RUTHFULLY YOURS

While President Obama builds a government that does more and more to pry into the lives of ordinary citizens, he does more and more to keep his own government bullies free from scrutiny.

Last week, he went as far as any president since Watergate to make sure that government corruption could go unscrutinized and unchecked.

In a stunningly brazen act of defiance against the very notion that government should be answerable to the public, Obama’s Justice Department issued an order severely limiting the investigative powers of inspectors general — the very officers who are the first line of defense against government corruption and waste.

This is the latest, and the most dangerous, in a long line of Obama attacks against the independence and authority of IGs.

The administration’s war against IGs began in particularly nasty form just four months after Obama took office.First, let’s understand what IGs are and do. The Congressional Research Service last December defined IGs “as permanent, nonpartisan, and independent offices,” tasked by Congress, on behalf of the American people, with fighting “waste, fraud, and abuse … in more than 70 federal agencies.” As Justice Department IG Michael Horowitz told the Washington Times, the law gives IGs the authority to “access ‘all’ documents necessary to conduct effective oversight.”

The principle is similar: faced with an enemy that repeatedly declares its genocidal hatred, acts on it wherever possible, constantly strives to improve its ways and means, you peace process. Why was it successful with Iran and not with the “Palestinians”? Perhaps because the comical P5 + 1 applied the pressure to itself in the case of Iran, leaving no one to resist. The same pressure applied to Israel since 1993 has failed to produce total surrender. Drastic concessions were proposed but the enemy insisted on the right of return of “refugees” down to the third, fourth, and forever generations that would spell the elimination of the Jewish state. There were no significant limits to the concessions made by the P5+1 and no expectation that the deal will yield anything other than itself. The deal is that there’s a deal.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/08/richard_baehr_and_caroline_glick_on_the_iran_deal.html#ixzz3hYr4Etr5

AT co-founder Richard Baehr was on Chicago radio legend Milt Rosenberg’s program this week for close to two hours, with Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, to discuss the Iran deal, the two state solution, and of course Barack Obama.

Here is the link.http://hark.io/podcast/focusing-on-israel-and-the-middle-east-with-caroline-glick-and-richard-baehr/

The Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, got a jolt of introspection, a quick glance at oneself like walking by a picture window and being surprised by the reflection.

Chris Matthews, bravely admitting that he once knew the answer to this question, sought the answer from Debbie.

“What is the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist?” Matthews asked. Wasserman Schultz was at a loss. Video

She didn’t answer the question. Couldn’t answer the question. Sometimes what is not said is the answer.

Obama’s first hope was to reach a deal with his Iranian friends that would leave the Assad regime in place. But the Iranians blew him off.

While Israel and much of official Washington remain focused on the deal President Barack Obama just cut with the ayatollahs that gives them $150 billion and a guaranteed nuclear arsenal within a decade, Obama has already moved on – to Syria.

Obama’s first hope was to reach a deal with his Iranian friends that would leave the Assad regime in place. But the Iranians blew him off.

They know they don’t need a deal with Obama to secure their interests. Obama will continue to help them to maintain their power base in Syria though Hezbollah and the remains of the Assad regime without a deal.

Social engineers have a knack for destroying history, then self-servingly reshaping it to align with political agendas for consumption by the masses.

The results of their skill are no better exemplified than we are currently witnessing. Confederate history is quite literally being destroyed, as monuments to Robert E. Lee and other Confederate heroes are being defaced by ignorant vandals who know nothing more than the legend of how Abraham Lincoln and his brave Union army crushed Jefferson Davis’ and Robert E. Lee’s Southern hordes in the name of liberating enslaved blacks.

That this is legend is in no way true makes it no less pervasively believed by those who wish to remain ignorant. If you don’t believe me at my word that Lincoln did not wage his war in the name of freeing Southern slaves, perhaps you might believe his? In a letter to Horace Greely in August, 1862:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save the Union by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.

Documents released include physician’s declaration of her health along with tax disclosures

Hillary Clinton released a flurry of documents Friday that included a physician’s declaration of her personal health and a batch of financial information, in a bid to rebut accusations of secrecy surrounding her presidential campaign.

The financial documents showed Mrs. Clinton and her husband earned $139 million in adjusted gross income over the past seven years, including $28 million last year, when they paid an effective tax rate of more than 35%. The release coincided with a voluminous release of Clinton emails from her time as secretary of state.

The disclosures helped illuminate both her personal finances and some lingering questions regarding her health. According to a Clinton aide, they were designed to demonstrate the campaign’s commitment to transparency, at a time when Mrs. Clinton has faced criticism over secrecy.

In a statement accompanying the tax release, Mrs. Clinton noted that she and her husband have now made public the details of their personal finances going back to 1977. Mrs. Clinton also became the first candidate to release a personal health summary.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton sharply attacked one of the top Republicans in the presidential race, saying Jeb Bush’s “Right to Rise” slogan is empty given his policy positions.

“I don’t think you can credibly say that everybody has a ‘right to rise’ and then say you’re for phasing out Medicare or for repealing Obamacare,” she said Friday morning. “People can’t rise if they can’t afford health care. They can’t rise if the minimum wage is too low to live on.”
Her remarks came at a conference for the National Urban League, a group that advocates on behalf of African-Americans, shortly before Mr. Bush addressed the same audience. Mrs. Clinton enjoys strong support from African-American voters, but Mr. Bush is working to expand his support among minorities and to put himself forward as ready to broaden the Republican Party’s tent.

“I’m working for every vote,” Mr. Bush told the group. He didn’t reply to Mrs. Clinton’s critique, but a spokeswoman called her comments “more false, cheap political shots” meant to distract from Mrs. Clinton’s lack of accomplishments.

The Obama Administration insists there’s nothing secret about the Iran nuclear deal, even as it claims not to have read two crucial side deals Tehran has struck with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “Confidential agreements, but no secrets” is the way top U.S. negotiator Wendy Sherman describes the deals, which are thought to concern the military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programs.

Try parsing that distinction. And while you’re at it, consider that there might be additional separate agreements we haven’t heard about. We raise the possibility after speaking with Rep. Mike Pompeo, the Kansas Republican who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, and who more-or-less stumbled on the two side deals when the deputy director of the IAEA disclosed their existence to him and Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) in a meeting in Vienna.

There’s nothing like a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to keep body and soul together while one is having visions about changing the world. I wouldn’t know the pleasure.

Powell’s Books is an Oregon bookstore chain with an affiliated store in Chicago. Its main store is in Portland. It is New York City’s Strand Bookstore of the West. Each of these stores boasts miles and floors of new and used books. It is easy to spend a whole day in one of these stores, once lured inside. I visited the Portland store once, but spent many happy hours in The Strand.

Powell’s recently posted a promotional ad on its site, “25 Women to read before you die.” The list was prefaced with:

Below you’ll find our list — compiled following lively debate by Powell’s staff — of 25 women you absolutely must read in your lifetime.