BloggeRhythms

Cal Thomas @FoxNews.com asks in his article's headline today: “Iran is not hiding its intentions. So why are many US politicians willfully ignoring them?

“It seems like only yesterday — and in diplomatic terms it was — that the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress were assuring us the nuclear deal with Iran was something to celebrate, as one might laud the winning of a Nobel Peace Prize.”

Mr. Thomas continues: “More sober thinkers, fearing Tehran would never comply with the agreement, envisioned Iran gaining access to $100 billion in frozen assets and using it to underwrite terrorism. When Iran’s radical leaders believe they get their marching orders directly from Allah, there is no way they would violate those instructions, which include the eradication of Israel and the defeat of the “Great Satan,” which would be America.”

Proving Mr. Thomas’s point, “last week, as part of a military exercise, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched several medium- and short-range missiles capable of reaching Israel.”

The Washington Post reported, “The longer ends of that range appear to exceed limits that the U.N. Security Council has imposed in connection to resolutions banning Iran from developing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.” Predictably, Iran denies any of its missiles are designed to carry nuclear weapons. Islamic extremists are permitted by the Koran to lie to infidels in pursuit of their earthly goals. 

In typical fashion for her, Mr. Thomas relates that: “Now even Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has seen the light after favoring the Iran deal. Clinton issued this statement following the missile launch: “Iran should face sanctions for these activities and the international community must demonstrate that Iran’s threats toward Israel will not be tolerated.” 

“Contrast that statement with one she made at the time the deal was announced. Last July, Clinton called it “an important step in putting the lid on Iran’s nuclear program,” adding that she was “part of building the coalition that brought us to the point of this agreement.” 

And then, Mr. Tomas presents a conclusion describing Bill’s wife typical vacillation perfectly: “It’s going to be difficult for her to squirm out of responsibility should Iran reach its goal of creating nukes. Or will she argue that the success or failure of the U.S.-Iran deal depends on the meaning of the word “agreement.”? 

On another subject, this one quite complex, the POTUS’s policy’s seem to be confusing his top administrators, but not necessarily the general public. 

Yesterday, according to Jana Kasperkevic @theguardian.com: “The Federal Reserve (Fed) put any further increase in US interest rates on hold on Wednesday, announcing rates will remain unchanged for at least another month. 

“The potential hike was postponed after fears of a slowdown in China and collapsing oil prices have rattled investors worldwide. 

“In its statement, released at the end of its two-day March meeting, the Fed said that “global economic and financial developments continue to pose risks” and that “inflation is expected to remain low in the near term, in part because of earlier declines in energy prices”. 

The facts, however, say something else entirely. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading at $39.50 a barrel. On February 11, the price was $27, which means prices have risen more than 46% in roughly a month.

What's’ most interesting about the current situation, is that typically when a key expense for most people, such as fuel, drops significantly it results in spending increasing elsewhere. Meaning that ordinarily, consumers would be spending on things such as appliances, home improvement, personal items, clothing, restaurants, travel and entertainment. But, that hasn’t been happening.

And the reason for the lack of purchasing is a festering mistrust of the administration, causing consumers to save their windfall instead of using it as they ordinarily would. And, in this case, those same consumers were exactly right. Because at the first sign of more money in people's pockets an attempt was made to assess some kind of a windfall profits tax. And now, while oil prices are heading upward the administration's pushing to prohibit off-shore drilling rigs.    

So, it seems that the tax-paying public and those earning a living for themselves have learned that when it comes to money in their pockets, this administration will do whatever it can to take it in any way possible. 

Which is why at present, if the administration truly wished to do what was best for U.S. citizens it would be doing all it could to increase drilling, open the Keystone pipeline and insure that oil prices couldn’t significantly rise again. And by doing that, consumer spending would come back, raising the whole economy behind it. However, that simply isn’t going to happen until there’s a Republican in the White House. Which one doesn't really matter at all.

And then, a Facebook friend posted the following:

Bringing us to today’s update on Bill Clinton’s wife which clearly shows that wherever the ongoing saga regarding her emails leads, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that she did, indeed, surely understand that her activities were outside the law.

Catherine Herridge and Pamela K. Browne @FoxNews.com, report: “Less than a month after becoming secretary of state, and registering the personal email domain that she would use exclusively for government business, Hillary Clinton’s team aggressively pursued changes to existing State Department security protocols so she could use her BlackBerry in secure facilities for classified information, according to new documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.” 

Cybersecurity analyst, Morgan Wright, told Fox News. “Anyone who has any appreciation at all of security, you don’t ask a question like that. It is contempt for the system, contempt for the rules that are designed to protect the exact kind of information that was exposed through this email set up. “ 

Backing Ms. Wright’s analysis up is a memo from March 2009, obtained by Judicial Watch through its FOIA lawsuit, from Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell to [Cheryl] Mills explicitly warning; “the vulnerabilities and risks associated with the use of Blackberries in Mahogany Row [seventh floor executive offices] considerably outweigh their convenience.” Countering Bill’s wife’s claim that “she used the personal account and BlackBerry for convenience.” 

It’s also now known that Bill’s wife “never used a State Department issued BlackBerry. It is not clear from the documents whether Clinton and her team went ahead and used their BlackBerrys in SCIFs despite the concerns, including those of the NSA. Though a state department official said "no waiver allowing PDAs within Mahogany Row was granted. 

“A February 18 2009 email from the State Department’s Senior Coordinator for Security Infrastructure, Donald R. Reid, states “…once she (Clinton) got the hang of it, she was hooked, now every day, she feels hamstrung because she has to lock up her BB up.  She does go out several times a day to an office they have crafted for her outside the SCIF and plays email catch-up.  Cheryl Mills and others who are dedicated BB addicts are frustrated because they too are not near their desktop very often during the working day…” 

In this instance: “The reference to a secondary office for Clinton appears to conflict with a February statement from the State Department that no stand-alone computer was set up outside Clinton’s main office on the executive floor, known as Mahogany Row, to check her personal account.” 

So, once more, the evidence belies Bill’s wife’s claims, raising the ongoing question again: Joe Biden, Jerry Brown, and Starbuck’s chairman and CEO, Howard Schultz, are you guys reading this?   

That’s it for today folks.    

Adios