Sequestration: The Disarming of the United States of America

[Malsua]

I just read the NJ cuts and frankly...despite the REPUBLICAN'S BAD part of it, who cares. Doesn't affect me in the slightest. The overall issue guts the military pretty hard, but frankly, I don't want Obama to have any guns so this is a good thing.

[American Patriot]

I looked at the one in Colorado.

I have a funny feeling that gcutting a bunch of government workers (civilians) is not going to have one dime of effect on whether work gets accomplished.

This is a strawman argument.

As for the rest of the shit on the list? CUT IT!

[American Patriot]

I think Levin, Rush and Hannity have ALL said... "This is not going to affect 98% of the public".

It's a red herring to make people believe their little babies can't go to head start (which is a FAILED PROGRAM ANYWAY!)

Head start in case you all dont know is a government paid babysitting job. Nothing more. Those kids don't come out ANY further ahead than anyone else of the same age group, and that is from the people who studied the programs

[American Patriot]

Oh, and No GUNS for Obama is GOOD.

[vector7]

5 Nuclear Carriers Into Harbor For “Routine” (?) Inspections…’This Is Definitely A Problem’

Posted on February 26, 2013 by US Marine Fighting Tyranny


The aircraft carriers USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) are in port at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. US Navy Photo

Before It’s News – by John Rolls

UPDATE : More intel that WE CAN TRUST on 5 nuclear carriers into harbor for “routine” (?) inspections…
From:Victoria Baer -

Sent:Monday, February 25, 2013 3:55 PM

Subject:More intel that WE CAN TRUST on 5 nuclear carriers into harbor for “routine” (?) inspections…
Importance:High

Here is some feedback that I receive that I trust:
Victoria:

I was in the U.S .military for 30 years and the U.S. Navy for 24 years and retired out of Norfolk as an Intel Officer.

I can tell you, having lived in Virginia Beach for 12 of those years (30 minutes to the Naval Base) that having five U.S. carriers in port at one time,IS CREATING THE PERFECT TARGET.

Such a move is insanity….unless you are TRYING to ‘set up the Navy’ for a missile attack.

Now, who what ‘American’ president or CINCUSNAV would EVER do such a thing.

Three guesses and the first two just don’t count.

Hint: He has three vowels in his name and if you rearrange the letters they spell USURPER.
Dr. Tom (LCDR, USN-ret)

Victoria, don’t know if you are aware but this problem is compounded by the fact that the Thimble Shoals channel is about a 45 minute to an hour transit to open ocean from NOB Norfolk. Thimble Shoals channel can be easily blocked with sunken ships, bottling up every other ship in port. At least at Pearl Harbor, ships not sunk or damaged could escape to open ocean, like they could from Mayport. Why don’t they put a nuc carrier here? Hmmmm.

JK

———

Victoria,

This was verified by two people who do not know each other and who each have sons serving in the Navy, one each on two of these carriers.

Mark


———

From: Victoria Baer
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 12:59 PM
Subject: 5 nuclear carriers into harbor for “routine” (?) inspections…

This is definitely a problem….

Victoria Baer

When the defense of liberty becomes a crime, tyranny is already in force. At that point, failure to defend liberty makes slavery a certainty.

This is absurd! Your community organizer at work!
Send to everyone!

As always, do your own research. To get you started:

http://news.usni.org/2013/02/08/navy...rier-readiness

—Original Message—-

What is wrong with this picture?

The picture is of the five nuclear carriors.

Just like Battleship Row, Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

This picture was taken the other day in Norfolk. The Obama Administration ordered 5 nuclear carriers into harbor for “routine” (?) inspections. Heads of the Navy were flabbergasted by the directive.

NORFOLK, VA. (February 8, 2013). The first time since WWII …that five nuclear powered aircraft carriers were docked together.

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) are all in port at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., the world’s largest naval station.

Sources stated that this breached a long standing military protocol in the Navy meant to avoid massive enemy strike on major US forces. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Ryan J. Courtade/Released)

http://beforeitsnews.com/military/20...m-2449952.html

[American Patriot]

Just ONE hand grenade... (or nuke)

[American Patriot]

You know if someone like me can see JUST FROM THE PICTURE (which is all I saw) and post the "hand grenade" remark... then intelligence officers of adversarial nations can see it better.

[American Patriot]

Navy: Lincoln Refueling Delayed, Will Hurt Carrier Readiness
By: USNI News Editor
Friday, February 8, 2013

The aircraft carriers USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) are in port at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. US Navy Photo
The aircraft carriers USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), USS Enterprise (CVN-65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) are in port at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. US Navy Photo

The U.S. Navy will delay the refueling of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) for an unknown period because of the uncertain fiscal environment due to the ongoing legislative struggle, the service told Congress in a Friday message obtained by USNI News.

Lincoln was scheduled to be moved to Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipyard later this month to begin the 4-year refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the ship.

“This delay is due to uncertainty in the Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations bill, both in the timing and funding level available for the first full year of the contract,” the message said.
“CVN-72 will remain at Norfolk Naval Base where the ships force personnel will continue to conduct routine maintenance until sufficient funding is received for the initial execution of the RCOH.”

Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower subcommittee released a statement denouncing the need for decision.

Forbes called the delay, “another example of how these reckless and irresponsible defense cuts in Washington will have a long-term impact on the Navy’s ability to perform its missions. Not only will the Lincoln be delayed in returning to the Fleet, but this decision will also affect the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) defueling, the USS George Washington (CVN-73) RCOH, and future carrier readiness.”


View RCOH in a larger map

The move by the navy is the second this week involving funding for carriers. On Wednesday it announced it would delay the deployment of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) to the Middle East do to the ongoing budget strife bringing the total number of carriers in U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) to one until funding normalizes.

“Canceling and deferring maintenance creates a significant backlog of deferred maintenance and affects future year schedules and cost, as well as future readiness,” said Lt. Courtney Hillson, a Navy spokesperson.
“The fiscal uncertainty created by not having an appropriations bill — and the measures we are forced to take as a result, place significant stress on an already strained force and undermines the stability of a fragile industrial base.”

The delay in the RCOH for the Lincoln translates into a carrier that will be undeployable for the foreseeable future. It is ‘not possible to restore,’ the carrier to active service without the $3.3 billion overhaul, Hillson said.

Under the current Continuing Resolution (CR), the Navy is $1.5 billion short on its accounts. Combined with coming sequestration in March the number grows to $9 billon for FY 2013, according to Navy documents.

The Navy had budgeted $92 million for the Lincoln refueling in its FY 2012 budget.

Each Nimitz-class carrier undergoes a refueling and complete overhaul at the halfway point in its 50-year service life.

HII said the company is, “disappointed with this turn of events,” and said the delay, “is the direct result of the lack of a defense appropriations bill,” HII spokesperson Christie Miller said in a statement.

“This is not a cancellation of the Lincoln’s RCOH at Newport News Shipbuilding,” Miller said.
“We intend to continue our efforts on the ship at the Navy base in Norfolk and will work to make as much progress as possible, as efficiently as possible, prior to its arrival.”
- See more at: http://news.usni.org/2013/02/08/navy....JtN33XLZ.dpuf

[Phil Fiord]

Insidious. I REALLY hope my stated projection of a March fuse zenith is in error, but seeing the added issue of FIVE carriers of eleven in dock AND together in a nice line is distressing. It is the most stupid action to take and it is the White House that ordered it. Being protocol, the Navy lead followed the directive, but I am certain they agree this is insane.

[Phil Fiord]

Digging around I found this from Christmas. 9 Flattops in Norfolk at that time for Christmas. Impressive but unnerving pictures.

http://blogs.defensenews.com/interce...k-dec-20-2012/

[American Patriot]

It occurs to me that perhaps they have been doing this all along.... I don't know for sure but I do know for sure that it's a VERY bad idea.

One quick scud in a tub and poof, no more aircraft carriers.... crewmembers... docks....

[vector7]

This Marxist Administration with all their new Communist appointees to oversee their draconian erosion of America has penetrated our military's readiness and strategic planning.

Disturbing Pattern! Yet Another Military General Forced from Service

Published on February 20th, 2013



It’s a developing pattern of this Obama White House.

Barack Obama cashiered yet another battle-seasoned American general Tuesday, even as the war in Afghanistan continues along with numerous other serious global threats to United States security.

This is the fourth senior officer Obama has forced from the country’s service.

All four were tied somehow to the Afghanistan mess that Obama has long argued was the most important war. Each departure was staged as a resignation. They were usually tied to some personal indiscretions to save face for Obama, who would know of indiscretions as a product of the corrupt Chicago Democrat machine.

There was Gen. David McKiernan, the four-star who lead U.S. ground forces during the successful lightning Iraq invasion. He was asked to resign command of allied forces in Afghanistan just four months into Obama’s presidency in 2009. Never fully explained, but the implication was administration dissatisfaction with the war’s progress.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a special ops veteran who was McKiernan’s successor. He resigned when his staff was quoted making derogatory comments to an embedded journalist about the administration in general and VP Joe Biden in particular. If mocking Megamind Biden is worthy of resignation, then most of America needs to step down by lunch today.

Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of the surge and successful counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq, was demoted from Central Command to return to lead the Afghan war. After that successful tour Obama named him director of the Central Intelligence Agency, which required his military resignation after nearly four decades of service.

Read More: http://news.investors.com/

Secretary Defense Hagel endorsed by Communist Party USA

Obama's defense nominee previously earned Iran's blessing

Published: 02/05/2013 at 8:29 PM
by Aaron Klein Email | Archive Subscribe to feed



After reportedly receiving support from Iran, Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s defense secretary nominee, has yet another endorsement to add to his resume, this one coming from the Communist Party USA.

People’s World, the Communist Party USA’s official magazine, touted Hagel as “represent[ing] the more sober elements who have called in our national discourse for rejection of the old cold war tactics, the unilateralism and the continual push for wars all over the world.”

The magazine’s labor editor, John Wojcik, slammed the ”neocon” U.S. Senate for trying to “force Hagel to disavow his opposition to what they call the ‘successful’ surges in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

A People’s World blast email further lamented Hagel “is still the subject of controversy due to some mild criticism he made of the State of Israel.”

Wojcik contended “it was the U.S. Senate, not President Obama’s nominee, Chuck Hagel, that fell down on the job at the hearings.”

“It was allowed to become a place for right-wing grandstanding and unacceptable efforts to rewrite history,” he continued.

Wojcik conceded that Hagel “does not have the kind of record that progressives conclude will make him a Secretary of Defense who would chart the entirely new foreign policy direction the times require.”

Last week Hagel took heat from Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oka., who asked during the Senate hearings why Iran supports Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary.

As a senator, Hagel opposed sanctions on Iran, instead calling for “direct, unconditional talks.” He was one of only 12 senators who refused to sign a letter asking the European Union to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

WND reported Hagel went on the Middle East satellite network Al Jazeera in 2009 to argue that before dealing with the nuclear arsenals of rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea, the U.S. and Russia must first lead the effort by phasing out their own nuclear weapons.

WND also reported Hagel serves on the board of the Ploughshares Fund, a George Soros-funded group that advocates a nuclear-free world.

The Ploughshares Fund has a long history of anti-war advocacy and is a partner of the Marxist-oriented Institute for Policy Studies, which has urged the defunding of the Pentagon and massive decreases in U.S. defense capabilities, including slashing the American nuclear arsenal to 292 deployed weapons.

Hagel’s thesis on minimizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal was reiterated in a 2012 report he co-authored titled “Global Zero: U.S. Nuclear Policy Commission.”

The report called for an 80-percent reduction in U.S. nuclear weapons to about 900, with only half of those being deployed. It further called for the eventual phasing out of short-range nuclear weapons and the elimination of ICBMs and B-52 bombers.

The report was the initiative of the Global Zero advocacy group, which works for a nuclear-free world.

Hagel co-authored the commission report with former U.S. diplomat Thomas Pickering, who reportedly previously held clandestine meetings with Hamas aiming to open U.S. dialogue with the terrorist group.
Iran is arguably the largest state sponsor of terrorism.

Regarding his views on jihad, WND exposed that in unreported remarks during a 2007 Senate hearing, Hagel posited that terrorism does not arise from religious beliefs but instead is a response to despair and a lack of hope.

The Communist Party USA may ideologically support some of Hagel’s ties.

WND reported Hagel sits on the board of a fund that serves as the main financial backer of a group urging the U.S. to join the U.N.’s International Criminal Court, which could prosecute American citizens and soldiers for “war crimes” and other offenses.

Opposes U.S. missile defense

Ploughshares, meanwhile, opposes America’s development of a missile defense system and contributes to scores of anti-war groups highly critical of U.S. foreign policy and military expansion.

Ploughshares is directed by Joseph Cirincione, who served as an adviser on nuclear issues to Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Cirincione also was director of nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress.

Among the groups to which Ploughshares donates are the anti-Israel Americans for Peace Now, the Arms Control Association, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Policy Alternatives, the Soros-funded Center for Public Integrity, the radical Citizen Action, Citizens for Environmental Justice, the Coalition for New Priorities and the radical Institute for Policy Studies.

More grantees include the New America Foundation, the Nonviolent Peaceforce, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, the Nuclear Freeze Foundation, the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, Peace Action, the Peace Studies Association, Physicians for Human Rights and Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Ploughshares has also funded the Soros-financed Connect US Fund, which urges more U.N. helmets on U.S. troops, as well as the Center for American Progress, which has strong influence on White House policy.

Also on the list of Ploughshares grantees is The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which has long petitioned for the U.S. to reduce its nuclear stockpiles. According to Pavel Sudoplatov, a former major-general in Soviet intelligence, the work by the magazine editors was for the benefit of the Soviet Union.

Two of the magazine’s founding sponsors, Leo Szilard and Robert Oppenheimer, were accused of passing information from the Manhattan Project to the Soviets. Both were also key initiators of the Manhattan Project.

Ploughshares funds the International Crisis Group, a small organization that boasts Soros on its board and is a key promoter of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine used to justify the NATO airstrikes in Libya last year.

Massive defense slashes

Another Ploughshares grantee is the Institute for Policy Studies.

Ploughshares is listed on the institute’s website as a partner organization.

The institute works with the Center for American Progress to release an annual “Unified Security Budget,” which reportedly has influenced White House military policy. Previous recommendations from the two groups’ yearly Unified Security Budgets have been adapted by the Obama administration.

The 2012 budget, reviewed in full by WND, called on Obama to use the U.S. Armed Forces in part to combat “global warming,” fight global poverty, remedy “injustice,” bolster the United Nations and increase “peacekeeping” forces worldwide.

The budget called for massive, second-term slashes to the military budget. The savings are to be used to invest in “sustainable energy” and in fighting worldwide climate change.

The report makes clear the stated objective of transforming the U.S. Armed Forces to stress conflict resolution and diplomacy.

The report takes issue with the use of forces on the ground in various countries to secure or influence the longer-term strategic position of other nations.

It recommends scaling back all U.S. ground forces by 20 percent and reducing the Navy’s surface fleet by 20 percent, including two carriers and carrier combat air wings. It also calls for reducing the Air Force by two combat air wings while cutting standing peacetime overseas deployments in Europe and East Asia by up to 50,000 troops at a time.

The budget’s authors strongly argue for the reduction of the U.S. nuclear arsenal to no more than 292 deployed nuclear weapons and the complete elimination of the Trident II nuclear missile. It’s a process Obama already initiated in April 2010 when he signed a deal with Russia reducing stocks of weapons-grade plutonium.

The accord with Russia was signed at a nuclear summit in Washington arranged by Obama at which leaders of 47 nations committed to reducing the world’s nuclear stockpiles. One week earlier, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Obama signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, committing both countries to reducing their deployed nuclear arsenals.

Obama had broadly proclaimed his disarmament intentions during a 2007 campaign speech.

“Here’s what I’ll say as president: America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons,” Obama said.

By 2010, as president, he was arguing: “We need to change our nuclear policy and our posture, which is still focused on deterring the Soviet Union – a country that doesn’t exist.”

Obama’s declaration came just as Russia signed a major arms deal with Syria and began to revive its Cold War-era naval bases in the Middle East, including in the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia on the Mediterranean.
The joint CAP and IPS report, meanwhile, recommends the U.S. cease all further development of missile defenses.

The report pushes for all current missile defense programs to be cut, including Ground-based Midcourse Defense, Airborne Laser and Kinetic Energy Interceptors.

“It is unwise to fund more advanced systems for missile defense while current ones have yet to be proven effective against their targeted threats,” complains the report.

The military’s vital Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation program is to be cut by $10 billion across the board.

Next on the chopping block: the complete cancellation of the second SSN-744 Virginia Class submarine. While the Unified Security Budget describes the new model as “unnecessary to address any of the threats facing the United States today” and “a weapon looking for an enemy,” the SSN-774 is designed for covert collection of intelligence, transportation of special operations teams and launching of tactical Tomahawk missiles – flexible capabilities tailored to rapid responses required by the 21st-century’s conflicts with irregular combatants.

Similarly targeted for cancellation are the V-22 Osprey helicopter and the Navy and Marine Corps versions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Combating ‘global warming’

The 2012 Unified report sets the tone of its lofty agenda by demanding immediate reductions in the military’s already heavily slashed budget. But there is one exception requiring massive increases in funding – any spending that funds “alternative energy” or focuses Defense Department resources on combating “climate change as a security threat.”

The report authors recommend investing “the lion’s share” of the few allotted military increases in addressing the so-called “threat” of climate change.

The report wants Obama to take billions of dollars from the U.S. military and instead use them for a “green stimulus.”

These groups also envision the military as a tool to fight so-called global warming. In 2011, IPS released a 40-page CAP-endorsed report titled “The Green Dividend,” a term IPS defines as “a major shift of resources from the military budget to sustainable energy.”

The IPS research paper identifies the Pentagon as the “largest institutional energy user – and greenhouse gas emitter – on the planet,” arguing that if it undertook a “crash program” to convert to renewable energy sources and clean vehicles, it could make a significant impact on global emissions.

IPS calls on the Pentagon to contribute to a green world “by simply getting out of the way, by handing over unneeded military installations to be converted into green job incubators.”

The report lauds Obama’s first-ever U.S. Global Development Policy, which was issued in September 2010 and declares that the primary purpose of development aid is to pursue broad-based economic growth as the means to fight global poverty.

The report goes on to recommend that massive funds be sent to combat global woes, including an increase of $3.5 billion to “Global Health” investment and $2.14 billion to support United Nations peacekeeping and ensure that the United States does not fall behind in U.N. payments.

[American Patriot]

Honestly, this country has gone to hell in a hand basket and we're all stuck in it for the ride.

[vector7]

Honestly, this country has gone to hell in a hand basket and we're all stuck in it for the ride.

Yep...our futures so bright I gotta find darker shades.

[American Patriot]

Oh MY GOD! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope to God they figure out all of these assholes are lying about the "horrible crash".... and then FIRE THEM. Each and every, single one of them from the President down.


White House and GOP set to let sequester deadline expire without deal

Washington braces for prolonged stand-off in the 'sequester' crisis as both sides neglect to seek out last-minute deal

• Ewen MacAskill in Washington

Senate majority leader Harry Reid holds a news conference on the eve of the budget sequester. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images



The chances of a last-minute deal in the latest US tax and spending crisis appeared to be receding after Republican leaders said no new compromise would be tabled in talks at the White House scheduled for Friday.


Draconian cuts to the US budget are scheduled to kick in at midnight Friday, with the White House warning it will lead to teachers being laid off, defence orders scrapped, air travel delays, vaccine projects shelved and border security reduced.


The cuts stem from the latest clash between Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress over tax and spending. The difference this time is that neither Obama nor the Republicans are actively seeking the usual last-minute deal and Washington is braced for a prolonged stand-off in the so-called "sequester" crisis.


Obama is to meet the top two Republican congressional leaders, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and House speaker John Boehner, and their Democratic counterparts at the White House on Friday neither side anticipates a deal even being tabled, let alone reached.


There was not even the remotest hint of a compromise Thursday. McConnell, speaking in the Senate on Thursday, blamed Obama for failing to put forward a serious plan or engage in serious discussion.


"This week, he finally invited Speaker Boehner and me to discuss the sequester – tomorrow, the day it takes effect," McConnell said.


McConnell added: "Now, after thwarting every bipartisan attempt to avert his sequester, the president is ready to make it bite as hard as possible – all to send a simple message to the public: 'You want to control Washington spending, America? Fine, let me show you much I can make it hurt.'


"Instead of directing his cabinet secretaries to trim waste in their departments, he's going to go after first responders. And teachers. And almost any other sympathetic constituency you can think of. And he'll arbitrarily close parks and monuments too – all to force Americans to accept higher taxes. He'll claim his hands are tied.


"He'll say he has no choice but to release criminals into the streets and withhold vaccines from poor children. And somehow, it will be everyone's fault but his. Nonsense."


Boehner described the cuts as "not smart" but said the onus was not on the Republicans but Obama and Democrats in the Senate to come up with a bill to resolve it.


The crisis was born out of a 2011 clash over raising the debt ceiling when lawmakers agreed a hastily constructed fudge, known as the sequester, in which automatic cuts could take effect if Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on a tax and spending package.


At the time, both the White House and Republicans believed the cuts were so arbitrary and draconian that they would never be implemented and would force both sides to reach agreement. But neither side settled down to negotiate.


The chances of a late compromise are so negligible that the House will not be sitting Friday, wrapping up business on Thursday evening. Two bills were scheduled to be introduced in the House and Senate on Thursday but these were primarily to offer political cover, with no chance of either being passed.


The White House, tired after two years of showdown after showdown with Republicans over tax and spending, seems prepared to let the $85bn in cuts over the next seven months kick in and let the Republicans take the blame as tens of thousands of workers start to receive notices about shorter working weeks, compulsory leaves of absence or even lay-offs.


Republicans, after losing the last clash with Obama in December that resulted in a modest increase in taxes, are in no mood to give ground this time either. They accuse the White House of exaggeration and scare-mongering, saying there will be no visible effect in the short-term, with many of the cuts to be phased in over weeks and months.


But the deadline is already having an impact. The Department of Homeland Security this week released hundreds of undocumented workers were being held in detention centres. The immigration and customs enforcement division said the release was in preparation for the cuts which would limit the number of undocumented workers it can house.


Two Republican congressmen, Chuck Grassley and Bob Goodlatte, wrote to the secretary of state for homeland security, Janet Napolitano, on Thursday saying she should have been prepared.


"Simply blaming budget reductions as a means to turn a blind eye toward the national security of the American people is a dangerous plan," they wrote.


The deadline has created confusion and anxiety throughout the country at a time when the US economy remains fragile. Economists warn that the cuts could cut growth by about half a percent, enough to send modest job increases into reverse.


Workers at a naval shipyard in Virginia visited this week by Obama expressed concern about reduced hours and possible lay-offs.
Obama is thinking strategically instead of continuing to lurch from crisis to crisis, intent on a final showdown with the Republicans rather than seeing his second term totally disrupted by repeated clashes.


The White House thinks Obama is in a strong position. The latest ABC-Washington Post poll shows 52% disapproval for his handling of the crisis but 67% disapproval for the Republicans.


Many Democrats, though they will not say this in public, see the $85bn in cuts as a good bargain because about half will come from Pentagon spending, which Republicans normally battle to protect.


On Thursday, the veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward was involved in a spat with the White House after an article critical of Obama's handling of the sequester. This prompted heated exchanges between Woodward and the White House's national economic council director Gene Sperling, the White House denied a charge that Sperling threatened Woodward, insisting that he only said the reporter would regret writing the article.

[American Patriot]

'An asteroid headed to earth!' -- what Obama and the media are missing in sequester drama

By John Stossel

Published February 28, 2013

FoxNews.com

President Obama warns that if Congress allows automatic budget cuts known as the "sequester" to happen:

"Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off... tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care... Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, causing delays!"

The media is hysterical, too.

"Watch out! Like the asteroid headed to earth, they're coming -- $86 billion in automatic budget cuts," CNN anchor Carol Costello warned.

For once, some parts of government might face a real cut. But it's not a big cut -- entrepreneurs have to make cuts like that all the time.

It sounds like politicians finally got serious. But they haven't. Here is a chart -- based on this new CBO report - showing what happens to government spending with and without the sequester:

There's hardly any difference! Spending will still rise to a ruinous $4.5 trillion (vs. 4.6 trillion without the sequester).

It is true that some parts of government would be cut. The sequester would come almost entirely from discretionary spending.

Discretionary spending, after adjusting for inflation, would fall about 7% in 2013 and then another 5% in 2014, before holding steady.

Good!

For once, some parts of government might face a real cut. But it's not a big cut -- entrepreneurs have to make cuts like that all the time.

The sequester is a start. But to save America, we need to address the biggest unsustainable programs: Medicare/Medicaid, and Social Security.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/...#ixzz2ME7dwBMW

[vector7]

Companion Threads:

• Obama: Anti-Colonial President, Plans for the next term
  
• Suspicious Deaths During The Obama Administration
• Obama administration introduced an anti-free speech measure
  
• Obama signs renewal of foreign surveillance law in secret
• The Growing List Allegedly Committing Sedition Against U.S.

White House threatened Bob Woodward for Obama expose

• White House threatened Bob Woodward
• February 28, 2013
• By: Marv Dumon

On Wednesday, the White House sent a threatening email to Washington Post editor Bob Woodward who later appeared on CNN's "Situation Room".

On Wednesday, the White House sent a threatening email to veteran journalist Bob Woodward after he said that President Barack Obama and cabinet official Jack Lew lied about the sequestration cuts. In a Feb. 27 appearance on CNN's "Situation Room," Woodward declined to identify the senior administration official who had threatened him.

"They're not happy at all," said Woodward, who serves as editor of the Washington Post. "It was said very clearly, you will regret doing this. He added that he was "very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters you're going to regret doing something. Let's hope it's not the strategy."

Last week, Woodward posted an op-ed piece on the Washington Post. He wrote that the March 1 sequester cuts was originally the White House's idea, and not congress. Since 2011, Obama has appeared in several campaign-style events stating that cuts to the federal budget was proposed by congress. The president has also been blaming House Republicans for looming furloughs to tens of thousands of government employees.



Woodward: Obama White House sent threats

In his article, Woodward wrote:

That statement was not accurate . . . . the president and Lew had been wrong . . . . So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts. His call for a balanced approach is reasonable, and he makes a strong case that those in the top income brackets could and should pay more. But that was not the deal he made.

During the final presidential debates on Oct. 22 last year, Barack Obama told Republican challenger Mitt Romney as well as a live television audience that sequestration was a proposal advanced by congress. (Video) After conducting an analysis, PolitiFact.com concluded right after the debates that the president's claim was false. Last week, Obama also claimed in a speech that if the sequester hits, federal prosecutors will have to "let criminals go." On Feb. 19, PolitiFact said that claim is mostly false.

In 2011, Obama gave a press conference at the White House in which the president stated that he would veto any sequester legislation. (Video) However, on Aug. 2, 2011, the president signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 which mandated automatic sequester cuts.

In Wednesday's appearance on MSNBC, Bob Woodard blamed Obama's sequestration strategy as "a kind of madness". Appearing on "Morning Joe," he said:

Under the Constitution, the president is commander-in-chief and employs the force. And so we now have the president going out because of this piece of paper and this agreement. ‘I can’t do what I need to do to protect the country.’ That’s a kind of madness that I haven’t seen in a long time.

Woodward cited his 2012 best-selling book The Price of Politics in which several insiders within the Obama administration served as sources. Those sources provided insights into how the White House (and not congress) originally proposed the March 1 budget cuts. Earlier this week, Jack Lew was confirmed by the U.S. senate as the next treasury secretary.

In his book, Woodward also blasts Obama's legion of advisers for opposing U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war. According to Woodward's sources, the president overruled his entire national security staff - including Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta, and Gen. Martin Dempsey - who recommended to the commander-in-chief that the United States arm the Syrian rebels.

Obama disapproved such plans in order to increase his chances for re-election in 2012, according to White House insiders. So far, Syria's three-year unrest has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 civilians.

According to a Feb. 27 ABC News/Washington Post poll, 52 percent of Americans disapprove of how Barack Obama is handling the sequestration cuts. The president also has a 43 percent approval rating on federal spending.

Lanny Davis: White House Threatened Me, Too

Thursday, 28 Feb 2013 04:03 PM
By Lisa Barron



Newsmax blogger Lanny Davis on Thursday claimed that he too has been on the receiving end of threats from the White House as a result of columns he has written about President Barack Obama.

Davis, former special counsel to President Bill Clinton, said that his Washington Times editor, John Solomon, “received a phone call from a senior Obama White House official who didn’t like some of my columns, even though I’m a supporter of Obama.”

“I couldn’t imagine why this call was made,” Davis told Washington radio station WMAL. “And he did threaten that if he continued to run my columns, he would lose, or his reporters would lose, their White House credentials.”

Urgent: Spending Cuts – Obama to Blame? Vote in Urgent Poll

Davis was speaking before Gene Sperling, economic adviser to the president, was identified as the White House official who last week told Washington Post editor Bob Woodward he would “regret” writing a column criticizing Obama’s stance on the sequester. Davis did not name the official involved in his case.

Politico on Thursday released the text of the email exchange between Sperling and Woodward. On February 22, Sperling wrote, “I do truly believe you should think your comment about saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim.”

The emails show that what Woodward referred to as a threat by the White House on CNN Wednesday night may not have been as menacing as he said.

Still, said Davis, “I don’t care what the intent was, and I’ll assume people are saying there is no intent, it doesn’t matter. The words ‘you’re going to regret it’ are threatening.”

As for his situation, Davis said Solomon “didn’t take it seriously, because he didn’t think that could ever happen.”

“I called three senior people at the White House, and I said, ‘I want this person to be told this can never happen again and it’s inappropriate,’” Davis revealed. “I got a call back from someone who was in the White House saying it will never happen again.”

He added that the person who called his editor is still in the White House.

[Phil Fiord]

Should we watching for another round of mysterious deaths?

[vector7]

At Midnight Toinight, Every, Man, Woman, and Child in the United States is Fired from their Jobs

by John Galt
February 28, 2013 18:45 ET

The dumb Communist B***h from California said so it must be true:

[Phil Fiord]

Maxine. Oh Maxine.

You know, arent we the the ones who are said to be alarmist?