Strains on Display: No Iraqi Leaders Attend U.S. End-of-War Ceremony in Baghdad

/0 Comments/in /by

Fox News Correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports that only a handful of Iraqis were on hand Thursday as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and U.S. military leaders formally ended the Iraq war with a subdued ceremony in Baghdad. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not attend the ceremony at which the flag of U.S. Forces-Iraq was officially retired.

“You will leave with great pride — lasting pride — secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to cast tyranny aside and to offer hope for prosperity and peace to this country’s future generations,” Panetta told U.S. troops. But even as a U.S. military band played a medley of patriotic American tunes, the ceremony — televised live in the 5 a.m. EST hour — seemed one-sided without Iraqi participation or even a thank-you.

Almost nine years of fighting in Iraq leaves 4,500 Americans dead and 32,000 wounded, according to the Associated Press tally. The cost to the U.S. — more than $800 billion. But it was worth it, Panetta says:
“We spilled a lot of blood there,” the defense secretary said earlier this week. “But all of that has not been in vain. It’s been to achieve a mission making that country sovereign and independent and able to govern and secure itself.”

The BBC reported that in the city of Falluja on Wednesday, Iraqis burned U.S. flags to celebrate the war’s end. Some Iraqis say the U.S. did not live up to its promise to leave behind a secure and stable Iraq.

U.S. officials were unable to reach an agreement with the Iraqis on immunity for U.S. troops that would have allowed a small training and counterterrorism force to remain in the country.

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

 Read More at CNS News By Susan Jones, CNS News

Romney Intensifies Criticism Of Gingrich

/1 Comment/in /by

His attacks growing ever more personal, Mitt Romney on Wednesday questioned chief rival Newt Gingrich’s temperament, spending habits and allegiance to both the GOP and the middle class while hecklers confronted Gingrich in the lead-off caucus state.

During a series of interviews while fundraising in New York, Romney told one media outlet that “zany is not what we need in a president” and another that Gingrich had “an extraordinary lack of understanding of how the economy works.” To yet another, Romney mocked Gingrich’s past accounts at a tony jeweler, saying: “He’s a wealthy man – a very wealthy man. If you have a half-a-million-dollar purchase from Tiffany’s, you’re not a middle-class American.”

Romney’s campaign also rolled out an Internet video describing Gingrich as an unreliable conservative and using a clip of a climate change ad that the former House speaker filmed with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

Gingrich, in turn, sought to stay above the fray.

“They should run their campaign the way they want to and we’re going to run our campaign the way we want to,” Gingrich told reporters after an event at the University of Iowa.

 Read More at OfficialWire By Philip Eliot and Shannon McCaffrey, OfficialWire

Obama’s Creepy New Plot to Get Republican E-mail Addresses

/4 Comments/in /by

First, there was [email protected]. Then the Obama campaign launched the the Attack Watch website. Now the Committee for the Perpetual Re-election of Barack H. Obama has a new trick to collect private information about Republicans and other Enemies of the State: getting your Democratic friends to rat you out under the guise of a “joke.” They are supposed to make a donation to Obama (who isn’t?), then send the campaign your e-mail address to tell you that you inspired the donation. The White House Dossier website explains:

The Obama presidential campaign is launching an effort to collect Republican email addresses by inviting its supporters to submit information about their Republican associates to the Obama 2012 website…

He then quotes the website’s pitch:

Who inspires you to give?

This holiday season, we’re giving you a chance to have a little fun at the expense of a Republican in your life by letting them know they inspired you to make a donation to the Obama campaign.

Simply enter their name and email address below. Then, we’ll send them a message letting them know they inspired you to donate.

Thank you for supporting this campaign, and happy holidays.

 Read More at Floyd Reports By Ben Johnson, Floyd Reports

Outrage! Author of ‘stimulus’ tied to companies funded by bill: Received hundreds of millions in government grants, loans.

/0 Comments/in /by

An advisor to President Obama who played a key role in developing the energy provisions of the so-called stimulus bill has graced the board of several companies that recently received government funds, including hundreds of million in “stimulus” money.

TJ Glauthier served on Obama’s 2008 White House Transition Team. He is widely credited with helping to craft the energy provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the “stimulus.”

In addition to serving on the boards of multiple major energy companies, Glauthier previously held two Presidential appointments during the Clinton Administration.

He was the Energy Department’s Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, the second-highest ranking official.

Earlier, he served in the White House for five years as the Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy and Science in the Office of Management and Budget.

 Read More at Klein Online By Aaron Klein

Is a gov. managed economy giving us $465.00 a pound butter and $16.00 a gal. biofuel in our future?

/2 Comments/in /by

Over the Past few days a few stories arriving on the internet have combined to give us a look at the “ghost of socialist America future.”

A Rasmussen poll told us that 26% of adults in this country believe the government, (read Obama Administration) should manage our economy. Surprisingly just 23% say government should stay away from our economy and let it run itself.

A story from Norway connects to this sad state of affairs. It tells of how the European Union which runs EVERYTHING in Europe not just the economy, with its centrally planned economy, has strangled the farming industry in Norway so thoroughly that the price of a simple pound of butter has soared to 350 euros or about $465.00! Of course the official explanation is “Don’t blame us there was too much rain this summer which cut the growth of cow feed and dairy farm production,” (Just as it would happen in a free market economy – I’m sure!)

People have started to smuggle butter in from Russia! Russia – is now a better place to farm than Europe?

The third peek at the future Obama is pulling us toward is one about the Navy. To perpetuate the lie that biofuel is a viable alternative to actual fuel, there has to be some sales of the stuff in large quantities. Suspiciously the good folks over at the Department of Agriculture just happened to have 450,000 gallons of biofuel they could sell to the Navy at a “nice” price. The price wasn’t “nice” for us the tax payers but hey “it’s not our money” as the civil service mantra goes. The biofuel was sold to the Navy by the Department of Agriculture for $16.00 a gallon!

 Read More at Coach Is Right By Kevin “Coach” Collins, Coach Is Right

One Year to Go Until The Largest Tax Hikes in History

/1 Comment/in /by

In just one year, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2013:

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief — In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for small business owners, families, and investors (later re-upped by President Obama and Democrat Congress in 2010). The following tax hikes will occur on January 1, 2013:

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which the majority of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

– The 10% bracket rises to a new and expanded 15%
– The 25% bracket rises to 28%
– The 28% bracket rises to 31%
– The 33% bracket rises to 36%
– The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of taxable income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.

Middle Class Death Tax. The death tax is currently 35% with an exemption of $5 million ($10 million for married couples). For those dying on or after January 1 2013, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

Read More at Floyd Reports By Americans for Tax Reform, Floyd Reports

 

Voters: Yes, Mr. Obama, you are killing economy

/5 Comments/in /by

For years, Barack Obama has diverted attention from his own economic decisions by blaming his predecessor, George W. Bush, for the nation’s financial woes, from deficits to debt to taxes to Medicare and Medicaid spending.

But that strategy has reached the end of its effectiveness, according to a new poll that reveals more people blame Obama for the failed state of the economy now than blame Bush.

A new poll from the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies shows that 22.3 percent of registered voters say Obama is the “one person” most responsible for the nation’s continuing economic troubles.

To the same question, 19.1 percent said George W. Bush. But critical to the coming 2012 election will be the fact that of the independents, on whose votes elections often are decided, nearly 23 percent blame Obama and only 15.5 percent blame Bush. The independents put in second place members of Congress, which is half controlled by Democrats, the poll revealed, ahead of Bush.

Pollster Fritz Wenzel pointed out the scenarios that the White House is facing because of the thinking of the American public.

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

 Read More at WND By Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily

Video: Romneys On Abortion 2002

/2 Comments/in /by

Iran propositions Saudis, seeks anti-US pact, offers nuclear cooperation

/1 Comment/in /by

A large Iranian delegation led by Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi visited Riyadh Monday, Dec. 12 and put a proposition before Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz: Why not bury the Saudi royal house’s historic feud with the ayatollahs of Tehran and form an anti-US and anti-Zionist pact for leading the Middle East? The Iranians boasted that after the seizure of America’s top secret drone technology by a successful cyber attack they must now be accepted as the superpower of the region.

Prince Nayef agreed to receive the delegation following a request from the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Moslehi is one of his closest advisers and a leading antagonist of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was not told about the visit.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report that the Iranians pushed hard for a partnership with the Saudis on such issues as oil, Iraqi, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Yemen, on most of which Tehran and Riyadh are in direct collision. Saudi Arabia spearheads the Persian Gulf emirates’ campaign to establish a bloc of Sunni Arab kings and rulers to fight off Iranian expansion and the influence of the Shiite Hizballah and Syria.

The visitors to Riyadh pointed out that a Saudi-Iranian axis in the region would be strong enough to freeze out American and Turkish meddling in the Arab Revolt. It would draw its strength from the combination of Iranian military, intelligence and nuclear capabilities on the one hand and Saudi power and wealth on the other. For the sake of this pact, Moslehi said, Tehran was willing to share its nuclear program with Riyadh.

The Moslehi delegation represented high-ranking Iranian military and intelligence chiefs, while Prince Nayef was attended by the heads of Saudi intelligence services, including Director of General Intelligence Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz.

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

 Read More at DEBKAfile