Mass Shootings and Gun Free Zones

Funny (as in odd not haha) thing is that almost all mass shootings are in gun free zones. I don't believe that it's any wonder why, if your intent is to kill as many people as possible you don't want to be interrupted by some 2nd amendment types.

Less than 90 minutes after Oregon shooting, CNN analyst suggests school’s ‘gun free zone’ to blame

Less than two hours after massacre at Umpqua Community College on Wednesday, CNN military analyst Rick Francona suggested that the shooter had chosen the location because it was a gun free zone.

“We were talking earlier about these gun free zones in Oregon,” Francona told CNN host Brooke Baldwin. “Oregon is a shall issue permit state. A lot of Oregonians do have concealed handgun licenses, that’s what we call them here.”

“The gun free zones are the areas that tell licensed gun owners that you are not allowed to carry your weapon in this facility,” he continued. “So, they do serve a purpose to let everyone know that this is a gun free zone.”

“If you’re going to perpetrate some act, you know that most people are not going to be armed.”

“You are really setting people up — and law enforcement — for somewhat of a failure when you have an active shooter scenario,” Gilliam insisted. “Clearly, policy has to be looked at and what’s effective.”

“This shows you how quickly these things can go bad, and these gun free zones, just like happened in Tennessee that this shooter that went onto a military installation, which was a gun free zone,” he added. “We see that the only thing that’s going to stop a gun is another gun.”~snip~

It seems by the title that Raw Story disapproves of the reaction of CNN's military analyst so soon after the fact.
I wonder if they'll disapprove of Obama's speedy response.

White House Immediately Politicizes Oregon Shooting, Calls For More Gun Control

IRS Fast Tracks Pot Church

Want to start a political non-profit,especially if it;s considered "right-wing",then prepare for an IRS inquisition.
If you consider marijuana a sacrament then not so much,

Marijuana church given tax-exempt status in Indiana: ‘Somebody at the IRS loves us

’The IRS has incorporated an Indianapolis marijuana-smoking church as a tax-exempt religious organization. 

Bill Levin, founder of the First Church of Cannabis in Indianapolis, was notified of the approval last week, which will now allow donors to deduct contributions on their taxes, the CNHI Indiana Statehouse Bureau reported Saturday. IRS documents provided by Mr. Levin confirmed the agency’s approval, CNHI said. 

“Somebody at the IRS loves us because we got it back in less than 30 days,” Mr. Levin told Tax Analysts’ David van den Berg.~snip~

Less than 30 days in a state that using marijuana is still illegal.
It seems that the IRS considers pot-heads an important constituency for Obama and the democrats so obviously they need that tax-exempt status PDQ.

Monday Laugh

The unfortunate aspect of this is there are people out there who will believe this.

I would think the true test is if we could honestly say we're better off than we were 8 years ago.

Most people I've talked to say no. I'm sure our former allies could say the same.

OBAMA: I’VE MADE THE US STRONGER, MORE PROSPEROUS, SAFER, MORE INFLUENTIAL

On CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” President Barack Obama said he was most proud of “saving the American economy” and he is”very confident that America is stronger, more prosperous, safer, and more influential today than it was when I took office.”

The president said, “I’m proud of saving the American economy. We still have a long way to go. Essentially what we did was stabilize it, lay a new foundation to move forward. As I said in the State of the Union address, that gives us, now the capacity to tackle what was an overriding theme of my campaign way back in 2008.  And that is to restore middle class economics and the capacity for people to get into the middle class and start seeing higher wages and a broader shared prosperity inside the United States.”

“Internationally, I’m proud of the fact that we’ve responsibly ended two wars. Now, people will say, well, you’re back in Iraq, but we’re not back in Iraq with an occupying army, we’re back with a coalition of 60 countries helping to stabilize the situation,” he added.~snip~

NYT in Denial on Labor Force Numbers

The "paper of record" just can't let go of it's cheer leading for Obama and the democrats crushing of the economy.
Here they are extolling the virtues of added jobs and a low unemployment rate.

U.S. Economy Added 223,000 Jobs in April; Unemployment Rate at 5.4%

The American job market rebounded in April, the government said on Friday, helping to ease worries that the economy was on the brink of another extended slowdown after a bleak winter in which the overall economy stalled. But the growth in jobs failed to translate, once again, into any significant improvement in pay.

Employers added 223,000 positions last month, the Labor Department reported, and the unemployment rate decreased to 5.4 percent, a turnaround from the disappointing performance in March, initially reported as a modest 126,000 gain and then revised down on Friday to 85,000.

“We expected a rebound following the numbers in March and we got it, but not much more,” said Guy Berger, United States economist at RBS. “Wage growth is still the missing piece.”~snip~

While they ignore the crushed hopes of Americans who have used up all their unemployment and therefore aren't counted as the unemployed.

Americans Not In The Labor Force Rise To Record 93,194,000

In what was an "unambiguously" unpleasant April jobs payrolls report, with a March revision dragging that month's job gain to the lowest level since June of 2012, the fact that the number of Americans not in the labor force rose once again, this time to 93,194K from 93,175K, with the result being a participation rate of 69.45 or just above the lowest percentage since 1977, will merely catalyze even more upside to the so called "market" which continues to reflect nothing but central bank liquidity, and thus - the accelerating deterioration of the broader economy.~snip~

"American Dream" taking a beating

This is Obama's and the democrats vision of America.

In 1 in 5 Families in U.S., No One Works

(CNSNews.com) -- In 19.9 percent of American families in 2014, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), no one in the family worked. 

A family, as defined by the BLS, is a “group of two or more persons residing together who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption.  In 2014, there were 80,889,000 families in the United States,  and in 16,057,000 of those families, or 19.9 percent, no one had a job.~snip~

Less people working the more government can expand. Dependency creates more voters for the democrat give away party.
The question we have to ask is do we want to give Hillary a chance to continue Obama's policy of a more expansive government or do we want someone who will allow people to have more control over their own lives.
The next presidential election is pivotal in changing the political climate.

IRS Infestation

I think for anyone who has been mildly paying attention it's apparent that government agencies have become infested with the lowest of the low.

Socialistic, liberal,democrat sympathizers.
The real problem is that they're not just sympathetic but pro-active in helping Obama defy the constitution and make his political opponents suffer the consequences for their opposition.

Here they've basically embraced the rights of an atheist organization to be what they are....a bunch of self serving pricks.
While denying Churches the right to know who and how they are being monitored.

In essence the IRS has become the democrats secret police.

The IRS Assures an Atheist Group It Will Monitor Churches

It was bad enough, as I wrote here last August, that the Internal Revenue Service appeared to reach an agreement to monitor the pulpits of ill-favored churches. What’s worse is that the IRS, directly counter to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirements, steadfastly has refused to make public key documents pertaining to that decision. 

So the IRS, acting with the whole power of government behind it, seems to be saying it can monitor and presumably punish churches for the content of their sermons, but the churches can’t know exactly if, how, and why they are being monitored. 

To fight this combined assault on religious liberty and on government transparency, conservative legal stalwarts Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Judicial Watch together filed suit April 9 to force release of the IRS documents. ADF asserts that the IRS already has shared the documents with the atheist Freedom From Religion 

Foundation (FFRF). Once again, the IRS bends over backwards on behalf of leftists while harassing and ignoring the rights, on multiple levels, of conservative groups or faith communities.~snip~

Squandering lives with no regret

One of the things that those of us alive long enough to remember is the blatant squandering of U.S. military lives the leftist democrats have engaged in every time they are in charge since WWII.

An open letter from the mother of the first Navy Seal killed in Iraq to General Martin Dempsey

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey responded to reports that Ramadi, Iraq is on the verge of an Islamic State today by describing Ramadi as “not symbolic in any way.” In an open letter, Debbie Lee, whose son Marc was the first Navy SEAL casualty in Ramadi, responded to his remarks today. 

I am shaking and tears are flowing down my cheeks as I watch the news and listen to the insensitive, pain inflicting comments made by you in regards to the fall of Ramadi.
“The city itself is not symbolic in any way”? Oh, really? Are you willing to meet with me and with the families who have lost a son, daughter, husband, wife, father, mother, aunt, uncle, grandson, or teammate? 

My son Marc Lee was the first Navy SEAL who sacrificed his life in Ramadi Iraq Aug 2, 2006. His blood is still in that soil and forever will be. Remember that was when so many of our loved ones were taken from us. You said that “it’s not been declared part of the caliphate on one hand or central to the future of Iraq.” My son and many others gave their future in Ramadi. Ramadi mattered to them. Many military analysts say that as goes Ramadi so goes Iraq.~snip~

Probably the most infuriating book I've ever read is In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam that details the way the Vietnam war was mishandled by democrat Lyndon Johnson and his administration.
I hope someday someone will be brave enough to write a book on the way Obama has mishandled the middle east.

Symbolic

Perfect sentiment.

Government vs. Us

As if we don't have enough examples of the Obama administration and their liberal/commie infiltrators contempt for the citizens of this country.

VA manager’s email mocks veteran suicides

A manager at the Roudebush Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis appears to mock the mental health problems of returning combat veterans in an email to her employees. 

The email obtained by The Indianapolis Star contains photographs of a toy Christmas elf posing as a patient in what appears to be the hospital’s transitional clinic for returning veterans. In one photograph, the elf pleads for Xanax. In another, he hangs himself with an electrical cord. 

The woman who sent the email is Robin Paul, a licensed social worker who manages the hospital’s Seamless Transition Integrated Care Clinic. The clinic provides returning veterans with transition assistance, including mental health and readjustment services. 

When initially asked about the email, Paul responded, “Oh my goodness.” She then referred a reporter to the hospital’s public affairs department, which emailed The Star a statement on her behalf.~snip~

Everybody seems to think that when Obama's time is up in office we'll be able to get back on track as a country but the truth is that the same civil servants who feel entitled to collect a paycheck from us while turning up their nose will still be there.

Lois Lerner is not an aberration but the rule in the union controlled agencies that we pay for.
If the next administration really wants to improve government then they will purge the government unions and make clear to government employees that they work for the citizens of this country and not the democrat party.

Same Media that Neglected to Vet Obama Tells on Jeb Bush

Not much of a surprise here.

Jeb Bush shaped by troubled Phillips Academy years

In the fall of 1967, when a 14-year-old Texan named John Ellis Bush arrived on the bucolic campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, great expectations preceded him.
Jeb, as he was known, should have been an easy fit in that elite and ivied world. His much-accomplished father and his older brother had both gone to Andover; no one was surprised that Jeb had followed suit.
But this Bush almost ran aground in those first, formative prep school days. He bore little resemblance to his father, a star on many fronts at Andover, and might have been an even worse student than brother George. Classmates said he smoked a notable amount of pot — as many did — and sometimes bullied smaller students.
Resolutely apolitical despite his lineage, he refused to join the Progressive Andover Republicans club and often declined even to participate in informal bull sessions with classmates. In a tumultuous season in American life, he seemed to his peers strangely detached and indifferent.
“He was just in a bit of a different world,” said Phil Sylvester, who said he was a Bush roommate. While other students “were constantly arguing about politics and particularly Vietnam, he just wasn’t interested, he didn’t participate, he didn’t care.”
Meanwhile, his grades were so poor that he was in danger of being expelled, which would have been a huge embarrassment to his father, a member of Congress and of the school’s board of trustees.~snip~

I don't really think to much of Jeb Bush who has proven that he's a RINO of the highest caliber but the liberal/commie media going back 44 years and depending on hazy memories  is a bit much. Especially how they didn't seem to concerned over Obama's past activities at all.
How come we didn't get the "real story" behind Barack Obama's drug use or,more importantly, stories about his academic transcripts?
I'm still waiting for the republican party to offer a real leader as opposed to a vetted RINO but it's pretty plain what we can expect from the biased lapdog media as they circle their wagons waiting to anoint another liberal hack.

A Symbol of Freedom No More

I ran across this article.

A Dictator’s Best Friend

“It’s a sad day for freedom,” Marco Rubio told Bret Baier after President Obama announced he would normalize relations with Cuba. Not a sad day, senator: a sad year.
If there was a theme to 2014, it was Obama’s persistence in bailing out dictators and theocrats from political scrapes and economic hardships, his tenacity in pursuit of engagement with America’s adversaries no matter the cost to our strength, principles, credibility, or alliances.
In this president the thugs in Havana and Caracas, Damascus and Tehran, Moscow and Naypyidaw and Beijing have no better friend. For these bullies, these evildoers, these millenarians and sectarians, Barack Obama is more than a dupe. He is an insurance policy.
Cuba is but the latest example of this president’s failing to exercise leverage in the pursuit of American strength and security and prestige. Here are the Castro brothers, decrepit and spent, their revolution a joke, their economy in peril thanks to the collapse in oil prices brought on by a strong dollar and increased U.S. supply.
The China option—foreign direct investment from America—is Raul and Fidel’s only play to sustain power over the society they have impoverished. And Obama says yes, yes to everything: an embassy, an ambassador, diplomatic relations, travel and exchange, status among nations, removal from the list of state sponsors of terror, and a serious opportunity to lessen the embargo that has kept the dictators caged for decades.
In return, the Castro brothers give up … well, what? Alan Gross, a political prisoner and persecuted religious minority who shouldn’t have been imprisoned in the first place? A second man who has been in captivity for decades? Thin gruel.~snip~

As I read this it pretty much brought home what we have given up in the past 6 years under the yolk of Obama and his minions while in office.
We have turned from a beacon of freedom in the world to the enablers of dictators and terrorist states.
In all of my 60 years I never would have thought I would live long enough to see a whole industry in America cowering before a petty little despot. While I'm sure Seth Rogen and James Franco's "the Interview" comes no where near a cinematic masterpiece deserving of the outrage and hand wringing it's getting the fact that the Norks can stifle it is unsettling.

One thing that people forget about Cuba is that we wouldn't have had to deal with Castro and his terrorist state if another democrat coward,Kennedy,had followed through on his promise to provide air support to the counter-revolutionary military that we trained and then abandoned at the Bay of Pigs.

Cuba has been propped up first by the now defunct Soviet Union until its collapse and then various other Latin American socialist countries, most recently Venezuela. Now that their socialist policies are collapsing Obama runs to the rescue of the Castro brothers.
After 50 years Cuba was on the verge of economic collapse and the Obama regime throws them a life line.

As a country we've not only lost our way but we're being herded to insignificance.
Thanks Barry.

Enforcement Arm of Democrat Party May Shutdown

Russia had the KGB, East Germany had the Stasi and Obama and the democrats have the IRS. The government agency charged with enforcing Obamacare with an all access pass to our financial and  medical information has had its budget cut and they're claiming they are hurting.

IRS warns of possible shutdown

The IRS is considering its own temporary shutdown due to recent budget cuts enacted by Congress, its chief said Thursday.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said furloughs — forced unpaid days off for employees as part of an IRS closure — is one idea reluctantly being tossed about to save money, though they are hoping they will not have to go there.
“There is no way we can say right now that that won’t happen,” Koskinen told reporters at a press conference on the upcoming tax season. “Again, I would stress that would be the last option.”~snip~

What better way to oppress people in a free market economy than with an all powerful agency given the power to creep through every aspect of our lives?
I's time this partisan agency was disbanded and another method found to fund government.

Because Healthcare.gov Worked out so well

I guess it seems that Obama and the democrats continue to believe we're so stupid that we'll trust the same government that gave us Healthcare.gov (at 2 billion dollars) to regulate the internet.

Obama calls for more regulation of Internet providers, industry fires back

President Obama threw down the gauntlet Monday with cable companies and Internet providers by declaring they shouldn’t be allowed to cut deals with online services like YouTube to move their content faster.
It was his most definitive statement to date on so-called “net neutrality,” and escalates a battle that has been simmering for years between industry groups and Internet activists who warn against the creation of Internet “fast lanes.” The president’s statement swiftly drew an aggressive response from trade groups, which are fighting against additional regulation, as well as congressional Republicans.
"We are stunned the president would abandon the longstanding, bipartisan policy of lightly regulating the Internet and calling for extreme" regulation, said Michael Powell, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the primary lobbying arm of the cable industry.~snip~

I'm all for a free and independent internet but I also know that when the excessive and heavy hand of the government gets involved consumer exploitation and partisan favoritism isn't far behind.
This is nothing more than another attempt by democrats and liberals to extort more money in the form of fees from the public.
Government has been a piss poor steward of public money since forever.
Giving them another revenue stream would be irresponsible.

Recycling Jimmy Carter

Sometimes I think that whatever Obama is paying his advisers it's obviously to much.
The parallels between Obama and Jimmy Carter become more appaernt every day.

Jimmy Carter was a do nothing president who's foreign policy was basically "hands off" whatever will be will be.
He stood by and watched the Iranian revolution unfold allowing 52 U.S. diplomats to be held as hostages in Iran.
That was after he sat back and did nothing to temper run away inflation, unemployment and rising energy costs to cripple this country.
Towards the end of his first term in office he finally ordered the U.S. military to attempt a rescue of the Iranian hostages to try and bolster his sagging poll numbers because he knew the American public was getting tired of the "malaise" he inflicted on us.
Like everything else the peanut farmer touched it was a disaster.

Now after the beheading of an American reporter,James Foley, it comes out that Obama ordered a rescue operation to liberate him and other hostages.
It failed.
Obviously Obama's advisers don't pay much attention to history. Comparing these two "rescue" operations is a no brainer and just confirms the notion that Obama is at least as bad if not worse than Jimmy Carter. The sad part is that it only took one term to realize what a failure Carter was, we have to suffer through 2 terms to get it about Obama.

Free Tampons Cause.....Feminism!!!

Years ago I read Alan Sherman's book "the Rape of the A*P*E" and in it he related the story of sanitary napkins.
In the book he said that nurses from WWII had used absorbent bandages that were originally designed for wounds and later on after the war a few companies offered a version designed and made specifically for women to use.
However because of the social stigma they didn't sell very well until businesses started displaying them just about everywhere. Then they took off.

Any way that's the way I remember the story from the book.
But there is no stigma any more.

The Kotex Lobby: Feminist, Liberal Media Demand ‘Free Tampons’ For All

It’s the terminus point of modern feminism: make the deeply personal very publicly political, and get someone else to pay for it! If one man is keeping you in the style to which you’re accustomed, you’re a kept woman – perhaps even [shudder] a stay-at-home mom. But if your sugar is funneled from thousands of hapless tax payers through a legion of faceless bureaucrats, you’re  a tower of feminist self-determination.  Fight the power, sisters! Demand government tampons!
Last week, Jessica Valenti (Feministing founder, NARAL director and Planned Parenthood heroine) asked via Twitter, “Anyone know a country where tampons are free or somehow subsidized?” The question sparked an obnoxious social media backlash, which, in turn, sparked an obnoxious retort by Valenti in her column for The Guardian: “The case for free tampons.” The liberal media, from Cosmo to TIME, followed suit with the “compelling argument” and “great idea.”
“The high cost of a product that half the population needs multiple times a day, every month for approximately 30 years,” Valenti began in her August 11 piece, “is simply, well, bullshit.”~snip~

I would suppose that this is just the natural progression from government subsidized birth control and abortion on demand.
It's kind of a creepy pattern if you think about it, the argument of cost and necessity being the qualifier for free access can extend to many things.This is modern feminism and by extension progressivism/liberalism.
Anything deemed necessary provided by the state.
At one time when we had a thriving and robust economy these kinds of issues were never even conceived of but now, in this era of liberal/progressive policies and Obamanomics the search for ever expanding entitlements pushes forward.
It would be kind of fitting though, if Obama actually moved forward on this he would could finally be called the "tampon president" adding another name to his growing shameful legacy. Now that there isn't any stigma attached to it anymore.  

Obama, the Lying Liar and the Lies he's Told

Keep in mind that this man is the leader of the democrat party and he is speaking for them and all liberal/progressives.
Including the lapdog liberal/communist/progressive media.

The March to Oblivion

There are all kinds of stories on the internet telling the story of the absolute depravity and cruelty of ISIS in their unimpeded march across Iraq. The slaughter of the Yazidis on mount Sinjar only being the latest.
While liberal/progressives wring their hands and bleat about the Palestinians and beat their chests over the lack of "compassion" for illegal immigrant unaccompanied minors 30,000 to 40,000 Yazidis cling to a mountain facing death if they stay where they are or descend into the hands ISIS to be butchered or sold into slavery.
All we get from this president and his administration is just more incompetence and malfeasance.

We haven't really won a fighting war since WWII and even then we gave up most of eastern Europe at the Malta conference. Korea was fought to a stand still, Kennedy's promise at the Bay of Pigs went unfulfilled and resulted in a slaughter. Johnson and McNamara continued to draft and send men to Vietnam even though they had no desire to win the war. Jimmy Carter sent numerous "strongly worded" messages to the Mullahs of Iran that were promptly laughed at. Obama stands by while Hamas pounds Israel with rockets and ISIS marches through Iraq raping, beheading and killing at will. The one thing in common with all of these is that they're democrats.

Even if our air support comes to help the Kurd s push back against the IS it's to late for history to look kindly on the dithering of Obama and his cronies who failed to try and stop the genocides that the Islamist extremists are committing in Iraq.
Obama's answer to everything, domestic and foreign, is to stand by and do nothing.

Denying the Consequences

As always liberal/progressives go full bore ahead with their ill considered ideas without looking far enough ahead to see the consequences.

Report: SMALL LIFELESS, DEAD CHILDREN Found “Washed Up Along Riverbank” of Rio Grande

“The life jackets helped many make it across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, the Mexican city across the water from Mission, just west of McAllen. Sources say they come over on rafts ferried by the so-called “coyotes,” the human smugglers whose means of transport are rendered useless whenever discovered by the Border Patrol. Many don’t make it across the river; multiple sources became emotional when recounting their discoveries of small, lifeless bodies washed up along the riverbank.”

The flood of illegal immigrant children to our borders can be directly connected to the Obama administrations lackadaisical enforcement of our immigration laws. While they are all wringing their hands and squealing about how we have to be compassionate they ignore the ever increasing body count of the unaccompanied minors who are dying in their rush to get here.
What we are seeing now is just the ones we find within our borders. There's no telling how many have expired on the other side and liberal/progressives don't want to know.
The reason is that all the dead children can be laid at the feet of of this administration. Their contempt for the rule of law and the encouragement of the open borders zealots contributes to these deaths as much as the heat, drownings, or abuse by smugglers.
It just goes to show once again that liberal/progressives are neither caring nor compassionate to others.
If they were they would care about the body count and finding a way to stop it.
    

Hows that 'Jobs Pivot' Working out?

Obama's done the job pivot thing so many times he should be falling down dizzy. According to the new jobs report for June things are looking up. We added 288,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 6.1%. As always I'm sure these will be revised in the next week or so but that doesn't stop some of Obama's cheerleaders from gushing over the news.

Of course they ignore the other side.

Record Number of Americans Not in Labor Force in June

(CNSNews.com) - The number of Americans 16 and older who did not participate in the labor force climbed to a record high of 92,120,000 in June, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
This means that there were 92,120,000 Americans 16 and older who not only did not have a job, but did not actively seek one in the last four weeks.
That is up 111,000 from the 92,009,000 Americans who were not participating in the labor force in April.
In June, according to BLS, the labor force participation rate for Americans was 62.8 percent, matching a 36-year low. The participation rate is the percentage of the population that either has a job or actively sought one in the last four weeks.
In December, April, May, and now June, the labor force participation rate has been 62.8 percent.
Before December, the last time the labor force participation rate sank as low as 62.8 percent was in February 1978, when it was also 62.8 percent. At that time, Jimmy Carter was president.~snip~

That reflects a huge number of Americans who have become so disillusioned and frustrated with job prospects that they have given up completely and as their unemployment benefits run out they just drop from sight. At least as far as being included in the jobs report.
I would think that anyone with a brain would know that employment prospects are pretty dismal and anyone who remembers the Carter years would be going through deja vu.
Things ain't as rosy as Obama's defenders want you to believe.
If you accept the spin then you won't believe your lying eyes.

Buyers Remorse and Obama

I doubt we'll see very much of this in the next 2 years seeing as how the lickspittle liberal/commie media has gone out of it's way to destroy their credibility by covering Obamas and the democrats asses since before he was first elected.

But smaller papers who do their business in predominantly red states maybe starting to see the error of their ways when they tried to impress the big boys by falling in line.

 Gazette opinion: Obama earned the low ratings

Sometimes, you have to admit you're wrong.
And, we were wrong.
We said that things couldn't get much worse after the sub par presidency of George W. Bush.
But, President Barack Obama's administration has us yearning for the good ol' days when we were at least winning battles in Iraq.~snip~

The article even has a nice little list of what they call some of Obama's mistakes. While not totally comprehensive it's a good list to have handy.

- Maybe the worst and most widespread invasion of privacy occurred when the Obama administration continued a controversial National Security Agency program of spying on millions of citizens culling their phone records to intercepting online information. The administration has done nearly nothing to safeguard civil liberties or put in safeguards to protect our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.
- The Obama administration has continued to ratchet down on emissions from coal-fired power plants while giving consumers little new innovation to replace the power supply. Meanwhile, Obama continues to thwart other energy projects that might be helpful to the economy, like the Keystone XL pipeline. The war on carbon might not be so bad if indeed it was being counterbalanced by true innovation.
- Iraq was an inherited quagmire from the Bush administration. But six years later, Obama has to own the current situation which, as this is being written, looks perilously close to civil war and a complete breakdown of government in Iraq. If that were to happen, the sacrifice of thousands of Americans' lives would be cheapened, if not in vain. His handling the situation seems uncertain and we can't help but wonder if the same type of inaction will lead to a civil war similar to Syria's?
- The Bowe Bergdahl situation is an example of right instinct, completely wrong handling of a prisoner exchange. The Obama administration should be lauded for not wanting to leave any American solider behind. But, surprising Congress, trading possible terrorists and not doing enough to vet the background of Bergdahl had the net effect of looking incompetent. What should have been an easy public relations victory for bringing a lost soldier home turned into a public relations nightmare, and continued to erode public confidence, leading some to wonder if Obama's team can't even get something as important as bringing home a captive soldier correct, what can it be successful at?
- The VA scandal showed that wait times for veterans access to health care was so bad that some veterans actually died before they could get the medical care they were entitled to. While the VA system was not invented by the Obama administration, after six years of management, it's clear that problems were not be corrected quickly enough and that our nation was not living up to the promise it made to take care of soldiers. The most recent debacle led to the sacking of retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, but it was another black eye for the administration which appeared to look incompetent when it comes to taking care of wounded, or in-need veterans.
- Speaking of health care, Obama had also pledged that his administration would embrace new stem cell technology, and part of the hope and change we heard so much about would happen as lives improved through medical innovation. But as his presidency has continued, we see little evidence that Obama is pushing for new cures, science or solutions when it comes to medical problems.
- For years now, reports by watchdog organizations and journalists that have shown despite Obama's promises of being more transparent, his administration has actually cracked down on journalists, spied on citizens and retaliated against those who leak information to the press. In fact, the Obama administration has become so opaque and difficult that it has earned the reputation of being far worse than Nixon, the disgraced president whose terrible clampdown of information led to federal law being changed for more transparency.
- Finally, Obamacare has become synonymous with boondoggle. To be fair, there has not been enough time to judge whether the comprehensive health care reform program works, but one thing is certain: The public presentation and roll-out of the program was so riddled with technical glitches and problems, it greatly undermined the public's confidence in the system.

The failures of the democrats and Obama should be all anyone would need to turn them out of office because what they have done and are doing is not working.