Saturday, August 31, 2013

OBAMA STRUGGLES TO KEEP ANOTHER PROMISE -- THIS ONE ON CHEMICAL ATTACKS IN SYRIA

















 


Verne Strickland / September 1, 2013

Our fearless dictator is afraid – very afraid. He should be. Following his usual pattern of resorting to political dodge ball, he has frantically sought out every opportunity to avoid making a decision on punishing Syria for the murderous gas attack on its own citizens. 

He has said he will consult Congress to get the legislative body’s take on this whole debacle. Is he being magnanimous? Obama magnanimous? Au contraire, friends.

His intent will be to use Congress not only to share the blame when things go wrong -- which they will -- but to totally shift all responsibility into the lap the legislative branch. We wanted him to be transparent? Believe me, he is. We can all see straight through him. 

The “president” rarely finds himself painted into a corner like this – one of his own making. He used only a daub or two of paint to lay down the infamous “red line”, which he has boastfully used for tough talk on the evening news – until his worst fears were realized.

The unthinkable happened, as it often does, as a devastating  chemical attack killed an estimated 144,000 innocent Syrian civilians. The world – at least the non-Muslim part of it – reacted with horror and revulsion.  

And Obama? Well, between cheating his ball out of the rough on some golf course, and getting brief briefs on his Boysenberry phone about the shocking mass murder in Syria, has stayed up on the latest developments in the crisis zone.

Like he did as the situation in Benghazi  reached its zenith, ultimately resulting in the maiming and murder of our U.S. Ambassador, and the killing of four other heroic Americans left alone in a seemingly preventable emergency.

I would feel a lot better if our Preventer in Chief, and his Lady in Waiting, Hillary Clinton, had acted on their obligation to immediately tend to that gruesome attack by radical muslim terrorists, investigate it without delay, identify the first team jihadists and kill them, while finding out who in the Administration lied, and clean house.

Unfortunately for him, there is abundant evidence that the President himself was among the insiders who cloaked the facts in secrecy, and his record of complicity in this type of dirty dealings, like a boomerang, is swooping back to the hand that launched it in the first place.

Obama apparently hopes that a tempered response will mean less trouble for him. It is a half-measure which will satisfy no one. After which the President will move on to the next challenge – deeper confusion, less control over the outcome, no recovery of the declining American reputation as a world leader, unknown consequences of retaliation from rabid muslim aggressors, as well as from others who want the worst possible outcome for the U.S. – and, sadly, Israel as well.

As Obama scrambled for explanations for all of his multiple miscues and delays, he went before the cameras and microphones to try to buy time – not for Syria, not for America – but for the sake of his own personal political reputation, which he likes to call his “legacy”. 

This excerpt from an NBC News report summarizes some of the most recent activity in Washington:


Obama condemned Assad's regime, describing the alleged chemical attack as "an assault on human dignity" that "presents a serious danger to our national security." He had previously characterized the use of chemical weapons as a "red line" Assad should not be permitted to cross.
Obama pledged that any military involvement would be of "limited duration and scope."
"This would not be an open-ended intervention," he said. "We would not put boots on the ground."
Before revealing he would seek approval from Congress, the President made clear that "we are prepared to strike whenever we choose." 
Strikes would be "effective tomorrow or next week or one month from now," Obama said, adding that he is "prepared to give that order."
And yet many rebel groups aligned with the opposition to Assad expressed dismay with the apparent postponement of military intervention. One rebel spokesman told NBC News: “President Obama is sending contradictory messages. He promised to help, and now promises delays.”
“If Congress votes against a military action,” the spokesman said, “it will mean the American people don’t want to help the Syrian people.”


Oh, what a tangled web we weave .  .  .  and I think you know the rest.


Friday, August 30, 2013

Move Over Jimmy – Barack Hussein Obama Now “Worst Foreign Policy President Ever”

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / August 31, 2013

Another poll that the Mainstream Media will attempt to quickly bury with distraction shows that despite his oft repeated promises to make the world love America again, the foreign policy disaster that has been the hallmark of the Obama presidency has worsened how the Middle East views the United States  – lower even than at the end of the GW Bush presidency in 2008.  

Could it be that the Egyptians, Jordan, and Pakistan, having been directly and terribly impacted by the Muslim Brotherhood sponsored regime changes throughout the region, know well what America’s media refuses to report?  That Barack Obama has now surpassed Jimmy Carter as the most disastrous U.S. president of the modern era.

It takes a special kind of genius to make an impossibly bad situation worse. President Obama is a special kind of genius.
( Barack Obama is hated by those who have seen the United States help to tear apart their own nations in favor of radical Islamic regimes)
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(via The Washington Times)
Obama on Syria: The worst foreign policy president – ever
Through one bungle after another, the Obama Administration has maneuvered itself into a box. If Obama launches an attack on Syria, he will bring America under widespread condemnation and risk a broader war. If he launches the limited cruise missile attack that he has suggested, he will look impotent at the same time he risks war. And if he does nothing at all, he will look impotent for backing down on his threat over “red line” of chemical weapon use and trash what little credibility he has left in the Middle East.
Obama has managed a feat in the Middle east that was all but unimaginable five years ago: He’s even less popular in the region than President George W. Bush was at the end of his presidency.
The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project finds that support for the United States is lower now in Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan than it was in 2008. Approval for Obama’s policies was only 15 percent in Muslim countries last spring; what that rate would be now in Egypt and Syria is anyone’s guess, but a safe guess would be “lower.”
…Our foreign policy in the Middle East is incoherent. There is no strategic vision on display, only one ad hoc reaction after another. Secretary of State John Kerry wanders aimlessly through it all like a patrician Forrest Gump.
Five years ago the Norwegian parliament awarded Obama the Nobel Peace Prize in the hope that the change he represented would bring peace. It never occurred to them that change could be for the worse. Rarely has peace seemed so unattainable in the Middle East, nor the web of alliances and hatreds so tangled. It takes a special kind of genius to make so many wrong steps to make an impossibly bad situation even worse.
President Obama is a very special kind of genius.   LINK

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Thursday, August 29, 2013

ILARIO PANTANO STEPS BACK INTO SPOTLIGHT AS NEW DIRECTOR OF THE N.C. DIVISION OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

ILARIO PANTANO TAPPED BY GOVERNOR McCRORY FOR TOP NC VETERANS AFFAIRS POST
By Verne Strickland / August 30, 2013

Jude Eden writes tonight to announce that Ilario Pantano has been named by Governor Pat McCrory to the post of Director of the N.C. Division of Veterans Affairs.

He will undertake his new duties on September 5 at an annual salary of $90,000.

A 42-year-old resident of Wilmington, he had served as vice chairman of Veterans for McCrory, a group affiliated with the 2012 campaign of GOP candidate McCrory, who went on to become Governor of North Carolina.

Pantano was hired by Administration Secretary Bill Daughtridge, a McCrory appointee whose department oversees veterans affairs.

In a letter sent to veterans affairs staff announcing the hiring, Daughtridge praised Pantano's experience managing "multi-disciplinary teams."

"He is uniquely skilled at designing and implementing veterans advocacy programs, building public and private partnerships, achieving financial targets and streamlining operations," Daughtridge wrote.

As director of veteran's affairs, Pantano will oversee programs that assist North Carolina military veterans and their families with receiving federal benefits. The division also administers a scholarship fund for the children of war veterans and provides care at four state-run nursing homes for veterans, as well as burial space at state veterans cemeteries.

Married with two young sons, Pantano is the son of an Italian immigrant who grew up in New York City. He enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 17 and served in the Persian Gulf War of 1991. He then earned a degree in economics and went to work as an energy trader at Goldman Sachs.

Pantano was in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, and saw the World Trade Center towers collapse. Within weeks, he had rejoined the Marines.

News of the appointment has circulated quickly tonight on conservative news sources, and has been praised by Republicans from local to national levels.
 




Verne Strickland via Google+

This is a wonderful and prized accolade for Ilario Pantano -- conservative Christian patriot, U.S. Marine hero, author and outstanding citizen of North Carolina. We are so proud of him. He will serve with distinction as he has at every post he has assumed. Governor McCrory should be highly commended for this selection. As for the egregious smear which his detractors ensure will not be forgotten, let us remember that in America all are innocent unless proven guilty. In fact, as I recall, the bogus charges in this case were dismissed -- not even officially brought. Ilario Pantano remains a man of impeccable character and has never failed to be true to this standard. May God bless and guide this very special American.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

David Rouzer pulls together campaign team to have another go at Mike McIntyre.

Verne Strickland / Raleigh Conservative Examiner / August 29, 2013

North Carolina: Rouzer to Seek Rematch Against McIntyre

North Carolina: Rouzer to Seek Rematch Against McIntyre
David Rouzer, a Republican, will run for Congress again (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Former state Sen. David Rouzer will make another run for North Carolina’s 7th District, according to the Charlotte News Observer, setting up a rematch against Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., in 2014.

McIntyre edged out Rouzer by 654 votes, the closest margin of any House race in the 2012 cycle. The ballot counting went past Election Day. It was the last congressional race to be called, in late November.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named McIntyre to its “Frontline” incumbent retention program earlier this month.

N.C. GOP House Hopeful Signs New, Old Team | Shop Talk

The new team includes two recent National Republican Congressional Committee officials and some returning players from his 2012 team. McIntyre defeated Rouzer in 2012 by about 700 votes and the race is rated a Pure Tossup  by Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call.


 New: 
  • General Consultant: Brock McCleary of Long Nyquist & Associates. McCleary was the NRCC’s 2012 polling director/deputy political director; he left the committee not long after last year’s elections.
  • Media/digital consultants: Brad Todd and Guy Harrison of On Message, Inc. Harrison was the NRCC’s 2012 cycle executive director.
Returning:
  • Senior adviser: Bob Rosser of Impact Strategies
  • Pollster Nicole McCleskey of Public Opinion Strategies
  • Finance director: Sarah Hill Waters
  • Communications director: Jessica Wood of Majority Connections

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Obama and the Emerging Turkish Dictatorship . . . Recipe for Confusion
















 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul

Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul

Verne Strickland Blogmaster: August 25, 2013

Turkey has always attracted me, and two business trips there to shoot U.S. trade documentaries only stirred my fascination. From Istanbul's mysterious sophistication to a working-man's border city like Tokat, the country's deep roots are always felt if not seen. Back then, in the 70s and 80s, the rise of combative Islam was not so visible. As a result, caution was often ignored by Western visitors like myself. Still, seeing banged-up sedans parked carelessly on the sidewalk lose to the American Airlines ticket office made me uneasy. The Soviet Embassy was but a few steps from the Grand Bazaar and hulking Hagia Sophia Mosque. One rainy night my video shooter wrapped the camera in a black poncho. As we passed in front of the Embassy building, the shrouded camera began more and more to look like a rocket launcher. We quickly ducked into the bazaar and ditched the wet poncho under a counter. You remember things like that. Today, such freedom would be akin to madness. 

 

 John McCain says that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan “is acting like a dictator rather than a president in the eyes of many Turks.” He charged that “There are more journalists jailed in Turkey than any other country in the world.”

August 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment


recep

It should not surprise anyone to discover that US President Barack Hussein Obama invited Muslim Brotherhood officials from Egypt as well as Turkish diplomats to meet with him at the White House. The Jerusalem Post reported (August 6, 2013) that according to the Egypt Independent the meeting should take place “sometime this month.”  The Independent suggested moreover that the “Turkish diplomats were expected to lobby for Morsi’s (deposed Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi) reinstatement, or at minimum, a continued political role for the Muslim Brotherhood.”
A White House press release issued on August 7, 2013 stated that “The President (Barack Obama) and Prime Minister of Turkey (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) expressed concern about the situation in Egypt and a shared commitment to support a Democratic and inclusive way forward.  The two leaders agreed to have their teams continue to coordinate closely to promote our shared interests.”
Obama’s and Erdogan’s shared interests go beyond their common cause to unseat the Assad regime in Syria.  They agree as well on the importance of a unified and inclusive Syrian opposition (inclusive of MB).  Obama has nurtured a soft spot in his heart for Islam.  He spent his formative years in Indonesia under the guidance of his Indonesian Muslim step-father.  His biological father was a Muslim from Kenya.  Obama’s first foreign trips as President of the United States, which he called a New Beginning, was to Erdogan’s Turkey and Egypt, where he delivered his keynote speech at Cairo University,  and was co-hosted by the Al-Azhar Islamic University.
Speaking at the Brookings Institute, US Senator (R-AZ) McCain said that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan “is acting like a dictator rather than a president in the eyes of many Turks.” He charged that “There are more journalists jailed in Turkey than any other country in the world.”
Infused with confidence that three democratic electoral victories have provided him, Erdogan has set out in recent years to wipe out the legacy of secular Kamalist Turkey founded by Mustafa Kamal, better known as Ataturk (The Father of Turks), and is seeking to replace it with an Islamist state.  Since 1923, Turkey has seen a clash between the two opposing cultural streams:  the Ottoman Islamic tradition that ruled Turkey for centuries, and the secular tradition of Kamalism.
The rural poor and Islam-inclined multitudes of Anatolia (in eastern and southern Turkey) provide massive votes for Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party.  The urban middle-class, on the other hand, which is more educated and economically advantaged, is largely concentrated in western and northern Turkey.  They opposed the excessive reaches of Erdogan and his party.
Secular-Kamalist Turkey joined NATO and sought to be part of the West.  Erdogan, in recent years, shifted Turkey’s focus from the West to the Islamic and Arab worlds.  He is hoping to become the champion of the Sunni Muslim world, and the “protector” of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, as well as the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
The Turkish military and the judiciary have been the guardians of Turkey’s secularism.  The military, according to the Turkish constitution, is to safeguard the secular character of the nation.  The Army has used its constitutional powers to remove governments in 1960, 1971, 1980, and, more recently, in 1997, when it removed the first Islamist government of Necmettin Erbakan. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party grew out of the ideological bedrock of the Islamist Welfare Party and governed Turkey since 2002.
In recent weeks alone, Erdogan’s regime imprisoned 250 top public figures who were charged with an attempted coup.  The Associated Press (AP) reported on August 5, 2013, that in a “landmark trial, scores of people – including Turkey’s former military chief, politicians and journalists – were convicted of plotting to overthrow PM Edrogan’s government soon after it came to power in 2002.  Retired General Basbug was the most prominent defendant among 250 people facing verdicts after a five-year trial that has become a central drama in tensions between the country’s secular elite and Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party.”
Erdogan’s regime has been committed to the destruction of Turkey’s secular watchdogs: the military, judiciary, and presidency.  In a slow but consistent process, Erdogan succeed in capturing the presidency.  He was able to appoint and elect his personal friend, and former Foreign Minister of the Justice and Development Party, Abdullah Gul, as President of Turkey. At the same time, Erdogan managed to pass new laws that enabled him to install Supreme Court justices more amenable to his ideological thinking, and who were not part of the secular elite. As with the Supreme Court justices, Erdogan found a way to replace retiring military officers with Islamist and loyalist officers, thus eroding the steadfastly secular and anti-religious character of the military.
The Ergenekon Affair that has been gripping Turkey is the name given to an alleged clandestine secularist organization with alleged ties to members of Turkey’s military and security forces. It is named after Ergenekon, a mythical place located in the inaccessible valleys of the Altay Mountains.  The Ergenekon group is accused of terrorism.  The trial has been conducted secretly and away from the probing eyes of the media by the Erdogan regime.  Demonstrators who protested against the trial and the way the regime has been handling it were brutally dispersed by the police.
Protests last June in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, ostensibly over the future of Gezi Park, has spread throughout Turkey into demonstrations against Erdogan and his authoritarian and Islamist regime.  Four demonstrators were killed by the regime’s security forces, and 5000 were wounded.  It has divided the country into two hostile camps, and it stands to color Turkey’s future image.  Will Turkey become a modern liberal state that Ataturk hoped for? Or will it revert to the Ottoman-era Islamic backwater and become once again the “sick man of Europe”? The army, media, academia, art and business world are poised for the fight of their lives to preserve Turkey as a modern state.  Erdogan and his regime are on the other side seeking to do away with Kamalist secularism.
One thing is clear.  Erdogan’s dictatorial nature and his singular ambitions, regardless of the wishes of many Turks, make Turkey less than a democratic state, where basic human rights and the rule of law are being abused.
President Obama has shown his hypocrisy and his pro-Islamist bias by his continued backing of his friend Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Islamist party.  This hypocrisy has been starkly demonstrated in his being mute on Erdogan’s human rights abuses, and his authoritarian and downright dictatorial behavior, not to mention his anti-Semitism.  Obama, who has been vociferous in his support of Arab Spring protests against the Arab authoritarian regimes, including that of Mubarak’s Egypt, has been silent on Erdogan’s authoritarianism. The same Obama administration that is currently critical of the military in Egypt for its suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood’s violent demonstrations, has said nothing about Turkey’s emerging dictatorship of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.