More of the mess that America created in Iraq

As many of you know; I was initially was for the invasion of Iraq back in 2003, at the time; like most people, I was under the impression that Iraq had WMD’s. Well, like most people, I was very wrong about that impression, after it came out that the United States was never able to find said WMD’s. Having said all of that; here is the mess that United States of America created in the invasion and removal of Saddam:

In the latest attack, a series of bombings and shootings across the country on Thursday killed 55 and wounded more than 225. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In a 33-minute audio statement posted on an extremist website, al-Adnani warned of an impending “stage of real confrontation and war against the despicable (Shiites).”
“The war of the Sunnis with the (Shiites) is a religious war, a holy war of faith,” he said, according to a translation of the remarks provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks Islamist extremist messages. “There is no way out of it and there is no swerving from it.”
His comments played on fears of a new surge in sectarian violence two months after the American military withdrawal from Iraq. Attacks are nowhere as frequent as they were during the tit-for-tat sectarian fighting from 2005 to 2007.
Tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims have lingered for centuries since Islam split into the two sects after the death of the Prophet Muhammed in 632. In Iraq, the minority Sunnis have feared being politically sidelined since the overthrow of Saddam’s Sunni-led regime.
via Al Qaeda In Iraq Warns Of Looming War With Shiites | Fox News.

First of all, I thought we defeated Al-Qaeda in Iraq ? Did I not see this huge celebration in the blogosphere and on Fox News, about how our Military defeated Al-Qaeda in Iraq? I guess not. Of course, I really do know what happened; before some liberal starts saying that I “saw the light” or something silly like that. What really happens was this; we never actually totally defeated Al-Qaeda in Iraq, we set them back a bit, by killing their leader and cutting off a good amount of their funds from other countries.

Of course, like the termites that they are; they recovered, possibly by funding from Iran or by elements of the corrupt Iraq Government that we put into place; and now they are attacking Shiites. Which is why George W. Bush did not want to leave the Country so quickly, in the first place. This not say that I did not or do not support the boots on the ground; I support our Military in anything that they do. This is because they are just doing their jobs. Now, as far as the politics of said operation is concerned; I thought that once the specter of WMD was out of the question; we should have just left. This was before Al-Qaeda in Iraq ever was formed at all. In fact, Al-Qaeda in Iraq did not set up shop in Iraq until like a year or so after the invasion!

Either way, all of that above that I have written in that second paragraph is now past history and there is no point in griping about the past. It is over and it happened and now we have to deal with what is coming down the pike now. I look for the United States to end going back into the Country Iraq, again; to stop this War. This most likely will not happen under an Obama administration, unless he absolutely has to; because it would hurt him politically. However, if a Republican does win, I could see us going back into Iraq again soon. For the Country’s fiscal sake, I hope we are able to avoid going in there again. Getting in the middle of wars of this sort only gets the United States in trouble with the international community. Like Vietnam and Korea, us going into these Countries to settle disputes, often fails and fails badly.

Sometimes I think Joe Biden might have actually been right. Maybe he should have just walled of the city and given one part to one group and another part to the other group. Maybe this sort of stuff would not be happening now. It is just a thought, I mean, I would rather deal with two separate Countries and they be peaceful ones, than to deal with one huge waring Country.

Video: Kira Davis for Republican President in 2016!

It’s too late for 2012, but man she would get my vote in 2016 in a heartbeat! This is Kira Davis. I would say that I am smitten; but, naturally, she’s married. Heart-Ache, Heart-Ache indeed. 🙁

This comes via Gateway Pundit and HotAir.com:

Former Ron Paul Ally confronts Paul on double dipping on expenses

Proving my ever-growing suspicions on this guy:

In March 2005, David James called Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) Congressional office for some documentation.
James’s nonprofit group, the Liberty Committee, had paid for one of Paul’s flights, and James needed a receipt or boarding pass to document the expense. He’d been pushing Paul for the paperwork and now, on the phone, he was “putting his foot down.”
“So I called the office manager,” James recalled. “They knew me, like, as well as they knew Ron. And I said, ‘Liberty Committee is paying for this expense. I need to get the boarding pass or the ticket or something.’”
The office manager said Paul’s Congressional office no longer had documentation for that flight; Paul had sent it in to the House Finance Office for reimbursement. But Liberty Committee had already sent a check to American Express to cover the charge on Paul’s credit card.
“I don’t care what flights the Liberty Committee pays for,” James said, “because Ron never took enough in expenses to come anywhere near his value to us. And this was piddly. But it’s just what it was.”
James first thought it was accidental and faxed a letter to Paul’s office, requesting that its money be returned for the flight. Paul did repay the $403.70, but the episode strained their relationship and led to a falling out a year later.
In a subsequent conversation, James raised the issue, and Paul “was very curt, and he simply said, ‘Yep, well, happens all the time,’” James, 64, told Roll Call.
via Associate Confronted Rep. Ron Paul About Flights : Roll Call News.

Ed Morrissey also writes about this, and thinks that Ron Paul should come clean or face a house ethics committee hearing. I wholeheartedly agree. If you are going to pawn yourself off as the most honest person on capital hill; you should try actually being the most honest person on capital hill. I have written on my previous blog about this man’s claims to be the most honest politician, and for a short time, I actually believed that, but as time wore on, I began to read about the stuff that Mr. Paul does and does not want his own followers really knowing about it. But, I, as well as other bloggers have documented his antics for a while now.

While Mr. Paul might have some very good ideas on capitalism, free trade and our monetary system; his utter hypocrisy when it comes to issues like this and his utter idiotic ideas on foreign policy handicap him. Not only this, but his past writings that did have his name on them, and his associations with Jew haters, racists and other such sort of nonsense make him someone, despite what I said recently, which was honestly in jest; that I could never, in good conscience vote for in a million years. All one would need to do is look through the archives of my previous blog to see all the stuff that I have written about the man over the past 6 years.

Again, while I can appreciate his opposition to Wilsonian foreign policy; something that I have spoken out against myself here, and I can and do agree with very much, as much as I agree with his idea of free trade, free markets and the gold standard. I cannot side with this man because of the rest of his problems. As I have said on this blog and my previous blog many, many times; Ron Paul is NOT, nor has he EVER been the Messianic figure that many of his well-intentioned followers assumed him to be. This proves that and if the Ron Paul crowd had any sort of common sense at all; they would back away from Ron Paul and support someone who could actually fix this Nation’s problems.

However, if I know the Ron Paul crowd like I do; they will simply dismiss this true story, as some sort of Jewish conspiracy by the Illuminati and the Bilderberg boys to keep him from winning the White House, which is pretty much par for their course. I could tell you stories of how when I, on my previous blog, would write something even remotely critical of Ron Paul; my inbox would overflow with Ron Paul supporters calling me everything from a Neo-Con (which is Jew in Ron Paul speak) to a Bush-lover. Once, though, one of them went over the line and sent a death threat via e-mail. I did report that to the FBI in Detroit. This is why I try to avoid writing about the man. Because his most devout followers are absolutely insane.

Trust me, when I tell you this; the left’s crazies, have nothing on Ron Paul’s crazies. 😯

My thoughts on the mortgage settlement

You can read about this here, here, here and here.

First of all, let me say this; this issue here, above all of the others, is why I packed it in with the Democratic Party. On top of all of the class warfare, class resentment, racial resentment and everything else; was the realization that I made, that the Democratic Party, starting in 1973 and again in 1993 literally rigged the system to fail. This was by loosing credit restrictions to allow people, who had no business even getting loans, to get credit so easily.

Then once the system failed, the Government, started by George W. Bush in 2008 with tarp loans and the bailing out banks that were “Too big to fail.” Not to mention the fact that the Republicans ripped out regulations that made the whole thing like one million percent worse and when the Republican Congress received a warning that the whole thing was going to collapse, what did they do? They held a hearing and the CEO of Freddy and Fannie played the RACE CARD, they retreated! 😡 I won’t even get into the stupidity of the Federal Reserve, which really made some seriously idiotic mistakes.

Then instead of Obama being smart and saying, “We’re not picking favorites, we are going to allow the market to correct itself.” Instead, he continued the bailouts and even spent more on top of that. Not the mention his attempt to destroy our private healthcare system.

Anyhow, this settlement is not perfect; in fact, it stinks and someone has given a bullet-point list as to why.

This is via Naked Capitalism:

Here are the top twelve reasons why this deal stinks:
1. We’ve now set a price for forgeries and fabricating documents. It’s $2000 per loan. This is a rounding error compared to the chain of title problem these systematic practices were designed to circumvent. The cost is also trivial in comparison to the average loan, which is roughly $180k, so the settlement represents about 1% of loan balances. It is less than the price of the title insurance that banks failed to get when they transferred the loans to the trust. It is a fraction of the cost of the legal expenses when foreclosures are challenged. It’s a great deal for the banks because no one is at any of the servicers going to jail for forgery and the banks have set the upper bound of the cost of riding roughshod over 300 years of real estate law.
2. That $26 billion is actually $5 billion of bank money and the rest is your money. The mortgage principal writedowns are guaranteed to come almost entirely from securitized loans, which means from investors, which in turn means taxpayers via Fannie and Freddie, pension funds, insurers, and 401 (k)s. Refis of performing loans also reduce income to those very same investors.
3. That $5 billion divided among the big banks wouldn’t even represent a significant quarterly hit. Freddie and Fannie putbacks to the major banks have been running at that level each quarter.
4. That $20 billion actually makes bank second liens sounder, so this deal is a stealth bailout that strengthens bank balance sheets at the expense of the broader public.
5. The enforcement is a joke. The first layer of supervision is the banks reporting on themselves. The framework is similar to that of the OCC consent decrees implemented last year, which Adam Levitin and yours truly, among others, decried as regulatory theater.
6. The past history of servicer consent decrees shows the servicers all fail to comply. Why? Servicer records and systems are terrible in the best of times, and their systems and fee structures aren’t set up to handle much in the way of delinquencies. As Tom Adams has pointed out in earlier posts, servicer behavior is predictable when their portfolios are hit with a high level of delinquencies and defaults: they cheat in all sorts of ways to reduce their losses.
7. The cave-in Nevada and Arizona on the Countrywide settlement suit is a special gift for Bank of America, who is by far the worst offender in the chain of title disaster (since, according to sworn testimony of its own employee in Kemp v. Countrywide, Countrywide failed to comply with trust delivery requirements). This move proves that failing to comply with a consent degree has no consequences but will merely be rolled into a new consent degree which will also fail to be enforced. These cases also alleged HAMP violations as consumer fraud violations and could have gotten costly and emboldened other states to file similar suits not just against Countrywide but other servicers, so it was useful to the other banks as well.
8. If the new Federal task force were intended to be serious, this deal would have not have been settled. You never settle before investigating. It’s a bad idea to settle obvious, widespread wrongdoing on the cheap. You use the stuff that is easy to prove to gather information and secure cooperation on the stuff that is harder to prove. In Missouri and Nevada, the robosigning investigation led to criminal charges against agents of the servicers. But even though these companies were acting at the express direction and approval of the services, no individuals or entities higher up the food chain will face any sort of meaningful charges.
9. There is plenty of evidence of widespread abuses that appear not to be on the attorney generals’ or media’s radar, such as servicer driven foreclosures and looting of investors’ funds via impermissible and inflated charges. While no serious probe was undertaken, even the limited or peripheral investigations show massive failures (60% of documents had errors in AGs/Fed’s pathetically small sample). Similarly, the US Trustee’s office found widespread evidence of significant servicer errors in bankruptcy-related filings, such as inflated and bogus fees, and even substantial, completely made up charges. Yet the services and banks will suffer no real consequences for these abuses.
10. A deal on robosiginging serves to cover up the much deeper chain of title problem. And don’t get too excited about the New York, Massachusetts, and Delaware MERS suits. They put pressure on banks to clean up this monstrous mess only if the AGs go through to trial and get tough penalties. The banks will want to settle their way out of that too. And even if these cases do go to trial and produce significant victories for the AGs, they still do not address the problem of failures to transfer notes correctly.
11. Don’t bet on a deus ex machina in terms of the new Federal foreclosure task force to improve this picture much. If you think Schneiderman, as a co-chairman who already has a full time day job in New York, is going to outfox a bunch of DC insiders who are part of the problem, I have a bridge I’d like to sell to you.
12. We’ll now have to listen to banks and their sycophant defenders declaring victory despite being wrong on the law and the facts. They will proceed to marginalize and write off criticisms of the servicing practices that hurt homeowners and investors and are devastating communities. But the problems will fester and the housing market will continue to suffer. Investors in mortgage-backed securities, who know that services have been screwing them for years, will be hung out to dry and will likely never return to a private MBS market, since the problems won’t ever be fixed. This settlement has not only revealed the residential mortgage market to be too big to fail, but puts it on long term, perhaps permanent, government life support.
As we’ve said before, this settlement is yet another raw demonstration of who wields power in America, and it isn’t you and me. It’s bad enough to see these negotiations come to their predictable, sorry outcome. It adds insult to injury to see some try to depict it as a win for long suffering, still abused homeowners.

I have zero to add to this. The only thing I will ask is, who’s paying for all of this? Answer: You and Me — in Taxes. 😡

This is why we need a new political Party to get in there and fix this asinine morass.

Others: (All Liberals BTW…) American Prospect, Washington Post, US Politics, FT Alphaville, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Wall Street Journal, Time, The Huffington Post, Swampland, ThinkProgress, Prairie Weather, Firedoglake, Business Insider, Financial Times and Discourse.net, ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Firedoglake, Rolling Stone, The Big Picture, Business Insider, Hit & Run, The Democratic Daily, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Feministing, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, No More Mister Nice Blog, Blog of New Orleans, Gambit, emptywheel, The Political Carnival, DealBook, The Page, Booman Tribune and Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, FORECLOSURE FRAUD, Business Insider and Calculated Risk, Washington Post, Daily Kos and Firedoglake, The Atlantic Online

Why are Conservatives having dinner with Bill Ayers?

This bothers me and I will explain under the video: (H/T BreitBart via HotAir.com’s Headlines)

As I mentioned in my previous posting and in the related video; that the only difference between an internationalist Democrat and a Neoconservative is, quite frankly, the R and the D. Not to mention the fact that both take funding from special interest groups. Well, the more I want to believe that these current crop of Conservatives are truly Conservatives, the more that these current crop of Conservatives want to prove my suspicions, that they are nothing more than Trotskyite Conservatives who have much more in common with the far leftists than they would want us to really believe.

A good reason why the Government needs to get OUT of the Space Business!

(Via Insty)

The problem:

The problem was that after the ISS was complete, without the Shuttle, the U.S. would have no capability to reach it, and there would be a “gap” in capability until some sort of replacement was developed. At the time of the announcement, the “Crew Exploration Vehicle” (CEV) was the proposed means, but it wasn’t expected to be ready until 2014, resulting in a “gap” of at least three years, and probably longer. When Mike Griffin replaced Sean O’Keefe in 2005, he rolled out a concept called Constellation, which included the CEV, renamed at that time Orion. It also included a new rocket for it, that had not been anticipated in the original Bush plan, called Ares I, despite the fact that existing rockets, such as the Atlas V or Delta IV, could have done the job. Griffin even originally claimed that his plan would reduce the gap, being ready by 2011.
Unfortunately, the design chosen was flawed, and ran into technical difficulties immediately, increasing its costs and stretching its schedule. Because there had not originally been plans for a new launcher, there wasn’t sufficient budget to support it, and other budgets, in science and technology, and the hardware actually needed to get back to the moon, were raided to feed the rocket disaster. The schedule was slipping more than a year per year, and by 2009, when the Augustine Committee was convened to evaluate the situation, it moved rightward to 2017, with only a low probability of hitting that operational date.
[…]
Next year, it will be a full decade since Columbia was lost. And judging by the pathetic state of space policy discussion we’ve seen over the past few days, with Mitt Romney hiring Mike Griffin, the man who caused this policy disaster, to advise him, it’s likely that we’ll still be floundering and earth bound, despite the billions we’ve spent and continue to spend.
via PJ Media » Nine Years Of Space Policy Disaster.

The Solution:

The United States of America needs to get the hell OUT of the space business! Period! End of Discussion. It has been proven time and time again that NASA is nothing more than a wasteful, hazardous, big Government bureaucracy. Let private companies do the research, the development and the deployment. The question is this; how many more astronauts are going to have to be killed, before we realize that the United States Government is not good at space exploration?

This is the entire problem with Neoconservatives or big Government Conservatives; they rail against Big Government, but when it comes to programs like space exploration — they are all for it. Wake up guys! Big Government is Big Government! Either kill the space program and let private companies do the job or stop calling yourself small Government advocates, because you look like absolute hypocrites. This is not some off-the-wall Ron Paul sounding stuff either. It is simply common sense, something that is sorely lacking in the world of politics and Government today.

It is time that Republican and Conservatives started talking and really acting like that which they claim to be. Either we believe in small Government or we don’t. Pick a position please. We do not have the money to be the leader in space exploration anymore. We need to fully privatize that industry. The Russians are no longer a threat to our society, the cold war is over, finally. So, why do we care what the Russians do?

This is the stuff here, that separates me from the rest of the “right” in the Blogosphere. The rest of these guys believe in small Government, except when it comes to space programs. History proves that Government space programs are dangerously misguided; Challenger, Columbia, Apollo — all of them.

We need to stop it, before more people are killed.

John Kerry’s injury is symbolic of his party.

Ouch.

Alternative Headline: “Why old people should not play rough sports.” The real kicker or punchline here? Kerry was playing the position of “Right Wing.” Oof.

The Story:

WASHINGTON — The secret is out: John Kerry is a right winger.
The Globe uncovered the news after inquiring why Kerry was sporting two nasty black eyes today at a White House ceremony in which President Obama feted the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.
It turns out he got whacked playing hockey. And his sporting position might come as a surprise to the constituents who elected the senior Democrat from Massachusetts to his fifth term in 2008.
Kerry’s office said the pair of shiners were the result of a busted nose that the 68-year-old politico sustained on the ice when he was smacked in the face with a hockey stick during a game with friends and family over the holidays.
“A broken nose, two black eyes,” his spokeswoman Whitney Smith confirmed in an e-mail.
Of course she couldn’t resist taking her own partisan slapshot in this highly competitive political season.
“He must feel like Mitt Romney after South Carolina,” she quipped, referring to the former Bay State governor and now-embattled GOP presidential contender.
via John Kerry, on the right wing, breaks nose – Political Intelligence – A national political and campaign blog from The Boston Globe – Boston.com

Poor man, I will refrain from the silly puns and such as to the hockey position he was playing. I have to tell you, I have been whacked in the nose before; and that stuff hurts like bloody blazes. 🙁 I never broke my nose; but I have come close to do doing so. So, I feel for the man. A note of personal disclosure: I voted for John Kerry in 2004. Of course, that was back in the day when I still rooting for that team. I have changed my views much since then.

Which brings me to my point, I always hear and read about people asking, “Where did Barack Obama come from?” and “Why did the Democrats put Obama out front?” Well, to answer that question you have to know your history; and I happen to have a rather long memory. President Obama was pushed out front, by the Democratic Party leadership —- because of what happened in 2004. In 2004, the Democratic Party pushed out an out of touch, elitist, slightly aloof, and very rich white person and expected the grass-roots to fall in love with him. In short: The dude was stiffer than a board.

The results were, of course, disastrous and Bush beat Kerry by a country mile. At the time, I was heartbroken. I remember thinking, “Four more years of Bush?” Looking back on those four years, compared to what we have now in the White House; I would say those years were pretty darn good. Sure, the economy was lousy; at least around here. However, with President Bush, as a Nation, actually knew what kind of a President we actually had and we, always where he stood. In other words, Bush was a leader. This is more than I can say for that piss poor excuse for a President that we have now. Just to put a finer point on it; I would rather have a neoconservative war hawk in the White House and know that he is a leader, than to have an internationalist Democrat who is afraid to even stand for America In addition, this has nothing to do with race, this has to do with leadership. President Barack Obama has proven himself a lousy leader. Because of it, our nations standing in the world is greatly diminished —- and that my friends, is a problem.

Of course, I should be fair and point out that my personal political positions have changed greatly since I was rooting for people like John Kerry. To be fair, I do not ever recall actually “rooting” for the man. I just did what every other working class person around here did. I pulled the level and went back to work. Honestly, before my tenure as a blogger, which started in 2006 originally, my “involvement” in politics was going to vote on Election Day. I did not even vote in the primaries. I figured what was the point; the party was going to select whom they wanted anyhow.

My politics changed for the most part, because I came to realize that the Democratic Party was all about strife and resentment among the races and classes of people. They proved that when Hillary and Obama had their little battle in 2007. Furthermore, the Democrats wanted to blame Bush for everything. Bad economy — blame Bush. Kid got a cold, blame Bush. In the democrat’s eyes, everything was Bush’s fault. This at some point started sounding very ridiculous.

I hope that when the Democrats lose this time around, they will have learned their lesson. That choosing race over common sense is not always a good idea. I mean, I am quite happy that America finally elected a black President. I am not happy that his polices that were supposed to put people like me, back to work — failed. In addition, I am not saying that a white person could have not been any better either. Hillary would have done some of the very same things and they too would have failed. I tend to believe that Hillary would have straightened out the economy first and would have waited to see if it rebounded or not. If not, she would have not pursued healthcare reform. This is where Obama missed the ball; he pursued healthcare and did not do the economy first. This is why we are in the place we are in now. I hope that the Democrats will learn also that overreach does not work and because of it, you pay the price. However, with this current crop of Democrats, I doubt that lesson will be learned at all.

In a sense, Kerry’s nose is a representation of his party. As they have cut off their nose, in spite of their face.

Chuck Norris Endorses Newt Gingrich

Alternate Headline: “Chuck Norris gives the green light for Presidential Candidates to be womanizing freaks”

Not that this honestly matters, but it is news. 😀

No man or candidate is perfect. We all have skeletons in our closet. If buried bones became unforgivable bones of contention, the world would never know or will never know another Benjamin Franklin, King David and others like them. We must remember that we’re electing a president, not a pastor or pope. And with the mainstream media and a billion-dollar Obama campaign coffer on the president’s side, we need a veteran of political war who has already fought Goliath, because he will be facing Goliath’s bigger brother.
In the last few editions of my weekly column, I detailed “10 questions to find our next president” in no particular order of importance. I proposed that the name of the candidate that fills the majority of the answers deserved readers’ vote.
Who is most committed to follow and lead by the U.S. Constitution?
Who has the greatest leadership ability to rally, unify and mobilize citizens across political and societal spectrums?
Who has the best working comprehension of America?
Who has the best ability to influence a volatile world away from its brink of destruction?
Who has clear and present moral fortitude?
Who can best beat President Barack Obama (in and outside of debates)?
Who has the best abilities to lead Washington politics and politicians?
Who has the best plan and leadership ability to restore America’s economy?
Who is the most fiscally prudent?
Who has demonstrated the highest regard for human life?
For my wife, Gena, and I, we sincerely believe former Speaker Newt Gingrich is the answer to most of those questions and deserves our endorsement and vote.
via My endorsement for president -WND.

He also should have asked the question, “Who was the first speaker of the house to be reprimanded by congress?”

To me, this just proves that the social conservatives movement has fallen a good deal from its moorings of long ago. The movement would have never allowed this sort of man to be even remotely consider for President years ago. It also shows, I believe, that the GOP is utterly desperate for someone to nominate for President. They’ve come along way since the ways of Eisenhower, Goldwater, Reagan, Bush and the like. That very sad fact is not a good thing at all.

Others: Balloon Juice, Pat Dollard, Mediaite, Riehl World View, Hot Air, Gawker, The Hill, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Daily Caller

Speaking of Israel and not real smart

Man, Israel must not be feeling the whole idea of, “we need to be careful, we do not have a friend in the White House,” at all.

The Story via the WSJ:

WASHINGTON—U.S. defense leaders are increasingly concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran, over U.S. objections, and have stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region in case of a conflict.
Iranians on Friday carried the flag-draped coffin of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a scientist working in Iran’s nuclear sector assassinated in Tehran.
President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a string of private messages to Israeli leaders warning about the dire consequences of a strike. The U.S. wants Israel to give more time for the effects of sanctions and other measures intended to force Iran to abandon its perceived efforts to build nuclear weapons.
Stepping up the pressure, Mr. Obama spoke by telephone on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet with Israeli military officials in Tel Aviv next week.
The high-stakes planning and diplomacy comes as U.S. officials warn Tehran, including through what administration officials described Friday as direct messages to Iran’s leaders, against provocative actions.

Again, I am sure some will disagree; but this just does not strike me as being overly smart. At least, not right now. I would be able to understand, if there was a Republican in the White House; but there is not, and Democrats abandoned Israel years ago. Choose wisely Israel — choose very wisely.

Not Smart Isreal, Not smart at all.

This is not a good way to work with the United States:

Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA officers in order to recruit members of a Pakistani terror group to carry out assassinations and attacks against the regime in Iran, Foreign Policy revealed on Friday, quoting U.S. intelligence memos.
Foreign Policy’s Mark Perry reported that the Mossad operation was carried out in 2007-2008, behind the back of the U.S. government, and infuriated then U.S. President George W. Bush.
Perry quotes a number of American intelligence officials and claims that the Mossad agents used American dollars and U.S. passports to pose as CIA spies to try to recruit members of Jundallah, a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization that has carried out a series of attacks in Iran and assassinations of government officials.
According to the report, Israel’s recruitment attempts took place mostly in London, right under the nose of U.S. intelligence officials.
“It’s amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with,” Foreign Policy quoted an intelligence officer as saying. “Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn’t give a damn what we thought.” — Via ‘Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA spies to recruit terrorists to fight against Iran’ – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Not a smart way to do things if you ask me. I support Israel and the Country’s right to exist. However, doing this sort of thing, does nothing to garner support among those who might not be rabid supporters of the Country; you know, like our current President? I can well understand why Bush would be quite upset about something like this. I can almost assure you, that if this story had broken during the tenure of President George W. Bush; the outcry of the liberal media against Israel would have deafened me. Furthermore, the anti-Israel rats here in America would have crawled out of the woodwork and saying that we needed to sever ties with Israel or worse.

Again, as it does say in my sidebars, I am supporter of Israel; as Christian I understand the biblical significance of this wonderful Country. However, I am also mindful of those, who would want to see this Country removed from the face of the earth. These actions do nothing more than hand the anti-Israel crowd ammunition in their warped quest to see God’s chosen people destroyed and that land given to those who do not have rightful ownership of it. Israel should know this, but not everyone is given a measure of common sense.