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Obama:  The Law Giver
Obama Giveth -- and -- Obama Taketh Away
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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All this time I have been laboring under the false impression that the Congress was constitutionally assigned the duty of making and changing (amending) law(s) for the country.

Silly me!  I am SO embarrassed!  Just shows how dumb a poor ole swamp rat like yours truly can actually be, I suppose.

Anyway, Mr. Obama has set me straight on that.  He has shown me that HE has the power to make law, and change law, and enforce law or -- choose NOT to enforce law -- as HE chooses.

Why, Mr. Obama has changed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) some 19 or 20 times now (For more on Obama's changes to Obamacare visit politifact.com at: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/sep/25/tom-graves/rep-graves-says-obama-has-changed-aca-19-times/ ) all without any aid from the national legislature -- the Congress.

All things considered, one must ask WHY we even have a Congress?  Couldn't we save major bucks by just dissolving the Congress and have done with it?   I mean, heck, we've got Obama -- The Law Giver as our President!  What need have we of a Congress?

With Obama it is all give and take.  He gives -- AND -- he takes.  The man refuses to acknowledge his limitations under the constitution. He just ignores it in part or in whole -- as the notion strikes him.

This is not just wrong, gentle reader, this is ILLEGAL.

Playing fast and loose with the US Constitution, under normal circumstances, would get one placed UNDER the jailhouse!  No longer.

But these are not normal times.  We live now in a "post constitution era" in America. We find ourselves in the short-lived period between freedom and slavery.  Once a nation begins a slide into slavery the pace quickens and doesn't take very long to find an entire people clasped in the bonds of involuntary servitude.

I find it ironic that Obama, a black man,  is so intent on leading his people, white and black, into tyranny induced slavery in America.  There's something just plain vulgar about that.

The Obama administration is proving to be more corrupt that the Grant, the Harding, or the Nixon administrations.  I was not around for the first two, but I lived every minute of the Nixon administration  and I can tell you the American people never sensed a threat to their freedom from Nixon as they do from Obama.

When Nixon's party, the Republican Party,  realized the enormity of his misdeeds, they quickly formed a committee and paid Nixon a visit and read him the riot act.  They told him, flat out, that he was going to be impeached and the Congress WOULD find him guilty and he WOULD be removed from office in disgrace, unless, he resigned -- and resigned immediately.  Nixon resigned and managed by doing so to save SOME face and enough dignity to gracefully exit the White House while staff and a few members of his administration stood clustered near the helicopter LZ looking on in tears.

It was a trying time for the republic, but we survived and the constitution proved, once again, its value and worth as a foundation document and the protector of freedom.

On December 31st, 2012, the non-partisan Judicial Watch released its annual "Most Corrupt Politicians in Washington List." On that list were:  President Obama and key members of his Democrat cabinet like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, disgraced Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and UN Ambassador Susan Rice.  They were among the top ten names on the list.  That was last year.  We can hardly wait for this years list to be released.  Judicial Watch is a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption.  You may see the entire list at: http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-announces-list-of-washingtons-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-for-2012/

Let's see.  Right now, Americans are attempting to deal with a host of Obama administration scandals:  The NSA scandal, the IRS Scandal, the Navy Seal scandal, the Benghazi scandal,  and the Fast and Furious Scandal. 

Then there is Obamacare. 

Obama and his minions have trashed the constitution.  Mr. Obama claims to be a constitutional scholar, indeed, taught constitutional law in college.  Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years!  Seems to me that with that sort of background he should know better!

In an article at Front Page Magazine, Arnold Ahlert says the following:  "Perhaps the most contemptible effort in that regard is President Obama’s transparently unconstitutional effort to suspend various parts of the Affordable Healthcare Act. How Americans feel about that piece of legislation is irrelevant. What’s relevant is that Congress passed the law, including the part that calls for its implementation beginning on Jan. 1, 2014, and the president signed it. There is no Constitutional way the president can simply choose to ignore sections of a law he doesn’t like, or go around Congress completely when they won’t kowtow to his agenda.

Yet that’s precisely what Obama and other administration officials have done. In 2012, the president unilaterally decreed that the same DREAM Act rejected by Congress 18 months earlier would be implemented for the children of illegal aliens. He also gutted part of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, in clear violation of the statute. Obama is still ignoring a ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and federal appeals courts in D.C. and Philadelphia, all of whom ruled his “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) were unconstitutional." --  SOURCE:  http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/just-how-corrupt-is-the-obama-administration/   (We strongly recommend you read this article in its entirety.)

Let's cut to the chase. There is a serious shortage of intestinal fortitude in Congress today.  There is a palpable lack of guts within the ranks of the GOP in the House of Representatives.  A Bill of Impeachment ought to be introduced, voted on, and passed in the House ASAP. 

Having said that, please understand that I am not so foolish as to believe that the US Senate, controlled by the President's own party The Democratic Party) , therefore by Obama, himself, will find him guilty.  But this administration's corruption needs to be documented, publicly, and made a part of the historical record of the country for future generations.  With the phalanx of protection the Mainstream Media has thrown up around their president, the ONLY way that will happen is -- through impeachment.

In the meantime, things in America are only going to get worse.

Every time Obama gets away with a violation of the constitution, it emboldens him, it becomes easier for him to so it again and again.  I am concerned Congress has already waited too long. I suspect many in Congress fear an uprising of civil unrest (riots) among the black population of the country should they impeach Obama.  Then so be it.  NOTHING should get in the way of doing the RIGHT thing. 

Impeaching Obama IS the right thing to do. The rape of the constitution must be ended.

J. D. Longstreet

A colorful year came to its end and before we welcome 2014 I chose to highlight most of my favorite 2013 looks, you have any favorites?
I couldn't be more thankful for this 2013 year! I met wonderful people, I enjoyed, I learned, I smiled, I cried and now I look forward to 2014.
I want to wish you all a fantastic new year and thank you for following along, all the comments and constant suppport. It was a pleasure to have you by my side and to read all your comments.
Thank you for everything and let's start another colorful adventure together in 2014!

Daily Mail reports they went in search evidence of the world’s melting ice caps, but instead a team of climate scientists have been forced to abandon their mission … because the Antarctic ice is thicker than usual at this time of year.

The scientists have been stuck aboard the stricken MV Akademik Schokalskiy since Christmas Day, with repeated sea rescue attempts being abandoned as icebreaking ships failed to reach them.

Now that effort has been ditched, with experts admitting the ice is just too thick. Instead the crew have built an icy helipad, with plans afoot to rescue the 74-strong team by helicopter.

Click to enlarge.

The 5-year treasury yield is shown in red.
The 5-year CD rate of national banks is shown in black.
The difference (when noteworthy) is shown in pink.
The bondmageddon zone of death is shown in green.

What's the bondmageddon zone of death? I believe that it is a special burial ground where misguided bondmageddon theories go to die.

I say this somewhat tongue in cheek of course. Unlike most these days, I can't say with any certainty where yields are headed. I can say that I see little evidence here that the recent trend higher in the 5-year treasury yield is sustainable though. I offer the following as my reasoning.

If the economy is so healthy and treasury rates are therefore rising in response, then why isn't it forcing banks to pay more interest on CDs?

How are banks getting anyone to buy the typical 5-year CD when the 5-year treasury yields so much more?

I offer an alternative theory. We're in Bondmageddon 2.0 and it will end much like Bondmageddon 1.0 ended. This coincides well with my long standing belief that we'll be stuck in ZIRP far longer than most believe possible.

February 2, 2011
More Dangerous Advice from Jeremy Siegel


Note where February of 2011 falls in my chart above. Thanks for the Bondmageddon 1.0 warning Siegel!

What would we do without him? He waited until rates temporarily spiked higher and then warned us that rates might rise. In hindsight, kind of a crappy plan.

Let's apply this same line of reasoning to the weather.

I've noticed that the weather has been getting colder lately. Current swimwear has far too little insulation to offset the risk of falling temperatures. I therefore recommend that you purchase fully insulated GORE-TEX® swimwear right now in preparation for next summer's ice age! You can't ever be too insulated from risk! Lock in that protection right now before the next person does!

This is not investment advice. As always, just opinions. And sarcasm. Mustn't forget the sarcasm. Please factor the latter in should you choose to actually purchase swimwear based on what I've written here. Heaven help you, lol. :)

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

americassage@gmail.com.  Author of Demons of Democracy, the book lawyers hate and the recently released book, Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster. http://amzn.to/1d4poKi. https://www.createspace.com/3801630

Connie Villa and Aniarael Macias

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle



Two of the most tragic Islamic attacks on Christians, killing several women and children, took place in the month of October, one in Syria, another in Egypt.

On October 21 in Syria, U.S.-supported Islamist rebels invaded and occupied the ancient Christian settlement of Sadad for over a week, until ousted by the Syrian army. What took place that week was "the largest massacre of Christians in Syria," in the words of Orthodox Archbishop Alnemeh. Among other things, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several were tortured to death; mass graves were discovered; all of Sadad's 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for "subhuman" Christians).

The jihadis also made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they massacred, while shouting Islam's victory-cry, "Allahu Akbar!" ["Allah is Greater!," meaning "than anything"]. Another video, made after Sadad was liberated, shows more graphicatrocities.

The day before rebels invaded Sadad, on Sunday, October 20, the Church of the Virgin Mary in Warraq, near Cairo, Egypt, was attacked during a wedding ceremony. The attack left four dead and nearly two dozen wounded. According to a report issued by a forensic team, two of those murdered were young girls, each named Mary: 12-year-old Mary Nabil Fahmy, who was shot five times in the chest, and 8-year-old Mary Ashraf Masih ("Masih" meaning "Christ"), who was shot in the back.
The security forces charged with protecting the church were seen leaving their posts immediately before the massacre began, as happens frequently in Egypt and other Islamic nations. In the words of Asia News, "Eye-witnesses of the al-Warraq attack confirm that despite numerous distress calls, police and ambulances only arrived on the scene two hours after the shooting."

These massacres in Syria and Egypt received scant attention and even less condemnation from Western media and governments. Instead, people such as Mohamed Elibiary, an Obama administration Homeland Security adviser, condemned Copts who raise awareness of anti-Christian violence in Egypt as promoting "Islamophobic" bigotry.

Although Christians are habitually killed in Muslim countries, as this series attests, the U.S. government rarely condemns the practice or even acknowledges it. When five Muslims were killed in western Burma, however, the U.S. issued a formal condemnation, according to Voice of America, "urging authorities to do more to address the long-standing sectarian tension there."
The rest of October's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country in alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:

Bangladesh: "A local government official in central Bangladesh has halted the construction of a church, forced Christians to worship at a mosque and threatened them with eviction from their village unless they renounce their faith," said Morning Star News. "The Tangail Evangelical Holiness Church in Bilbathuagani village… was created Sept. 8 by a group of about 25 Christians who had been meeting secretly for three years. However, local council chairman Rafiqul Islam Faruk joined around 200 demonstrators Sept. 13 to protest against the start of the building of the church. The following day, the Christians were summoned to his office. More than 1,000 Muslims waited outside, following an announcement at all local mosques to gather at the chairman's office." There, they were ordered to embrace Islam or suffer the consequences. Said one of the Christians: "Their threats chilled me to the bone. That is why I pretended to accept Islam, but faith in Christ is the wellspring of my life." Another said: "The chairman is clipping the wings of our faith. I do not know how long we can grin and bear it. We want religious freedom. We want to practice our religion freely." Since Sept. 14, under the chairman's orders, eight Christians agreed to return to Islam. Apparently, the chairman and his associates had already beaten some of these Christians three years ago for accepting Christianity.

Iran: Mariam Naqqash, a female convert to Christianity, was sentenced to four years in prison by a court in Tehran. The Christian convert was found guilty of "endangering national security by spreading religious propaganda in the country," and allegedly being a spy for Britain and Israel. According to Adnkronos News, "renouncing the Muslim faith is punishable [in Iran] with the death penalty. Over 300 Iranian converts to Christianity have been arrested over the past two years, according to opposition websites."

Kazakhstan: After Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev, a 67-year-old pastor, was released from five months' detention, based on charges his family and others insist are spurious. After being reunited with his family, he was arrested again within minutes, now accused of "propaganda of terrorism or extremism, or public calls to commit an act of terrorism or extremism, as well as the distribution of material of the content indicated." His son, Askar, told Forum 18 News Service, "These new accusations are complete rubbish. They're trying to turn my father into a terrorist." Grace Church in Astana, where Kashkumbayev served, has, according to the report, long been subject to state harassment, including accusations of being involved in espionage, fraud, money laundering, distributing extremist texts and using hallucinogenic communion drinks.

Kenya: Charles Matole, pastor of the Redeemed Gospel Church, was found shot dead while still sitting with a Bible on his lap: "We found him with blood oozing from the head," said a choir member. The pastor had been receiving threatening phone text messages. Similarly, Pastor Ebrahim Kidata of the East African Pentecostal Churches was found murdered, strangled to death, in a patch of bushes.

Pakistan:

• After a Muslim man slaughtered a Christian—in broad daylight and in front of police—accusing him of being "an infidel who blasphemed against Muhammad" (see September report), a group of armed men broke into the dead man's family home, threatening to kill its members if they did not withdraw their police complaint against the murderer, and convert to Islam. Fr. Arshad Gill, a priest in Karachi, told Asia News "about this 'sad story' in which the victim is 'an innocent man' and his family is told to convert to Islam or die. For him, the case epitomizes the situation of Pakistan's minorities, forced to live 'in conditions of profound insecurity' in which events such as this one tend to exacerbate the situation…. Found in Article 295, B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code, the [blasphemy] 'law' punishes with death or life in prison anyone who desecrates the Qur'an or defames the name of the Prophet Muhammad." Those few political activists who have tried to repeal the law—such as Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, a Muslim, and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian—have been murdered.
  
• Three other Pakistani Christians face a possible death sentence on what lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill says are "trumped up charges" of blasphemy. One of the Christians, Asif Pervaiz, is accused of sending phone text messages with "abusive language against Muslims, Islam, Prophet Mohammed and the Koran." Two other Christians, Pastor Adnan and Mushtaq Masih, were also arrested for allegedly writing "derogatory remarks" about Islam. Gill also said, "Days back we received some heart breaking information that there is one group who forced Christians to accept Islam at gun point."
  
• Another Christian man accused of blasphemy, 26-year-old Adnan Masih, trained as a pastor at a United Pentecostal seminary, is being hunted by police. In addition, the banned Islamic extremist group, Jamaat ud Dawa, in Lahore, issued a fatwa, or Islamic decree, calling for his death because he sought to correct misconceptions about Christianity in a Muslim book by noting biblical verses that refuted Islamic characterizations of Christianity. A source said that the hunted man had no idea that "pointing out false references in a book would land him in such big trouble." In the words of a representative of Jamaat ud Dawa: "The police better arrest the blasphemer and hand him over to us on Saturday [Oct. 19]. We will not be responsible for any law-and-order situation in the city if the police fails to keep its assurance. How dare someone use derogatory language against our beloved prophet … Don't they know that the Koran orders us to slit the throat of whoever is disrespectful to Allah's beloved prophet."
  
• Rana Tanveer, a chief reporter for The Express Tribune, received a one-page letter in Urdu threatening him to stop covering the plight of minorities. He was further accused of being an "apostate" for allegedly sympathizing with Christians and Ahmadis, instead of with their Sunni Muslim oppressors. He was also threatened with death, "from where you cannot even imagine." Tanveer, a Muslim, insists that all his reports are objective and based on facts.
  

Egypt: After Muslims in al-Minya district accused a young man of having an illicit relationship with a Muslim woman, violence erupted against the village's Christians (see September report). The father of the Christian man insists that there was no relationship between his son and the Muslim woman, whose family, in his words, "actually had their daughter undergo a gynecological exam, which proved the woman is 'untouched' [a virgin]." Instead, according to the father and many Copts in the village, "the whole story was fabricated by Muslim hard-liners from neighboring village to cause sectarian strife." According to a separate Arabic report, "criminal groups and gangs managed to acquire guns and weapons and, as usual, have attacked and abused the Christians … [and] forced Copts to pay large amounts of money as tax [jizya] in order not to steal and/or plunder their lands." The report also points out that no one does anything to oppose these gangs: "they simply kill Christians and their families as happened in the village of Shameiya when two Copts refused to pay the tax: the gang killed them and this was repeated in many other villages belonging to the governorate of Asyut. It is becoming so normal now to watch as these crimes against Christians occur day by day and nothing is done."

Indonesia: Still insisting that Susan Jasmine Zulkifli, a Christian woman appointed governor of the sub-district of Lenteng Agung, in West Java, be removed solely because of her faith (see September report), Muslim protesters stepped up their threats, including carrying a coffin in a protest march of some 600 Muslims—a clear death threat —and waving flags symbolic of death. The Christian woman had been promoted in June by the Governor of Jakarta, who said in response: "I make my choices based on merits, not looking at religion."

Iran: After being arrested in a house church December 2012 and charged with consuming alcohol in violation of the Islamic theocracy's laws, four Christians were sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking communion wine. "The sentences handed down to these members of the Church of Iran effectively criminalize the Christian sacrament of sharing in the Lord's Supper and constitute an unacceptable infringement on the right to practice faith freely and peaceably," a human rights activist said.

Iraq: The nation's Christians, more than half of whom have fled since the U.S.-led invasion a decade ago, are now also being targeted in and fleeing from northern Iraq, which until recently was considered a relatively safe region for Christians fleeing violence in the south. Recently, for example, a suicide bomb went off outside the home of Christian politician Emad Youhanna in Rafigayn, part of the Kirkuk province, injuring 19 people, including three of his children. Several more bomb attacks have also taken place in the northern city of Erbil, for which al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. According to Christian News, "In early September, Christians in the village of Deshtakh complained that they were facing harassment from local police. A group of Christian young people said that policemen told them that they 'should not be in Iraq because it is Muslim territory.' Violence in the south of the country is also escalating. Church leaders in Baghdad say that there are attacks onChristians every two or three days."

Lebanon: Muslims in the historically Christian nation are appropriating Christian land. According to Agenzia Fides: "An urgent reminder to curb the misuse of land belonging to Christians in order to build housing for the Muslims was launched on Monday, October 14 from Talal al- Doueihy, leader of the Movement 'Lebanese Land, our Land'…. Across the Country there are outbreaks of clashes due to problem regarding land. Last week, in the Christian village of Alma (district of Zghorta) residents had complained that the Muslims of the area of al-Fuar had begun to build houses without permission. Already at the end of August, the same Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai had called Christians to limit the sale of their property to avoid jeopardizing the demographic-confessional balance."

Pakistan: After the bombs in the church of All Saints in Peshawar, where nearly 90 people, including many women and children, died, Agenzia Fides reported that, "the situation remains tense in the Pakistani society: not only tragedy but also horror. The Christians said they were 'horrified' by the rumors that link the bombs in Peshawar to the vast problem of organ trafficking: this is what some members of NGOs in civil society in Pakistan told Fides. Some of the 'jackals,' presumably local paramedics, seem to have taken advantage of the high number of deaths and injuries in order to steal the bodies of victims and exploit them for the illegal organ trade. 'If this were true, it would mean that there are criminals who are taking advantage of the suffering of Christian victims in a truly blasphemous and sacrilegious manner,' notes Fr. Mario Rodrigues, a priest of Karachi." Meanwhile, some of the Christian survivors who mourned the deaths of loved ones too openly, were attacked, beaten, and threatened with death. Finally, in a separate story, a Christian, Harrison Masih, working in a store, who used to debate religion with a Muslim customer, Maulvi Khalad, got into an argument when Khalad tried to get him to convert to Islam, "telling him that he would enter paradise that way." But, as Harrison related, because he refused to convert and apparently did not want want any trouble, "I quit my job at the medical store but Khalid, and three other men, came to my house and threatened me and my family."

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions. "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1. To document that which the mainstream media often seems to fail to report.
2.  To suggest that such persecution is not "random" but systematic.

These accounts span different ethnicities, languages, and locations.