how high?” when he yelled “jump”. Written by Budd Schulberg, Face in the Crowd was not a success, possibly because it hit so close to home with idol-worshipping TV fans. Its reputation has grown in the intervening years, not only because of its value as a film but because of the novelty of seeing the traditionally easygoing Andy Griffith as so vicious and manipulative a character as Lonesome Rhodes.

Just like Lonesome Rhodes, Obama was a charismatic figure who came out of nowhere to a place of national prominence.  Also like Rhodes, he represented something unique.

While Rhodes represented the common man, down on his luck, who pulled himself up by his bootstraps to achieve success, Obama, in turn, represented what was good and right (or so it seemed at the time to those who voted for him) about our country:  the fact that anyone, regardless of race and in spite of humble beginnings, could grow up to become the President of the United States of America.

And, just as Rhodes was exposed for the vacuous, megalomaniac that he was, so has Obama been revealed for who he is, through burdensome legislation designed to make the American Proletariat dependent upon Obama’s Politburo, through ill-timed photo op-laden vacations, through his attacks on Christianity,Traditional American Values, and Traditional American Families, and through his repetitive use of oratory laden with images of class warfare and apologies  to our enemies for the actions of our sovereign nation.

While he is finishing his tour of Africa, the “Democracy” which he and his friends in the Muslim Brotherhood put in place in Egypt, has been the subject of massive protests, with one -third of that country’s citizens marching in protest, yesterday. 

Egyptian President Morsi responded by threatening to cut off the hands of those protesting.

Some “religion of peace”, huh?

Finally, it was reported yesterday, that the military has given President Morsi 48 hours to get the heck out of Dodge.

Evidently, the Egyptian People don’t care for Radical Islam, either.

But, I digress…

Obama’s agenda laid bare before the American Public, he now finds himself in the same identical situation as Lonesome Rhodes was in at the end of  “A Face in the Crowd”.

And, no matter how Obama’s handlers will try to spin the president’s petulant ineptness, unfortunately for Obama, it will be too late.

The American People have had enough of him. He is nothing more than a fallen false messiah.

And, it is about time.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

From Rebels to Tyrants: How Americans Became So Dependent Upon Our Government

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

monopoly2As I  was trying to come up with something to write about on today’s blog, I recalled reading the other day that 76% percent of Americans were living from paycheck to paycheck.

I thought to myself, how can that be possible? We live in the richest country on God’s green Earth. We have been the leader of the free world and the country most admired by the world’s population for quite some time now.

How did all this come about?

I believe it is a mixture of events, both internally and externally, that has caused the economic plight that we now find ourselves in.

Starting all the way back with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and all of the government programs which he began with the express purpose of bringing us out of the Great Depression, Americans have grown more and more dependent on a nanny state government.

This blind trust was cemented by JFK’s hopeful optimism and national push for Americans to commit to serving their country.

By the time President Johnson came into office, after the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the majority of Americans totally believed that our government always had our best interest at heart.

President Johnson came into office and immediately started his push for the Great Society. These programs were designed to make Americans even more dependent on the Federal Government for their very survival.

As the Vietnam War grew more and more and unpopular, Americans’ trust in the government became more and more compromised.  Protests against the Federal Government became more and more common and it became cool to be a rebel or “hippie”.

Time passed, and while rebellious Americans calmed down, Americans’ dependence upon government programs became generational, as multiple family members from one generation to the next, relied on Uncle Sugar for their daily existence.

Meanwhile, the rebels of the 1960’s got older and began to work within the system, taking jobs within the private and public sectors.

Eventually, they moved into positions of power, becoming heads of corporations and local and national politicians.

It is not really necessary to tell you what the political ideology of these rebels was, is it?

As the last century ended and the new one began, these hippies and their offspring, solidly in place in the halls of power, began to pass more more legislation designed to keep generations of Americans enslaved to Uncle Sugar.

Ironic, huh?

And, then it happened.

From the state of Illinois, came the messiah that both the hippies in power and the dependent class they made careers out of enslaving had been waiting for, Barack Hussein Obama.

With both a liberal controlled Congress and a Far Left president, a pathway was cleared for an all-out assault against capitalism.

Immediately upon his ascension to power,  Obama set out, with the help of his minions, to pass an massive Stimulus Bill , which was designed to reward their supporters, while buying and paying for some new ones.

Meanwhile, corporations continued their trend of leaving the country, begun with the rise of the Liberal Congress, due to high taxes and the anti-capitalist policies of the ruling class.

Even after a strong showing by Conservatives in 2010, the ruling class made sure that their new messiah would remain on the throne for a second term, by manipulating the shallow minded Republican Establishment into nominating an ambivalent legacy as their Presidential Candidate.

Preying on the government dependency of 47 percent of Americans, the Liberal Democrats secured a second term For Barack Hussein Obama.

And, that brings us to our current situation.

We are a nation badly in need of another Gipper to help us reach the goal line.

On January 20, 1981, newly-elected President Ronald Wilson Reagan said these words to a weary nation…

These United States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions.

We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.

Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, human misery, and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity.

But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.

You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we’re not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding: We are going to begin to act, beginning today.

The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as we’ve had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.

We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we’re sick — professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truckdrivers. They are, in short, “We the people,” this breed called Americans.

Well, this administration’s objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all Americans with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. Putting America back to work means putting all Americans back to work. Ending inflation means freeing all Americans from the terror of runaway living costs. All must share in the productive work of this “new beginning,” and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy. With the idealism and fair play which are the core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong and prosperous America, at peace with itself and the world.

So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.

It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government.

Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it’s not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work — work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.

President Reagan understood that

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

And, for Americans to prosper, capitalism must not be stifled by over-taxation and an unfriendly Federal Government.

When the private section prospers, the power of the Government to control our daily lives diminishes.

So…why are 76 percent of American living paycheck to paycheck?

Because our national politicians have to protect their phony-boloney jobs…and, it is easier to control us this way.

Until He Comes,

KJ

An American Snapshot: The End of Shame

On By kingsjesterIn Politics10 Comments

facepalm1Sitting here at my computer, I have been attempting to put all of the events which have been happening in America in the past week into some logical semblance of order, and attach a nice pink bow on them ( After the Supreme Court Ruling last Wednesday, can I say that?) in an attempt to make some sense out of them.

All the factors I have considered, lead me to one conclusion: Our Society has lost its sense of shame.

Please allow me to let you in on my thought process and perhaps you will agree with me.

Let us start with our nation’s Chief Executive Officer, Barack Hussein Obama. Scooter, Mooch, and the girls are currently in the middle of a whirlwind tour of Africa and the subcontinent. (I don’t know what that means, but, Cab Calloway said it while announcing the Blues Brothers in the first movie, and I thought it was kind of cool.) During the trip, paid for by us American Taxpayers, Obama is being greeted by the local populace (I was going to say native populace, but, I did not want to be accused of being another Paul Deen.) wearing “Welcome Home, Obama” t-shirts! (I couldn’t have said it better, myself.)

While over there, our Petulant President, during a press conference with the President of Senegal, said that African Nations needed to lighten up and embrace homosexuality. Needless to say, Obama’s proclamation was received about as well as Rosanne Barr at a Southern Gospel Festival. His Main Stream Media Minions are referring to the event as a “slip” and a “teachable moment”.

I call it shameless.

While we are one the subject of the “alternative lifestyle”, average Americans are still shaking our heads over the decision of the Supreme Court to take away the sovereignty of California Voters to decide whether of not to allow Homosexuals to “marry” in their state. The Supremes (Without Diana Ross) decided to “Stop in the Name of Love”, and uphold the decision of a Homosexual Appeals Court Judge. (No bias there, huh?)

Liberals called the ruling the greatest thing since sliced bread and the opening of a doorway, leading to the “normalization” of homosexuality in America. I call it the possible beginning of the Fall of the Greatest Country on the Face of the Earth. Shameless.

Meanwhile, over in the Senate, the Gang of Eight’s “Immigration Reform” Bill (Say it with me, boys and girls, AMNESTY) passed through the Senate in a landslide, with 14 Vichy Republicans, siding with their fellow DC Country Club Members. All those goobers called it “Bi-partisanship”.

I called it shameless.

Also, this week, the murder trial of George Zimmerman began. After the opening statements, the Prosecution called their “star” witness, a Miss Rachel Jeantel. She turned out to be a young woman,whose life consists of smoking pot, getting drunk, massacring the Queen’s English, and sending out vulgar tweets, blaming us white crackers for everything from her sorry state of existence to painful rectal itch.

While on the stand, Jeantel was caught in lies several times, insisting that “cracker” was not a racial term. (Right. And, 50 cent is a musical genius.) It was also learned, while she was giving her testimony, that Jeantel, a High School Senior, did not write a letter that she was supposed to have. In fact, the High School Senior cannot read or write Cursive….and can barely read or write anything at all. When she finished her testimony, she took her seat beside Trayvon Martin’s mother, who hired a lawyer after his death, to explore the “merchandising” of her dead son. (Hoodies! Get your Hoodies, here!)

It is very evident that Zimmerman is being railroaded. A witness on Friday collaborated Zimmerman’s account of the event, stating that Zimmerman was pinned to the sidewalk by Trayvon, who was “hitting him in the face with martial-art type blows”. (That doesn’t sound like the innocent 12 year old , whose picture has been circulated by his family. That sound more like the 17 year old thug, who had been suspended from school 30 times for smoking dope and breaking in lockers with the tolls he kept in his school bag.)

The reason for the screw job that Zimmerman is going through, is the initial protests lead by the Justice Brothers, Revs. Jackson and Sharpton, who never saw a camera that they didn’t like. The Prosecutor overreacted, and over-charged Zimmerman. Now, the Prosecution is trapped into going through with the Dog and Pony Show, because a certain element of Miami’s Black Population has threatened to riot, if Zimmerman is acquitted.

The Liberals are attempting to justify this farce by claiming that it is recuppence for past injustices.

I call it shameless.

Finally, there’s the crucifixion of Paula Deen, as “Interview With a Vampire” Novelist Anne Rice referred to the whole Bloody mess.

Paula Deen, successful chef, entrepreneur, and Food Network Star, is being sued, along with her brother, by a former employee of her restaurant in Savannah, GA. Under oath, she admitted that she had used the “N” word, before….a long time ago. She also admitted that she once thought that the idea of having an Old South, Antebellum Wedding, with Black waiters dressed in black tuxedos with white shirts, like the house “slaves” wore during that era, would look pretty cool.

I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you. (If I were to remark that those guys would look awfully spiffy in Black Tie and Tails, would that make me a RAAACIIIST?)

Hollywood must feel the same way, because I recently saw Garrett Morris, of Saturday Night Live fame [“Our top story tonight…”], playing a butler in a episode of Psych, dressed in the exact same manner as Ms. Deen described.

Anyway, now every corporation she is currently involved with, from Chinese-held Smithfield Hams to Harrah’s Casinos, have dropped her as if she was George Wallace (before his change of heart) re-incarnated.

Either she is actually the Wicked Witch of the West, away from the public eye, or all these corporations have grievously overreacted, so as to not have their profit margins affected by their association with her.

(Since Ms. Deen is a Democrat, who voted for Barack Hussein Obama twice (mm mmm mmmm), I would probably go with the second option.)

I am sure they call it “good business”.

I call it shameless.

Evidently, the majority of Americans agree with me, because Ms. Deen’s cookbooks occupy the top spot on amazon.com.

What has happened to America? 

Why are all of these jaw-dropping events, which would have been unthinkable a few decades ago, suddenly coalescing into a hurricane of senses – overwhelming shamelessness?

Mark Twain once said,

Man is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.

Perhaps, in this society of vanishing morals and situational ethics, perhaps we have lost our ability to feel shame and therefore, to blush.

We need to figure out a way to regain that ability, or, our nation will become a footnote in history.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Pelosi: Celebrate Obamacare on Independence Day!

On By kingsjesterIn Uncategorized2 Comments

pelosigavelYesterday morning, during her weekly Press Briefing Former Speaker of the House and genuine nutjob “San Fran Nan” Pelosi had a suggestion as to how red-blooded Americans should celebrate the Fourth of July this year,

Pretty soon we’ll all be leaving for the Fourth of July recess. Next week when we celebrate Independence Day, we’ll also be observing health independence. This marks one year since the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The Affordable Care Act offers just that: A healthier life, liberty [to] pursue [a] person’s happiness, to be free of constraint, the job locked, uhh, because they’re policy locked. So, if you wanted to be a cameraman, a writer, you want to be self-employed, if you want to start a business, if you want to change jobs — whatever is you want to do — you are free.

After I laughed, cried, hurled, and banged my head on my desk all at the same time, I came to, and realized that this idiot actually believed what she was saying. She actually wants Americans to celebrate the end of the greatest Healthcare System on God’s Green Earth, instead of celebrating the founding of the greatest nation in that same world.

Before America’s Congressional cowards passed the abomination now known as Obamacare in March of 2010, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the American people that we would have to let them pass Obamacare so “that we will know what is in it”.  Here are three lies that Pelosi’s buddy, President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) boldly told us before they passed Obamacare and the truth uncovered about these three lies since then:

1)  LIE:  Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) said in an address to a joint session of Congress, to sell health care reform, in September 2009:

One more misunderstanding I want to clear up — under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.

And then:

Whitehouse.blogs.com 3/21/10 – Today, the President announced that he will be issuing an executive order after the passage of the health insurance reform law that will reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion.

While the legislation as written maintains current law, the executive order provides additional safeguards to ensure that the status quo is upheld and enforced, and that the health care legislation’s restrictions against the public funding of abortions cannot be circumvented.

The President has said from the start that this health insurance reform should not be the forum to upset longstanding precedent. The health care legislation and this executive order are consistent with this principle.

The President is grateful for the tireless efforts of leaders on both sides of this issue to craft a consensus approach that allows the bill to move forward.

TRUTH:  Later, news leaked out that The Health and Human Services Department was giving Pennsylvania $160 million for the establishment of a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.

2) LIE:   Also in September of 2009, Obama gave an interview to George Stephanopoulos, former member of the Clinton administration and now an anchor for ABC News.  Here is an excerpt from that interview:

By the way, was that a lateral career move?  But I digress…

STEPHANOPOULOS:  …during the campaign.  Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?

OBAMA:  Well, hold on a second, George. Here — here’s what’s happening.  You and I are both paying $900, on average — our families — in higher premiums because of uncompensated care.  Now what I’ve said is that if you can’t afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn’t be punished for that.  That’s just piling on. If, on the other hand, we’re giving tax credits, we’ve set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we’ve driven down the costs, we’ve done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you’ve just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances.  And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that’s…

OBAMA:  No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase.  Any…

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Here’s the…

OBAMA:  What — what — if I — if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that’s not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don’t want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then…

TRUTH:  Under Obamacare, signed into law by Obama in March 2009, the majority of Americans will have to maintain “minimum essential coverage” starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to assist in paying their premiums.

In a brief defending the law, the Department Of Justice said the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes.

Congress can use its taxing power “even for purposes that would exceed its powers under other provisions” of the Constitution, the department said.

Of course,later, Chief Justice “”Benedict Arnold” Roberts and the Libs on the Supreme Court would agree with the president and the DOJ.

While Congress was working on the health care legislation, Scooter would not acknowledge that a mandate to buy insurance, enforced by financial penalties, was equivalent to a tax.

3)  LIE:  At a town hall event Aug. 15, 2009, in Grand Junction, Colo.,Obama said:

[i]f you like your health care plan, you keep your health care plan. Nobody is going to force you to leave your health care plan. If you like your doctor, you keep seeing your doctor. I don’t want government bureaucrats meddling in your health care. But the point is, I don’t want insurance company bureaucrats meddling in your health care either.

And he also said:

I expect that after reform passes, the vast majority of Americans are still going to be getting their insurance from private insurers.

Truth:  Perhaps, perhaps not. Recently, the Ohio Department of Insurance made an announcement that, based on the rates submitted by insurers to date, the average individual-market health insurance premium in 2014 will rise to around $420, “representing an increase of 88 percent” relative to 2013.

The rates that Ohio reported still have to be approved by the Department of Insurance.Out of proposed rates for 214 plans sent to the Department, projected costs from the companies for providing coverage for the required [by Obamacare] essential health benefits ranged from $282.51 to $577.40 for individual health insurance plans.

Congresswoman Pelosi needs to increase her senility medication. 

The Fourth of July is a celebration of American Freedom. It is not a celebration of the new American Proletariats’  [our] forced servitude to the new Politboro.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Cost of Idolatry

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

American ChristianityLast night, as I was getting ready for bed, I started thinking about the heroes I had while growing up. Besides the Triune God and my Daddy, my heroes were the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Superman (George Reeves), Batman (Adam West), Roy Rogers, James West and Artemus Gordon (The Wild, Wild West), The Cartwright Family (Bonanza), Daniel Boone, and Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, and Mike Shannon of the St. Louis Cardinals.

I’ve always rooted for the Good Guy. Because I was raised in a Christian Home, by a Christian Father, I’ve also always had a deep sense of right and wrong, followed by a predilection to moral outrage, when I see a Bad Guy getting away with something.

I can remember, as a Tenerfoot Boy Scout, being out at the Fair with my Troop. A buddy of mine and I were walking through one of the pavilions, when a bunch of older thugs tried to bum some money off my friend. Now, I was in the seventh Grade, and stood about 4-foot-nuthin’, but I stood straight up and, in a loud voice, filled with moral outrage, exclaimed,

Hey, man! The kid said that he didn’t have any money!

Needless to say, I stunned the thugs, and got the attention of all the adults in the vicinity. The thugs retreated, as quickly as they could.

That being said, I was wondering…what sort of role models do the “young folks” have now?

Take the case of Miley Cyrus, the former Hannah Montana. A few short years ago, she was all the rage…a perky, young princess with the voice of an angel, appearing in her own sit-com on the Disney Channel. God had blessed her with the voice of an angel, a winning personality, and a talented Dad, Bill Ray Cyrus, who wrote all her songs for her. She quickly rose to stardom, becoming the idol of pre-teen girls from coast to coast.

As she got older, she decided to put away her clean and wholesome image, for a sexier, wilder “grown-up” image., kicked off by doing a pole dance, while performing a song at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in 2009.

Needless to say, that went over with the nation’s parents about as well as Obama speaking at the NRA.

Now, in 2013, she sports multiple tattoos, has a new fiancee every few months, and came out this last week supporting the legalization of pot.

Annette Funicello, she ain’t.

However, it is not just entertainers that are worshiped. Politicians are worshiped, also. However, none have seeming been the object of such over-the-top, slovenly boot-kissing, (I cleaned that up) hissy-fit-having worship as one Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

In 2007, On his way to his nomination as the Democratic Presidential Candidate, Obama was lauded as being downright mythical by his future Vice-President Joe Biden,

I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.

Once he became president, songs were written in his honor and taught to America schoolchildren, who were forced to sing them at school events.

Barack Hussein Obama

He said that all must lend a hand

To make this country strong again

Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama

He said we must be fair today

Equal work means equal pay

Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama

He said that we must take a stand

To make sure everyone gets a chance

Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama

He said red, yellow, black or white

All are equal in his sight

Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama

Yes!

Mmm, mmm, mm

Barack Hussein Obama

A Presidential Hymn?

This cult of Obama Worship has remained strong for over 5 years, providing the Kenyan Kaiser a Pharoah’s Army, if you will. In fact, they’ve even made up their own Golden Rule:

Any criticism of President Barack Hussein Obama is RAAACIIIST!

Additionally, like the Pharaohs of old, there are several American Schools named after this sitting president in states such as Pennsylvania and Maryland. In fact, this past week, we’ve learned that some fools out in the San Fernando Valley, in California, are going to name an elementary school, after First Lady Michelle Obama.

Highly unusual, to say the least.

There are those who are reading today’s post, who may think that I have “lost it” or I am “over-reacting”. They are wrong.

God’s word tells us to “flee from idolatry”.

Do you remember, either from reading in Exodus, or from the movie “The Ten Commandments”, how the people of Israel used the Gold, which they had taken with them from Egypt, to fashion a Golden Calf, which they began to worship, while Moses was up on the mountain with God?

Remember what happened?

God punished them for it. Big time.

It appears to me that, in today’s fast-moving, flighty society,  Americans tend to focus on who or what is popular, and before their eyes at that moment, telling them what they want to hear. We, just as our ancestors in the time of Christ, enjoy “having our ears tickled”, whether it be the latest fashion, the latest car, the latest celebrity, or a prevaricating politician, like Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), promising us “Hope and Change” .

God, in his word, continuously warns us about the dangers of putting our faith in “false messiahs” and also warns us that “the things of this world are fleeting”.

However, as I look at the state of our nation and its so-called “Leadership”, it appears to me that, just as all of those “stiff-necked people” in the Good Book, we still have to discover God’s Truth for ourselves…the hard way.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave: Syria, al-Qaeda, and Benghazi

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamamyworkDo you remember, right after Obama assumed the office of  President of the United States of America, his minions in the State Department announced that they would no longer refer to “The War on Terror” and that “Muslim Terrorists Attacks”, would be referred to as “man-caused disasters?

Over the next 5 years, Obama would bungle his way though his dealings with those who would kill us without a second thought, embracing them as “our new allies”, inviting them to the White House, and trying to convince our greatest ally, Israel, God’s Chosen People, to give half of their country to them.

Now, the Kenyan Kaiser is arming them.

Per The Los Angeles Times,

The training and Obama’s decision this month to supply arms and ammunition to the rebels have raised hope among the beleaguered opposition that Washington ultimately will provide heavier weapons as well. So far, the rebels say they lack the weapons they need to regain the offensive in Syria’s bitter civil war.

The tightly constrained U.S. effort reflects Obama’s continuing doubts about getting drawn into a conflict that already has killed more than 100,000 people and the administration’s fear that Islamic militants now leading the war against Assad could gain control of advanced U.S. weaponry.

The training has involved fighters from the Free Syrian Army, a loose confederation of rebel groups that the Obama administration has promised to back with expanded military assistance, said a U.S. official, who discussed the effort anonymously because he was not authorized to disclose details.

The number of rebels given U.S. instruction in both countries since the program began could not be determined, but in Jordan, the training involves 20 to 45 insurgents at a time, a rebel commander said.

U.S. special operations teams selected the trainees over the last year when the U.S. military set up regional supply lines to provide the rebels with nonlethal assistance, including uniforms, radios and medical aid.

The two-week courses include training with Russian-designed 14.5-millimeter anti-tank rifles, anti-tank missiles, as well as 23-millimeter anti-aircraft weapons, according to a rebel commander in the Syrian province of Dara who helps oversee weapons acquisitions and who asked his name not be used because the program is secret.

The training began last November at a new American base in the desert in southwest Jordan, he said. So far, about 100 rebels from Dara have attended four courses, while rebels from Damascus have attended three courses, he said.

“Those from the CIA, we would sit and talk with them during breaks from training and afterward, they would try to get information on the situation inside Syria,” he said.

The rebels were promised enough armor-piercing anti-tank weapons and other arms to gain a military advantage over Assad’s better-equipped army and security forces, said the Dara commander.

Here’s were it gets…frightening, sickening, and…traitorous…

According to the United Nations,

The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was listed on 6 October 2001 pursuant to paragraph 8(c) of resolution 1333 (2000) as being associated with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of”, “supplying, selling or transferring arms and related materiel to” or “otherwise supporting acts or activities of” Al-Qaida (QE.A.4.01), Usama bin Laden and the Taliban.

The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) is an Al-Qaida (QE.A.4.01) affiliate. It was created in 1995 by Libyans who had fought in Afghanistan and had plotted against the Government of Libya. LIFG participated with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (QE.M.89.02) in planning the May 2003 bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, that killed over 40 people and injured more than 100. LIFG has also been linked to the 2004 attacks in Madrid, Spain.

In 2002, Al-Qaida leader Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Hussein (QI.H.10.01), also known as Abu Zubaydah, was captured in Faisalabad, Pakistan, accompanied by at least three LIFG operatives and a fourth individual, the former head of the Sanabel Relief Agency Limited (QE.S.124.06) in Kabul, Afghanistan, who was also known to have ties to LIFG. LIFG commanders, including Abu Yahya al-Liby and the now-deceased Abu al-Laith al-Liby, have occupied prominent positions within Al-Qaida’s senior leadership.

On 3 November 2007, LIFG formally merged with Al-Qaida. The merger was announced via two video clips produced by Al-Qaida’s propaganda arm, Al-Sahab. The first clip featured Usama bin Laden’s (deceased) deputy, Aiman Muhammed Rabi al-Zawahiri (QI.A.6.01), and the second featured Abu Laith al-Liby, who then served as a senior member of LIFG and a senior leader and trainer for Al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

LIFG is believed to have several hundred members or supporters, mostly in the Middle East and Europe. Since the late 1990s, many LIFG members have fled from Libya to various Asian, Arabian Gulf, African, and European countries, particularly the United Kingdom. It is likely that LIFG has maintained a presence in eastern Libya and has facilitated the transfer of foreign fighters to Iraq.

By now, you’re saying, “But, KJ…that’s Libya, not Syria.”

Bless be the ties that bind…

On November 27, 2011, the UK Telegraph reported…

Abdulhakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, “met with Free Syrian Army leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey,” said a military official working with Mr Belhadj. “Mustafa Abdul Jalil (the interim Libyan president) sent him there.”

The “covert operation” was immediately laid bare when a rival Libyan rebel brigade detained Belhaj at Tripoli airport, accused him of travelling on a fake passport, and declared they would jail the senior military leader.

Only a letter from the country’s interim president was enough to persuade them to let him leave the country.

The meetings came as a sign of a growing ties between Libya’s fledgling government and the Syrian opposition. The Daily Telegraph on Saturday revealed that the new Libyan authorities had offered money and weapons to the growing insurgency against Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Belhaj also discussed sending Libyan fighters to train troops, the source said. Having ousted one dictator, triumphant young men, still filled with revolutionary fervour, are keen to topple the next. The commanders of armed gangs still roaming Tripoli’s streets said yesterday that “hundreds” of fighters wanted to wage war against the Assad regime.

According to information found at discoverthenetworks.org, in early 2012, President Barack Hussein Obama signed an intelligence finding that authorized U.S. support for the Syrian rebels, among whom are many heavily-armed, al Qaeda-affiliated jihadists. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Gen. Martin Dempsey (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and then-CIA director David Petraeus unanimously back a plan to arm the Syrian rebels. (Even though, Obama and his entire Administration would vehemently deny it later.)

Also in early 2012, the CIA started working with Arab governments and Turkey to sharply increase the supply of arms shipments to Syrian rebels. (Source: The New York Times (March 25, 2013)

On the 11th anniversary of the most devastating Terrorist Attack ever perpetrated on American Soil, masterminded by Osama bin Laden and carried out by members of al-Qaeda, the U.S. Embassy Compound in Benghazi Libya, was overrun by Muslim Terrorists who killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other brave Americans.

Since then, there has been a lot of speculation as to the cause of the attack, and why Obama and his Administration tried to convince the world that an unknown Youtube video caused the Middle East Turmoil. David Horowitz’ discoverthenetworks.org tells us that there may have been a difference cause…

Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy, writes that after Muammar Qaddafi’s fall from power in the summer of 2011, “[Christopher] Stevens [is] appointed ambassador to the new Libya run by [Abdelhakim] Belhadj [leader of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group] and his friends.” At this point, Stevens is tasked with finding and securing “the immense amount of armaments that had been cached by the dictator around the country and systematically looted during and after the revolution.” Stevens’ mission is to help transfer “arms recovered from the former regime’s stocks to the ‘opposition’ in Syria,” where, “as in Libya, the insurgents are known to include al Qaeda and other Shariah-supremacist groups, including none other than Abdelhakim Belhadj.” These Syrian insurgents, organized under the banner of the “Free Syrian Army,” are fighting to topple the rule of their nation’s president, Bashar al-Assad. Benghazi is a logical place in which to station Stevens for this task, since, as Gaffney notes, it is “one of the places in Libya most awash with such weapons in the most dangerous of hands.”

Stevens’ duties include not only the transfer of arms, but also the recruitment of fighters willing to personally go into combat against the Assad regime in Syria. Aaron Klein writes that according to Middle Eastern security officials: “The U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi … actually serve[s] as a meeting place to coordinate aid for the rebel-led insurgencies in the Middle East.” Specifically, the building serves as a forum for U.S. collaboration with Arab countries—particularly the Turkish, Saudi and Qatari governments—on how to best support the Mideast’s various insurgencies, especially the rebels opposing Assad in Syria. Many of the fighters who are recruited are jihadists hailing from Libya and elsewhere in North Africa, and they are dispatched to Syria via Turkey (the lead coordinator of aid to the Free Syrian Army) with the help of CIA operatives stationed along the border shared by those two countries. One of the most noteworthy jihadists making his way to Syria is Abdelhakim Belhadj, former leader of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that brought down Qaddafi in Libya before subsequently disbanding.

This type of covert activity “may help explain why there was no major public security presence at what has been described as a ‘consulate,’” says Aaron Klein. “Such a presence would draw attention to the shabby, nondescript building that was allegedly used for such sensitive purposes.”

Why are we arming those who want to “kill the Great Satan”? Is is naivete or insanity? Is Obama simply “standing with the Muslims”? Is he doing this in the “name of the Prophet”?

Can we Impeach him, yet?

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Obama’s Trip to Ireland: Where was St. Patrick When You Needed Him?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

Obama-Shrinks-2Dateline: Cairo, Egypt – In his Second “Speech to the Muslim World”, President Barack Hussein Obama told a crowd gathered at the University of Cairo, estimated at 250,000, that it was their adherence to Sharia Law and Jihad, that was causing the violence in the world which is being attributed to Muslim Terrorist Acts. Obama told the shocked throng,

If you would only strive for peace with those whom you label “Infidels”, the world would be a better place.

Just kidding.

Actually, though, Obama did make a speech this week in which he attacked a nation’s religious beliefs. And, believe it or not, it was not the United Stated of America…for once.

While speaking to a crowd of 2,000 student at the G8 Summit in Ireland, “Pope” Obama pontificated,

…As someone who knows firsthand how politics can encourage division and discourage cooperation, I admire the Northern Ireland Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly all the more for making power-sharing work. That’s not easy to do. It requires compromise, and it requires absorbing some pain from your own side. I applaud them for taking responsibility for law enforcement and for justice, and I commend their effort to “Building a United Community” — important next steps along your transformational journey.

Because issues like segregated schools and housing, lack of jobs and opportunity — symbols of history that are a source of pride for some and pain for others — these are not tangential to peace; they’re essential to it. If towns remain divided — if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs — if we can’t see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden, that encourages division. It discourages cooperation.

Ultimately, peace is just not about politics. It’s about attitudes; about a sense of empathy; about breaking down the divisions that we create for ourselves in our own minds and our own hearts that don’t exist in any objective reality, but that we carry with us generation after generation.

And I know, because America, we, too, have had to work hard over the decades, slowly, gradually, sometimes painfully, in fits and starts, to keep perfecting our union. A hundred and fifty years ago, we were torn open by a terrible conflict. Our Civil War was far shorter than The Troubles, but it killed hundreds of thousands of our people. And, of course, the legacy of slavery endured for generations.

Even a century after we achieved our own peace, we were not fully united. When I was a boy, many cities still had separate drinking fountains and lunch counters and washrooms for blacks and whites. My own parents’ marriage would have been illegal in certain states. And someone who looked like me often had a hard time casting a ballot, much less being on a ballot.

But over time, laws changed, and hearts and minds changed, sometimes driven by courageous lawmakers, but more often driven by committed citizens. Politicians oftentimes follow rather than lead. And so, especially young people helped to push and to prod and to protest, and to make common cause with those who did not look like them. And that transformed America — so that Malia and Sasha’s generation, they have different attitudes about differences and race than mine and certainly different from the generation before that. And each successive generation creates a new space for peace and tolerance and justice and fairness.

Needless to say, Catholic Leaders in the UK and over here in “the Colonies” are chewing up nails and spitting out thumb tacks.

Yesterday, the American Catholics for Religious Freedom issued a statement, concerning Scooter’s little diatribe:

President Obama’s anti-faith, secular agenda was shamefully on full display yesterday when he told the young people of Northern Ireland that Catholic education and other faith-based schools were divisive and an obstacle to peace. All Americans of faith should be outraged by these comments which clearly telegraph the President’s belief system and are in fact at their core even anti-American.

As a Christian American Conservative, a.k.a. “Bitter Clinger”, I wholeheartedly agree. In fact, I find the speech and behavior quite revealing, about a president who once proudly proclaimed his Christianity, as abcnews.go.com reported in September of 2010…

At a backyard town hall in Albuquerque, NM, Tuesday, President Obama was asked “Why are you a Christian?” The question, from teacher’s assistant Elizabeth A. Murphy, 42, was one of three “hot topics” she raised with the president.

“I’m a Christian by choice,” the president said. “My family didn’t — frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn’t raise me in the church.”

The president said he “came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead — being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me. And I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God. But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace.”

The president said “that’s what I strive to do. That’s what I pray to do every day. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith.”

As the Professional Wrestler, The Miz, would incredulously remark,

Really? …Really? …Really?

So, insulting and making fun of the belief system of the majority of your own citizens wasn’t enough for you, was it, Scooter? You had to go and show your rear end to a bunch of Irish yutes.

Your “problem” was Christianity is, a strong Christian nation does not serve your purpose, nor that of any other country’s leader, whose political and personal ideology is composed of the teachings of Marx and Alinsky.

That explains why you spoke to a small crowd of 4,500 at the Brandenburg Gate the other day, instead of a crowd like the 200,000 screaming fans who attended your Campaign Rally in 2008, when you were running for the Presidency of the United States of America.

It appears that the Europeans have discovered the empty suit which lies behind the equally empty promise of “Hope and Change”, just as Americans have.

You attack Christianity because, just as Marx discovered, we Christians don’t believe in Idolatry. And, for a Marxist Government to enjoy its initial success, followed by its inevitable collapse, the “President” must be worshiped and adored as infallible, mythical, and of divine origin.

Guess what, Scooter?

You are mythical, because your sketchy, full-of -holes biographical history, elevated you, in the eyes of the Main Stream Media, and the rest of your Liberal Sycophants to mythical proportions. However, you have proven to be quite fallible, and quite lowly in origin. In fact, one might say, “alien”.

Apparently, you believe that all these trips you and your family are making on our dime, will cause the American People to forget your scandals, your poor stewardship, and your positively anti-American Values.

As the old song goes,

Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

You once said, that if the going got rough, you would “‘stand with the Muslims”. 

Go ahead and try that, Scooter. They don’t have a very high opinion of you, either.

Until He comes, 

KJ

The Brandenburg Gate: A Tale of Two Speeches

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

reaganThe following remarks are an excerpt from the “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech given at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987 by President Ronald Wilson Reagan…

In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city. You’ve done so in spite of threats–the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade. Today the city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall. What keeps you here?

Certainly there’s a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage. But I believe there’s something deeper, something that involves Berlin’s whole look and feel and way of life– not mere sentiment. No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions. Something instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence that refuses to release human energies or aspirations. Something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin is love–love both profound and abiding.

Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront. Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower’s one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the Sun strikes that sphere–that sphere that towers over all Berlin– the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed. As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, “This wall will fall.

Beliefs become reality.” Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

And I would like, before I close, to say one word. I have read, and I have been questioned since I’ve been here about certain demonstrations against my coming. And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who demonstrate so. I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they’re doing again.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Yesterday, our current president spoke at the same location, before a sparse crowd of 4,500. During his world-wide campaign to become United States President in 2008, he spoke before an adoring throng of 200,000.

I do believe that, like the majority of Americans, Europeans have caught on to our Prevaricator-in Chief.

Compare the following excerpt of Obama’s speech, to President Reagan’s.

Peace with justice means pursuing the security of a world without nuclear weapons, no matter how distant that dream may be. And so as president, I’ve strengthened our efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce the number and role of America’s nuclear weapons. Because of the New START Treaty, we’re on track to cut American and Russian deployed nuclear warheads to their lowest levels since the 1950s.

But we have more work to do. So today, I’m announcing additional steps forward. After a comprehensive review, I’ve determined that we can ensure the security of America and our allies-and maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent-while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third. And I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures.

At the same time, we’ll work with our NATO allies to seek bold reductions in U.S. and Russian tactical weapons in Europe. And we can forge a new international framework for peaceful nuclear power, reject the nuclear weaponization that North Korea and Iran may be seeking.

America will host a summit in 2016 to continue our efforts to secure nuclear materials around the world, and we will work to build support in the United States to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and call on all nations to begin negotiations on a treaty that ends the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

These are steps we can take to create a world of peace with justice.

Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable planet. The efforts to slow climate change requires bold action, and on this, Germany and Europe have led. In the United States, we have recently doubled our renewable energy from clean sources, like wind and solar power. We’re doubling fuel efficiency on our cars. Our dangerous carbon emissions have come down, but we know we have to do more. And we will do more.

With a global middle class consuming more energy every day, this must now be an effort of all nations, not just some, for the grim alternative affects all nations: more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coast lines that vanish, oceans that rise.

This is the future we must avert. This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task.

We have to get to work.

Peace with justice means meeting our moral obligations. And we have a moral obligation and a profound interest in helping lift the impoverished corners of the world by promoting growth so we spare a child born today a lifetime of extreme poverty; by investing in agriculture, so we aren’t just sending food, but also teaching farmers to grow food; by strengthening public health so we’re not just sending medicine, but training doctors and nurses who will help end the outrage of children dying from preventable diseases; making sure that we do everything we can to realize the promise, an achievable promise of the first AIDs-free generation. That is something that is possible if we feel a sufficient sense of urgency.

Our efforts have to be about more than just charity. They’re about new models of empowering people, to build institutions, to abandon the rot of corruption, to-create ties of trade, not just aid, both with the West and among the nations that are seeking to rise and increase their capacity. Because when they succeed, we will be more successful as well. Our fates are linked. We cannot ignore those who are yearning, not only for freedom, but also prosperity.

And, finally, let’s remember that peace with justice depends on our ability to sustain both the security of our societies and the openness that defines them. Now, threats to freedom don’t merely come from the outside. They can emerge from within, from our own fears, from the disengagement of our citizens. For over a decade, America’s been at war. Yet much has now changed over the five years since I last spoke here in Berlin. The Iraq war is now over. The Afghan war is coming to an end. Osama bin Laden is no more. Our efforts against Al Qaida…

… are evolving. And, given these changes, last month I spoke about America’s efforts against terrorism. And I drew inspiration from one of our founding fathers, James Madison, who wrote, “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” James Madison is right, which is why even as we remain vigilant about the threat of terrorism, we must move beyond the mind-set of perpetual war.

And in America, that means redoubling our efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo.

During that speech, Obama quoted President Kennedy, who said, during his  “Ich bin ein Berliner” Speech,

Let me ask you to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today and beyond the freedom of merely this city. Look to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.

Translation:

Pay no attention to that Muslim with the bomb strapped around his waist. We’ll just talk nicely to him, and he’ll stop. Or, we’ll arrest him and give him a fair trial by a jury of his peers. We are the world. We are the people. It’s true we make a better place…just you and me.

Obama’s Pollyanna b.s. aside, why does this Kenyan Kaiser have to run down America, every place he speaks? Why does he have to insult us? Is he embarrassed by American Exceptionalism?

It is only through American Exceptionalism, (and his anonymous puppet masters) that his less-that-brilliant rear got to attend Harvard, where he became the only Editor of the Harvard Law Review never to publish a single paper.

Regarding his sketchy history and “record of achievement”…he didn’t build that.

Reagan spoke of America as “a Shining City on a Hill”. Obama speaks of us as “just another country”.

Reagan spoke of courage, freedom, the power of the individual, and liberty. Obama speaks about “shared sacrifice”.

Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” …and he did it. Obama said, “I’m going to close down Gitmo!” And, it remains open.

Reagan loved his country. Obama loves the rest of the world more.

And, that is why he is failing as the President of the greatest country on the face of God’s green Earth.

Until He Comes,

KJ

From Flower Children to Beltway Boys: America’s Crisis of Leadership

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

1960sI remember the 1960s…vaguely. After all, I was just a kid, having been born in 1958. I remember Batman, Mr. Terrific, Beany and Cecil, The Red Skelton Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Lawrence Welk Show, Dragnet, and Adam-12.

I remember the Civil Rights Movement, George Wallace, the Vietnam War, Camelot, and shaking ex-President Lyndon B. Johnson’s hand, after a speech at his Texas Ranch. It seemed huge.

I remember the Beatles,the Monkees, the Rolling Stones, Woodstock, Haight Asbury, the Peace Movement, Love-ins, and Campus sit-ins. I remember Kent State.

I remember Mrs. Elliott, Mrs. Willette, Mrs. Holder, Mrs. Archer, Principal F.A Farino, and some of the things that happened to me at Snowden Elementary.

I also remember the day that it was announced over the school intercom that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. I remember writing in my Big Chief Tablet

President Kennedy is dead. Vice-President Johnson is now President.

I remember that fateful night in April of 1968, watching TV in our den in Midtown Memphis, TN, as the Civil Defense Warning popped up on the screen, and an authoritative voice said,

Would all National Guard members, please report to the Armory.

Shortly, after that, President Johnson interrupted programming, coming from the White House, and announced,

I come to you tonight with a heavy heart…

And, nothing was ever the same again.

In yesterday’s Blog, I posed the question,

What in the Sam Hill is going on in this country?

I then wrote about how screwed up our leadership is, and how disheartening it is to see this Shining City on the Hill being turned into a Third World Barrio, right in front of our very eyes.

What could be the cause? Have the Pod People from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers taken over America’s Leadership?

Actually, in a way…they have.

Today’s Senior leadership is comprised of that volatile generation from the 1960s. That generation in which there was seemingly, widespread rebellion against their faith, their families, and…their country.

For all their bragging about Free Love, dropping out, and tuning in…a lot of them were actually very selfish. (History is actually repeating itself with our younger generation of today, but that’s best left for another post.)

That is the generation that is presently in charge of our nation.

What’s bad is, our Junior Leadership is comprised of their children, Americans with names like Sunshine and River, whose raising was left to Dr. Spock, PBS, and MTV.

So, basically, we have a bunch of elected representatives whose life philosophy is

If it feels good, do it.

The Bible tells us that you will know someone by their fruits.

Let’s look at “the fruits” put forth by this bunch of leaders…

1.  Horrible Financial Stewardship – We’re in hock to the Chinese so badly, they’re probably going to start adopting OUR babies. We have a President who is cutting essential services, like hot meals for our soldiers, while his mooch of a wife is joking about visiting her “Homeland” in Ireland. Now, I’ve been told by an Irishman that my heritage is “Black Irish”, but, that’s ridiculous. Congress hasn’t passed a budget in years now, but nobody seems to care. Hey, it’s only money. OUR money.

2. Attempts to take away Americans’ Constitutional Rights – This is actually very ironic, when you think about it. These “Flower Children”, who used to holler about their Constitutional Rights as they were being busted by the police, now could care less about them.  A little power is a dangerous thing. They’re “The Man” now.

3.  Debasing and Redefining of the American Family – Now, in this amoral utopia they are creating, Johnny has 2 Daddies, or 2 Mommas, or a Momma and another Momma who used to be their Daddy….or just a Momma…or just a Daddy…or, they’re being raised by Grandma and Grandpa. And, then, the “pundits” wonder why kids are joining Gangs, seeking “love and acceptance”.

4. Attempting to eliminate Christianity from Americans’ day-to-day lives – From complaining about prayer before high school football games to lawsuits about the Ten Commandments being in Courthouses, the miserable selfish little cretins, who seem content to serve the Darkness, are relentless in their quest to remove the public worship of the One who made us, from Americans’ daily lives. They want to pigeon-hole Christians and force us to worship Our Creator on Sunday Mornings, only, and only then, in government-approved services, where preachers will not be allowed to condemn homosexuality as a sin.

In America today, we are experiencing the Tyranny of the Minority. Average Americans, who love God, their families, and their country, still exist. They are trying desperately to try to make things better for their families. That is the reason that a recent study showed that Americans are leaving the Liberal stronghold of the Northeast and the Left Coast, seeking like minds in America’s Heartland.

There are still plenty of Americans who believe in Traditional American Values. They go to work, they attend church, and they spend time with their families. Despite the enormous pressure put upon them by an increasingly selfish, amoral culture, an anti-American President, and his enablers and minions in Congress and the Main Stream Media, they still “bitterly cling” to their Bibles and guns, remembering those who have gone before, and the sacrifices at home and abroad they made to keep them free.

Can you feel it? There is a stirring in the heart of this nation. The Sleeping Giant is wide awake. Americans have had enough.

The great American Frontiersman, Congressman, and Freedom Fighter, Davy Crockett, once said,

Be sure you are right. Then, go ahead.

We are right, Americans. It’s time to go ahead.

Until He Comes,

KJ.