courtesy of Breitbart.tv

by: Neoavatara

I have long said that if you are going to deal with Iran, you have to have at least the threat of serious repercussions on the table.

That ultimately is what Obama is lacking.  Does anyone, anywhere, believe that Barack Obama would launch any kind of military strike against Iran?

The answer is clearly no.  And that is why Iran currently is acting like a country without any fear.  Sure, Israel could hit them, but that isn’t necessarily a losing situation for them.  An Israeli attack against Iran would do something that no other action could ever do:  unite the Arab world.

Anyone looking at the middle east must understand a simple reality:  Iran is neither liked nor trusted in the region.  Simply put, there are many in the region that would be more than happy to allow Israel to attack Iran if the time comes.  The problem is with the Arab street.  Arab leaders have long instigated hatred toward Israel, and have blamed the Jewish republic for every ill that befalls the Muslim world.  This would not be any different.

So ultimately the only punishment that Iran is facing is harsh United Nations Sanctions.  These are similar to the sanctions placed on Saddam Hussein and Iraq…in which Saddam was able to sell billions of dollars of oil, and funnel it to his own pocket.

Iran also holds another card in its back pocket:  its economic relationship with both Russia and China.  Russia has billions of dollars of contractual agreements with Iran, for sales of everything from military goods to nuclear reactors to food products.  China, on the other hand, receives approximately 15% of its energy from Iran.  No matter how nicely we talk to those two world powers, they are unlikely to bend to the will of the international community.

Iran for its part has only one goal in mind:  to delay.  It has seen how successful North Korea has been.  They delayed for decades, and now are untouchable because of their nuclear deterrent.  Robert Gates, speaking on the Sunday shows, said he believes we have 1-3 years before Iran has a nuclear weapon.  That is not good.  12 months is not exactly what I consider to be a large margin for error.  Iran has stated that they will accept IAEA inspections of the newly publicized nuclear facility.  They know that the UN and the IAEA move slowly, and that it is unlikely that either organization would have any significant findings on the facility for at least 6 months.  Again, more time, the better.

In the mean time, Iran is more than happy to stick a needle in the eye of the international community.  They spent the weekend launching a new host of short range missiles; missiles, coincidentally, that are thought to be able to reach Israel.

October 1st brings the beginning of new talks with the Iranian regime.  I hope that Obama has a trick up his sleeve, because I frankly don’t see any endgame right now that works in the favor of the United States.

by Ron Russell

The United Nations of today is NOT the United Nations of Roosevelt or Churchhill, if those two men were alive today most in the UN would be calling for them to be tried as war criminals and condemned for there actions during WWII. The UN of today is totally dominated by the forces of rampant nationalism, neo-socialist, and neo-communist. These forces totally control the General Assembly and therefore most actions of that organization. The security council has become powerless to act because each of the five permanent members has a veto and all seldom agree on anything. This UN funded primarily by the United States is an organization that hates this country and the state of Israel and no longer represents the views of the average American citizen, but has the views of the radical American far left and I should add the views of the current administration who sadly are part of the hate-America crowd. We have in Obama, a president who is in lockstep with the UN and not with the people of his own country. You know something is wrong when when the radical leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi wants Obama to be president for life---he said that just yesterday in his rambling address to the General Assembly. The UN has become a place where terrorists are praised to the cheering crowds in the General Assembly while the USA and Israel are condemned for simply trying to defend themselves. The American taxpayer has had enough, and yet we continue to contribute billions of dollars to these radicals at the UN, to these people who condemn us at every turn. Without the funding of U S taxpayers the UN would collapse and this useless organization who hates America would cease to exist. Below is a brief portion of Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the UN today. A speech which was not well received by the delegates in attendance.

Netanyahu Condemns U.N. for Allowing Ahmadinejad to Deliver Address
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed astonishment that the United Nations would give Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "legitimacy" just six decades after the Holocaust.

Holding aloft evidence of Hitler's Final Solution, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday railed against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his denial of the Holocaust and scolded the United Nations for allowing Ahmadinejad to speak during its opening session of the 64th U.N. General Assembly.

Offering detailed reminders of the war that sent 6 million Jews to their deaths in concentration camps and recalling the agreement within the world body to create the Jewish State, Netanyahu took his turn at the dais to express astonishment at what he witnessed a day earlier.

He commended those who boycotted Ahmadinejad's speech, but condemned those who allowed it.

"To those who gave this Holocaust denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people. ... Have you no shame? Have you no decency?" Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu scolded the United Nations for giving the Iranian president "legitimacy" just six decades after the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad addressed the body Wednesday, and in the run-up to the session repeated his belief that the Holocaust is a myth.

"What a disgrace," Netanyahu said. "What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations."read more from FOX

by: The Jerseynut

So it wasn't bad enough that President Obama returned a bronze bust of Winston Churchill that had, since 9/11, been on loan as a sign of strength and friendship from our allies across the pond. And apparently Obama didn't show enough disdain for the British when he gave Prime Minister Brown a discount pack of DVDs as a gift, while Brown brought Obama a pen holder fashioned from the timber of HMS Gannet, a ship that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa. And no, he had no intention to disrespect the Queen of England by giving her an iPod filled with his speeches, while his churlish wife patted her condescendingly on the back.

No, for some reason the depths of Obama's hatred and disdain of the British have not yet been reached. Once again, yesterday, he found a way to slap our staunchest allies in the face:

Gordon Brown lurched from being hailed as a global statesman to intense embarrassment tonight, after it emerged US President Barack Obama had turned down no fewer than five requests from Downing Street to hold a bilateral meeting at the United Nations in New York or at the G20 summit starting in Pittsburgh today...

But Obama has held bilateral meetings in New York with the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, and the new Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama...

Some in the British press are not amused:

What are we to make of this? This country has proved, through the bravery of men like Acting Sgt Lockett, America’s staunchest ally in Afghanistan. In return, the American President treats the British Prime Minister with casual contempt. The President’s graceless behaviour is unforgivable.... Mr Obama owes this country a great deal for its unflinching commitment to the American-led war in Afghanistan but seems incapable of acknowledging the fact. You might have thought that after the shambles of Mr Brown’s first visit to the Obama White House - when there was no joint press conference and the President’s “gift” to the Prime Minister was a boxed DVD set - that lessons would have been learned. Apparently not... Mr Obama’s churlishness is fresh evidence that the US/UK special relationship is a one-way street.

This is a dangerous but legitimate sentiment from the Brits. I guess Obama feels that since he wasn't president before January 20th,2009, all favors done for this nation before The Days Of The One are no longer valid currency. Apparently, all alliances are now "off the table" and any future acts of friendship will be based on a "what have you done for me lately" basis, the "me" being not the United States of America but for Barack Obama.

Why would the Brits ever help us again, based on the treatment they have received from Obama? They won't, but that doesn't concern the president, who seems more anxious to pull us into an alliance with South American dictatorships than thriving European democracies. It's almost as if our foreign policy was being run by a college sophomore, just indoctrinated into Western Civilization by his tenured, socialist college professor, who still has pictures of himself in his office smoking weed at Woodstock.

Unless this is Michelle Obama's doing? From the British press, in March:

We may just LURVE Michelle's fashion sense. But Michelle doesn't reciprocate our affection, one bit. Her broad-brush view of history associates Brits with the wicked white global hegemony responsible for the slave trade. Never mind that a white, Tory Englishman - William Wilberforce - brought the slave trade to an end. Judging by her record, Michelle does not make room for such subtle nuance.

Sorry, our erstwhile friends. Our new president has 200 year-old scores to settle, and whatever you've think you have done for us lately, it's not enough to satisfy The One...

by Kevin Bryant

I’m a racist, you’re a racist, he’s a racist, she’s a racist, and wouldn’t you like to be a racist too.

If we are to believe the most recent comments made by Jimmy Carter: “Everyone opposing Barack Obama is basing their opposition on the fact that he is a black man”, or something like that then guess what, we are all racist. This would include blacks and every other minority in America who think differently from our President. Sticking strictly in accordance with Jimmy Carter’s analysis, then not only would it be possible for a black person to be racist against a black president based solely on race, it would be strictly factual and if it is factual and truthful, then I must be a racist against everyone in America who does not believe in abortion under any circumstance, every gay person who thinks they should get special treatment, every 9/11 truther, every vegetarian, every global warming (climate change) believer, everyone who does not support the military. Crap, I don’t always agree with my wife, my parents, my kids, my siblings……I must be racist against even my own family.

Former President Carter, here is some advice for you….pull your head out of your ____. The year is 2009, not 1849, 1899, 1929 or even 1969. Racism today exists on a very small scale and more often than not, it is fueled by those who would use race based ideology as a reason or excuse for a particular thought or action.

Only 12% of Americans….a whole whopping 12% believe that any animosity towards president Obama is based solely on race. Since President Obama is half black and half white but claims African American as his race, then that would mean that 2/3’s of his own race disagree with Jimmy Carter’s statement. Even if you add in those that said they don’t know or had no opinion, then still less than one half of his own race disagrees with Jimmy Carter’s statement. This even surprised me considering that just over 95% of Black Americans voted for Barack Obama. Now, if you want to see an example of racism, then the election would be a prime example of that. The media would have had a field day if 95% of all White Americans voted for John McCain.

Race based, quotas, exemptions, affirmative action, legislation, organizations…..everything should have died in the late 70’s and early 80’s. One of the main problems with America is that they didn’t die. Instead, they were supported by those in congress and community that saw race as a means to gain favor and wealth by keeping the fires of racism burning brightly.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King Jr

Americans, by large, get it and understand that is meant by Martin Luther King’s words and they practice them daily.

Next month it will be 4 years now that I have sat next to and work almost literally hand in hand with a black woman whom I call my friend. I have a daughter who in a couple of months will give birth to a half Mexican, half white - 100% MY granddaughter. I have another daughter who is currently living with her half Black, half Mexican girlfriend, partner or whatever they choose to call their relationship. Next door to me is a younger couple that I get along very well with who are vegetarians, Obama supporters and global warming believers. I have a really nice black family living a few doors down from me that I would give them the shirt off my back if they needed it or if they just wanted it. My son’s ex ex girlfriend of almost a year was black. The family living directly across the street is from southern Mexico and I have a great relationship with them. We all have different backgrounds, different heritages, different beliefs, live different lifestyles yet are family and friends and neighbors not based on the color of our skin but by our character.

by Conservative Patriot

President Obama is devoted to eliminating all the myths that exist around the Health Care Reform plans.  However, the Administration is one of the main sources of those myths.

One of the myths that the Obama Administration is pushing is that the government will be able to provide health care cheaper as they will be able to cut out all the insurance company profits.  In fact, he often refers to “those huge insurance company profits”.  The President is either trying to mislead people or is ignorant of how a business operates.

From conversations that I have had, I belive that many people are misinformed.  I have heard people talk about the evil insurance companies and their 1000% profit increases or the immoral insurance company 150% profit.  With comments similar to those being floated on TV, I am sure that people do not understand or know the truth.

For starters, many people don’t know what a profit is or how it is calculated.  A company’s profit equals its revenue minus expenses.  More simply, the cash it takes in minus all the bills it has to pay.  And as pointed out in a post over at HotAir.com, insurance companies only keep 4 to 5 cents for every dollar they take in which is 4 to 5% profit and not anywhere near 150%.

The simple example of a grocery store can help explain.  When you spend $100 dollars at the grocery store, that $100 dollars is the revenue that the store receives.  However, that $100 is not profit.  Assuming the grocery store has a 50% markup on the products you bought, they had to pay $50 dollars for the goods that you bought.  That leaves them $50 dollars in profits right?  Wrong.  They still have to pay the employees, pay the utilities, advertising, rent, and other expenses.  Then, what ever is left over after paying those expenses is taxed.  What is left over is  the profit which is kept by the company or sometimes distributed to shareholders.

So now that we understand what constitutes profit, where does that leave all those insurance company profits?  When I started hearing all those comments, I went on Yahoo Finance to get the facts.  I looked at the top five insurance companies ranked by size at year end 2008 to see what their profits were.

In 2008, Unitedhealth Group kept 4% of their revenue.  The next two largest, Well Point and Aetna also had 4% profits.  The next two, Cigna and Humana had 2% profit.  Note that the total total profit for the top five companies was approximately $7.8 billion, but that number represents only an average of 4% industry profit. 

The top five insurers also paid $3.5 billion in taxes in 2008 or roughly half of their net profit.

Americans need to wake up and realize that they are being spoon feed misinformation to demonize groups of people and industries for political purposes.

Whenever you hear somebody in person or in the media talk about record profits, high profits, and windfall profits, you need to examine the true numbers to see if you are being mislead.  The surest way to take away freedom is to mislead people with false information.  Americans need to watch government closely and examine the facts since the media is unwilling to publish facts and prefers to stick to their own agendas.

by: Rightofcourse

Nothing makes conditions more unbearable than the knowledge  that no effort of ours can change them - Friedrich Hayek

     Before Obama was even elected, I was very depressed about the future of our country.  I had the choice of voting for one man who was way left of my beliefs in most areas and someone who was so far left he couldn’t even see my beliefs.  It seemed there was nothing that could be done to change our destination, the only choice we had was how fast we were going to get there.

     Once Obama was elected, it seemed that the best case scenario would be that he only did minimal damage during his term and would inspire a conservative renaissance similar to Jimmy Carter’s imcompetence ushering in the era of Reagan.  This didn’t seem very likely though considering the majority the Democrats have in Congress and the popularity Obama seemed to be riding.  Not to mention the fact that there don’t seem to be many real conservatives left on the Republican side of the bench either.

     Lately though, I feel better.  Americans are standing up and showing they don’t need the government’s help to bring about “change”.  Here in American, people can still change their conditions through their own efforts, and they are doing so.  Some of them voted for the “change” promised by Obama.  They have decided they don’t like his brand of change.  In just a few short weeks, American have accomplished more “change” than Congress has in years. 

     Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe created enough discussion that Congress and the Census Bureau have taken action against ACORN.  ACORN should have been investigated at least ten years (and millions of dollars) ago. 

     Green Jobs Czar Van Jones was forced to resign.  Now, Representative Patrick McHenry wants the Czars to testify before Congress and face some sort of vetting process.  That should have been done the first time a President tried to grant authority and a budget of our tax money to a staff member that hadn’t been approved by…well anyone.

     Obama and the Democrats wanted to force a healthcare bill through before anyone could read it or expose what was in it.  A health care bill may still pass but it will be a bill that has been exposed to scrutiny, and a Democratic Party that has now also been exposed.

     There’s a lesson in this.  It’s a lesson people throughout the world have to learn over and over again.  Let’s see if anyone in D.C. has learned it.  The lesson is…One should never underestimate what can be accomplished by a few angry Americans.

by: Beach Gir

What an Orwellian world or Alice in Wonderland world we have been plunged into? Or perhaps more true to form, it is a Bolshevik world...

The House of Representatives is busily dictatong the words that can be used to put down the President of the United States in the hallowed halls of our Republic. You gotta be rollin' in laughter at this nonsense. With a H/T to Drudge, here's the post by Glenn Thrush at Politico: House guidelines for Presidential putdowns.

Let's start with what you cannot call the President: a Liar, a Hypocrite and other things that may be quite accurate representations.

This Democrat House of Representatives never ceases to amuse. Either they are spending us blind and into oblivion - as in WE ARE BROKE; or they make themselves the laughing stock of the world.

It is true, finally, in their own acts and deeds - the liberal 'progressives' have no sense of humor. They are certainly not planning ahead. Why ever must they feel that they must be so defensive on behalf of President Obama. Is he not strong enough to take the opposition disagreement that other presidents have taken throughout our history? I think he's plenty strong. Or is their defensiveness born out by their racism? (Read Destiny Denied by Shelby Steele for a perspective on the liberal's view.)Okay, so maybe it was bad form for a Congressman to point out that the President of the United States lied to the American people and the world in a speech to the joint houses of Congresses but no one denied the lie was a lie. The only dust-up was that someone pointed it out - gasp - in public.

And now the Lilliputians in Congress are busy codifying what a member of Congress can legally say to putdown the President of the United States. This goes against our entire history of our elected elite being able to say with impunity anything they want to say in session.

Good news for us when we have a Republican president in 2012. Then the gaggle of liberal honking geese can choke on their own vileness. Where were these sensibilities when we needed them to quash the heinous acts of liberals/progressives writing their relentless trash about President George W. Bush?The Democrats of Capitol Hill - The Mad Hatters of our times... Now, this would be a great cartoon film feature on the order of the Keystone Cops.....

by: D.R. Berry

Depending upon what media source is reporting, yesterday's 9/12 march on Washington drew a crowd estimated at "several thousand", "up to two million", "a sea", or possibly no one because mainstream media preferred to follow President Obama to Minnesota where he continues to try to ram his healthcare agenda down our throats. For those who were unable to make the historic trip to Washington, thousands more flocked to their local tea party events to show support against a government gone horribly out of control.

Avoiding the D.C. march altogether, Obama chose this weekend to travel to Minneapolis' Target Center where he spoke to a crowd of 13,000 in an effort to rally support for his weakening healthcare proposal. Adopting what can only be viewed as a self-important defensive position, Obama said, "I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than improve it. If you misrepresent what’s in the plan, we will call you out.” Really? Do you mean like when you misrepresented the fact that this bill proposes to use government funds to subsidize abortions, or provide healthcare to illegal immigrants? That is until Joe Wilson drew a line in the sand and cried out what those of us watching at home were thinking: "You lie!" How interesting that it is perfectly fine for liberals to say whatever they want about President Bush without having to apologize for it. Joe Wilson immediately apologized to Obama, and his apology was accepted. Not good enough for Nancy Peolsi and Harry Reid, who want him to apologize on the floor of the House. Harry Reid, who called President Bush a liar, not once, but numerous times without any show of remorse. I guess this administration has one set of rules for themselves, and another for the rest of us.

I believe that yesterday's events have shaken Washington's core, although you will not hear them admit it. I believe they completely underestimated this grassroots movement, and thought that by using slander and bullying tactics, they would frighten us back home and into submission. But they were wrong. A newfound patriotic spirit is finding its way into the hearts of the American people. No longer are we willing to passively stand by and let the government get away with taking away more and more of our freedom. We have joined together, one nation under God, indivisible to take back our country and save our Constitution.

But we must not let yesterday's success allow us to get too comfortable. We still have much to do. We need to continue to be vigilant in watching the movements of this administration and the czars that seem to have little accountability to the citizens of this country. We need to work toward firing those in Congress that do not support the Constitution and elect those who are willing to abide by the will of the people that elected them. Do not be complacent, but be tireless. We will get there, we will get our country back on track. We the People.

by Samuel Gonzalez

The September 12 march on Washington was more than a huge Tea Party event. D.C. police and network news organizations estimated the throngs of civic-minded Americans of between 1.5 to 2 million people. But, this sea of humanity walking down the heart of our nation’s capital was more than citizens fed up with out-of-control government spending, or Obama Care.

What happened on Saturday was only a glimpse of the awakening of what Richard Nixon once called the Silent Majority. To characterize this event as a seismic shift of attitude towards President Barack Obama’s policies would be a serious miscalculation.

This was no shift!

Truth be told, a sleeping giant who may have taken some concepts of liberty, self determination, a free market economy, and the benefits of small government for granted, have responded to a new call. Many of these people who participated in the protest have never done anything like it in their lives.

This is a very good thing.

These people of many different walks of life were not responding to a cult of personality. Conservatives don’t operate that way. We don’t need too. And for as much as some Conservative writers and politicians tried to mistakenly argue that Conservatism needs to be redefined, or reshaped, or repackaged, or the age of Ronald Reagan is dead, I say look at the amount of people who showed up to make their voices heard.

This is a reformation movement because the people are responding to Conservative ideas that don’t need to be tweaked one bit. They only need to be properly represented. And this is exactly what President Obama and the rest of the Democrats are desperately afraid of.