BloggeRhythms

While today’s ruling by SCOTUS that the incumbent’s effort to force business owners to pay for birth control methods that violate their religious beliefs is unconstitutional, damage to his health care tax may be far greater than that. Because, beyond the case’s significance as it relates to religious exemptions from the law, it may also open the door to further limitations of the government’s powers to mandate the purchase of health insurance.

 

Making matters even worse for the incumbent, the Daily Caller reports that there’s there’s no evidence for Obama’s claim that “The majority of the American people want to see immigration reform done.” The article states that, according to a new Gallup poll: “Even among Democratic respondents, only 27 percent want increased immigration… That’s actually less than the percentage of Democrats who want it reduced, which is 32 percent. Only 23 percent of independents want immigration increased while 43 percent want it to be reduced.”

 

Therefore, putting the two items together indicates very good news for Republicans at the polls this coming November.   

 

Furthermore, now that the health care tax has had some time to have an effect, some of its underlying flaws are coming to light.

 

According to the Los Angeles Times, “Limiting the number of medical providers was part of an effort by insurers to hold down premiums. But confusion over the new plans has led to unforeseen medical bills for some patients and prompted a state investigation. More complaints are surfacing as patients start to use their new coverage bought through Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange. ‘I thought I had done everything right, and it's been awful,’ said Jean Buchanan, 56. The Fullerton resident found herself stuck with an $8,000 bill for cancer treatment after receiving conflicting information on whether it was covered. ‘How am I going to come up with that much money?’ Insurers insist that pruning the network of doctors is a crucial cost-cutting measure and a major reason that so many Californians could find affordable coverage in the health law’s first year.”

 

Consequently, growing dissatisfaction with the tax’s emphasis on reducing benefits due to the greater focus on lowering costs indicates clearly that people are now learning that you not only get what you pay for, but when the government's involved, you usually get far less. 

 

Which brings us to another total misjudgment by the administration. This one it’s rush to leave Iraq without insuring its security before abandoning that nation.

 

CBS Baltimore via Drudge reports right now gas prices are at a six year high for early summer, a direct reflection of conflict in Iraq “where America gets a large percentage of its oil supply.”

 

Nationally and in Maryland, the average today is $3.68 a gallon, up two cents from a week ago nationally. And in Maryland, it’s up about three cents, according to “Ragina Cooper-Averella, AAA Mid-Atlantic.

 

Therefore, once again, the tax-paying public's paying for an incompetent government's mistakes.

 

That leads right into today’s update on Bill Clinton’s wife.

 

Paul Bedard, in the Washington Examiner writes that, ”In his latest Zogby Analytics survey taken June 27-29, her commanding leads over former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have shrunk greatly, and she doesn't even receive 50 percent of the vote. 

 

Worse, her support among married and wealthy voters has plummeted.

 

In the matchups, Clinton now leads Bush, 47 percent to 35 percent. She once held an a 18-point advantage. Against Paul, she leads 48 percent to 36 percent, but once had a 21-point lead. And she would beat Christie 48 percent to 33 percent, but once led, 52 percent to 29 percent.”

 

So, while there's very little she can do to grow her base because she’s already so well known, the more mistakes she makes costs needed voters. And what’s even more foreboding is that, although her trend’s decidedly downward, no one in any political party has even campaigned against her yet.  

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

Democrat flaks continue to misconstrue facts while employing stale rhetoric to cloud issues. Because, no matter how evasive they are on the subject,  the basis of the current immigration problems they’ve created actually boils down to whether they have any regard whatsoever for the laws of the nation or not.

 

In today’s case, Nancy Pelosi visited the Texas-Mexico border on Saturday, suggesting that those crossing should be welcomed and not treated as a problem. 

 

She said, "This crisis that some call a crisis, we have to view as an opportunity. If you believe as we do that every child, every person has a spark of divinity in them, and is therefore worthy of respect -- what we saw in those rooms was [a] dazzling, sparkling, array of God's children, worthy of respect." 

 

She also acknowledged that the surge "does have crisis qualities," but again urged the public to use it as an "opportunity to show who we are as Americans, that we do respect people for their dignity and worth."

 

However, American values, including respect for other’s dignity and worth, have absolutely nothing to do with the illegal immigrant surge. Because this nation either has laws or it doesn’t. And at present, regardless of their plight, those entering illegally should all be turned back.

 

And then, since this is Nancy Pelosi, she couldn’t just voice her opinion and move on. She had to embellish. So she added that she wished she could simply "take home" the thousands of children temporarily housed in the overburdened facilities.

 

In view of her comment about taking the illegal kids home, I searched the Web to find out more about her personal situation and  residences, learning that according to Wikipedia:

 

“The first female Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has a net worth of $26.4 million as of June 2012, down roughly $8 million from 2011. Pelosi’s drastic growth, from an initial $21.7 million in 2009, is attributed to stock gains and smart investments. Her husband reported raking in $1 million to $5 million in 2010 from a sale of Apple stocks. The couple also has a commercial property in San Francisco and a home in St. Helena, California, each valued between $5 million and $25 million. She also has a stake in some valuable residential real estate in Sacramento. All rank-and-file members of Congress received salaries of $174,000 last year.”

 

So, apparently, Ms. Pelosi has not only the money to help many of the illegals she cherishes but also plenty of property to house them, as well. Therefore, instead of standing on the border telling others to tend to those crossing over, she ought to prove her commitment by putting her money where her mouth is and taking a few thousand, or more, home with her. 

 

On the same subject, but far more shameful, Fox News.com reports that the incumbent, “reportedly plans to seek more than $2 billion to help respond to the crossings, and seek "fast track" authority for the Department of Homeland Security to more quickly screen and deport children crossing the border illegally.”

 

Therefore, in this case, the incumbent who’s done absolutely nothing in response to citizens pleas, or even those of several governors, to shore up border fencing and protection, is now requesting $2 billion of taxpayer’s money to overcome huge errors he's made for years all alone. And if that isn’t evidence of incompetence compounded by arrogance, I don't know what is. 

 

Then, for today’s Clinton update, www.businessinsider.com reports that “An aide to Clinton pushed back against the "uproar" with emails to Business Insider late Friday about “a few points" about her speaking engagements including the fact the fee from UNLV went to the charitable Clinton Foundation and the "dozens" of speeches Clinton has made for free. 

 

The aide went on, “There was a lot of confusion about who received the payment from UNLV. That money went to the Clinton Foundation, which as you know does enormously important work to save the lives of AIDS patients in Africa, fight childhood obesity in the United States, address climate change, and much more. The fees from more than a dozen of her speeches have gone to fund the Clinton Foundation’s work around the world," the aide wrote, underlining the final sentence for emphasis. 

 

Thus, the implication here is that Bill’s wife should be left alone because the money’s going to their charity, not her directly. Which caused me to look up that organization’s worth, to find that as of 2011: Total Revenue was $57,147,869 and Net Assets were $187,628,983.

 

Therefore, I guess, for these multi-millionaires a chump-change quarter of a million is only a drop in their huge bucket of bucks and nothing for others to get excited about.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

Today’s one where you have to sit back and really think about the news. Because huge underlying damage often gets dwarfed when we lose perspective.

 

For example, Jon Bowne & Kit Daniels of Infowars.com write that, “Small towns and counties in states bordering Mexico are drowning in debt due to the swarm of illegals stealing and destroying property, requiring expensive medical care and needing proper burials, all of which the federal government has largely refused to pay for.”

 

Now, most look at this item and focus on the issues at the border itself, being overrun by illegals. However, a much better idea of what’s really occurring would be to picture strong-arm thugs opening the door to your home and not only allowing any and all in who wished to enter, but giving them free rein to do as they choose there, as well. And that’s precisely what the incumbent’s doing to the nation.     

 

Then, while so-called environmentalists preclude us from drilling for oil ourselves or importing it from our Canadian neighbor, USA Today via Drudge posted an article by Rick Popely saying, “Gas prices continued to rise in most parts of the country the past week to a national average of $3.68 for a gallon of regular unleaded, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said Thursday. That's just 2 cents off of 2014's previous peak price.

 

In its weekly assessment of price trends, AAA said concerns over the ongoing violence in Iraq were keeping oil prices hovering around $106 a barrel, making it more expensive to produce gasoline.

 

Previously, AAA predicted gas prices would fall 10 to 15 cents per gallon during June, following a typical pattern for lower pump prices in early summer, but in a statement the organization said "that now appears unlikely due to higher oil costs. This means that even though the national average has only increased a few cents per gallon since the Iraq violence intensified, drivers are likely to pay substantially higher gas prices than they would have otherwise."

 

So, in this case the incumbent’s done us in economically twice. First by totally mistaken foreign policy regarding Iraq, compounded by his pandering to bribes from cash-paying global-warming lobbyists. 

 

Moving on, it looks like Elias Benjelloun, the UNLV student body president, and Daniel Waqar, the student government's public relations director, finally woke up to a point made here a couple of days ago regarding Bill Clinton’s wife charging outrageous fees for a graduation  speech. Today they, “slammed the university's foundation for paying Clinton so much for the event.”

 

According to www.businessinsider.com, Waqar said on the Nevada political program Ralston Reports, that, "We really appreciate anybody who would come to raise money for the university. But anybody who's being paid $225,000 to come speak, we think that's a little bit outrageous. And we'd like Secretary Clinton — respectfully — to gracefully return the money to the university or the foundation." Benjelloun echoed Waqar's remarks.

 

"When we heard $225,000, we weren't so thrilled," he said. "We would hope that Hillary Clinton commits to higher education ... and returns part or whole of the amount she receives for speaking."

 

Then, as far as Bill’s wife’s new book “Hard Choices,” goes, it’s been eclipsed by Ed Klein’s “Blood Feud, ” chronicling the Clinton-Obama family rivalry. On the Amazon best-seller list. Klein’s is ranked No. 3; Clinton’s No. 34. 

 

However, what’s important here when reading reviews, or the books themselves, is to not overlook the Clinton character flaws that come through in the texts.

 

For example, Benjamin Weingarten in the Blaze reports that Klein writes that Hillary Clinton, “was stunned when she heard the president talk about the Benghazi attack,’ according to a member of her team of legal advisers who was interviewed for this book. ‘Obama wanted her to say that the attack had been a spontaneous demonstration triggered by an obscure video…Hillary told Obama, ‘Mr. President, that story isn’t credible; among other things, it ignores the fact that the attack occurred on 9/11.’ But the president was adamant. He said, ‘Hillary, I need you to put out a State Department release as soon as possible.”

 

Thus, in this case, while fully aware that lies had been told, Bill’s wife still went along with the sham whereas politics and image remained far more important than truly informing the American public of the facts, much less the world.   

 

After that, “Obama mentioned Benghazi in kind of a vague, confusing way that led Bill to believe that the White House was going to dump political and legal blame for the mess on [his wife.]”

 

And then for the present, Bill said, ‘We’ve got to list all the situations that Obama’s screwed up. Benghazi, the IRS, healthcare, you name it. We’ve got to explain,’ he said, looking over at Hillary, ‘how you would do everything different and better. It has to be made crystal clear that you understand Obama’s mistakes and would never have made them yourself.’”

 

Therefore, here again, knowing all along what a disastrous situation the entire administration was, and being a part of it as well, personal political goals and ambitions far overrode any attempt to do what was best for the nation by exposing the truth as it occurred.   

 

And not only that, Klein writes that Bill's even prepared his wife to go on alone, should something happen to him, by telling her, “Obviously, you have to have a big state funeral for me, with as much pomp and circumstance as possible. I’m thinking maybe I should be buried at Arlington [National Cemetery] rather than at my library in Little Rock…Wear your widow’s weeds, so people will feel sympathy for you. Wear black for a decent mourning period and make my death an asset. The images on television of the funeral and the grieving widow in black will be priceless…you’ll have to take maximum advantage of my death…It should be worth a couple of million votes.”

 

So, there you have it. A not very surprising disclosure of two people driven solely by fulfillment of personal ambition with no concern for those they claim to care for, whatsoever. And the most horrifying thing about the “Blood Feud” is that whichever side wins, the incumbent or the Clinton’s, the nation, it’s citizens, allies and friends still all lose whenever these folks are involved.   

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

 

 

It’s truly amazing how consistently the incumbent abjectly refutes facts in his incessant public ramblings.

 

According to Fox News.com, Thursday in Minnesota, a fundraiser capped off a day the incumbent spent with Rebekah Erler, a working mother who wrote the president to detail her financial struggle. ‘It moved me,’ Obama said of the letter, adding that he only went into politics to help people like her. Obama said he remembered what it felt like to be struggling to figure out ‘how you lead a good life and raise your kids, not looking to get wildly wealthy… trying to make ends meet. That’s what we should be talking about every day in Washington,’ he said. ‘We talk about everything else. .. We talk about phony scandals. We talk about Benghazi. and we talk about polls and we talk about the tea party and we talk about the latest controversy... We don’t talk about her.’”

 

Reading his comment that ‘It moved me,” and his blithely adding that “he only went into politics to help people like her,” caused me to repeat below from yesterday’s Breitbart.com report by William Bigelow saying that “University of Michigan researchers have released a study stating that the disparity between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the country has grown because of the Great Recession and the slow recovery. According to the study, the top 5% of Americans averaged 24 times as much wealth as the wealth of the median American family in 2013; in 2007 they averaged 16.5 times as much.” 

 

What’s more: “Only 64.8% of Americans own homes, as opposed to 69.2% in 2004.” 

 

And even worse: “The study asserted that all households lost money during the recession and no group has fully regained what it lost. Still, the top 5% lost 16% of their net worth since 2007, while the median households lost a whopping 43%.”

 

So, if he only went into politics to help people like Ms Erler and the results he’s achieved are the complete and utter reverse, I guess it’s no wonder that the rest of his decisions have resulted in shambles.

 

And one of those shambles, foreign policy, is highlighted by Victor Davis Hanson of the the Hoover Institute who writes that, “Sometimes authoritarians sent their armies across national borders or were guilty of genocide; at other times, unhinged nation-states and free-lancing zealots sponsored or committed acts of international terrorism. In response, the U.S.—sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much—has gone to war or at least gone after the likes of Moammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Slobodan Milosevic, Ho Chi Minh, Manuel Noriega, Kim Il-sung, and the Taliban. Like it or not, only the United States can prevent the theocracy in Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, the Assad dictatorship from gassing its own people, or al Qaeda from staging another 9/11 attack.

 

Unfortunately, it has not offered systematic defense of the world order it inherited. For all the grand talk of working with the United Nations, the Obama administration ignored it in Syria, vastly exceeded its no-fly-zone and humanitarian aid resolutions in Libya, and misled it when it asserted to the General Assembly that a video-maker had prompted the violence against U.S. facilities in Benghazi. Moreover, Obama’s foreign policy team has serially faulted the prior administration as unilateral, forgetting that it obtained UN resolutions to retaliate in Afghanistan, tried desperately to obtain them for the Iraq invasion, and then assembled a large and diverse group of allies.

 

The last line in the article says it all, “Americans did not fully appreciate the costly postwar global order that the United States had established over the last seventy years. Maybe they will start to as they witness it vanish.”

 

This very well-written short treatise on how, why and where the U.S. has influenced the world is well worth reading, so here’s a link: http://www.hoover.org/research/coming-world-disorder

 

Which brings us to today’s update on Bill Clinton and his wife, as reported in the Washington Post. 

 

“Comparing her and her husband to Mitt Romney, Clinton said their $155 million haul since 2001 did not make them “truly wealthy” because they shield less of their income from taxes than Romney and because they amassed the funds “through dint of hard work.” 

 

The writer then asks the question: “So what was all that hard labor?”

 

Which he answered, as follows: “Her husband talking to other rich people, mostly. Bill Clinton has been paid $104.9 million for 542 speeches around the world between January 2001, when he left the White House, and January 2013, when Hillary stepped down as secretary of state, according to a Washington Post review of the family’s federal financial disclosures. Although slightly more than half of his appearances were in the United States, the majority of his speaking income, $56.3 million, came from foreign speeches, many of them in China, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom, the Post review found. The financial industry has been Clinton’s most frequent sponsor. The Post review showed that Wall Street banks and other financial services firms have hired Clinton for at least 102 appearances and paid him a total of $19.6 million.”

 

Thus, when you analyze the funds received you realize that the “hard work” was actually well-paid-for hot air, most of it spewed by Bill and not really very much from his quite spoiled wife at all.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

While most discussion regarding the administration focuses on the mistakes and misjudgments made in the handling of the economy, foreign policy, immigration, climatology, energy and most other aspects of governance, another campaign promise has been quietly overlooked. Wealth redistribution.

 

In this case, though vowing to penalize the “rich” while helping all others to economically better themselves, the results say something else entirely.  

 

William Bigelow of Breitbart.com reports that “University of Michigan researchers have released a study stating that the disparity between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the country has grown because of the Great Recession and the slow recovery. According to the study, the top 5% of Americans averaged 24 times as much wealth as the wealth of the median American family in 2013; in 2007 they averaged 16.5 times as much.”

 

What’s more: “Only 64.8% of Americans own homes, as opposed to 69.2% in 2004.”

 

And even worse: “The study asserted that all households lost money during the recession and no group has fully regained what it lost. Still, the top 5% lost 16% of their net worth since 2007, while the median households lost a whopping 43%.”

 

Consequently, no matter what the issues are for this administration, they simply can’t get anything right at all.

 

As far as the ongoing investigation into IRS improprieties goes, a major gaffe on Lois Lerner's part was exposed yesterday.

 

According to Fox News.com’s Chris Stirewalt, the IRS executive apparently “pushed for an audit of one of the administration’s most outspoken critics in the Senate.

 

“In emails with a colleague, Lerner claims to have mistakenly received an invitation to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to give a speech to a non-profit group in 2012. Lerner wrote that the group offered to pay for Grassley’s wife to attend. Lerner wanted to sic investigators on Grassley, even though, as her colleague observed, the offer was not improper.”

 

What this suggests is that there are likely many more situations similar to this one and therefore, it’s obviously in Ms. Lerner's best self-interests to prolong disclosure as long as she possibly can. Because, regardless of how childishly bad her “dog ate my homework” excuses sound, they're better for her than the penalties possibly imposed by law.   

 

However, Ms. Lerner isn’t the only one evading the truth today, whereas Fox News.com also reports that the “EPA admits to destroying evidence, as follows: “Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy on Wednesday cited a similar cyber snafu during a House Oversight Committee hearing. ‘Another missing hard drive?’ Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC, asked McCarthy. She responded, ‘We are having trouble acquiring the data.’ Wednesday’s hearing was called in response to allegations of rampant employee misconduct as well as a pattern of obstruction of oversight efforts by the committee.”

 

So, while the administration’s minions may not be the brightest bulbs in any chandeliers, and may not be very good at creating alibi’s either, at least they’re extremely consistent.

 

Which brings us to today’s update on Bill Clinton and his wife.

 

On PBS NewsHour, Bill’s wife was asked about her claims that the family was “dead broke” and her estimated $155 million made since 2001not leaving them “truly well off. She attributed the firestorm created to poor word choice, saying “I shouldn’t have said the five or so words that I said, but my inartful use of those few words doesn’t change who I am.” 

 

However, what seems to be her problem now is her insistence that the astonishing income was derived because she and her husband “have worked hard.” Yet, most believe that’s not the case whereas, she “has made her enormous wealth from her celebrity status and close corporate connections, especially on Wall Street.”

 

She also acknowledged that the couple are making an average of $12 million a year , but ‘we’ve been grateful for everything that we’ve been able to achieve, and sadly that's just not true for most Americans today.’”

 

Which leads right into an article in The Daily Caller By Brendan Bordelon via Fox News.com, who writes that “One day after Bill Clinton insisted his family’s wealth doesn’t make him or Hillary “out of touch” with regular people’s economic reality, the former president found himself happily recounting the 14 expensive Swiss watches and “two rugs” he bought to hand out to friends.”

 

He “spoke at a Denver meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative on Wednesday, where the moderator asked him about a visit he paid in April to a Detroit-area watchmaker selling ritzy Swiss watches for $550 a pop.

 

“I don’t know how many you bought, Mr. President,” the moderator asked with a grin. “20, 30 of these watches? Whatever it was?”

 

“My group did,” Clinton replied. “I bought 14 of them that month.”

 

So, I guess by Bill’s wife’s definition of “dead broke,” $7,700.00 worth of watches to be handed out to friends is something everyone does and is one of the things they discuss with others about “regular people's” economic reality.” Especially the 50% of the population or so on food stamps, or other government program handouts, most of whom can’t afford to buy any kind of watch at all.

 

And maybe that’s why Bill’s wife’s book doesn't seem to be selling to expectation.

 

Amy Chozick in the New York Times writes that, “Sales of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new memoir, “Hard Choices,” declined 43.5 percent to 48,000 copies in its second week on the shelves, according to Nielsen BookScan.”

 

Which means, I suppose, that major donors better get their checkbooks ready and start buying copies by the carload. Because if the trend keeps up and book sales continue to sink, the public will likely wake up and realize that Bill’s wife out of a government job and out on her own, as nothing but an immensely overpaid regular citizen, is of absolutely no interest to them at all.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

The incumbent’s administration may have already sunk lower than that of Jimmy Carter, who till now is thought by many to be the worst POTUS in history. The nation’s GDP, for example, shrank to -2.9 percent in this year’s first-quarter, with economic output declining at the fastest pace since 2009.

 

Adding that to the incredible mistakes in foreign policy indicates that there are no areas of governance in which the nation’s being led satisfactorily. But, if that isn’t bad news enough, the IRS scandal may surpass Watergate as the worst in U.S. history.

 

Yet, through it all, the incumbent still places global warming as his highest priority. In fact, as noted by Fox’s Chris Stirewalt this morning, “Tom Steyer, the billionaire Democrat who is bankrolling his party’s effort to hold on to the Senate, will be an honored guest at the White House today at an event to highlight Steyer’s key issue of global warming – which is not just his personal  pet topic, but also the backbone of his corporate empire.”

 

And what’s most interesting is the last five words –“backbone of his corporate empire,” which says it all. Because, I’m sure that even Mr. Steyer knows that average temperatures haven’t changed at all in the last seventeen years. Thus one would have to assume money, not climate change, has to be the key issue as it is with AlGore.

 

On the other hand though, there’s a staunch Democrat supporter you hear very little about lately from the White House, Warren Buffett. Which is perhaps because of a March 7 interview  on CNBC’s Squawk Box where he said:

 

“[T]he effects of global warming had little impact on the businesses he has invested in and to the contrary, he finds them to be as profitable as ever. According to many media reports, he has not only denied that extreme weather conditions were related to global warming, but also has rebuked an important talking point of the Obama presidency. By doing this, in essence he has been interpreted to dispel what many in the conservative circles deem as the ‘liberal myth of climate change.’

 

The reason Mr. Buffet’s comments bear extremely significant weight is that, “As CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, he owns several insurance companies. In his assessment, climate change has had a negligent effect on the insurance market and premiums are not set to increase within the next three to five years. Contrary to popular belief, over the past five years the U.S has been relatively free from devastating hurricanes and there have only been slightly more tornadoes.”

 

Furthermore “In his interview he  pointed out that with all the media buzz about climate change, people tend to associate it with a root cause for every natural disaster that has occurred within the last ten years. However, people tend to forget that there were plenty of such incidents 30,40 or even 50 years ago.”

 

Which brings us to another example of the way Democrats exempt themselves from facts when presenting their purported positions and claims. 

 

The Weekly Standard reports that, Bill Clinton’s wife “will be getting $225,000 to speak at a university fundraiser later this year.”

 

However, “Students at the same school, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, have recently been outraged that the institution is raising tuition by a staggering 17 percent.”

 

So, wouldn’t you think that someone proclaiming to be so concerned about the plight of our nation’s youth ought to consider appearing at greatly reduced cost, or even free of charge.

 

Meanwhile, doing damage control, former President Bill Clinton tried to defend his wife by crediting her rapid rise into the economic stratosphere to “hard work,” while the family’s raked in an estimated $155 million since leaving the White House in 2001. Although, he did say that his wife’s claims of hardship were not the “most adept.”

 

Nonetheless, the Clinton’s hometown, Chappaqua, N.Y., was recently ranked as having the fifth-wealthiest Zip Code in the nation.

 

And through it all, one thing remains consistent regarding the Clinton’s. Whether it’s Bill lying to Congress under oath about affairs with White House interns or his wife talking about Whitewater, Benghazi or being “dead broke,” the one thing you’ll never get from either is the actual truth.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

While members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee continue to question IRS representatives, one thing becomes quite clear. Republican anger and concern really doesn’t matter very much because the committee has no real power. What’s needed is an independent special counsel to get to the core of the issue.

 

A couple of things have been disclosed so far that are quite astounding though.

 

www.dailymail.co.uk reports that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen “couldn't explain why a six-month 'disaster recovery' backup wasn't tapped to restore [Lois Lerner’s] emails after [her] computer crash.”

 

He then complained that “it would take $10 to $30 million to upgrade IRS computers to retain all its emails and documents, however “the agency paid $89 million in bonuses last year and has an $1.8 billion IT budget.”

 

And if that’s true, which is doubtful, if this isn’t an example of total and absolute managerial failure, its hard to imagine what is.

On another matter, the incumbent’s wife told Real Clear Politics that she thinks the nation should elect a woman president as soon as possible. She opined, “I think this country is ready. This country is ready for anyone who can do the job and what we have learned is that the person who can do the job doesn't have a particular race or gender or background or socioeconomic status. The person who should do the job is the person who is most qualified and I think that we have some options, don't we?”

 

So, if you dissect her statement carefully, what she said is that the job requires someone most qualified to do it regardless of all other considerations. Therefore, what difference can gender possibly make and why is a woman in particular needed? 

 

As far as her husband's concerned, MrConservative.com reports that he “took a stroll through D.C. to grab some lunch at Chipotle on Monday and it appears as if nobody wanted to talk to him. Pictures snapped from inside the restaurant show him sitting at a table with a couple of people and not a soul in there even notices.”

 

And since this is a world where small indications lead to the biggest conclusions, it looks like this might be the start of the public’s sense that the duck in the White House is already quite lame. 

 

Which brings us to today’s update regarding Bill Clinton’s wife who, evidently, doesn’t discuss family finances with her husband very much. According to Bill McMorris of Fox News.com, “An April Congressional Research Service (CRS) report shows that the Government Services Administration (GSA), which is in charge of supporting federal disbursements, budgeted $950,000 for former president Bill Clinton in the 2014 budget.

 

Clinton will collect a $201,000 pension in 2014, a figure four times larger than the median family income in the United States. The Clintons have received a total of $15,938,000 in federal money since 2001.”

 

Which means that her latest gaffe regarding money will likely haunt her continually in the future, especially so if she actually seeks the presidency. Because while most folks will remember on their own, Republicans will keep reminding them that she recently described the poverty her family experienced upon exiting the White House while promoting her book. 

 

Mr. McMorris himself wrote, “They were “dead broke,” Hillary said, adding that she and her husband “struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea’s education, you know, it was not easy.”

 

Additionally Mr. McMorris reports that, “Clinton’s pension is just a small portion of the costs the former president will incur over the next year. GSA budgeted $450,000 to pay for Clinton’s office space, the highest total of the four living presidents.”

 

And then there’s the Clinton Foundation, which according to Charity Navigator online, had total net assets of $187,628,983 as of 2012.

 

Wikipedia complied this list of contributors:

Greater than $25,000,000

Melinda Gates Foundation

The Children's Investment FunBill and d Foundation

UNITAID

Centenary Group International

Frank Giustra, chief executive officer, The Radcliffe Foundation.

$10,000,001 to $25,000,000

 AusAID

Stephen L. Bing (did not give in 2009)

COPRESIDA-Secretariado Tecnico

Fred Eychaner

Tom Golisano (did not give in 2009)

The Hunter FoundationGovernment of Norway

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2008 (did not give in 2009)

The ELMA Foundation

Theodore W. Waitt

 

 $5,000,001 to $10,000,000

 

Nationale Postcode Loterij

Haim Saban and The Saban Family Foundation

Michael Schumacher

The Wasserman Foundation

S. Daniel Abraham, founder of Slim Fast.

$1,000,001 to $5,000,000

100 Women in Hedge Funds

S. D. Abraham

Absolute Return for Kids (ARK)

Mohammed Al Amoudi

Alltel Corporation

Nasser Al-Rashid

Smith and Elizabeth Frawley Bagley

The Eli & Edythe Broad Foundation

Richard Caring

Gilbert R. Chagoury

Citi Foundation (did not give in 2009)

Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative – Canada

Victor P. Dahdaleh & The Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Charitable Foundation

Robert Disbrow

Dubai Foundation (did not give in 2009)

Elton John AIDS Foundation

Entergy

Mr. Issam M. Fares & The Wedge Foundation

Wallace W. Fowler

Friends of Saudi Arabia

Mala Gaonkar Haarmann

The James R. Greenbaum, Jr. Family Foundation

Robert L. Johnson

Howard and Michele Kessler

Michael and Jena King

Lukas Lundin

MAC AIDS Fund

John D. Mackay

Lakshmi N. Mittal

Open Society Institute

Victor Pinchuk

Presidential Inaugural Committee

Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund

The Al Nahyan Family of The United Arab Emirates

Paul Reynolds

Robertson Foundation

Bernard L. Schwartz

Walter H. Shorenstein

Arnold H. Simon

Bren and Melvin Simon

Amar Singh

Michael Smurfit

Harold Snyder

State o Kuwait (did not give in 2009)

State of Qatar (did not give in 2009)

Sterling Stamos Capital Management, LP

The Streisand Foundation

Suzlon Energy Ltd.

Swiss Reinsurance Company

Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office

The Alix Foundation

The Government of Brunei Darussalam

The Howard Gilman Foundation

Rockefeller Foundation

The Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable & Educational Trust

The Sidney E. Frank Foundation

The Sultanate of Oman

The Wal-Mart Foundation

T.G. Holdings

The Walton Family Foundation

$500,001 to $1,000,000

AIDS-Life

Malini Alles

Bank of America Foundation

Simon P. Barcelo

Frederick Baron and Lisa Blue

Richard C. Blum

Susie T. Buell and Mark Buell

The Sherwood Foundation

Cisco

Clinton Family Foundation and William J. Clinton

Confederation of Indian Industry

Lewis B. Cullman

Duke Energy Corporation

Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation

Global Artists, Inc.

Brian L. Greenspun

Hewlett-Packard Company

Patricia A. Hotung

Hult International Business School

ICAP Services North America

Irish Aid

Walid A. Juffali

Dave Katragadda

Peter B. Lewis

Rajendra Vora

 

So, I guess whatever one’s perception of “dead broke” is, it’s always good to have some friends that will put up a few million, or more, for you if you really, really need it.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

While statistics, temperature tracking and climatology study’s continually show that global warming’s a sham created by activists for self-serving purposes, greed has delivered them a self-inflicted wound that may significantly harm their future efforts.

 

Instead of gracefully accepting the gains made and moving on, although their positions were predicated on flawed and distorted statistical data, warming activists kept pushing for more. And, today that relentless hammering has been set back by none other than the U.S. Supreme Court.   

 

Although the decision doesn’t affect recent, highly controversial, EPA proposals to set the first-ever national standards for new and existing power plants, it does state that a requirement that companies expanding industrial facilities or building new ones that would increase overall pollution must evaluate ways to reduce carbon emissions. The justices said the EPA lacks authority in some cases to force companies to do so. 

 

And what that means is, the ruling could nevertheless be used to challenge other aspects of the EPA's effort to deal with global warming opening the door to all kinds of court-cases in the future. 

 

According to Fox News.com, “Under Monday's ruling, EPA can continue to require permits for greenhouse gas emissions for those facilities that already have to obtain permits because they emit other pollutants that EPA has long regulated. But Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court's conservatives in the part of the ruling in which the justices split 5-4, said EPA could not require a permit solely on the basis of greenhouse gas emissions." 

 

As for today’s update on Bill Clinton’s wife, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said in an interview with C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers”, that  “I’m confident that [Hillary Clinton]’s going to be [involved], and I’ve spoken to her…She’s going to be involved in helping Democrats across the country to get elected, including the DNC.” 

 

So, what that means is while her book isn’t selling and her poll numbers drop almost daily, Bill’s wife will now go out and take other Dem’s down with her which is very good news for the Republican party. But then, if you consider the source of the news item you realize that it came from one of the most misguided zealots on the planet, whom rarely has any grasp of reality whatsoever.  

 

Nonetheless, regardless of how opinions of Bill Clinton’s wife keep turning negative, they’re still better than her former boss's.

 

Breitbart today posted a new poll from Gallup indicating that “former U.S. President George W. Bush is six points higher in favorability than U.S. President Barack Obama.”

 

Released Saturday, the poll shows “former President Bill Clinton has the highest favorability of all living former and current U.S. presidents, with 64 percent favorable opinion and 34 percent unfavorable.”

 

Next came, George Bush with a 63 percent favorable opinion and 31 percent unfavorable opinion. “W” had 53 percent favorable and 44 percent unfavorable.

 

Even Jimmy Carter was higher than the incumbent at 52 percent favorable and 32 percent unfavorable.

 

The incumbent, however, with 47 percent favorable and 52 percent unfavorable, was the only president having a more unfavorable than favorable opinion.

 

Which brings us to the day’s last comment that came from a reader of an on-line article, Buzz Dino Bennino, who wrote that, “If Obama learns of all of these scandals via the news, he must watch FOX News, as the other networks never say anything about them.”

 

And that’s certainly the truth.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

New’s Corp.'s founder, Rupert Murdoch wrote an article appearing in the Wall Street Journal on June 18th, strongly supporting immigration reform in the U.S.

 

He noted that he “chose to come to America and become a citizen because America was—and remains—the most free and entrepreneurial nation in the world. Our history is defined by people whose character and culture have been shaped by ambition, imagination and hard work, bound together by a dream of a better life.” 

 

He continued, “Is the idea of immigration reform complicated by the fact that some immigrants went outside the legal system to be here? Yes. It is complicated even more by the fear some Americans have, quite naturally, of how changing populations might also change our culture, communities and economic circumstances. 

 

Well, of course immigration means change. Immigrants enrich our culture and add to our economic prosperity.”

Now, as a successful immigrant himself, his opinion’s certainly understandable. Especially regarding his mention of ambition, imagination and hard work as being driving forces of those individuals. However, what he’s leaving out is that the vast majority arriving illegally via Mexico haven’t those qualities at all. Instead, they’re adding to the already heavy tax burden of tax-paying Americans. 

Furthermore, many of the communities these illegals attempt to build here retain their natural culture, shunning American customs, laws, taxes and frequently using their own languages, rather than even using English if they can avoid it.  

Mr. Murdoch then asked another question: “Do Americans really wish Google, eBay, Pfizer, or Home Depot were headquartered in Eastern Europe or China instead of America? Whether it's a high-profile tech company or a small business employing just 10 people, 28% of all new American businesses started in 2011 were founded by immigrants. Those are entrepreneurial people we want to continue to attract to our economy.”

Well, while it might be true that a quarter of businesses' were started by immigrants, most are small, local retail establishments catering to others from the very same particular cultures.

And, as far as corporate headquarters are concerned, it’s doubtful most citizens would even know where they were located, nor would they care so long as the products and services were available when needed. What’s more, the way tax laws are trending here, head offices may very soon be headed overseas in droves.

So, in conclusion, there are plenty of people entering the nation legally now and laws are in place that apply to them. Thus, if Mr. Murdoch wants to revamp the system to permit larger numbers of immigrants, what he should be pushing for is closing the borders, prohibiting illegal entry altogether and returning all illegals to where they came from. And then, as soon as that’s accomplished, I think he’ll be surprised to find that most objection to immigration will dissipate completely.

Which brings me to today's observation regarding Bill Clinton’s wife, whose book has now fallen to 13th on the Amazon list and is sinking fast. First place is held by a novel The Fault in Our Stars from 2012, which according to Wikimedia, “is narrated by a sixteen-year-old cancer patient named Hazel, who is forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she subsequently meets and falls in love with the seventeen-year-old Augustus Waters, an ex-basketball player and amputee. "

Consequently, it seems that the book-reading public prefers to read fiction books that have interesting and heart-warming stories to tell instead of those designed to present fabricated facades for author's self-serving purposes.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

BloggeRhythms

While virtually every aspect of the administration's policies, objectives and strategies implode, from the economy, to foreign affairs, to health care and the climate change hoax, immigration goals have also now taken a huge turn for the worse.

 

Justin McCarthy of Gallup Politics reports that: “Americans' approval of President Barack Obama's handling of immigration has dropped to 31%, one of the lowest readings since 2010, when Gallup began polling on his handling of the issue. Meanwhile, two in three Americans (65%) disapprove of his handling of immigration.”

 

According to data are from a June 5-8 Gallup poll, “Disapproval of the president's handling of immigration has climbed 10 points since August 2013, when more than half of Americans (55%) disapproved.”

 

So, here we have what seems to be a non-intentional “Catch-22.” Because while the administration’s goal is opening the borders to all whereas those entering illegally will likely become Democrat voters, the inflow of illegals is quickly growing the ranks of current supporters whom are extremely disappointed with the results. Consequently, instead of growing his base, results indicate a shrinkage which will undoubtedly be reflected in future elections.

 

As far as Republicans are concerned, while the reversal of attitude among Democrats regarding illegal immigrants is certainly helpful, they seem to be improving strategically regarding the likely presidential run by Bill Clinton’s wife.

 

Joseph Weber of Fox News.com notes that: “The special House committee probing the fatal Benghazi attacks has yet to announce whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be subpoenaed to testify, but the investigation nevertheless looms like a storm cloud over her potential 2016 presidential candidacy. 

 

Those running the committee are taking their time hiring investigators and staff. A source familiar with the committee told Fox News that public meetings and witness depositions are not expected to start until September.”

 

Therefore, by taking their time, and proceeding cautiously they thereby decrease the chances of the issue concluding well before the next presidential campaign begins. And by keeping the situation alive, they prevent their rivals from diminishing the Benghazi attacks as political rhetoric, instead treating it as it was; a result of huge State Department incompetence starting at the top which was the job of none other than, Bill Clinton's wife. 

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

Found a couple of short, interesting items today, and received an eye-opening item from a friend.

 

Chris Strirewalt’s Fox column contained the following: “An irony: If the IRS really is the victim of its own shoddy IT department, this may be an even more consequential technological failure for the Obama administration than even the crashed launch of ObamaCare.”

 

I‘ve been making the same point here for the past four years.

 

Then there was this example of the incumbent’s consistent double-talk:

 

That was then - “Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq. We did.” – President Obama, campaigning in Sept., 2012.

 

This is now - “Well, keep in mind that wasn’t a decision made by me. That was a decision made by the Iraqi government.” – President Obama asked by reporters Thursday if he regretted his  2011 decision not to leave some U.S. troops in Iraq.

 

Leading to another distortion of facts, anti-war activists have consistently claimed there were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Yet, news reports regarding the ISSA invasion say that “On Thursday, the group overran Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons complex at al-Muthanna in central Iraq sparking heightened international concern.”

 

All of which goes to reinforce the case that this administration and its constituents continually put their own interests ahead of all others, regardless of costs and consideration. However, what’s happening now is that real world events are not only far too many, but are quickly demonstrating how consistently wrong these self-serving simpletons really are.

 

And that brings us to the following, sent by a friend this morning:

 

“In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior: 

 

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

 

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the
beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200
years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

 

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

 

In that regard, “Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election: 

 

Number of States won by:  Obama: 19   Romney: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 Romney: 2,427,000
Population of counties won: Obama: 127 million Romney: 143 million
County murders per 100,000: Obama: 13.2 Romney: 2.1

 

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory
Romney won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

 

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government
welfare..."

 

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase..

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals - and they vote - then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.”

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

Far too many possibilities exist to attempt to dissect what’s really transpiring in Iraq at present, as well as the rest of the Middle-East.

 

In fact, the only thing that's certain about the situation is that any and all advantages gained by the U.S. have been totally squandered by the incumbent’s having turned his back on the entire region.

 

A continuing response to those that feel U.S. intervention is needed has been that we’ve already done all that we could. And beyond that, the problem rests among those nations in the area, not with us.

 

However, as one commentator opined yesterday, ISIS certainly is a threat to us, while leaving them unbridled emboldens them further. And to ignore the danger is to forget that the world changed for the U.S. on September 11, 2001, which cannot be allowed again.

 

On the continuing saga of Bill Clinton's wife’s trek toward a presidential run, Matt Wilstein of Mediaite via Drudge headed his column, “Hillary Interview Ratings Underwhelm on CNN and Fox.”

 

He writes: “As for that book she’s been dutifully promoting, sales show some signs of flagging as well. While Hard Choices debuted at #2 overall on Amazon, it has since dropped to #5 behind a book about a 10-day green smoothie juice cleanse.”

 

Therefore, it seems that most American readers prefer smearing themselves with green goop than reading a political posturing book. So, next time, maybe the Clinton’s would be better off writing about Bill’s love for Big Mac’s, fries and shakes.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

It seems the nation keeps losing badly as the incumbent checks off items on his campaigning list, rather than growing into the job of POTUS. And, obviously, facts and real world circumstances are rarely considered, if ever, whereas politics always trumps reality in this administration.

 

One of the poorest decisions made concerns the facility at Guantanamo Bay, which Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) discussed last night on “The Kelly File,” regarding captured terrorist, Ahmed Abu Khattala, currently being held on the USS New York.

 

The senator said, “President Obama made this commitment when he first took over the presidency, he was going to close down Guantanamo, so now we don’t have a place to detain these high-value terrorists that we really should be doing is getting intelligence from them. We are under severe threat of Islamic terrorism, that’s a sad and unfortunate threat.”

 

Therefore, what’s happened here is that to please his voters, the incumbent’s placed pressures and constraints that are not only totally unnecessary, but severely weaken U.S. capability to obtain valuable information needed in its own defense. And, illogical decisions like this one are among the many that caused former V.P., Dick Cheney, to write in the Wall Street Journal that, “Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. Too many times to count.”

 

On anther festering matter, the majority believe that records lost involving Lois Lerner and six other IRS employees targeting conservative groups are likely a cover-up. However, what this seems to obviously indicate is that appearing as totally incompetent fools is better for them than exposing the facts. Which means that this effort to buy time will eventually crumble, and sooner or later the truth will come out, likely due to one of the culprits selling the others out for a favorable sentence.

 

Which leads right into another truth, this one involving the incumbent’s health care tax.

 

Noam N. Levey reports that, “Nearly 9 in 10 Americans who bought health coverage on the federal government’s healthcare marketplaces received government assistance to offset their premiums.

 

That assistance helped lower premiums for consumers who bought health coverage on the federal marketplaces by 76% on average, according to the new report from the Department of Health and Human Services.

 

Premiums that normally would have cost $346 a month on average instead cost consumers just $82, with the federal government picking up the balance of the bill. The report suggests that the federal government is on track to spend at least $11 billion on subsidies for consumers who bought health plans on marketplaces run by the federal government, even accounting for the fact that many consumers signed up for coverage in late March and will only receive subsidies for part of the year.”

 

So, now we know that almost all the 8 million sign-ups for the health care tax were bought and paid for by taxpayers who as always will now wind up paying for this administration’s mistakes.  

 

And on the subject of who pays for what, Bloomberg reports that “[Bill Clinton] and Hillary Clinton have long supported an estate tax to prevent the U.S. from being dominated by inherited wealth…[but to] reduce the tax pinch, the Clintons are using financial planning strategies befitting the top 1 percent of U.S. households in wealth. These moves, common among multimillionaires, will help shield some of their estate from the tax that now tops out at 40 percent of assets upon death.”

 

Consequently, here’s another example of a couple whose stock and trade is deciding what's good for everyone else while elevating themselves above it all as they continue to focus on only themselves. They are both so far beyond hypocrisy, a new word will have to be coined to describe their regal attitudes.

 

And finally, while the Incumbent ignored Iraq and went golfing in sunny southern California, Linda Lam of weather.com wrote:”Winter just won't quit, even as summer is right around the corner. Cool, huh?

 

Snow is falling over the higher elevations, as an upper-level low swirls over the Northern Rockies.  Alta, Utah reported nine inches of snow on Tuesday, which makes it their third highest one-day snowfall total in June.  Lake-effect rain and snow has also developed off the Great Salt Lake, with snow above 7,000 feet.”

 

So, whereas the incumbent doesn’t want to get involved in wars or other types of international violence, preferring to concentrate on global warming, I hope he stays away from the cold in Utah. Because you never know, some rankled citizen there might want to start a snowball fight.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios