Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Obama's Grand Coalition Not So Grand.


Obama's grand coalition against ISIS isn't as advertised. Barack Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, told the world that Turkey will allow the US to use its airbase in Turkey to attack targets in Syria...even though Turkey denies that they'd agreed to allow their bases to be used against ISIS according to foreignpolicy.com.

Obama has claimed a coalition of 60 countries in the fight against ISIS, but those numbers seem dubious at best. One country in particular seemed taken aback by being included in the coalition. According to foreignpolicy.com, Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said his government opposed terrorism, but expressed annoyance that his country was included in Obama's official list of anti-ISIS partners without being informed.

"I am bothered by the fact that we have been placed on the list without the government's knowledge," he said. "We will have to voice some sort of protest; it is not appropriate to consent to our country being placed anywhere without our knowledge and consensus."

Obama has claimed that coalition partners have committed ground troops to fight ISIS, but none have materialized thus far. Early in the air strike campaign, White House officials claimed Arab countries were helping bomb targets in Iraq, but we don't hear that claim much anymore.

Some Arab countries have been openly reluctant to join Obama's coalition because they are deeply frustrated with Obama's foreign policy regarding the middle east...they tend to believe (and rightly so) he has been naive and weak on Syria's civil war.

CBS News wrote about this mistrust back in September.  "Trust is so low, especially in the Gulf region, for Obama's leadership quality and the way he manages foreign policy. I don't think any country is going to put its hand up or neck out by accepting an alliance with the U.S. that easily," said Mustafa Alani, the director of the security and defense department at the Gulf Research Center in Geneva.

Obama has had many missteps over the last 6 years in regards to his foreign policy, but I think the biggest misstep of all was his infamous 'red-line.' In the spring of 2014, Obama drew a red-line and threatened Bashar al-Assad over the use of chemical weapons and Assad summarily flipped Obama the bird and used chemical weapons.

The US President looked foolish and weak when he failed to respond militarily and he looked even more foolish when he claimed it wasn't his red-line that was violated, but rather it was the world's red-line. Our allies have seen Obama's failed foreign policy up close and personal and they don't want any part of it.

Obama's arrogance and naivety has harmed our standing in the international community and as a result, our allies are hesitant to help us in hot spots around the globe. Barack Obama is Barack Obama's own worst enemy and now we are seeing the results of his shortcomings.

Sphere: Related Content

Act of Desperation? Democrats Blame Republican Budget Cuts for Ebola Virus.


The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director, Dr. Francis Collins, had the audacity to say we'd probably have an Ebola vaccine if it weren't for budget cuts.  Dr. Collins was quoted as saying that a decade of stagnant spending has "slowed down" research on all items, including vaccinations for infectious diseases.  Really?

The NIH has an annual budget is almost $30 billion and millions of those dollars are wasted on worthless studies.  Let's take a look at the millions of dollars the NIH has wasted over the years.  The NIH has spent more than $90 million of U.S. taxpayers’ money overseas to China for various public health research projects just a few years ago.

The American taxpayers funded a $2.6 million study to get prostitutes in China to drink less while whoring.  A $400,000 study of bars in Buenos Aires to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior while drunk.  $178,000 was spent to better understand why drug-abusing prostitutes in Thailand are at greater risk for HIV infection.

The NIH has spent $423,500 to find out why men don't like to wear condoms.  I'm pretty sure they could have polled a few thousand men at random and figured out why men don't like to wear condoms without spending almost half a million dollars.  NIH spent $386,00 to massage rabbits.  Yes rabbits.  The study wanted to fund the massage of rabbits to try to figure out what is the best massage duration.

$1.5 million of taxpayers money to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts to study why “three-quarters” of lesbians in the United States are overweight and why most gay males are not.  The NIH has also spent $2.7 million to study why lesbians have more “vulnerability to hazardous drinking."

These 'studies' are just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to wasting precious taxpayers money.  The Daily Mail exposes even more outrageous wasteful spending by the NIH in a story HERE.  Every time there is a crisis, Democrats demand more money to 'fix' the problem.  We could cut billions of dollars from our federal budget and it would have no adverse effect on our country.  Democrats will tell you the sky is falling if just one dollar is cut from the budget and they will blame Republicans (as they are doing now for Ebola) for killing or starving Americans.

More examples of wasteful spending by our federal government was profiled by the Heritage Foundation a few years ago.  50 Examples of Government Waste as per heritage.org:
  1. The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.[1]
  2. Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.[2]
  3. Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.[3]
  4. Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them -- costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually -- fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]
  5. The Congressional Budget Office published a "Budget Options" series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts.[5]
  6. Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.[6]
  7. Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.[7]
  8. A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, including "over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold." The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.[8]
  9. Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.[9]
  10. The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.[10]
  11. The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]
  12. Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.[12]
  13. Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.[13]
  14. A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.[14]
  15. The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.[15]
  16. Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.[16]
  17. Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.[17]
  18. Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year's 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.[18]
  19. The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.[19]
  20. The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.[20]
  21. Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines -- plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.[21]
  22. More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billioncannot be accounted for.[22]
  23. Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, "Girls Gone Wild" videos, and at least one sex change operation.[23]
  24. Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.[24]
  25. Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.[25]
  26. The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) -- but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department's budget.[26]
  27. Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches -- even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.[27]
  28. A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in "stimulus" funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.[28]
  29. The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.[29]
  30. Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.[30]
  31. Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling,$69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.[31]
  32. Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.[32]
  33. Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.[33]
  34. Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.[34]
  35. The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.[35]
  36. Suburban families are receiving large farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards -- subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want. [36]
  37. Congress appropriated $20 million for "commemoration of success" celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.[37]
  38. Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.[38]
  39. Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.[39]
  40. North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in "stimulus" funds for a project that its mayor described as "a long way from the top priority."[40]
  41. The National Institutes of Health spends $1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.[41]
  42. Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.[42]
  43. Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers -- the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.[43]
  44. Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.[44]
  45. Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.[45]
  46. Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.[46]
  47. The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies.[47]
  48. Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.[48]
  49. The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.[49]
  50. The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans' personal data.[50]
The Democrats are trying to throw a hail-marry pass before the midterm elections by blaming budget cuts for the Ebola virus.  Democrats know they will face angry voters this November and they will lie as much as possible in an effort to stem their loses.  The Democratic Party is disgusting and they know no shame.      

Sphere: Related Content