Barack Obama backs down on demanding the Catholic church offer healthcare plans which offer contraception, or does he?
The biggest news over the last week has been the Obama regime’s decree that religious institutions and charities which offer their employees healthcare coverage must change their coverage to plans which violate their religious beliefs that contraception and abortion are wrong if the plans they offer do not include free access to contraception and abortion. Needless to say, this drew a firestorm of criticism from the Catholic church, other Christian faiths, conservatives, and even some Democrats.
Liberals such as Barack Obama like to call attention to Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists where he mentions the separation of church and state when it comes to tearing down all public displays of faith, the mention of God at public events, and anything that can be construed as a mingling of politics and religion, yet Barack Obama did not feel as if it was a violation of church and state for the government to dictate to Christian organizations which healthcare plans they can and cannot offer to employees.
The backlash against this edict was quick and fierce and I think that Barack Obama–in his ethnocentric views–underestimated the fallout from this controversy and today he backtracked from this position by announcing that he reached an “accommodation” which he hoped would help to placate the controversy. But did he really back down in the face of this brewing controversy?
The answer is simple; he did not.
Video: What Mitt Romney doesn’t want you to see
Mitt Romney has a problem with conservatives, they simply do not trust him and it is not without good reason. We have been told by the Republican establishment as well as the mainstream media that Mitt Romney is the most electable candidate and stands the best chance to defeat Barack Obama.
The mainstream media is force feeding Republican voters Mitt Romney for one reason and one reason only; they find him to be the less offensive (read, most liberal) Republican candidate in the race, and in the event he were to defeat Barack Obama they would rather have Mitt Romney in office than any other candidate.
That simple fact tells us all we need to know about Mitt Romney, but here are some questions Republican voters need to ask themselves: How can a man who has been on both sides of so many issues be trusted? How do we know how Mitt Romney will govern if he were to defeat Barack Obama? Does anyone really doubt that he would quickly pivot back to the left if he found it politically expedient to win reelection?
Before you head to the polls in your state and pull the lever for Mitt Romney because you feel he is the most electable candidate you would do well to remember that at varying points in his political career he actually held viewpoints which are not all that different from Barack Obama. Mitt Romney is a political whore who will say whatever it takes to win election, he has no core beliefs other than the fact that he feels entitled to be president.
Here is what Mitt Romney doesn’t want you to see:
Gunrunner: Federal agencies knew about Fast and Furious in 2009, but Eric Holder didn’t?
Eric Holder’s defense in sworn testimony about the deadly Operation Fast and Furious scandal has been this: The operation was conceived and carried out at lower levels in the Arizona ATF by rogue agents and that he–and the “Justice” Department–had nothing to do with, and was not aware that, guns were being allowed to walk into Mexico by the United States government.
But according to this article a former DEA official is making a claim that seems to contradict what Eric Holder is claiming is the truth about Operation Fast and Furious:
He now states that his agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were not only aware of the gunwalking plot, but that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were actively interdicting the plot, confiscating weapons the ATF was walking to Mexican narco-terrorists:
“In 2009, 2010, I became aware that ATF was walking guns into Mexico,” Coulson said. “I also learned that Homeland Security Investigations, then ICE, actually interceded on more than one occasion where they seized weapons at the ports of entry when they were heading southbound contrary to ATF’s plans.”
There was serious friction, Coulson claims, between ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the ATF in Phoenix. When Coulson took the gun walking to his bosses in Phoenix, he was told the lead law enforcement official in Arizona — U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke — was already aware of it.
So the DEA, ICE, and DHS all knew about this operation and yet we are to believe that this was something that was localized to Arizona authorities unbeknownst to the “Justice” Department?
I would say Eric Holder’s defense is unravelling, but it wasn’t believable in the first place.
The Congress passes a bill which may lead to 30,000 unmanned drones patrolling the skies over American cities
On December 10th of 2011 I wrote this post about a story in North Dakota where the police called in an unmanned drone to assist in a police operation against three American citizens. In that post I admitted that this case seemed to be a benign and legitimate reason to call in unmanned drones to track down three criminals, but I also lamented the fact that eventually the use of unmanned drones would be expanded over time until there were drones flying over American cities and spying on Americans who have done nothing wrong and do not deserve to be spied on by law enforcement officials or the United States government.
Here is part of what I wrote in that post:
This story might be a benign example of the usage of a Predator drone on American soil, using a drone on a reconnaissance mission to ensure a situation is safe before the police enter a potentially dangerous situation seems harmless enough, but does anyone not think that their usage will become more commonplace as we move forward if we simply accept this? And as Predator drones flying over American soil becomes more commonplace are we to believe that they will not gain the authority to take more enlarged powers in law enforcement?
I am not talking about a future where Predator drones are called on to fire on American citizens, but rather a future where the drones are routinely flying over American cities and spying on Americans under the justification of stopping potential crimes. I am talking about a future where the military is charged with policing the American people BEFORE a crime has taken place.
Part of my concern over the use of drones was nestled in the fact that the president signed into law the Defense Authorization Bill, which deemed United States soil as an official battlefield on the war on terror and authorized the president to use military force against citizens of the United States on American soil.
It now appears as if my fear was justified, but it might be happening even sooner that I feared it would.
Last night there were three contests in the Republican presidential primary–Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri–and it turned out to be a huge night for Rick Santorum. This was a devastating night for Mitt Romney and should be a huge boost for Rick Santorum heading into the next contests. The completeness of Mitt Romney’s defeat can be found in the margin by which Rick Santoum won; it is true that these were non-binding contests, but nonetheless the Mitt Romney camp has to be a little nervous this morning.
Rick Santorum was predicted to have a good night beforehand, but nobody expected it to go this well and I think it is partly a referendum on Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as people are still looking for an alternative to Mitt Romney and are tiring of the bickering between he and Newt Gingrich.
Happy Birthday President Reagan
If President Reagan was alive today would have been his 101st birthday. It is hard to believe that so much time has passed while we have been busy leading our lives and trying to make ends meet, but it has.
Here is a video I found at Sentry Journal that I thought my readers would enjoy:
Is there a connection between Mitt Romney and Saul Alinsky?
I saw this video posted by Don at Conservative Hideout and thought it was something that needed to be seen. It appears as if Mitt Romney’s father had met with Saul Alinsky and thought that he was an important voice in American politics in the 1960’s.
Is this a stretch made by somebody who is supporting Newt Gingrich? It is quite possible and even likely, but the fact remains that conservatives do not trust Mitt Romney, and for good reason. Mitt Romney is a man with no firm political beliefs–he will say whatever he feels is necessary in order to win the presidency, but we really do not know what his true positions are because they are forever changing.
So is it a stretch? I don’t know because I don’t know who Mitt Romney really is politically, so I will let you be the judge.
You may remember that during the 2008 Republican presidential primary campaign Ron Paul came very close to calling Mike Huckabee a fascist, but in case you forgot this little fact here is the video:
Well, while speaking in front of Hispanics in Politics the other day Ron Paul took it a step further when he compared Americans who support closing the Mexican border to the Nazis. We are all fascists now because we don’t understand the cause of the problem!
I believe Hispanics have been used as scapegoats, to say, they’re the problem instead of being a symptom maybe of a problem with the welfare state,” Paul told the group. “In Nazi Germany they had to have scapegoats to blame and they turned on the Jews Read more…
It is being reported on Sipsey Street Irregulars that Eric Holder and the “Justice” Department are not the only ones stonewalling the investigation into the deadly Operation Fast and Furious scandal. Eric Holder may have help in the form of none other than House Speaker John Boehner and the fix might already be in.
Here is the sad news told by someone in the know:
As for yesterday . . . (it was) a plea bargain of sorts where both sides save face. The Committee will accept the scalps of Breuer and Wienstein, DOJ will release enough of the (documents) to condemn them, claim cooperation (thus giving the appearance of recognizing congress’s oversight authority), and Holder will survive – looking like a “leader” for offering them up (along with a few lower level ATF and DOJ folk). The Committee will chalk one in the “Win” column for oversight and holding people accountable. DOJ will have the same for cooperating and accountability. All sides win, all checks and balance intact and working fine, all powers respected and then they move on to the next act of political theatre. The only ones left to sweep up the mess, are the American and Mexican peoples – ignorantly secure in our beliefs that the system works and that our government is actually for us, by us, and of us.
Another source confirmed the foot of Boehner on the brake pedal of the Issa Committee investigation and said, “the only thing that will stop him is if somebody chucks him out of the car.”
Is it possible that John Boehner and Eric Holder have already struck a deal to implicate “Justice” Department underlings and through this deal John Boehner is actually condoning–and encouraging–Eric Holder’s stonewalling tactics, while waiting for the proper time to release just the documents which will bring down nobody of import within the “Justice” Department and let Eric Holder save face?
Gunrunner: Eric Holder testifies in front of the Oversight Committee
I had to work yesterday so I was not able to watch Eric Holder’s testimony in front of the Oversight Committee on Operation Fast and Furious so I have been scouring the internet trying to find out the details of his testimony.
From what I have read it appears as if Eric Holder decided to take the offensive in his testimony in an attempt to portray this investigation as a political game in an election year which really holds no credibility because he has done nothing wrong. And he had the backing of the Democrats on the Oversight Committee who decided to release a false report before his testimony which absolved Eric Holder from any blame even though the “Justice” Department has refused to release 93,000 pages of documents which just might implicate Eric Holder in the deadly scandal.
Eric Holder brought back images of Barack Obama’s holier than thou arrogant attitude (remember Barack Obama stating the Tea Party should be thanking him for what he has done) when he used the how dare you question me defense in regard to Operation Fast and Furious by stating the following:
As a member of Congress, I mean, really, is that the way in which you want to be seen, you want to be known?”
Yes, standing up for justice when hundreds of Mexicans and two Americans have been murdered with weapons provided to criminals by the United States government is exactly how members of the Congress should want to be known but Eric Holder remains indignant because the Congress wants to hold him accountable. At the same time that he was saying he deserved credit for all the good he has done as Attorney General, Eric Holder also claimed that while he knew nothing about the deadly scandal he should be held accountable for what he did or did not know: Read more…
America's Watchtower 