According to the Times, The Obama/Hillary State Department insisted that the U.S. position was
one of longstanding neutrality:
"We are aware not only of the current situation but also of the history, but
our position remains one of neutrality," a State Department spokesman told
The Times. "The US recognises de facto UK administration of the islands but
takes no position on the sovereignty claims of either party."
This seems like revisionist history, and is a far cry from the staunch support the U.S. gave Britain under President Reagan during the 1982 Falklands War.
President Obama, once hailed as our first European President, has thrown out the United State's long-standing special relationship with our
closest ally. Obama chose, under a false pretense of neutrality, to side with a corrupt, aggressive Argentine government
that is backed by Hugo Chavez and is threatening a blockade of British territory.
This is how Obama repays Britain for continuing to support our special relationship and providing thousands of British soldiers to lay their lives on the line
alongside their American allies on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Do not let Obama get away with this latest outrage. Call the White House. Call your Senators. Call your Representative. Tell them the American people, if not their current president, back our most dependable and important ally. So should the federal government.
"This is the way Democracy ends. Not with a bomb but with a gavel." -- Max Baucus 5/19/2005
President Obama and his Democrats, are so desperate to pass their unpopular partisan Obamacare legislation, they are now willing to pass it via reconciliation. A parliamentary trick considered so toxic it became known as the nuclear option.
In 2005, Senate Democrats Obama, Biden, Clinton, Baucus, Dodd, Feinstein, Reid and Schumer, railed against the proposed use of reconciliation to end Democrat filibusters.
You can watch highlights of their speeches in this video:
Barack Obama 4/25/05: "The President hasn’t gotten his way. And that is now prompting a change in the Senate rules that really I think would change the character of the Senate forever…what I worry about would be that you essentially still have two chambers the House and the Senate but you have simply majoritarian absolute power on either side, and that’s just not what the founders intended."
Hillary Clinton 5/23/2005: "So this president has come to the majority here in the Senate and basically said 'change the rules.' 'Do it the way I want it done.' And I guess there just weren’t very many voices on the other side of the isle that acted the way previous generations of senators have acted and said 'Mr. President we are with you, we support you, but that’s a bridge too far we can’t go there.' You have to restrain yourself Mr. President."
Charles Schumer 5/18/2005: "We are on the precipice of a crisis, a constitutional crisis. The checks and balances which have been at the core of this Republic are about to be evaporated by the nuclear option. The checks and balances which say that if you get 51% of the vote you don’t get your way 100% of the time. It is amazing it’s almost a temper tantrum."
Harry Reid 5/18/2005: "Mr. President the right to extended debate is never more important than the one party who controls congress and the white house. In these cases the filibuster serves as a check on power and preserves our limited government." Dianne Feinstein 5/18/2005: "The nuclear option if successful will turn the senate into a body that could have its rules broken at any time by a majority of senators unhappy with any position taken by the minority. It begins with judicial nominations. Next will be executive appointments and then legislation."
Joe Biden 5/23/2005: "This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power. It is a fundamental power grab."
Harry Reid 5/18/2005: "But no we are not going to follow the Senate rules. No, because of the arrogance of power of this Republican administration."
Chris Dodd 5/18/2005: "I’ve never passed a single bill worth talking about that didn’t have a lead co sponsor that was a Republican. And I don’t know of a single piece of legislation that’s ever been adopted here that didn’t have a Republican and Democrat in the lead. That’s because we need to sit down and work with each other. The rules of this institution have required that. That’s why we exist. Why have a bicameral legislative body? Why have two chambers? What were the framers thinking about 218 years ago? They understood Mr. President that there is a tyranny of the majority."
Dianne Feinstein 5/18/2005: "If the Republican leadership insists on forcing the nuclear option the senate becomes ipso facto the House of Representatives where the majority rules supreme and the party of power can dominate and control the agenda with absolute power."
Hillary Clinton 5/23/2005: "You’ve got majority rule and then you have the senate over here where people can slow things down where they can debate where they have something called the filibuster. You know it seems like it’s a little less than efficient -- well that’s right it is. And deliberately designed to be so."
Joe Biden 5/23/05: "I say to my friends on the Republican side you may own the field right now buy you won’t own it forever I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don't make the kind of naked power grab you are doing."
Charles Schumer 5/23/2005: "They want their way every single time. And they will change the rules, break the rules, and misread the constitution so that they will get their way." Hillary Clinton 5/23/2005: "The Senate is being asked to turn itself inside out, to ignore the precedent to ignore the way our system has work, the delicate balance that we have obtain that has kept this constitution system going, for immediate gratification of the present President." Max Baucus 5/19/2005: "This is the way Democracy ends. Not with a bomb but with a gavel."
The Democrats are ready to pass yet another stimulus bill. This one labeled a "jobs bill." House Republican Whip Eric Cantor contrasts the results of Obama's 2009, $862 billion-failed stimulus, with the rhetoric used to pass it.
Watch the video:
Team Obama used scare tactics in getting the Democrat-controlled Congress to give him the massive $862 billion spending bill dressed up as a stimulus. They told us that if Congress passed Obama's boondoggle, unemployment would peak at 8%.
Rep. Cantor highlights some common sense "no-cost" proposals to help get America back to work on his web site.
The good folks at CEI think so. They put together the following wonderful "How I Was Not Al Gored Into Submission" video poking fun at the all the green police wannabees:
In today's Weekly Republican Address, Michigan's Congressman Dave Camp makes the following points:
In order to have a productive bipartisan conversation on
health care, Democrats must first listen to the American people and
scrap their massive government takeover of health care. We must go into
the summit with a clean slate focused on making health care affordable.
That is what Americans are asking for, and that is what Republicans
will continue to work for.
Democrats are continuing to work behind closed
doors, putting the finishing touches on yet another massive health care
bill Americans can’t afford and don’t want.
Democrats have admitted they are working on an
undemocratic plan to jam this bill through Congress and subvert the
will of the American people.
Democrats themselves are describing this latest maneuver as a "trick."
Republicans have listened to the American people
and offered reforms that lower health care premiums for families and
small businesses.
Our bill ensures nobody will be denied coverage on the basis of a
pre-existing condition. It gives states the tools to implement their own innovative reforms.
And we put an end to the junk lawsuits that are forcing doctors to
practice defensive medicine and drive up the cost of health insurance
for all Americans.
Republicans get the job done without cutting Medicare, without raising
taxes, and without piling more debt on our kids and grandkids.
Americans' health care is way too important to risk on a rushed
backroom deal that puts federal bureaucrats in charge of your personal
health care decisions.
Watch the video Camp’s Address:
Full transcript of Congressman Camp’s Address:
Hello, I’m Congressman Dave Camp from Michigan, and I serve as the lead Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.
This is a time of economic uncertainty. Tens of millions of
Americans are either looking for work or have just given up entirely.
They’re looking to Washington for solutions. But instead it seems
Washington keeps adding to their problems.
That’s why Americans are demanding that President Obama and the
Democrats in control of Congress scrap their misguided plan of a
government takeover of health care. They don’t want a 2,000-page bill
that threatens jobs and drives up health premiums; they already have
enough challenges to deal with in their daily lives.
They want Washington to start over with a step-by-step approach to
health care reform that begins with reducing costs and ensures they can
keep their current plan if they like it.
For those families and small businesses looking for a sign that
Washington is ready to wake up and find common sense on this issue,
next week’s White House health care summit may not be it.
In fact, right now, Democrats are continuing to work behind closed
doors, putting the finishing touches on yet another massive health care
bill Americans can’t afford and don’t want.
If it is like Democrats’ other health care bills, this one will
drive up premiums, destroy jobs, raise taxes, slash Medicare benefits,
and add to our already-skyrocketing debt.
But this won’t be just another bill written in secret and signed off
on by special interests. Democrats have admitted they are working on an
undemocratic plan to jam this bill through Congress and subvert the
will of the American people.
Democrats themselves are describing this latest maneuver as a
‘trick.’ If the starting point for this summit is more of the same
backroom deals and partisan bills, then this meeting will likely be a
charade.
From the beginning, Republicans have listened to the American people
and offered reforms that lower health care premiums for families and
small businesses.
The bill I and House Republicans proposed
last fall implements common sense solutions focused on lowering costs.
Our bill ensures nobody will be denied coverage on the basis of a
pre-existing condition.
It gives states the tools to implement their own innovative reforms.
And we put an end to the junk lawsuits that are forcing doctors to
practice defensive medicine and drive up the cost of health insurance
for all Americans.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget
Office projects that the Republican health care bill would actually
lower health insurance premiums across the board by up to 10 percent –
about $2,000 per year. The Democrat bills do just the opposite – they
increase the cost of health care.
Just as important,
Republicans get the job done without cutting Medicare, without raising
taxes, and without piling more debt on our kids and grandkids. All the
details of our plan are available at healthcare.gop.gov.
Republicans
remain ready to discuss these ideas with President Obama and move
forward in a bipartisan way to lower health care costs.
But Americans' health care is way too important to risk on a rushed
backroom deal that puts federal bureaucrats in charge of your personal
health care decisions.
Instead of hurting small businesses
by forcing them to pay new taxes and meet new regulations, our focus
should be on lowering their health care costs so that they can expand
and hire more workers.
So in order to have a productive bipartisan conversation on health
care, Democrats must first listen to the American people and scrap
their massive government takeover of health care. We must go into the
summit with a clean slate focused on making healthcare affordable.
That is what Americans are asking for, and that is what Republicans will continue to work for. Thanks for listening.
A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll finds that 52 percent of registered voters say President Obama does not deserve a second term. This poll is reminiscent of the poll that found only 43 percent would vote to re-elect Obama.
The CNN survey also found half of the public disapproves of the job Obama is doing as president.
CNN polling director, Keating Holland, said Obama has a perception problem. According to the new poll, only 4 percent of Americans describe themselves as upper class, but 45 percent think Obama is part of the upper class.
The poll was conducted February 12 through 15 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percent. The complete poll results (PDF) are available here.
In today's Weekly Republican Address, South Carolina's Senator Lindsey Graham explains why the Obama administration is mistaken to try terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in civilian courts instead of military tribunals.
Never before have we allowed non-citizen, enemy combatants captured on the battlefield access to our civilian courts providing them with the same constitutional rights as American citizens.
[. . .]
These trials should not take place in New York or any other civilian court. To do so, ignores the fact we are at war.
Full transcript of Senator Graham’s Address:
Hello, I’m Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
The Obama administration’s decision to prosecute the mastermind of 9-11 Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and four other co-conspirators in civilian court in New York City makes no sense to most Americans -- including me.
All of these cases were pending before military commission at Guantanamo Bay before the Obama administration suspended the trials and dismissed charges. That was a major mistake in the war on terror.
These Al Qaeda terrorists are not common criminals.
Their attacks resulted in the biggest loss of American life from an act of war on our homeland since the Civil War.
Never before have we allowed non-citizen, enemy combatants captured on the battlefield access to our civilian courts providing them with the same constitutional rights as American citizens.
Al Qaeda terrorists should not receive more rights than a Nazi War criminal.
And now is not the time to go back to the pre-9/11 mentality of fighting crime instead of fighting a war.
A civilian trial of hard-core terrorists is unnecessarily dangerous and creates more problems than it solves.
Let me explain why.
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey was the presiding judge in the 1995 Blind Sheik trial involving the first attempt to blow up the World Trade Center and has warned of using civilian courts in terror trials.
These same concerns were recently echoed by the bipartisan chairman of the 9-11 Commission.
In the 1995 trial, because of civilian court rules, the government was required to disclose the identity of all known co-conspirators to the defense.
One of the conspirators -- relatively obscure at the time -- was Osama bin Laden.
Our intelligence services later learned this list made its way back to bin Laden tipping him off about our surveillance.
A conviction was obtained in that trial, but valuable intelligence was compromised.
The rest is history.
Civilian trials create confusion. Our soldiers and intelligence services are already uncertain as to what rules apply.
Case in point -- the Christmas Day bomber.
As we all know, this was a failed attempt to blow up an airliner over Detroit by a trained Al Qaeda operative.
After being captured and fresh off the battlefield, he was read his Miranda rights within one hour of questioning and asked for a lawyer.
Days later and only after his parents encouraged him to cooperate did he begin talking again.
Can we really rely on the parents of future terrorists to work with the FBI?
And is reading Miranda Rights to terrorists any way to fight a war?
Finally, a civilian trial in New York City will be expensive. The New York City Police Commissioner, Mayor and other leaders have all expressed concern these trials could last for years and end up costing over a billion dollars.
These trials should not take place in New York or any other civilian court. To do so, ignores the fact we are at war.
I believe there is a better way.
I have been a military lawyer for almost 30 years and have great confidence in our military justice system.
With the goal of protecting our nation, military law allows us to collect valuable intelligence without reading Miranda Rights to enemy combatants. It keeps them off the battlefield, and where appropriate prosecutes them for war crimes in a manner that adheres to our values.
As one of the chief authors I am proud of the revised Military Commission Act of 2009 which created military tribunals for unlawful enemy combatants – a system not available in 2002 to deal with the Shoe Bomber Richard Reid.
This law was passed after extensive consultation with the Obama administration and received overwhelming bipartisan support.
The military justice system is transparent, well-staffed, subject to civilian review, and protects valuable intelligence. And above all else it is built around the idea that we are a nation at war.
Khalid Sheik Mohammad and his co-conspirators should have their charges reinstated before military commissions and quickly be tried by our military.
These trials will be conducted by the same men and women who administer justice to our own troops.
They are competent professionals with a great understanding of their obligations under the law. It is a system of justice that allows us to move securely forward in this war while upholding our values.
For the good of the nation, I hope the Obama administration will alter their policies.
Military tribunals are the best way to render justice, win this war and protect our nation from a vicious enemy.
May God bless the United States and all those who serve to defend our way of life.”
Space shuttle Endeavour rocketed into orbit Monday on what' is expected to be the last nighttime launch of a shuttle.
Endeavour is transporting a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station. Endeavour and will deliver and install Tranquility, a new room
that will eventually house life-support equipment, exercise machines
and a toilet, as well as a seven-windowed dome. The lookout has the
biggest window ever sent into space, a circle 31 inches across.
Three spacewalks are planned during Endeavour's flight to hook up the
new station compartments.
This mission will be the last major construction job at the space station.
There are just four more missions scheduled -- in March, May, July and September, before the shuttles are retired.
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