Tag: Obama

The most divisive president in U.S. History.

Will Obama Take a Stand For or Against Israel?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

Our ally, Israel, is surrounded on all sides by her enemies and all eyes are turning toward Washington, D.C.

The Jerusalem Post has the story:

Former Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin on Saturday urged President Barack Obama to visit Israel to allay fears that the US is not fully committed to stopping the Iranian nuclear program.

“The US president should visit Israel and tell its leadership – and, more important, its people – that preventing a nuclear Iran is a US interest, and if we have to resort to military action, we will,” Yadlin said in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post.

Yadlin also asked the US to provide Israel with advanced military technology and intelligence, contingent on Israeli pledges to delay a strike.

Yadlin presented a five-point plan to the Obama administration designed to convince “allies and adversaries alike that military action is real, imminent and doable.”

He called on Obama to notify Congress in writing that he reserves the right to use military force on Iran. He added that the US should increase its military presence in the Persian Gulf, and should also publicly commit to the security of its allies in the region.

Yadlin, who left his IDF post in 2010 and is currently the head of the Institute for National Security Studies, has been a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who have both hinted that Israel would not leave the fate of Israel in the hands of the US.

“Israel cannot afford to outsource its security to another country,” Yadlin wrote in the Washington Post. “But if the United States wants Israel to give sanctions and diplomacy more time, Israelis must know that they will not be left high and dry if these options fail.”

Yadlin, one of the pilots who took part in the 1981 attack on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, hinted that Israel was capable of hitting the heart of the Iranian nuclear program, but said Israel would need US support “both the day after and the decade after a strike.”

President Ronald Wilson Reagan said the following in a speech he made in 1982:

America has long been committed to bringing peace to this troubled region. For more than a generation, successive United States administrations have endeavored to develop a fair and workable process that could lead to a true and lasting Arab-Israeli peace.

Our involvement in the search for Mideast peace is not a matter of preference; it’s a moral imperative. The strategic importance of the region to the United States is well known, but our policy is motivated by more than strategic interests. We also have an irreversible commitment to the survival and territorial integrity of friendly states. Nor can we ignore the fact that the well-being of much of the world’s economy is tied to stability in the strife-torn Middle East. Finally, our traditional humanitarian concerns dictated a continuing effort to peacefully resolve conflicts.

When our administration assumed office in January of 1981, I decided that the general framework for our Middle East policy should follow the broad guidelines laid down by my predecessors. There were two basic issues we had to address. First, there was the strategic threat to the region posed by the Soviet Union and its surrogates, best demonstrated by the brutal war in Afghanistan, and, second, the peace process between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

With regard to the Soviet threat, we have strengthened our efforts to develop with our friends and allies a joint policy to deter the Soviets and their surrogates from further expansion in the region and, if necessary, to defend against it.

With respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict, we’ve embraced the Camp David framework as the only way to proceed. We have also recognized, however, solving the Arab-Israeli conflict in and of itself cannot assure peace throughout a region as vast and troubled as the Middle East.

…Tragic turmoil in the Middle East runs back to the dawn of history. In our modern day, conflict after conflict has taken its brutal toll there. In an age of nuclear challenge and economic interdependence, such conflicts are a threat to all the people of the world, not just the Middle East itself. It’s time for us all — in the Middle East and around the world — to call a halt to conflict, hatred, and prejudice. It’s time for us all to launch a common effort for reconstruction, peace, and progress.

It has often been said — and, regrettably, too often been true — that the story of the search for peace and justice in the Middle East is a tragedy of opportunities missed. In the aftermath of the settlement in Lebanon, we now face an opportuntiy for a broader peace. This time we must not let it slip from our grasp. We must look beyond the difficulties and obstacles of the present and move with a fairness and resolve toward a brighter future. We owe it to ourselves — and to posterity — to do no less. For if we miss this chance to make a fresh start, we may look back on this moment from some later vantage point and realize how much that failure cost us all.

Back in March of 2011, the Palestinians wanted Israel to return to the little narrow strip of a country that it was before the 1967 war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat across from President Barack Hussein Obama and told him:

What we are in complete accord about is that a true peace can only occur if the ultimate resolution allows Israel to defend itself against threats, and that Israel’s security will remain paramount in U.S. evaluation of any prospective deal.

The ball is firmly in Obama’s court. Let’s see if he sinks a game-winner or throws up an air ball.

I’m not holding my breath.

Genesis 12: 1 – 3: 

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Iran, Egypt, and Israel: Guess Who Obama Funded?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

Friends, I hoped y’all are all prayed up. We’re going to need it.

Yahoo.com has the story:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an annual anti-Israel protest in Tehran on Friday that the Jewish state was a “cancerous tumour” that will soon be excised, drawing Western rebukes.

Washington said Ahmadinejad’s statements were “reprehensible”, while Paris viewed them as “outrageous.”

Ahmadinejad’s diatribe against Israel in his Quds (Jerusalem) Day address was the latest in a long line to have drawn criticism from Western governments.

“The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumour,” he said.

“The nations of the region will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land…. A new Middle East will definitely be formed. With the grace of God and help of the nations, in the new Middle East there will be no trace of the Americans and Zionists,” he said.

The diatribe took place amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran over Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme.

The Jewish state has in recent weeks intensified its threats to possibly bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities to prevent it having the capability to produce atomic weapons.

Iran, which is suffering under severe Western sanctions, denies its nuclear programme is anything but peaceful. Its military has warned it will destroy Israel if it attacks.

“They (the Israelis) know very well they don’t have the ability” to successfully attack Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

“If they make a mistake, our nation’s reaction will lead to the end of the Zionist regime,” he said.

Meanwhile, Obama’s favorite “civic (religious) organization” in the region is showing everyone how cultured they are:

The Arab Spring takeover of Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood has run amok, with reports from several different media agencies that the radical Muslims have begun crucifying opponents of newly installed President Mohammed Morsi.

Middle East media confirm that during a recent rampage, Muslim Brotherhood operatives, “crucified those opposing Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi naked on trees in front of the presidential palace while abusing others.”

Raymond Ibrahim, a fellow with the Middle East Forum and the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said the crucifixions are the product of who the Middle Eastern media call “partisans.”

“Arabic media call them ‘supporters,’ ‘followers,’ and ‘partisans’ of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Ibraham said.

Ibrahim also says the victims can be anyone, including Egyptians and Christians.

“It’s anyone who is resisting the new government,” Ibrahim said. “In this particular case, the people attacked and crucified were secular protesters upset because of Morsi’s hostile campaign against the media, especially of Tawfik Okasha, who was constantly exposing him on his station, until Morsi shut him down.”

Ibrahim said extra brutality is reserved for Christians, but the crucifixions are because of Islamic doctrine, and are required by the Quran. The time and other details about the crucifixions were not readily available.

“Mideast Beast: The Scriptural Case for an Islamic Antichrist” sorts out what this clash of civilizations is all about

Center for Security Policy Senior Fellow Clare Lopez cited chapter and verse from the Quran to explain that crucifixions are not simply normal for Islam; they’re demanded.

“Crucifixion is a hadd punishment, stipulated in the Quran, Sura 5:33, and therefore an obligatory part of Shariah,” Lopez said. “It’s been a traditional punishment within Islam since the beginning, even though it’s not exclusively Islamic. The Romans used it too.

“So, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood haven’t the option to not include crucifixion within their legal code. It’s obligatory to comply with Shariah. And yes, it’s for shock value also to be sure,” Lopez said.

And, just think, Americans, the Muslim Brotherhood is killing Christians, USING OUR MONEY!

Back on April 7th, Andrew McCarthy reported the following in a article on nationalreview.com:

This week, the Obama administration quietly released $1.5 billion in foreign aid to the new Egyptian government, now dominated by a Brotherhood-led coalition in parliament — soon to be joined by an Ikhwan (i.e., Brotherhood) luminary as president.

It is not easy to find the announcement. With the legacy media having joined the Obama reelection campaign, we must turn for such news to outlets like the Kuwait News Agency. There, we learn that, having dug our nation into a $16 trillion debt hole, President Obama has nevertheless decided to borrow more money from unfriendly powers like China so he can give it to an outfit that views the United States as an enemy to be destroyed.

This pot of gold for Islamic supremacists is the spoils of a Brotherhood charm offensive. Given the organization’s unabashed goals and hostility towards the West, it was U.S. policy, until recently, to avoid formal contacts with the Brotherhood — although agents of the intelligence community and the State Department have long engaged in off-line communications with individual MB members. By contrast, the Obama administration from its first days has embraced the Ikhwan — both the mothership, whose leaders were invited to attend Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo despite its then-status as a banned organization under Egyptian law, and the Brotherhood’s American satellites, which have been invited to advise administration policymakers despite their notorious record of championing violent jihadists and repressive sharia.

Obama has overlooked the MB’s intimate ties to Hamas, which self-identifies as the Ikhwan’s Palestinian branch and is formally designated a terrorist organization under American law. Administration officials have absurdly portrayed the Brothers as “secular” and “moderate,” although the organization, from its founding in the 1920s, has never retreated an inch from its professed mission to establish Islam’s global hegemony.

Funding our enemies against our allies and the faith of 78% of our population.

Hopefully, the next Administration will have more sense.

Obama: “Soul Searching” for Gun Control

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

The horrible actions of one lone psychopath at a Sikh Temple in Minnesota, has American Liberals on the Gun Control Warpath…again.

Reuters.com has the story:

President Barack Obama said on Monday that mass killings like the shooting rampage at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin were occurring with “too much regularity” and should prompt soul searching by all Americans, but he stopped short of calling for new gun-control laws.

“All of us are heart-broken by what happened,” Obama told reporters at the White House a day after a gunman opened fire on Sikh worshippers preparing for religious services, killing six before he was shot dead by a police officer.

But when asked whether he would push for further gun-control measures in the wake of the shootings, Obama said only that he wanted to bring together leaders at all levels of American society to examine ways to curb gun violence.

That echoed his pledge last month in a speech in New Orleans to work broadly to “arrive at a consensus” on the contentious issue after a deadly Colorado shooting spree highlighted the problem in an election year.

But like his earlier comments, Obama offered no timetable or specifics for such discussions and did not call outright for tighter gun control laws.

Talk of reining in America’s gun culture is considered politically risky for Obama, who is locked in a tight race against Republican challenger Mitt Romney for November election.

“All of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity for us not to do some soul searching to examine additional ways that we can reduce violence,” Obama said at an Oval Office ceremony to sign an unrelated bill.

But he added, “As I’ve already said, there are a lot of elements involved in it.” The Democratic president has made a point of emphasizing his support for the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, which covers the right to bear arms.

White House spokesman Jay Carney reiterated, however, that Obama remained in favor of renewing an assault weapons ban but pointed out “there has been reluctance by Congress” to pass it.

Obama said the FBI was still investigating the temple shooting, but if it turned out it was ethnically motivated, the American people would “immediately recoil.”

“It would be very important for us to reaffirm once again that in this country, regardless of what we look like, where we come from, who we worship, we are all one people,” he said.

Uh huh.

Meanwhile, in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee:

Lt. Joe Scott stands at the master board that tracks homicides for the Memphis Police Department.

91 homicides this year so far.

Scott says, “This year has been extremely busy. Its been the busiest year I can recall.”

Its not record pace. That was 213 in 1993. Memphis is on pace for 180.

But surprisingly… Memphis’ Homicide Rate is more than four times what New York City’s was last year.

Last year in New York… One in every 15,079 people were murdered.

In Memphis this year… Its one in every 3,734.

So what are people in Memphis killing each other over?

Scott continues, “This year there just seems to be a lot of neighborhood arguing.”

Argument is the number 1 motive this year… A third of homicides, 30… Started with an argument… One over five dollars… Another between two brothers arguing who was the better parent.

“And just people that for whatever reason cannot resolve conflicts in a civil manner.”

The second most common motive is robbery. 18 homicides this year began with a robbery. Up 25 percent from last year. Scott says more people are resisting.

Scott says, “And that seems to be a growing trend to resist the robber not give them what they demanded during the course of the robbery.”

That is proving deadly.

The average age of victims this year in Memphis is 30.5…. Older than some might think. Chances are you’ll know your killer… 71 percent this year have.

But the way Memphians are dying is no surprise…. by gunfire… 72 of 91 homicides so far were committed with a gun.

And that’s one of the reasons folks like me left Memphis for DeSoto County, Mississippi years ago…but, I digress.

Memphis, like Chicago, has a big problem with black-on-black homocide.  But, no one will talk about it.

Why is no one trying to come to grips with this epidemic of violence going on in America’s cities, including Obama’s adoptive hometown?

In April, theblaze.com reported

More than 500 people under the age of 21 were killed in Chicago in 2008. This figure fell only slightly in 2009 and 2010 and, of course, does not represent the many others who have been shot or injured as a result of these attacks. Records reveal that nearly 80 percent of youth homicides occurred in 22 black or Latino communities on Chicago’s South and West sides.

In just the first three months of 2012, 109 people have already been murdered in the city of Chicago.

…A 2007 special report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, reveals that approximately 8,000 — and, in certain years, as many as 9,000 African Americans are murdered annually in the United States. This chilling figure is accompanied by another equally sobering fact, that 93% of these murders are in fact perpetrated by other blacks. The analysis, supported by FBI records, finds that in 2005 alone, for example, African Americans accounted for 49% of all homicide victims in the US — again, almost exclusively at the hands of other African Americans.

To put these number in perspective, recall that over 6,400 U.S. service men and women have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined over the course of a decade-long war fought in those nations. During the Vietnam War, which lasted nearly 13 years, some 58,000 Americans were killed — nearly 13 percent of whom were African American.

Mr. President, before you come and try to get the guns from law abiding citizens, why don’t you deal with the problem in your own backyard, first?

DNC Campaign Strategy: Ignore Obama’s Record

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

You’re the Democratic National Committee. Your task: somehow getting the American public to re-elect President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

How in the world do you pull off something like that?

The local CBS affiliate in Washington checked out the DNC’s website to see how they plan on achieving the impossible:

If the Democratic National Committee’s strategy for victory is to muffle its own party’s achievements and focus more on slamming Republicans, it seems to be doing a good job on its website.

The DNC’s homepage has numerous attack ads against presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, far more than news touting President Obama’s accomplishments in office.

A review of the DNC’s homepage shows a majority of ads mocking Romney from “Romney’s Guide To International Diplomacy” following his comments that London might not be ready for the Olympics with the Twitter hashtag “RomneyShambles,” to attack ads highlighting “Mitt Romney’s $ecret $tash” of money in Swiss bank accounts and his tenure at Bain Capital.

But a visitor will have to dig through the site to find Obama’s signature accomplishments.

July 11 is the last post on the homepage to mention the president’s signature health care law, but in that instance, it’s a blog post about why Republicans shouldn’t have voted to repeal “Obamacare” for the 33rd time. Before that, users have to go back to last month to find the DNC page proclaiming a health care victory following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law as constitutional.

Obama made history by becoming the first sitting president to endorse same-sex marriage, but to find it on the DNC homepage, one has to go through over 100 posts back to May when he first made the statement.

Instead of having Obama’s accomplishments readily available on the homepage, visitors need to scroll over to the “People” and “Issue” tabs to find his successes in office. CBSDC reached out to the DNC for comment.

Mathews Pierson, director of politics at CBS Local Media, said negative attack ads work better than presenting someone’s success.

“Everyone complains about negative campaigning, but we keep doing it for one really simple reason: it works,” Pierson told CBSDC. “The same voter who tells you he doesn’t want to see anymore of it will then tell you something bad about Mitt Romney that he certainly didn’t learn doing his own research. “

Pierson explained that constantly using attack ads on the DNC’s front page will help to “rev up activists.”

“Driving Romney’s negatives is working to engage activists and generate press coverage to keep pressing until it doesn’t,” Pierson said. “Also, while most of the public is tuned-out and hitting the beach, if every time they tune in they hear the negative Romney narrative it can solidify their opinion of him before they truly start paying attention to the race this fall.”

A recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows that Romney holds a 49 to 44 percent lead over Obama.

Accentuate the other guy’s negative campaign in order to overcome your own candidate’s ineptitude?

Errr…ummm…brilliant? No…that’s not the word. Liberal?  Yeah…that’s it. That’s how they approach everything (with thanks to John):

If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn`t buy one.
If a liberal doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn`t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy.
A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good.

If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a black man or Hispanic are conservative, they see themselves as independently successful.
Their liberal counterparts see themselves as victims in need of government protection.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a conservative reads this, he’ll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
If a liberal reads this he will delete it and try to ban the use of email for everyone for life.

Finally, to add to this wonderful list:

If a Conservative, or in Romney’s case, a Moderate, runs for President, he tells you why you should vote for him.

If a Liberal (Obama) runs (again) for President, he tell you why the other candidate is horrible, completely ignoring his own horrible record.

I mean, which are you going to believe? Him…or your wallet?

This Classless Administration

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) has used the People’s House for a campaign commercial. In fact, he used the office where he is supposed to be conducting this nation’s business.

ABCNews.go.com has the story:

President Obama’s newest campaign commercial was filmed inside the West Wing of the White House, an act that campaign finance experts and good government groups generally agreed was legal if not particularly commendable.

In the ad, the president – sitting in the White House chief of staff’s office – lays out his view of the choice voters face this November.

White House officials confirmed that the ad was filmed in the Chief of Staff’s office after ABC News inquired about it, a reporter having recognized the décor. Officials denied there was any concern about the propriety of the president being filmed inside the West Wing in a campaign ad, noting that previous presidents had done so.

Staffers for President George W. Bush say they expressly avoided filming campaign ads within the West Wing itself, though they were under the impression that the White House Residence and outside the West Wing building – the Colonnade — were regarded as acceptable. Myriad Bush 2004 ads featured him walking in the Colonnade.

Previous presidents saw no such lines. When President Bill Clinton ran for re-election in 1996 he was featured in the Oval Office. President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 convention documentary featured the Oval Office and the Roosevelt Room.

He also had his own ad offering his view of the choice voters faced in November 1984, shot sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office itself.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford was filmed working with his top advisers in the Oval Office itself and speaking directly to camera in an interview with a tell-tale curving wall behind him.

Four years later, President Jimmy Carter was filmed in the Oval Office for a reelection ad.

Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center, said the Obama appearance was legal, but it was “an unwise politicization of the highest office in the land.”

“I find it a bit disturbing that he would do it in the West Wing office,” McGehee said. “The Residence is different. Repurposing previous footage is different. But filming in a West Wing office – it may not be precedent-setting but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”

Others agreed. “Given that it’s not a solicitation, there’s no specific prohibition against it,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government. “Whether it’s the best idea, I think that’s a separate question. Americans like to think the West Wing is sacrosanct and used only for official business.”

The Obama White House has never exactly been known for its class and decorum…nor for long hours spent in the Oval Office.

While President Reagan would get into the Oval Office at the crack of dawn, Obama arrives at 10:00 a.m…the crack of brunch.

And, while Reagan always wore a suit coat or sports jacket while working in the Oval Office, out of respect…Obama wears a shirt…with the sleeves rolled up.

While other presidents would have beautiful Christmas trees with ornaments of silver and gold, Obama had one with ornaments of Chairman Mao.

While Reagan said

This is the last day of Small Business Week, so I’d like to mark the occasion by speaking about the importance of entrepreneurs and how we’re trying to help them.

When you think about it, every week should be Small Business Week, because America is small business. Small firms account for nearly half our jobs; they create some 60 percent of new jobs; and they’re on the cutting edge of innovation, providing products and ideas for the future. Everything from ballpoint pens to FM-radios, automatic transmissions and helicopters was conceived in the minds of entrepreneurs-men and women who had the spirit to dream impossible dreams, take great risks, and work long hours to make their dreams come true.

…Entrepreneurs have always been leaders in America. They led the rebellion against excessive taxation and regulation. They and their offspring pushed back the frontier, transforming the wilderness into a land of plenty. Their knowledge and contributions have sustained us in wartime, brought us out of recessions, carried our astronauts to the Moon, and led American industry to new frontiers of high technology.

We came to Washington confident that this small business spirit could make America well and get our economy moving again. Well, it’s working. And we want to keep on using that special principle of giving by putting America’s destiny back into the people’s hands, providing you new incentives to save, invest, and take risks, so more wealth will be created at every level of our society.

We know small business is ready. That group fared better during the recent recession, laid off less workers than big business, and will recover faster. Over the last 2 years, you heard about the high rate of small business failures. You heard about it over and over again. What you didn’t hear very often was that in 1981 a record 580,000 new businesses were formed. And 560,000 new enterprises were begun in 1982. They’re the seeds of lasting recovery.

…Governments don’t reduce deficits by raising taxes on the people. Governments reduce deficits by controlling spending and stimulating new wealth, wealth from investments of brave people with hope for the future, trust in their fellow man, and faith in God.

Obama said

If you’ve got a business–you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

So, given Obama’s history during his first and only (please, Lord) term, there’s only one thing I have to say about him doing something as classless as shooting a campaign commercial in the Oval Office:

I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

Obama vs. Sheriff Joe: Don’t Mess With the Bull…

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

Back on November 3, 2010, actor Sylvester Stallone tweeted the following:

I voted did you? Gotta get the Manchurian Candidate out of the drivers seat before were ALL soaring off a cliff into Oblivion…Be smart.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona agrees.

Investigators for an Arizona sheriff’s volunteer posse have declared that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is definitely fraudulent.

Members of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s posse said in March that there was probable cause that Obama’s long-form birth certificate released by the White House in April 2011 was a computer-generated forgery.

Now, Arpaio says investigators are positive it’s fraudulent.

Mike Zullo, the posse’s chief investigator, said numeric codes on certain parts of the birth certificate indicate that those parts weren’t filled out, yet those sections asking for the race of Obama’s father and his field of work or study were completed.

Zullo said investigators previously didn’t know the meaning of codes but that the codes were explained by a 95-year-old former state worker who signed the president’s birth certificate. Zullo said a news reporter who has helped out in the probe let investigators listen in on an interview he concluded of the former state worker.

The Obama campaign declined to comment on Arpaio’s allegations.

The Arizona Democratic Party says in a statement that Arpaio’s investigation is intended to draw attention away from problems within his own agency, such as hundreds of sex-crimes cases that the sheriff’s office failed to adequately investigate over a three-year period.

So-called “birthers” maintain Obama is ineligible to be president because, they contend, he was born in Kenya.

Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed Obama’s citizenship.

Obama released a copy of his long-form birth certificate in an attempt to quell citizenship questions.

Courts have rebuffed lawsuits over the issue.

Uh huh. The problem is: Obama seems to have a much in common with average Americans, as I do with the Eastern European in those commercials who identifies himself on the phone as “Peggy”.

Remember when Obama presented his “birth certificate”?

From wjbc.com, April 27, 2011:

“We do not have time for this silliness,” President Obama said in a statement to the media this morning about his birth certificate. The White House is releasing his full birth certificate, showing a live birth in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. In a statement, Obama called himself amused and puzzled about questions that have been raised about his birth. Since 2008, some conspiracy theorists have repeatedly raised questions about whether Obama was actually born in the USA. In recent weeks, real estate mogul Donald Trump has fanned the flames of doubt about the President’s birthplace. Trump is flirting with a presidential run as a Republican.

A statement from White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer says the President viewed the issue as a distraction that was not good for the country. Pfeiffer said, “It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country.”

Distracting? Thank you, Lt. Frank Drebin.

Nothing to see here. Move along. Nothing to see here.

This has been a busy week for the sheriff. On Monday, he had a little message for cancelled talk show host and Liberal comedian George Lopez, who used to have a sit-com as well.

Chicagotribune.com reported the story:

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio isn’t laughing at George Lopez’s new one-man show on HBO in which the comedian blasts the Maricopa County lawman for his position on immigration and his “birther” stance.

In fact, Arpaio is daring the comedian, via the media, to stop hiding behind the mike and “meet me face to face.”

The controversial sheriff said he and his wife were flipping through the channels Saturday night when they paused to linger on Lopez’s show, “George: It’s Not Me, It’s You.” Arpaio said he was shocked at the potty-mouthed language coming from the comedian and switched to another channel without realizing the diatribe was aimed at him.

An Arizona reporter helpfully filled Arpaio in on the details. The sheriff’s response?

A dare for Lopez: “Get some guts. Come down here, and meet me face to face,” Arpaio told ABC15 in Arizona. “Let’s see how you act then.”

Arpaio probably isn’t joking. The tough-talking sheriff has long had a reputation as refusing to back down from controversy — even courting it. He has been accused of being abusive to prisoners, racially profiling Latinos and injecting himself into presidential politics by opening his own inquiry on behalf of those who believe President Obama was born outside the United States, and therefore is in the White House illegally.

You can watch the key snippet of Lopez’s show, “George: It’s Not Me, It’s You,” but be forewarned: F-bombs abound. Lopez also has a few choice words for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. (Lopez makes the claim that Romney is actually Latino but has zero chance of getting the Latino vote come November.) The crowd cheers throughout.

Lopez, however, saves his fiercest wrath for Arpaio. We’d quote from it… if we were allowed to use such foul language in a family newspaper.

But we’re not.

By now, you’re probably wondering why I even posted this, as Sheriff Joe probably does not have a chance of a snowball in July of making his charges stick against the President of the United States.

I know…but, it does my heart a world of good, to see a good man fighting back.

A word of advice to the movie star from Ski Patrol and the “Preezy”:

Don’t mess with the bull if you don’t want the horns.

Smart Power! in Egypt: Those Weren’t Roses They Were Throwing

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

The First Lady of Smart Power! is at it again…making new friends wherever she goes…yeah, right.

The head of Egypt’s military took a tough line Sunday on the Muslim Brotherhood, warning that he won’t let the fundamentalist group dominate the country, only hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged him to work with Egypt’s elected Islamist leaders.

Clinton’s visit to Egypt underscored the difficulty Washington faces in trying to wield its influence amid the country’s stormy post-Hosni Mubarak power struggles. Protesters chanting against the U.S. – sometimes reaching several hundred – sprung up at several sites Clinton visited this weekend. On Sunday, protesters threw tomatoes, water bottles and shoes at her motorcade as she left a ceremony marking the opening of a new U.S. consulate in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Islamist Mohammed Morsi, a longtime Brotherhood figure, was sworn two weeks ago as Egypt’s first democratically elected president. Led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the military handed over power to him June 30 after ruling Egypt for 16 months. The military, however, dissolved the Brotherhood-led parliament and stripped Morsi of significant authorities in the days before his inauguration, while retaining overwhelming powers for itself, including legislative power and control of the writing of a new constitution.

The United States is in a difficult spot when it comes to dealing with post-Mubarak Egypt – eager to be seen as a champion of democracy and human rights after three decades of close ties with the ousted leader despite his abysmal record in advancing either.

This has involved some uncomfortable changes, including occasional criticism of America’s longtime faithful partners in Egypt’s military as it grabs more power and words of support for Islamist parties far more skeptical of U.S. intentions in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.

That has fueled accusations among some Egyptians who back the military or oppose Islamists that Washington is promoting the rise of the Brotherhood to power.

As Hil was traveling to her meeting, she wasn’t exactly greeted warmly:

Protesters threw tomatoes and shoes at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s motorcade on Sunday during her first visit to Egypt since the election of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

A tomato struck an Egyptian official in the face, and shoes and a water bottle landed near the armoured cars carrying Clinton’s delegation in the port city of Alexandria.

A senior state department official said that neither Clinton nor her vehicle, which were around the corner from the incident, were struck by any of the projectiles.

Protesters chanted: “Monica, Monica”, a reference to Former President Bill Clinton’s extra-marital affair. Some chanted: “leave, Clinton”, Egyptian security officials said.

It was not clear who the protesters were or what political affiliations they had. Protesters outside Clinton’s hotel on Saturday night chanted anti-Islamist slogans, accusing the United States of backing the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power.

The assault on her motorcade came on a day Clinton spoke at the newly re-opened U.S. consulate in Alexandria, addressing accusations the United States, which had long supported former President Hosni Mubarak, of backing one faction or another in Egypt following his ouster last year.

“I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which of course we cannot,” Clinton said.

Clinton also met the country’s top general, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, on Sunday to discuss Egypt’s turbulent democratic transition as the military wrestles for influence with the new president.

The meeting came a day after she met Mursi, whose powers were clipped by the military days before he took office.

Mursi fired back by reinstating the Islamist-dominated parliament that the army leadership had disbanded after a court declared it void, deepening the stand-off before the new leader even had time to form a government.

The result has been acute political uncertainty as the various power centres try to find a way to get along in a country that still has no permanent constitution, parliament or government more than a year after Mubarak’s downfall.

In their hour-long meeting, Clinton and Tantawi discussed Egypt’s political transition and the military’s “ongoing dialogue with President Mursi,” a U.S. official travelling with Clinton said in an email brief.

“Tantawi stressed that this is what Egyptians need most now – help getting the economy back on track,” the official said.

Clinton “stressed the importance of protecting the rights of all Egyptians, including women and minorities”.

The talks also touched on the increasingly lawless Sinai region and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Speaking after the meeting, Tantawi said the army respected the presidency but would not be deterred from its role of “protecting” Egypt.

“The armed forces and the army council respects legislative and executive authorities,” he said in a speech to troops in the city of Ismailia. “The armed forces would not allow anyone to discourage it from its role in protecting Egypt and its people.”

Back on April 7th, Andrew McCarthy reported for nationalreview.com that:

In October 2010, on the eve of the Islamic revolution that the media fancies as “the Arab Spring,” the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood called for jihad against the United States.

You might think that this all but unnoticed bombshell would be of some importance to policymakers in Washington. It was not. It is not. This week, the Obama administration quietly released $1.5 billion in foreign aid to the new Egyptian government, now dominated by a Brotherhood-led coalition in parliament — soon to be joined by an Ikhwan (i.e., Brotherhood) luminary as president.

It is not easy to find the announcement. With the legacy media having joined the Obama reelection campaign, we must turn for such news to outlets like the Kuwait News Agency. There, we learn that, having dug our nation into a $16 trillion debt hole, President Obama has nevertheless decided to borrow more money from unfriendly powers like China so he can give it to an outfit that views the United States as an enemy to be destroyed.

It appears that money can’t buy friendship. Looks like Scooter invested our money poorly.

The Bain of Obama’s Latest Attack: Johnathan Lavine

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

My, how the worm turns…

The Obama campaign’s latest attack tells the story of workers at an Indiana office supply company who lost their jobs after a Bain-owned company named American Pad & Paper (Ampad) took over their company and drove it out of business.

Here’s what the Obama Web video doesn’t mention: A top Obama donor and fundraiser had a much more direct tie to the controversy and actually served on the board of directors at Richardson, Texas-based Ampad, which makes office paper products.

Jonathan Lavine is a long-time Bain Capital executive and co-owner of the Boston Celtics. He is also one of President Obama’s most prolific fundraisers. He has already raised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaign this election, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Lavine started working for Bain in 1993. He was one of three Bain executives who served on the board of directors of Ampad for several years, a post he held until 1999. Here’s a news release announcing his departure from the company in April 1999.

Lavine’s placement on the board of Ampad suggests he had a more direct role than Romney in the series of events surrounding the layoffs, labor disputes and eventual bankruptcy of the Marion, Ind., factory featured in the Obama campaign video.

Asked about Mr. Lavine’s role, Obama campaign spokesman Ben Labolt put the focus back on Romney.

“No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for president highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation,” Labolt said. “The president has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink of another depression”.

And, Labolt argued, Romney, as the CEO of Bain, would have been the one ultimately responsible for what happened with Ampad.

“He made profit at any cost for himself and his partners by outsourcing jobs and bankrupting companies,” Labolt said. “From buyout to bankruptcy, Mitt Romney was CEO and sole owner of Bain. The managing director working on Ampad reported directly to him and has said Romney could have ordered him to settle with the union but didn’t.”

UPDATE: Alex Stanton, a spokesperson for Bain Capitol, does not dispute that Lavine was on the board of Ampad, but insists that he had nothing to do with the workers being laid off in Marion, Indiana.

“Jonathan Lavine was not at Bain Capital when Ampad was acquired by the firm, and was not involved on the investment during the challenging situation at the Marion plant. The assertion he had any involvement with those events is totally false,” said Stanton in a statement.

Mr. Lavine and President Obama have a couple of things in common. Guess what University he is a Trustee of? Furthermore, look at where he got his M.B.A.?

Blessed Be the Ties That Bind…

From Columbia.edu

Jonathan Lavine

Columbia, B.A., 1988

Harvard University, M.B.A., 1992

Jonathan Lavine is a Managing Director at Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm based in Boston.

Mr. Lavine serves as the managing partner and Chief Investment Officer of Sankaty Advisors, Bain Capital’s fixed income and credit affiliate, which he founded in 1997. Today, Sankaty is one of the leading credit and distressed debt managers, with over 160 employees in offices in Boston, London, Chicago and New York and approximately $18 billion in committed assets under anagement.

Before the formation of Sankaty, Mr. Lavine worked in Bain Capital’s private equity business which he joined in 1993. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Lavine was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department.

An active participant in charitable organizations, Mr. Lavine is Chair of the Columbia College Board of Visitors, a member of the Boards of the Dana Hall School, Children’s Hospital Trust, City Year, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Stand for Children. Mr. Lavine also is a member of the ownership group and a Director of the Boston Celtics.

Mr. Lavine received an M.B.A., with Distinction, from Harvard Business School, and a B.A., Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Columbia College. He was a 2008 recipient of Columbia’s John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement. While at Columbia, he received the David Truman Award for outstanding contribution to the academic affairs of the college. In 2004, Mr. Lavine was named as one of the 40 outstanding Bostonians under the age of 40 by Boston Business Journal.

According to Bain Capital’s bio of Mr. Lavine:

Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer

Experience:

Mr. Lavine joined Bain Capital in 1993. He is a Managing Director, and since inception, managing partner and the Chief Investment Officer of Sankaty Advisors and its related funds. He is chair of the firm’s Credit Committee and Risk & Oversight Committee with overall responsibility for strategy, portfolio management and risk. Previously, Mr. Lavine worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Mr. Lavine began his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department of Drexel Burnham Lambert where he focused on acquisitions, financings and restructurings in a variety of industries.

The hard cold facts are: 

Romney was Running against Teddy Kennedy when SCM Office Supplies in Marion, Indiana went out of business in 1994. Obama bundler Jonathan Levine, who has raised $100,000 for the president, was still very active with Bain at the time. 

But, since when has the truth mattered to the Manchurian President and his minions?

Obama Calls Romney a Crook: Glass Houses, Preezy

On By kingsjesterIn Politics9 Comments

Things are beginning to get down and dirty in the Race for the White House.

Politico.com has the story:

President Barack Obama said Mitt Romney should answer questions about his ties to Bain Capital — and soon — in an interview taped Friday with WJLA.

The interview came as a series of Romney interviews were set to air Friday evening, following days of attention to questions about when the Republican candidate exited the venture capital firm and stopped leading day-to-day operations.

“My understanding is that Mr. Romney attested to the SEC, multiple times, that he was the chairman, CEO and president of Bain Capital and I think most Americans figure if you are the chairman, CEO and president of a company that you are responsible for what that company does,” Obama said.

Obama told Scott Thuman of WJLA, the ABC affiliate in the Washington, D.C., area, that Romney “absolutely” must answer questions about his tenure at Bain and whether it continued past 1999 — when Romney has said in the past he left — to 2002, as Securities and Exchange Commission documents suggest.

“If he aspires to being president, one of the things you learn is, you are ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations, that’s probably a question that he’s going to have to answer, and I think that’s a legitimate part of the campaign,” Obama said in the interview, which was conducted earlier Friday in Virginia Beach, Va.

The coverage area of WJLA — which shares a corporate parent, Albritton Communications, with POLITICO — includes Northern Virginia, a key region of the state that pushed Obama to victory in 2008. The election in Virginia is again expected to be close and hard-fought this year.

The president suggested Romney had ultimate responsibility over the company.

“As president of the United States, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you,” he said.

On 7/2/2010, I posted a Blog titled: The Great Disconnect, Part 3: The Chicago Ascent

Let’s hop in the Wayback Machine, Sherman, and check into Obama’s run for the Illinois State Senate, shall we?

In 1995 “Bomber” Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadette Dohrn hosted a fund-raiser for Obama prior to Obama’s run for Alice Palmer’s seat in the state Senate and Ayers donated $200 to Obama’s upcoming state Senate campaign.

In 1996 at age 34, he ran for the state Senate in dubious campaign that is barely known of, outside of Chicago. Alice Palmer, the incumbent, had decided to run for Congress and supported Obama as her successor. But after Palmer’s congressional campaign ran into trouble, she changed her mind and decided to run for re-election to the Illinois Senate after all. Obama refused to step aside and the melee ensued. One of Scooter’s volunteers challenged whether Palmer’s nominating petitions were even legal. Obama’s campaign pulled the same chicanery concerning the petitions of other candidates. Palmer dropped out, and the other candidates were disqualified. So, Obama won unopposed in the Democratic primary—guaranteeing his victory in the general election. This was truly an example of Chicago-style politics at it’s finest…or dirtiest.

Around this same time, at a Bill Clinton White House event, philanthropist Walter Annenberg announced that he was making a $500 million grant to cities across the nation to put towards the reform of public schools. Bill Ayers was the head of the Chicago group that, with$49.2 million in hand, formed the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The launch party in 1995 was attended by the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago, as well as anybody was influential among the Chicago Political Elite. Guess who the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was? You guessed. Obama held the post until 1999. At that time, he stepped down and remained on the board. Bill Ayers worked closely with the Challenge as a leader of the newly formed Chicago School Reform Collaborative.

They also both served on the board of the charitable Woods Fund of Chicago from 1999 to 2002. Just a “guy from the neighborhood”. Huh, Scooter?

Additionally, Scooter served on the board of the Joyce Foundation from 1994 to 2002. This foundation started as the financial back-up plan of a widow whose family had made millions in the lumber industry.

After her death, it was run by philanthropic people who increasingly dedicated their giving to Liberal causes, including gun control, environmentalism and school changes. It has grown over the years until it is now bigger than the TIDES Foundation and actually funds it.

The Joyce Foundation in 2000 and 2001 provided the capital outlay to start the Chicago Climate Exchange. It started trading in 2003, and what it trades is, believe it or not, air.

What a coincidence, that, as president, pushing cap-and-trade is one of his highest priorities, huh?

Back to the Future (Hey, that’s catchy. It would make a great movie title.  Oh, wait. Never mind.)…

Romney is finally manning up and fighting back, according to abcnews.go.com:

Mitt Romney wants President Obama to apologize for his campaign’s suggestion that the Republican candidate could have broken the law by making inaccurate statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Romney told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl late this afternoon that Obama should clean up his campaign staff after officials coordinated an effort to imply that Romney committed a felony by saying he left Bain Capital in 1999, though The Boston Globe reported this week that Romney was listed as the company’s CEO until 2002 on official files.

“The president needs to take control of these people,” Romney said. “He ought to disavow it and rein in these people who are running out of control.”

Romney added, “He sure as heck ought to say that he’s sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team.”

Romney insisted that he abandoned the private-equity firm he founded to run the Olympics and that, after 1999, he had “no role whatsoever in the management” of Bain even though SEC documents listed him as president, chairman of the board and sole stockholder.

“I left any responsibility whatsoever, any effort, any involvement whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after February of 1999,” Romney said.

Obama is proving that he’s not just a “guy in over his head”, he ‘s a vindictive, petulant president with a re-election team weened on Chicago Politics.

Romney is going to have to treat Obama like he did his fellow Republicans, in he wants to win on November 6th.

Obama Administration Unconcerned as Russia Sails Toward Syria

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

On May 19, 2011, the 44th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), gave the following speech, concerning the volatile situation in the Middle East, known as Arab Spring, as Muslim fanatics began to overthrow the Moderate Muslim Dictators that were in place:

The State Department is a fitting venue to mark a new chapter in American diplomacy. For six months, we have witnessed an extraordinary change taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. Square by square, town by town, country by country, the people have risen up to demand their basic human rights. Two leaders have stepped aside. More may follow. And though these countries may be a great distance from our shores, we know that our own future is bound to this region by the forces of economics and security, by history and by faith.

,,,Now, already, we’ve done much to shift our foreign policy following a decade defined by two costly conflicts. After years of war in Iraq, we’ve removed 100,000 American troops and ended our combat mission there. In Afghanistan, we’ve broken the Taliban’s momentum, and this July we will begin to bring our troops home and continue a transition to Afghan lead. And after years of war against al Qaeda and its affiliates, we have dealt al Qaeda a huge blow by killing its leader, Osama bin Laden.

…By the time we found bin Laden, al Qaeda’s agenda had come to be seen by the vast majority of the region as a dead end, and the people of the Middle East and North Africa had taken their future into their own hands.

…There are times in the course of history when the actions of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has been building up for years. In America, think of the defiance of those patriots in Boston who refused to pay taxes to a King, or the dignity of Rosa Parks as she sat courageously in her seat. So it was in Tunisia, as that vendor’s act of desperation tapped into the frustration felt throughout the country. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets, then thousands. And in the face of batons and sometimes bullets, they refused to go home –- day after day, week after week — until a dictator of more than two decades finally left power.

The story of this revolution, and the ones that followed, should not have come as a surprise. The nations of the Middle East and North Africa won their independence long ago, but in too many places their people did not.

…In the face of these challenges, too many leaders in the region tried to direct their people’s grievances elsewhere. The West was blamed as the source of all ills, a half-century after the end of colonialism. Antagonism toward Israel became the only acceptable outlet for political expression. Divisions of tribe, ethnicity and religious sect were manipulated as a means of holding on to power, or taking it away from somebody else.

But the events of the past six months show us that strategies of repression and strategies of diversion will not work anymore. Satellite television and the Internet provide a window into the wider world -– a world of astonishing progress in places like India and Indonesia and Brazil. Cell phones and social networks allow young people to connect and organize like never before. And so a new generation has emerged. And their voices tell us that change cannot be denied.

The question before us is what role America will play as this story unfolds. For decades, the United States has pursued a set of core interests in the region: countering terrorism and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons; securing the free flow of commerce and safe-guarding the security of the region; standing up for Israel’s security and pursuing Arab-Israeli peace.

We will continue to do these things, with the firm belief that America’s interests are not hostile to people’s hopes; they’re essential to them. We believe that no one benefits from a nuclear arms race in the region, or al Qaeda’s brutal attacks. We believe people everywhere would see their economies crippled by a cut-off in energy supplies. As we did in the Gulf War, we will not tolerate aggression across borders, and we will keep our commitments to friends and partners.

Yet we must acknowledge that a strategy based solely upon the narrow pursuit of these interests will not fill an empty stomach or allow someone to speak their mind. Moreover, failure to speak to the broader aspirations of ordinary people will only feed the suspicion that has festered for years that the United States pursues our interests at their expense. Given that this mistrust runs both ways –- as Americans have been seared by hostage-taking and violent rhetoric and terrorist attacks that have killed thousands of our citizens -– a failure to change our approach threatens a deepening spiral of division between the United States and the Arab world.

And that’s why, two years ago in Cairo, I began to broaden our engagement based upon mutual interests and mutual respect. I believed then -– and I believe now -– that we have a stake not just in the stability of nations, but in the self-determination of individuals. The status quo is not sustainable. Societies held together by fear and repression may offer the illusion of stability for a time, but they are built upon fault lines that will eventually tear asunder.

… There must be no doubt that the United States of America welcomes change that advances self-determination and opportunity. Yes, there will be perils that accompany this moment of promise. But after decades of accepting the world as it is in the region, we have a chance to pursue the world as it should be.

Smart Power in action? Hardly.

We interrupt Little Barry Sunshine for this important story from the New York Times:

Russia said on Tuesday that it had dispatched a flotilla of 11 warships to the eastern Mediterranean, some of which would dock in Syria. It would be the largest display of Russian military power in the region since the Syrian conflict began almost 17 months ago. Nearly half of the ships were capable of carrying hundreds of marines.

The announcement appeared intended to punctuate Russia’s effort to position itself as an increasingly decisive broker in resolving the antigovernment uprising in Syria, Russia’s last ally in the Middle East and home to Tartus, its only foreign military base outside the former Soviet Union. The announcement also came a day after Russia said it was halting new shipments of weapons to the Syrian military until the conflict settled down.

Russia has occasionally sent naval vessels on maneuvers in the eastern Mediterranean, and it dispatched an aircraft-carrying battleship, the Admiral Kuznetsov, there for maneuvers with a few other vessels from December 2011 to February 2012. There were rumors in recent weeks that the Russians planned to deploy another naval force near Syria.

But the unusually large size of the force announced on Tuesday was considered a message, not just to the region but also to the United States and other nations supporting the rebels now trying to depose Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad.

Tartus consists of little more than a floating refueling station and some small barracks. But any strengthened Russian presence there could forestall Western military intervention in Syria.

The Russian announcement got a muted response in Washington. “Russia maintains a naval supply and maintenance base in the Syrian port of Tartus,” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council. “We currently have no reason to believe this move is anything out of the ordinary, but we refer you to the Russian government for more details.”

The announcement came as a delegation of Syrian opposition figures was visiting Moscow to gauge if Russia would accept a political transition in Syria that excludes Mr. Assad. It also coincided with a flurry of diplomacy by Kofi Annan, the special Syria envoy from the United Nations and the Arab League, who said Mr. Assad had suggested a new approach for salvaging Mr. Annan’s sidelined peace plan during their meeting on Monday in Damascus.

Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the “Police Squad” in charge of the State Department:

Nothing to see here. Move along. Nothing to see here.