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Election Season 2014

And it has brought us to this trainwreck called ObamaCare and we have bankrupted our kids and grandkids!

We are now headed into the 2014 Election Season and common sense and conservatism are on the rise. Please stand-up and be counted!

Reading Collusion: How the Media Stole the 2012 Election is a great place to start!

The Founding Father's Real Reason for the Second Amendment

And remember the words of Thomas Jefferson "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." See Video of Suzanna Gratia-Hupp’s Congressional Testimony: What the Second Amendment is REALLY For, below (u-tube HERE).

The Leaders Are Here... Palin, Cruz, Lee, Paul, Chaffetz....

T'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Can You Really Still Believe That None of These People Would Have Done a Better Job???

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Showing posts with label ENEMIES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ENEMIES. Show all posts

Monday, October 22, 2012

A Red and Present Danger

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By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton - The Noisy Room

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is my last election. And after my election, I have more flexibility.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: I understand you. I transmit this information to Vladimir…

This is the most important election of our lifetime – hands down. As our enemies from within and without gather to finish gutting the US military and our ability to protect the last, best hope in the free world, everything rides on the Mormon, Mitt Romney, or the Marxist, Barack Obama. My vote is for the Mormon who has morals, ethics and the business and foreign affairs experience to begin to right our adrift American Titanic and keep her from sinking. Even then, it’s going to be a rough ride, but at least we have a chance of surviving as the country we know and love.

This past week, researcher and author, Trevor Loudon, made an impassioned plea for Americans to look at what is really going on. To face the fact that China has just recently made an offer to the Australians that they are not supposed to refuse. The offer is simple… Choose. Choose between the declining, weakened power of the US or choose the rising red tide of China. China is threatening to become the world’s leading economic and military power. They are heavily training their military on the Fiji Islands off of New Zealand. They are preparing for war and conquest.

From Trevor Loudon:

Right now at the bottom of the South Pacific, a lot of people email me and they say, look, if Obama gets back in again, can we come and live in New Zealand? And I say, look, it’s a wonderful country, you’ll enjoy it, but really there is no where to run now. Just 1500 miles to the north of my country lie the beautiful Fijian Islands – great tourist destination, but they now have a Marxist government. The Chinese are training the Fijian military, building big hydro-electric dams on the islands. Fiji is basically now a Chinese client state.

Just a few months ago the Australian Minister Defense was up in China and a top Chinese official embarrassed him publicly. He said now is the time for Australia to choose. Do you stay under American protection or do you come under Chinese protection? And that is the kind of offer, the kind of protection that Tony Soprano would offer you. AND this would not have happened under Reagan, Bush or even Clinton.

And from OilPrice.com:

One of the more startling pronouncements in this vein occurred last week when Song Xiaojun, a former senior officer of the People’s Liberation Army, warned that Australia cannot juggle its relationships with the United States and China indefinitely and “Australia has to find a godfather sooner or later. Australia always has to depend on somebody else, whether it is to be the ‘son’ of the US or ‘son’ of China. (It) depends on who is more powerful, and based on the strategic environment.” Noting the rising importance of China as an export market Song added that Australia depended on exporting iron ore to China “to feed itself,” but “Frankly, it has not done well politically.”

What is also notable about Song’s remarks is that they coincided with Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s first official visit to China, where Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi urged Australia to dismiss its alliance with the United States, a decades-old bipartisan and central pillar of the nation’s foreign policy, as “the time for Cold War alliances has passed.”

Russia held exercises last Friday, testing their nuclear arsenal for the first time since the end of the Soviet Union (which never really ended – it was only mostly dead and playing possum). Shift uniforms, scream Capitalism and shuffle the players – now done in reverse.

Iran is within weeks of having nuclear weapons and is already poking the badger of Israel, sending drones into their airspace. They want to control the Middle East and stand a good chance of doing so with a little help from the Muslim Brotherhood and Russia. In the meanwhile, they will further World War III and nuke Israel if they get an opening. Bring on the apocalypse.

Despots of a feather always flock together… It would seem that Obama’s biggest foreign fans are murdering asshats. So it is no surprise that Chavez, Castro and Putin have all endorsed Barack Obama. Why not? Better to gut the US military once and for all and then take America down for the count. Castro may be on his deathbed, but there are plenty to take his place. Chavez is busy helping Assad slaughter Syrians, which is in reality, helping Iran. And Putin is behind most of it, waiting in the wings to pick up the pieces. For dictators, it is indeed good times.

Obama was brought up by radicals and Communists. He was mentored by Communists. He has filled his positions of power and influence with Communists and radicals – many among them are with the Muslim Brotherhood. As his Secretary of Defense, he chose Leon Panetta who has many Communist ties and has always stated his primary purpose was to gut our military – exactly what the Communists in Russia have wanted forever and have financed in this country through Communistic peace front groups. If Obama gets four more years, our military, which has already been hugely reduced, will be neutered once and for all and when we are at our weakest, our enemies will descend. How do I know this? It is what I would do. I would weaken my opponent as much as I could and then go for the kill – it is Military Strategy for Dummies.

Not to vote, is to vote for Barack Obama and the end of America as we know her. It will be the final nail in our red, white and blue coffin. So, we must all vote and get everyone we know to vote for Romney – vote as if our lives and our children’s lives depend on it, because they do. I truly hope that Romney cleans Obama’s clock in the final debate on foreign policy and I am sure he will. Then on November 6th, 2012, God willing, let there be a landslide victory for Mitt Romney. Barack Obama is a red and present danger and must be defeated in November.

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Barack Obama and the Enemies Within

I'll take the Mormon Over the Moron

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Media is the Real Enemy

By: James Simpson -  Right Side News

If you are a regular reader of Right Side News, you know that we bring you in-depth reporting on a broad range of issues in one convenient place. The last conference “The Most Important News Conference in History Part I” and Part II was widely read and shared across the internet and social networks.

The following article details a day-long conference held by Accuracy in Media on September 19th. This conference on the eye-popping media bias in favor of President Obama brings much new information to the table. Please read it in its entirety.

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Since 1969, Accuracy in Media has striven to bring accuracy and balance to media reporting. Given that the Left-driven mass media daily overlooks, misrepresents or suppresses the truth to serve their agenda, this has been a valiant, David vs Goliath, if not a Don Quixote effort. But AIM soldiers on, bringing to light countless articles and exposés that shine a light on press bias while providing in-depth reporting about the real issues.

With this in mind, AIM recently held a day-long conference, “Obamanation; a Day of Truth.” This conference highlighted the media’s alarming reluctance to report or investigate anything derogatory about President Obama, and cataloged the many instances where, to the contrary, they shamelessly hype the President and suppress embarrassing information, while collaborating to attack and discredit his political rivals. Lately this has included the unprecedented step of suppressing vital information about the nature of the Benghazi attacks merely to shield the President from embarrassing revelations so close to the election.

Conference presenters included the following list of prominent policy experts and public figures:

Full bios of all speakers can be viewed here. The forum was hosted by AIM Editor Roger Aronoff.

Each presenter gave a prepared statement for 15–20 minutes followed by a question and answer session. The more animated speakers are often people who at one time worked with the Left. This was certainly true for at least one of AIM’s guests.

America’s True Enemy

Longtime Democrat Pat Caddell, who worked for Democratic Presidential candidates from 1972 to 1992, presented what was not really a speech but more of an impassioned plea. He came right out and called main stream media “the Enemy,” citing by name the Washington Post, the New York Times, ABC, NBC and CBS.

Caddell said that journalists have been biased for decades but when they decide, “…what truth that you may know, as an American, and what truth you are not allowed to know, they have, then, made themselves a fundamental threat to the democracy, and, in my opinion, made themselves the enemy of the American people.” (Emphasis added.)

He said:

“I think we’re at the most dangerous time in our political history in terms of the balance of power in the role that the media plays in whether or not we maintain a free democracy… the overwhelming bias has become very real and very dangerous.”

Caddell cited a Gallup poll showing that Americans have the least faith in the news of any time in history. 60 percent said they had little or no trust in the media to report news accurately and fairly. Not surprisingly this split is partisan: 58 percent of Democrats claim to trust the coverage while only 26 percent of Republicans do. Only 31 percent of independents have a high degree of trust, a fact that should alarm Obama and the Democrats.

The Audacity of Corruption

Calling his presentation “The Audacity of Corruption,” Caddell offered stunning examples of media silence regarding what should be major stories. For example, while Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died due to virtually nonexistent security at the Benghazi consulate – a known hotspot – Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett continues to have a full-time Secret Service detail, even on vacations. Caddell revealed that just prior to replacing David Axelrod as Senior Advisor to President Obama, former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe was paid $100,000 by an Iranian front group to give two speeches in Nigeria. Caddell stated:

… here’s a man who’s being paid by an already named front group for… a terrorist regime, and is not asked about it, or queried about it!

Caddell made a number of stunning revelations and pointed observations:

  • $16.4 billion – 80 percent – of Obama “Green Energy” loans went to firms owned or invested in by individuals “ who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party.” No media coverage.
  • Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s number one goal is to obtain release for Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, mastermind of the 1993 WTC bombing. No media coverage.
  • An intelligence source asserts that the White House and State Department are negotiating that release now! No media coverage.
  • White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, an unscrupulous political hack with no experience in national security, is the reputed White House leaker. No media coverage.
  • The press gives Democrats hundreds of millions in in-kind contributions through their relentless bias and PR campaign for Obama.
  • Republicans are unwilling to challenge the media. This needs to STOP.
  • Too many Republicans, Like Romney advisor Ed Gillespie, who works with former Clinton attorney Jack Quinn, won’t rock the boat because they want to preserve relationships.

He noted the press response to Libya:

.. we’ve had nine days of lies over what happened because they can’t dare say it’s a terrorist attack, and the press won’t push this. Twenty American embassies, yesterday, were under attack. None of that is on the national news. None of it is being pressed in the papers. If a President of either party—I don’t care whether it was Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton or George Bush or Ronald Reagan or George H. W. Bush—had a terrorist incident, and got on an airplane after saying something, and flown off to a fundraiser in Las Vegas, they would have been crucified!

Caddell also lambasted the Romney campaign for its ineptitude in calling out either Obama or the media on these eye-popping lapses:

This is not without accomplices, because the incompetence of the [Mitt] Romney campaign, which I said a week ago is the—my God!—the worst campaign in my lifetime, and the Republican establishment in general’s inability to fight, has allowed these things to happen in part because they don’t [fight].

I urge you to watch Caddell’s presentation in its entirety. He delivers a message we cannot overlook.

Caddell was genuinely angry and one of the most animated speakers of the day, but he was not the only one.

Gaffney and McCarthy:

Muslim Infiltration into the United States

Frank Gaffney and Andrew McCarthy both spoke about Muslim infiltration into the United States. They covered too much ground to be adequately described in this essay.

(Andrew McCarthy transcript and video here: Andy McCarthy – “Holder’s Department of Injustice”)

Gaffney has created a free online video series titled, “The Muslim Brotherhood in America: A Course in 10 parts.” Each video is about 20 minutes and very well done. Points raised:

  • Shariah is a totalitarian doctrine. Its adherents – notably, the Muslim Brotherhood – seek to bring it here.
  • Shariah is principally about power, not faith. Accordingly, acting to realize its political end of overthrowing the U.S. government is seditious and must be prosecuted not treated as protected religious practice.
  • In most countries where it operates, the Brotherhood is in a pre-violent phase.
  • The Muslim Brotherhood’s strategic plan is a “civilization-jihadist process… a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within” by our hands.
  • Civilization jihad is being pursued through stealthy means involving the penetration and subversion of civil society and governing institutions.
  • The military calls “information dominance,” the Brotherhood’s effort to keep us ignorant of the threat. They have been increasingly effective at this over the past ten years.
  • The Muslim Brotherhood was helped in its efforts to achieve information dominance over the George W. Bush administration, thanks to collaboration between al Qaeda financier, Abdurahman Alamoudi, and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist.

See Part I of 10: The Muslim Brotherhood in America below and all 10 Parts HERE.

Alamoudi is currently serving a 23 year sentence for helping finance a plot to murder Saudi Crown Prince (now King) Abdullah. In the 1990s, Alamoudi’s American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council received certification from the Defense Department to approve Muslim chaplains for the U.S. armed forces in the 1990s. He participated, with the ACLU in creating legal justifications for limiting Christmas celebrations in public schools.

  • Norquist helped mainstream in the Bush campaign and/or administration five other Muslims with extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. They were: the Islamic Free Market Institute’s Khalid Saffuri, CAIR’s Nihad Awad, Palestinian Jihad’s Sami al-Arian, the Fiqh Council’s Muzzamil Siddiqi and Suhail Khan, a former staffer for Rep. Tom Campbell of California.
  • In his capacity as the de facto Muslim gatekeeper in the Office of Public Liaison under senior Bush advisor Karl Rove, and then as an assistant in the personal office of the Secretary of Transportation, Khan had, at a minimum, an opportunity to facilitate the penetration of other Islamists.
  • Both during and after the Bush administration, Norquist has used various organizations to promote Islamist agendas. These have included Red-Green coalitions made up of radical and other leftists and Muslim Brotherhood front groups.
  • Norquist has worked for years to “create relations with top political leaders and Muslims,” including running Muslims for elective office as Republicans. Three of his protégés – Kamal Nawash, Faisal Gill and Imad “David” Ramadan – have run for state legislative seats in Virginia.
  • Norquist continues to support Islamist agenda items and to work to counter initiatives opposed by the Brothers. He has collaborated with radical leftists and Islamists in Red-Green Coalitions, the latter include Iranian influence operations.
  • The precedents, personnel and policies promoted by Norquist and his friends during the George W. Bush administration have metastasized under President Obama.
  • Notably, six Islamist-sympathizers have achieved positions within or advisory roles serving Team Obama: Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Rashad Hussein; Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Huma Abedein; Presidential advisor Dalia Mogahed; FBI Citizens Academy graduate Kifah Mustafa; Homeland Security Advisory Committee Member Mohamed Elibiary and Homeland Security Countering Violent Extremism Working Group Member Mohamed Magid.
  • Muslim Brotherhood successes include policies and directives emanating from the White House, and priorities and activities of: the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Departments of State, Justice, Defense and Homeland Security and even NASA.

There is an urgent need for rigorous congressional oversight and investigations aimed at exposing the extent of the civilization jihad – and the need for corrective action aimed at countering it, particularly by federal authorities.

McCarthy added that Muslims believe Shariah is Allah’s gift to the world. He quoted the President of Turkey, who said, “Democracy is the train to our destination.”

Gaffney left the audience with a final remark that the Strait of Hormuz may close shortly.

Betsy McCaughey: Death Panel Reality and the Destruction of Medicare

In-Depth AIM Interview with Betsy McCaughey

Dr. Betsy McCaughey is perhaps the foremost expert on Obamacare. She was also instrumental in defeating Hillary Clinton’s similar socialized medicine scheme back in 1994. She was the first health care policy expert to warn of the impending Obamacare proposals in 2009.

She revealed that Obama healthcare advisor, Ezekiel Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s brother, advocated what have become known as “Death Panels.” The media ridiculed Sarah Palin for warning about them, and McCaughey was similarly reviled in the press for spreading “false rumors.” Obamacare advocates and their media defenders disingenuously argued that the Obamacare bill contained no such provision.

The truth, McCaughey revealed, was that the framework for their creation was already codified in law through a provision snuck into the stimulus bill. Now, one of Obama’s closest advisors, former Car Czar Steven Rattner, is admitting that Obamacare will require rationing in a New York Times Op Ed subtitled “We need death panels.”

This is big news! Sarah Palin was right all along (we knew that of course.) Where is the media mea culpa? Where is the media coverage even?

Crickets.

In this conference, Dr. McCaughey described in detail how Obamacare is going to ruin Medicare. She again raised the specter of death panels and explained that Obamacare requires extreme cuts to Medicare that will necessitate commensurate cuts in healthcare services to seniors. Some of the life-saving procedures that are routine today will become completely unavailable, and the necessary rationing will begin. Some key points:

  • Obamacare cuts $247 billion from hospital Medicare reimbursements over ten years.
  • Since Medicare already reimburses hospitals less than service costs, this will necessitate service reductions.
  • This and other budget cuts will reduce nursing and other hospital staff by 93,000.
  • Beginning in October 2012, the Obama administration will reward hospitals that spend less on seniors and penalize those that spend more.
  • Cuts will eventually cause an estimated 40 percent of hospitals to operate at a loss.
  • 15 percent of hospitals may stop accepting Medicare patients.
  • An estimated 35,000 seniors will die annually as the result of reduced care.

Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr.: The Constitution, Founding Fathers and Religious Freedom

Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr. campaigned for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat in the GOP primaries. He spoke on religious liberty and the Constitution, noting how the Obama administration demonstrates contempt for the Constitution every day. “I think we are being led by people who don’t respect our Constitution. They just fundamentally don’t think it’s important,” he said.

He quoted EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum who has said “Sexual freedom must always win over the First Amendment.” Even though sexual freedom’s not mentioned in the Constitution and the First Amendment is the first right that’s recognized by the Constitution, she says, “No, no, no, the First Amendment liberties of the American people must give way.”

Jackson said that Republicans have an historic opportunity to reach out to blacks due to this administration’s radical stances on abortion and gay marriage, which most blacks strongly disagree with.

Bishop Jackson’s presentation can be viewed in its entirety and transcript, here, or watch below.

John Fund: Voter Suppression and the Corrupt Machines

John Fund has written two books on voter fraud: Who's Counting? and Stealing Elections  and is an acknowledged expert on the issue. Fund discussed the Left’s effort to mischaracterize voter integrity efforts as minority “voter suppression,” resurrecting yet again the race card. The sad truth he explained, is that inner city minorities do suffer voter suppression because those areas are usually controlled by corrupt leftist political machines. Reform democrats have attempted to change the system but have been prevented from doing so by the corrupt machines. Minorities suffer poor schools, poor services, with high taxes and high crime, while their votes are literally stolen by corrupt politicians. The idea that voter ID laws suppress the minority vote is absurd. 75 percent of voters favor photo ID laws for voting. Even liberal democrats favor voter ID laws.

Jack Cashill

Jack Cashill has published many books and wrote a series of articles asserting that Obama neighbor and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s “autobiography” Dreams from My Father (which has now been edited and re-written to remove references to Frank Marshall Davis and other incriminating material). Despite impeccable journalistic credentials, including ghostwriting books for other authors, Cashill’s stories have been completely ignored by the media – even conservative media. Subsequently, Author Christopher Andersen interviewed people who knew Obama for his biography. They said that Obama was unable to meet deadlines and submitted tapes, notes and a partially written manuscript for Ayers to complete. So Cashill has been vindicated, but the media will still not acknowledge the truth.

Cashill says, “Obama did not write Dreams. Period.” In his research, Cashill stumbled across Ayers’ book, “Fugitive Days” and surmised that Ayers had the same ghost writer as Obama because the writing was so similar. Then he learned that Ayers had exemplary writing skills, and due to his time as a merchant seaman, uses many nautical metaphors – metaphors which appear repeatedly in Dreams. The few original works credited to Obama, e.g. his anti-war essay from Columbia, were fraught with errors.

Edward Klein

Klein is a former New York Times writer with impeccable credentials. He has written a book about Obama titled, “The Amateur.” He thoroughly researched the book, including an interview with Obama’s controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright. He spent three hours with Wright, who said that Obama representatives visited him numerous times in secret trying to convince him to shut up. Klein’s book makes the case that Obama is “Temperamentally unsuited for executive leadership.” Klein quotes Majority Leader John Boehner as saying that Obama “doesn’t know who makes decisions, how they make decisions or who is in charge.” Klein added that Obama is “in revolt” against the system that elected him, and that, “Every single black businessman I spoke to said they were disappointed with Obama’s performance.”

Katie Pavlich

Katie Pavlich has written an authoritative book on the Fast and Furious scandal. She reported that the recent DOJ Inspector General report regarding the scandal was written largely by longtime Eric Holder friend, former IG Cynthia Schnedar, even though it is signed by the current IG, Michael Horowitz, an employee in the job only five months. With Fast and Furious, the goal was to regulate gun stores out of business, not legislate them out of business. Katie’s entire presentation can be viewed here. Roger Aronoff has written a good summary, here.

In the coming days, videos of all presenters will be available at the AIM website, here.

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James Simpson is a freelance journalist, businessman and former White House budget analyst. His writings have also been published on Right Side News, Big Government, Big Peace, Emerging Corruption, American Thinker, Washington Times, WorldNetDaily, FrontPage Magazine, Soldier of Fortune and others. His blog is Truth & Consequences.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

New Trevor Loudon Book: Barack Obama and the Enemies Within

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Exiting new book by Trevor Loudon, a good friend of one of my PPP Friends Terresa Monroe-Hamilton of the  NoisyRoom  

CLICK HERE TO PLACE YOUR ORDER

As readers of this blog know, I review books. Lots of them. This book, in my opinion, is the most important book you will read to date. If you really want to know who Barack Obama is and his connections, this is the book for you. No one has done more research and investigation into Obama and his cohorts than Trevor Loudon. I told Trevor long ago, that I believe if there is one person to be selected above all others who Americans should thank for waking them up, it is him. Thank you my friend. It is a debt we can never fully repay.

Many of you know that it was Trevor who broke the story on Van Jones, which was then picked up by patriots such as Glenn Beck. Trevor has spent his own money (and lots of it) flying to the US to go through old libraries and archives to dig for the truth and it is not pretty. Along with others who love America, countless hours of research has been done on the web and in interviews. The work will never end. But America’s survival depends on this truth and it getting out there. This is the first book in a series that gives you that truth.

Barack Obama and the Enemies Within is a compilation of Trevor’s blog postings and research that he has done over a number of years. This work shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that a Marxist was elected to the highest seat in our land. A Marxist who has surrounded himself with radicals and progressives of every size, shape and leaning. Every American should read this book – study it and disseminate it.

I have been blogging now for better than 10 years. In that time, I have done tremendous amounts of research, but my efforts pale compared to Trevor. Most of the research can be found at KeyWiki.org and on Trevor’s blog, New Zeal. I thought I knew everything. I was wrong. I read the entire book and there is so much American’s don’t know. And what we don’t know is what will bring us to our knees.

Not only is this an excellent book, it is vital. Buy it, read it and do your homework. We are where we are today in America because we got lazy, content and apathetic. We never thought communism could happen here. The truth is, it’s been with us for a 100 years and is about to conquer us if we don’t get our house in order. My friend Trevor Loudon is helping us save America. It’s amazing to me that the help we so desperately needed is coming from New Zealand first.

I’m not telling you to read Trevor’s book simply because he is my friend. I respect Trevor more than anyone I know. Anyone. It is very, very rare that you find someone that is as honest and hard working as he is. And he does it for a very simple reason… As America goes, so goes the world. China and Russia are salivating in the wings, just hoping that we implode from within. And if they defeat America, New Zealand will fall as well.

Get informed. Buy and read this book. Give it as a gift and get ready. We are in for one hell of a ride this next year.

By TMH

Friday, May 29, 2009

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING CLINTONS

Asked why he was naming some of his rivals to top administration jobs, President Lyndon B. Johnson said it best: "I'd rather have them inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in." President Obama seems to echo Johnson's management style in his handling of Bill and Hillary Clinton. By bringing them into his inner circle, he has marginalized them both and sharply reduced their freedom of action.
It may appear odd to describe a secretary of State as marginalized, but Obama has surrounded Hillary with his people and carved up her jurisdiction geographically. Former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) is in charge of Arab-Israeli relations. Dennis Ross has Iran. Former U.N. Ambassador Dick Holbrooke has Pakistan and Afghanistan. And Hillary has to share her foreign policy role on the National Security Council (NSC) with Vice President Biden, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, CIA chief Leon Panetta, and NSC staffer Samantha Powers (who once called Hillary a "monster").

With peers who are competitors and subordinates who can deal directly with the president, Hillary is reduced to announcing foreign aid packages for Pakistan while Holbrooke does the heavy lifting.

Part of Hillary's problem is the institutional shrinking of the State Department. During the Bush years, while war raged, the Defense Department became more relevant to the conduct of foreign policy. And, under Obama, the financial crisis has propelled the Treasury into the forefront. State, with its emphasis on traditional diplomacy, has been forced to take a back seat. Even though Obama appointed Hillary, he clearly has not been willing to make her a co-president and confines her to the diminished role of her department.

For his part, Bill Clinton has been asked to be a special envoy to Haiti. Yes, Haiti. Obama's predecessor asked the former president to orchestrate the response to the Asian tsunami and then to Hurricane Katrina. Obama gives him Haiti.

Meanwhile, both Clintons are effectively muzzled and cannot criticize Obama even as he reverses President Clinton's free market proclivities and budget balancing discipline. Hillary, the supposed friend of Israel, must sit by quietly and watch Iran get the bomb while trying all the while to stop Israel from preventing it.

Bill can't even make money. Denied the ability to accept speeches from foreign governments or their organs and fenced out of continuing his profitable relationship with the Emir of Dubai, he and his wife must accept the loss of the $13 million they spent on her campaign and sit by passively, unable to earn the money to replace it.
Just as Lincoln buried his rivals Seward, Chase and Stanton in the Cabinet and then on the Supreme Court, and Wilson buried Bryan at the State Department, so Obama has hidden his predecessor and his rival in plain sight at the upper reaches of the government.

How long will Hillary subject herself to this discipline? Likely as long as Obama is popular. Should his ratings fade, she might move away from the president and could even consider a primary contest against him in 2012. But while he is on top of his game, she'll stay loyal.

But she is shrinking by the day. Once Obama's equal -- and before that his superior -- she now looks tiny compared to the president. She doesn't look like a president in waiting; she's more like a senior staff member hoping to rise in the bureaucracy. No longer at the head of a movement or the symbol of rising women all over the world, she has faded into the State Department woodwork. She is much less visible than her predecessors Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, James Baker, Madeleine Albright or Condi Rice. She is even less in the public eye than was Al Haig during his one-year tenure. One has to go back to the likes of Warren Christopher or William Rogers to find a secretary of State as far down the totem poll. This diminished status has got to grate on her and on him. But they are trapped in Obama's web and cannot easily escape.

By DICK MORRIS
Published on TheHill.com on May 26, 2009

Dick Morris is an American political author and commentator who previously worked as a pollster, political campaign consultant, and general political consultant.  Morris became an adviser to the Bill Clinton administration after Clinton was elected president in 1992.

Posted:  Knowledge Creates Power