Peggy Noonan: A Small President on the World Stage

At the U.N., leaders hope for a return of American greatness.

The world misses the old America, the one before the crash—the crashes—of the past dozen years.

That is the takeaway from conversations the past week in New York, where world leaders gathered for the annual U.N. General Assembly session. Our friends, and we have many, speak almost poignantly of the dynamism, excellence, exuberance and leadership of the nation they had, for so many years, judged themselves against, been inspired by, attempted to emulate, resented. 

Chad Crowe

As for those who are not America's friends, some seem still confused, even concussed, by the new power shift. What is their exact place in it? Will it last? Will America come roaring back? Can she? Does she have the political will, the human capital, the old capability? 

It is a world in a new kind of flux, one that doesn't know what to make of America anymore. In part because of our president.

"We want American leadership," said a member of a diplomatic delegation of a major U.S. ally. He said it softly, as if confiding he missed an old friend. 

Read more at The Wall Street Journal >>

Obama's Weakness Provokes An Aggressive Russia, Say Analysts

From American Media Institute
By J. Michael Waller

While President Obama is conferring with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, current and retired senior American intelligence officials fear he is blind to a growing threat from a resurgent Russia.

These officials say that Moscow continues to probe America's skies and seas with bombers and submarines, both to assert itself and to see just how far Russia can push Obama. In June 2012, Russian strategic nuclear bombers broke protocol and conducted maneuvers in the Arctic without alerting the U.S.

A month later a Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bomber, capable of carrying nuclear-armed cruise missiles, entered American airspace off Alaska and California. Then in August, a stealthy Russian Akula-class attack submarine, designed to hunt and sink American subs, patrolled for weeks off Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

Pat Buchanan: Putin 'Made a Better Case' Than Obama on Syria

Conservative pundit Patrick Buchanan says Vladimir Putin's op-ed in the New York Times is an "outstanding piece" that "made a better case against U.S. strikes in Syria" than President Obama has done in arguing for U.S. strikes.

"I read the whole thing, and I read it twice," Buchanan told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren Wednesday night. "And candidly, it was an outstanding piece, and I think Vladimir Putin made a better case against U.S. strikes in Syria than the president of the United States did last night, Greta.

"And I think he (Putin) laid out one of the real dangers here, which is that jihadists and terrorists, as well the al Qaeda folks inside Syria and others -- they're pouring in from the West and Russia. And if the Assad regime falls, in whose hands do these chemical weapons go?

Read more at CNSNews.com >>

Egyptian Christian Leader: 'Shame on Obama If He Is A Christian'

From CBN News

An Egyptian Christian leader is calling out President Barack Obama and his administration for not doing enough in face of intense persecution against the Church by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Following the recent barrage of church burnings, Father Rafic Greiche, the chief spokesman for the Catholic Church in Egypt, criticized President Obama for not speaking out against the worst violence against Egyptian Christians in nearly 700 years.

"President Obama when he made a speech he just touched on the burning churches instead of telling the Muslim Brotherhood that they are terrorists and they are making terror on Egypt," Greiche said. "He did not speak loud for this and shame on him if he is a Christian that he does not speak out loud."

"The spokesman of the White House who…was asked 'What is the red line for the Christians in Egypt?' he mocked and said, 'I didn't bring my red pen," he noted.

"So I think it was a mockery and not at its place and really shame on him also," he said.

Radical Islamists, many members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, attacked at least 60 churches, Christian businesses, and institutions in the days following the crackdown against supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

"Obama does not appear to understand the situation," Greiche told AsiaNews. "In his speech he didn't even so much as mention all the churches and Christian buildings being burnt down by the Muslim Brotherhood."

"This must absolutely be made clear: the Muslim Brothers are terrorists and are tied to groups belonging to al Qaeda and to the Salafites," he said. "The history of the Muslim Brotherhood, even since their foundation, has been a history of 85 years of bloodshed."

Michael Voris: America's Catholic Bishops Are Complicit with Obama, An Agent of Hell

This video presentation may sound harsh to many, but if it does, that reaction reflects one's own numbness to an America that is marinated in the puss and rot of sin.  The willingness of so many Americans to go with the flow, their eagerness to not stand-out, to be accepted, and their vain efforts to reconcile a depraved culture with the Truth implanted by God in their hearts and minds, has infected even America's Catholic bishops who put party loyalties above their Baptism.

Yes, this is a harsh indictment; so was that of Saint John the Baptist.  But at this late hour it is a message that needs to be heard.  America's leadership reflects our collective souls; and the highest leader is truly "an agent of hell."  If there is any hope for the future of our nation, it will not come from the political establishment, candidates, platforms or legislation, but rather through agents of God, counter-cultural souls, saints who bear witness to the light and show the way to a new, more noble, more humane, more Godly Christian era.  Our bishops should lead the way, but let's not wait on them.

America Wakes Up: Obama's Approval at 41%

The Gallup organization has revealed that Barack Hussein Obama's approval rating has fallen to its lowest level since December 2011. 

The three day tracking period ending Friday, August 9, shows that half of all those polled disapprove of the job Obama is doing. An astonishing 41% of "low-information voters" still approve of the job Obama does between his government-paid vacations. 

 We'd be happy to see these grifters spend all their remaining time in office on the beaches and golf courses of the world, provided Congress were doing its duty to impeach this ineligible "president" and domestic enemy for his routine assaults on the Constitution and too many scandals to rehash here.

Jay Leno Rips Obama as He Waits Off-Stage

Marxist "Community Organizer" Calls Catholic Schools "Divisive"

 

The most divisive President in American history - a militant, Marxist thug - offended Catholics throughout the world, particularly those involved with America's largest, successful school system - by lecturing the people of Northern Ireland about his perceptions of religious education as "divisive."  Better for the likes of Obama that we should all be "dumbed down," unable to call on history to recognize tyranny, formed into compliant Obamunists who have not read America's founding documents, who haven't a clue about unalienable rights that belong to the children of God, who are unable to engage in critical thinking and logic, who have their minds filled with popular "culture," and who leave decision making to political elites, like Obama, who know what is best for them.  

Since he knows so much about education, why do his own government schools rank below those of most industrialized nations, including those to whom he directed his condescending remarks?

We ask again, when will the Congress of the United States remove this illegitimate "President" who has done anything but "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States"?

We hope that Irish Catholic and Protestant educators will make haste to visit the Chicago Public School System so that they can see first-hand the vision Obama has for them. 

A report from The Scottish Catholic Observer follows.

US President undermines Catholic schools after Vatican Prefect praised them

The US President has made an alarming call for an end to Catholic education in Northern Ireland in spite of the fact that Archbishop Gerhard Müller told Scots that Catholic education was 'a critical component of the Church.’

President Barack Obama (above), repeated the oft disproved claim that Catholic education increases division in front of an audience of 2000 young people, including many Catholics, at Belfast’s Waterfront hall when he arrived in the country this morning.

“If towns remain divided—if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden—that too encourages division and discourages cooperation,” the US president said.

The US politician made the unfounded claim despite a top Vatican official spelling out the undeniable good done by Catholic education in a speech in Glasgow on Saturday and in his homily at Mass on Friday.

Archbishop Gerhard Müller (below), prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, told an audience in Scotland that Catholic education provided a rare place where ‘intellectual training, moral discipline and religious commitment would come together’ while giving the presitigous Cardinal Winning Lecture on Saturday to officially launch the St Andrews Foundation for Catholic teacher education at Glasgow University. During Mass at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Glasgow, on Friday night he said that ‘the Catholic school is vitally important … a critical component of the Church,’ adding that Catholic education provides young people with a wonderful opportunity to ‘grow up with Jesus.’

Mr Obama is in Northern Ireland to take part in the two day G8 Summit at the Lough Erne resort in Enneskillen.

Rush Limbaugh: America in the Midst of a Coup d'Etat

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Late yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the library at home, and I was just swamped. It seemed like every 90 seconds somebody needed something, or somebody had a question or somebody had a comment, requiring my response. It was during the period of time that I generally devote to reading my tech blogs, you know, where I abandon all of this and get away from it and start spending time on, quote, unquote, my hobby.

But it was one of those days. I'm sure you have them. They may happen every day, but if I had been watching a TV show I would have hit the pause button every minute to deal with something. It would have taken me two hours yesterday to watch a 40 minute program. So in the midst of all of this, I hear about Prism. Not the NSA sweep of telephone records. In fact, let me start before I heard about Prism. Even before I heard about Prism, I am hearing from the intelligentsia in Washington that there's nothing to be really concerned about here with what we had learned, the NSA demanding and getting every phone record from Verizon. And, by the way, we now know T-Mobile and AT&T have been added to it.

But the intelligent people were saying, "Nothing to see here. The reaction is way overblown." Those of us who think there's something worrisome here are overreacting and we're too oriented in politics. And the mature thinkers that weighed in and sound reason and levelheadedness assured us that there was nothing to fear here because this was just metadata, and in fact this is something we should all be thankful that the government is able to do.

I have to tell you when I'm listening to all the smart people tell me this, my mind is about to explode, and I'm saying, "Do these people not realize what we just learned in the last three weeks?" We got the IRS starting in 2010 taking action to suppress the political involvement and ultimately votes of Tea Party people and conservative Republicans. This regime, this government, on the orders of the highest level. In fact, that investigation is ongoing. We have Fast and Furious. We have Obamacare. The evidence of the totalitarian nature or the authoritarian nature of this administration is on display undeniably every day and yet in the midst of this, "Well, don't go off half cocked on this, Rush. Be very levelheaded. Nothing really to see," as though there's no context here.

 

It made me once again understand, folks, what you and I are up against here. There are just way too many people -- and I'm talking about on our side -- who do not want to admit what we face, who do not want to engage or admit or whatever what we really face here. It matters. This kind of stuff matters because of who the people doing it happen to be. It's one thing if Colonel Sanders would be collecting all this data, but it's not Colonel Sanders. It's Barack Obama and everybody that works for him, and we know who they are and we know what their goals are. We know what their intentions are.

Read more at The Rush Limbaugh Show >>

The Spectator President

By Patrick J. Buchanan

No, this is not Watergate or Iran-Contra. Nor is it like the sex scandal that got Bill Clinton impeached.

The AP, IRS and Benghazi matters represent a scandal not of presidential wrongdoing, but of presidential indolence, indifference and incompetence in discharging the duties of chief executive.

The Barack Obama revealed to us in recent days is something rare in our history: a spectator president, clueless about what is going on in his own household, who reacts to revelations like some stunned bystander.

Live Streaming Video of Congressional Hearings into Benghazi Murders and Cover-Up

Live video from your iPhone using Ustream

Obama Ranked 5th Best President Ever!

From The Spartanburg Herald-Journal - "The Stroller"

By Lou Parris

Paul Clements of Gaffney tells he just finished reading a publicity release claiming President Barack Obama has been rated the fifth best president ever.

"The details, according to White House publicists," says Mr. Clements, "state that Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln and eight others tied for first, 15 presidents tied for second, 17 presidents tied for third, Jimmy Carter came in fourth and Obama came in fifth."

Obama's Soviet Style Plan to Destroy America Revealed

The Obama administration is quietly allowing China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural gas resources across the U.S.  The decision to allow China to compete for U.S. oil and natural gas resources appears to stem from a need to keep Beijing economically interested in lending to the U.S. The Obama administration has run $1-trillion-plus annual federal budget deficits since taking office that likely will continue in the second term.

Allowing China to have equity interests in U.S. energy production is a reversal of the Bush administration's policy. In 2005, the Bush administration blocked China on grounds of national security from an $18.4 billion deal to purchase California-based Unocal Corp.

As WND has reported, Beijing has been developing a proposal in which real estate on American soil owned by China would be set up as "development zones" to establish Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/obama-lets...

Russians Refuse To Shake Obama's Hand

He's their bowing, scraping, useful idiot, eager to cut a deal and betray his country in a second term when, in his own phrase, he has "more flexibility," but his Russian masters won't even shake their agent's hand.  

The End of the Reagan Era?

From The Center for Vision & Values, Grove City College

By Dr. Paul G. Kengor

Editor’s note: A longer version of this article first appeared at American Spectator.

With Barack Obama’s second inauguration, liberals are touting an altogether new epoch: the end of the Reagan era.

Unfortunately, I believe they are largely correct. We are witnessing a period of left-wing ascendance, marked by gay marriage, forced taxpayer funding of abortion, an exploding government class, and big government. As to the latter, Ronald Reagan had declared in his first inaugural: “government is not the solution … government is the problem.” The first Democrat to follow Reagan, Bill Clinton, similarly stated “the era of big government is over.” Clinton’s affirmation was also affirmation of the Reagan era.

Then came Barack Obama. Just days after his 2009 inauguration, Obama proclaimed: “the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life.” He said “only government” could alter our “vicious cycle.”

Obama had repudiated Reagan, and the electorate would again reward him four years later. What Obama called for in 2009 seems to be the new American spirit in 2013.

But is it? Well, the answer is complicated.

The Persecution Of Christians In Morsi’s Egypt Is Now Serious. So, Will Obama Use His Billion Dollar Subsidy In Their Defense? Don’t Hold Your Breath

Obama’s personal history may explain why

From The Catholic Herald (UK)
By William Oddie

A man weeps over the coffin of a Copt killed in clashes in Cairo last year (AP)

I open by drawing your attention to the shocking story (one among an increasing number of examples of the growing oppression of Coptic Christians under Egypt’s brand-new Islamist dictatorship) of Nadia Mohamed Ali, who was brought up as a Christian, and converted to Islam when she married a Muslim, 23 years ago. He later died, and his widow decided to return to her Christian faith, together with her children. She registered as such under the Mubarak regime, and applied for and received new identity cards containing this information, between 2004 and 2006. When her re-conversion to her old faith emerged under the Morsi regime, Nadia was sentenced to fifteen years in prison: so too were her seven children; even the clerks who processed the identity cards were imprisoned.

Did Obama Steal The Election With Hagel’s Help?

From The Western Center for Journalism

Chuck Hagel has been tapped by Obama for Secretary of Defense, which has resulted in a slew of push backs over his troubling record: criticism and lack of support for Israel; coddling of Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran; and his almost immediate appointment after retiring as a senator to Deutsche Bank’s Americas Advisory Board, the mega bank that has been accused of funneling billions of dollars to Iran’s nuclear program.

But the most troubling aspect of Chuck Hagel is the fact that he may have stolen both of his senatorial elections.

In 1992, Hagel was CEO of Election Systems & Software, maker of computerized voting machines.

On March 15, 1995, Hagel resigned as CEO but kept millions in stock options and declared that he was going to run for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska. Although he was a virtually unknown candidate; although he ran against a former governor, Ben Nelson, who was hugely popular; and although all the polls prior to the election indicated Ben Nelson would win the election, oddly Hagel won by a landslide with 83% of the vote.

It later turned out that Hagel’s voting machines had been used in virtually all of the precincts.

When Hagel ran for reelection in 2006, his previous landslide of 83% was eclipsed by an even wider margin.
It turns out that Hagel’s former company, Election Systems & Software/Diebold now counts the votes in most elections.

And it turns out Hagel’s voting machines have been embroiled in investigations of hacking and vote-switching that continue to this day.

Did Barack Obama win the presidential elections the same way Hagel won his senatorial seat? And is this Secretary of Defense position payback for the favor?

Americans should demand to see each and every vote cast for both Chuck Hagel and Barack Obama.

Now.

Today.

 

 

Egyptian Court Sentences Christian Family to 15 Years for Converting from Islam

"The United States will continue to be a friend and partner to Egypt.  We stand ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary — and asked for — to pursue a credible transition to a democracy.  I’m also confident that the same ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that the young people of Egypt have shown in recent days can be harnessed to create new opportunity — jobs and businesses that allow the extraordinary potential of this generation to take flight.  And I know that a democratic Egypt can advance its role of responsible leadership not only in the region but around the world."

 Barack Hussein Obama

Today's headline about an Egyptian woman and her seven children being sentenced to 15 years for converting from Islam falls on the Feast Day of Saint Anthony of Egypt, the father of monks, whose life of oblation, fasting and prayer in the desert fortified him with a profound sense of Christian realism.  His life is a reminder that this world is not our home; instead we are on a journey, confronting great evil along the way.  It is an evil which can no longer be viewed as foreign or in the past.  It touches us every day.  It resides in the highest places, it appeals to our vanity, and it seeks our destruction.  But it is fleeting and can be withstood and overcome, as it was by Saint Anthony of Egypt,  only with Christ in whom "we live and move and have our being."

In the past Americans would look to our government to express our collective outrage at injustice and the persecution of Christians around the world.  Perhaps it is better, through silence and prayer, that we recognize, as did the third century saint, our only sure path and true hope:

"Let it be your supreme and common purpose not to grow weary in the work you have begun, and in time of trial and affliction not to lose courage and say: Oh, how long already have we been mortifying ourselves! Rather, we should daily begin anew and constantly increase our fervor. For man's whole life is short when measured against the time to come, so short, in fact, that it is as nothing in comparison with eternity. . . . Therefore, my children, let us persevere in our acts of asceticism. And that we may not become weary and disheartened, it is good to meditate on the words of the apostle: 'I die daily.' If we live with the picture of death always before our eyes, we will not sin. The apostle's words tell us that we should so awaken in the morning as though we would not live to evening, and so fall asleep as if there were to be no awakening. For our life is by nature uncertain and is daily meted out to us by Providence. If we are convinced of this and live each day as the apostle suggests, then we will not fall into sin; no desire will enslave us, no anger move us, no treasure bind us to earth; we will await death with unfettered hearts."

Saint Anthony of Egypt

Taxpayer Bill For Obama’s Hawaii Vacations: $20 Million

"Move, Moochelle, you're blocking the teleprompter"

Michelle Obama recently revealed that she and President Obama don’t give Christmas gifts to each other.  They merely say, “We’re in Hawaii,” and that’s Christmas gift enough.

But actually the present is from taxpayers, and it’s an expensive one.

The total cost to taxpayers of Obama’s vacations to Hawaii since becoming president is likely in excess of $20 million, and possibly much, much more. During a time of budget deficits that threaten the nation’s security and its future, the Obamas have chosen to  maintain a “family tradition” and vacation halfway around the world instead of finding far cheaper alternatives closer to home.

The $20 million figure is based on estimates of the cost of the four Hawaii vacations the Obamas have taken during Christmastime 2009-2012. According to a detailed breakdown by the Hawaii Reporter, the annual excursions in 2009, 2010, and 2011 cost about $4 million, much of it attributable to the expense of taking Air Force One, at an hour rate of about $180,000, on an eighteen-hour roundtrip journey to Honolulu and back.

Read more at WhiteHouseDossier.com. By Keith Koffler.

Obama Lied, Americans Died

Part 2 of Western Journalism’s video series on the Obama Administration’s and Senate’s Report on the attack on the Benghazi consulate. Click here for Part 1.

The Obama Administration’s “Benghazi Accountability Report” was a sham that didn’t actually answer any questions; didn’t address why four Americans were left to die; didn’t address the entire “protest turned violent” over an anti-Muslim video lie, or where exactly Obama supposedly got this information; and, despite the term “accountability” in the report, didn’t actually hold anyone accountable.

The Senate’s Report, “Flashing Red: A Special Report on the Terrorist Attack at Benghazi,” shows that there was no evidence of a “protest turned violent” over an anti-Muslim video; shows that Obama left Americans to die while he twiddled his thumbs; and actually answers many questions regarding exactly what occurred on September 11.

But it doesn’t go far enough.

Congressman Frank R. Wolf, along with over twenty-five co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, have introduced House Resolution 824 to create a Special Committee to conduct a real investigation into the attack on the Benghazi consulate in order to find out what really happened in Benghazi and what  Barack Hussein Obama is hiding.