RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/342494/living-large-obama-white-house-charles-c-w-cooke

We are now firmly ensconced in the brutal Age of the Sequester, and things in America are grave. The federal government, we learned on Wednesday, is so strapped for cash that the president has been forced to cut off the People’s access to the home he’s borrowing from them. He didn’t want to have to do this, naturally — “particularly during the popular spring touring season.” But then Congress just had to go and acquiesce with measures that the president himself suggested and signed into law. How beastly! We axed 2.6 percent from a $44.8 trillion budget, and now the president can’t even afford the $18,000 per week necessary to retain the seven staff members who facilitate citizens’ enjoying self-guided tours around the White House.

The executive mansion is not in that much trouble, of course. It’s certainly not in sufficiently dire straits for Air Force One ($181,757 per hour) to be grounded, or to see the executive chef ($100,000 per year) furloughed, or to cut back on the hours of the three full-time White House calligraphers ($277,050 per year for the trio), or to limit the invaluable work of the chief of staff to the president’s dog ($102,000 per year), or to trim his ridiculous motorcade ($2.2 million). If Ellen DeGeneres wants another dancercize session or Spain holds another clothing sale, the first family will be there before you can say “citizen executive.” Fear ye not, serfs: Austerity may be word of the week, but the president is by no means in any danger of being forced to live like the president of a republic instead of like a king.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/342490/deb-fischer-rancher-country-gal-senator-betsy-woodruff You’ve probably heard of Jeff Flake, the cowboyish Arizonan. You know a bit about Tim Scott. And you definitely know Ted Cruz by now. But the fourth freshman Republican senator has dodged countless spotlights, flying under the radar and into the upper chamber of Congress. She’s Deb Fischer, she’s a rancher from Nebraska, she’s […]

http://pjmedia.com/blog/bill-ayers-in-retirement/?print=1 At a “fireside chat” that followed his speech to the Association of Teacher Educators [1] on Sunday morning, February 17, Bill Ayers, co-founder of the terrorist group the Weathermen and retired “distinguished professor of education” from the University of Illinois at Chicago, expressed his gratitude that the Atlanta Hyatt Regency Hotel did not “buckle” […]

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12985#.UTnjPSy9KK0 This is an easy to understand step-by-step that Iran can, and probably is, following. No time left, Obama. My longest and most loyal Israel-friend, Ira K., wants me to write an easier version of my last article describing the actual Bibi Iranian Nuke Red-Line. Ira worked so hard with me on opposing the US […]

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/03/07/brennan-confirmed-as-cia-director-63-34/?print=1

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), who at one point threatened to block the nomination over unanswered questions about Benghazi, voted to confirm Brennan.Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who joined Paul for part of his filibuster yesterday, also voted for confirmation, asserting that Paul had gotten what he asked for.

John Brennan was confirmed as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in a 63-34 vote by the Senate today.

The nomination of President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser was famously blocked last night in a nearly 13-hour filibuster by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who demanded answers from the administration on domestic use of its drone program.

Attorney General Eric Holder sent a briefly worded response today. Still, Paul voted against Brennan, even though he’d voted to confirm John Kerry and Chuck Hagel.

Sens. Pat Leahy (Vt.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were the non-GOP “no” votes against Brennan, in a kind of post-filibuster way of standing with Rand.

“While we must aggressively pursue international terrorists and all of those who would do us harm, we must do it in a way that protects the Constitution and the civil liberties which make us proud to be Americans,” Sanders said. “With regard to the use of drones and other methods employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, I am not convinced that Mr. Brennan is adequately sensitive to the important balancing act required to make protecting our civil liberties an integral part of ensuring our national security.”

IF I WERE LIMITED TO TWO WORDS TO EXPLAIN OBAMA’S VICTORY IN 2008…I WOULD SAY “JOHN McCAIN”…..RSK

John McCain, American ‘Hero’ Posted By Michael Walsh

http://pjmedia.com/michaelwalsh/2013/03/07/john-mccain-american-hero/

What, me worry?

John S. McCain III, the disastrous Republican 2008 candidate who suspended his presidential campaign and refused to take the fight to Barack Obama when he had the chance to actually do something for his country, has beclowned himself yet again:

Highlighting the discord among Republicans over President Barack Obama’s targeted killings policy, two prominent GOP senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, took to the Senate floor to criticize Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s 12-hour filibuster Wednesday…

McCain said Thursday the Senate needed to conduct hearings and an in-depth debate on Obama’s targeted killings policy, “but that conversation should not be talking about drones killing Jane Fonda and people in cafes. It should be all about what authority and what checks and balances should exist” in order to combat “an enemy that we know will be with us for a long time.”

The distinguished senator’s crack about Hanoi Jane (her account of her trip to North Vietnam is at the link) got me to thinking about his own past, which in turn led to the question: why do Republicans admire this man? Most of his life, John McCain has been a disgrace to his service, to the Congress and to his country. So let’s take a trip down memory lane:

John McCain, ace pilot:

One thing’s for sure — if it wasn’t for bad luck, McCain wouldn’t have no luck at all.

McCain did lose two Navy aircraft while piloting them. One crash was found to be be McCain’s fault, the other due to an engine failure of undetermined cause.. A third was destroyed on the deck of the carrier USS Forrestal when a missile fired accidentally from another plane hit either the plane next to McCain’s or, less likely, his own aircraft, triggering a disastrous fire that killed 134 sailors and nearly killed McCain. A fourth plane was lost when he was shot down over North Vietnam on a bombing mission over Hanoi.

A fifth alleged “crash” turns out to be a misinterpretation of a flight accident that did not result in the loss of the aircraft. McCain admitted to causing that incident through “daredevil clowning” but returned safely.

Well, what about that “daredevil clowning” with a very expensive piece of U.S. government property? Just a little youthful hijinks from the son and grandson of four-star Navy admirals who finished near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy, or what?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/03/07/bin-laden-son-in-law-charged-in-ny-court/1970563/?morestories=obinsite WASHINGTON — The son-in-law of former al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, described by U.S. officials as a figure akin to a mob family “consigliere,” is in U.S. custody and has been charged in a conspiracy to kill Americans, according to federal court papers unsealed late Thursday. Sulaiman Abu Ghayth, who served as the strident […]

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/03/chavez_to_be_embalmed_displayed_in_museum.html

What is it about socialists that they feel the need to stuff their heroes and put them on display like a relic of the true cross or something?

VOA:

Venezuela’s Vice President Nicolas Maduro has announced that the late President Hugo Chavez will be embalmed and his body displayed forever in a Caracas military museum.
Mr. Maduro compared the late president to other revolutionary leaders whose bodies also have been preserved, including Russia’s Lenin and China’s Mao. He said President Chavez will lie in state for seven more days to give more Venezuelans the chance to pay their respect.President Chavez will be honored at a state funeral Friday, attended by 30 heads of state. The United States is sending a diplomatic delegation.

Thousands of grieving Venezuelans waited for as long as 10 hours to look at Mr. Chavez’s body in Caracas.Mr. Maduro will be formally sworn in as acting president late Friday. He will likely face off in elections to be called within 30 days against opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Mr. Chavez in the October presidential polls.

Lenin has been on display since 1924 – a feat of embalming that is recognized as one of the finest in history. But Hugo’s mortal remains being displayed in a museum? Somehow, I don’t think that arrangement is going to last as long as the one for Lenin. Perhaps the next president, if he’s in opposition to the Chavistas, will close the display down and bury him. This sort of veneration is silly – especially in a country that purports to want to live up to democratic ideals.

JUNE 2009 Honduras Defends Its Democracy Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton object. Mary Anastasia O’Grady

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124623220955866301.html

Hugo Chávez’s coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation’s constitution.

It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.

But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya’s abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.
That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.
Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court’s order.

The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.

It remains to be seen what Mr. Zelaya’s next move will be. It’s not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too.

Mrs. Clinton has piled on as well. Yesterday she accused Honduras of violating “the precepts of the Interamerican Democratic Charter” and said it “should be condemned by all.” Fidel Castro did just that. Mr. Chávez pledged to overthrow the new government.

Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr. Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Mr. Zelaya denies it.

Many Hondurans are going to be celebrating Mr. Zelaya’s foreign excursion. Street protests against his heavy-handed tactics had already begun last week. On Friday a large number of military reservists took their turn. “We won’t go backwards,” one sign said. “We want to live in peace, freedom and development.”

Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerous evangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office.

For Hondurans who still remember military dictatorship, Mr. Zelaya also has another strike against him: He keeps rotten company. Earlier this month he hosted an OAS general assembly and led the effort, along side OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, to bring Cuba back into the supposedly democratic organization.

The OAS response is no surprise. Former Argentine Ambassador to the U.N. Emilio Cárdenas told me on Saturday that he was concerned that “the OAS under Insulza has not taken seriously the so-called ‘democratic charter.’ It seems to believe that only military ‘coups’ can challenge democracy. The truth is that democracy can be challenged from within, as the experiences of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and now Honduras, prove.” A less-kind interpretation of Mr. Insulza’s judgment is that he doesn’t mind the Chávez-style coup.

The struggle against chavismo has never been about left-right politics. It is about defending the independence of institutions that keep presidents from becoming dictators. This crisis clearly delineates the problem. In failing to come to the aid of checks and balances, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Insulza expose their true colors.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/hugo-chavez-latin-america-has-chosen-rage-over-progress?f=puball We can already see the beginnings of an Eva Perón-style death cult. Latin Americans love a martyr, and Hugo Chávez’s early death has sparked bizarre conspiracy theories about CIA plots and biological weapons. Angry, histrionic and megalomaniac, the comandante was none the less popular to the end. There is an old Venezuelan saying that […]