Friday, May 4, 2012

May 4, 2012 - Music video

One minute, I'm outside collecting pollen .....
and the next moment, "Wham! I find myself one sick bee!
At first, I thought it was Obama's policies making me sick;
because the garden I am in has kind owners 
who do not use pesticides.
But, the doctors say "nothing serious" - just need 
a few days rest and I should be up and about again!
honey bee cartoons, honey bee cartoon, honey bee picture, honey bee pictures, honey bee image, honey bee images, honey bee illustration, honey bee illustrations
Meanwhile, my friends ran a "Honey Drive" for me 
and a slow drip of "Bee Positive"
should help me gain my strength back in a few days.

Thank you, dear readers, for your patience.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Take time to smell the flowers,
listen to music,
and 
I should "bee" back by Monday or Tuesday
next week.


Bee Happy!







Wednesday, May 2, 2012

SEALs Slam Obama for Giving Himself Credit for Bin Laden Raid


TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

MIDDLE EAST AND TERRORISM


by Rick Moran

We've heard from John McCain and Mitt Romney about Obama's "gutsy call" in ordering the Bin Laden raid. But what about the guys whose brethren actually went into harms way to carry it out?
Serving and former US Navy SEALs have slammed President Barack Obama for taking the credit for killing Osama bin Laden and accused him of using Special Forces operators as 'ammunition' for his re-election campaign.
The SEALs spoke out to MailOnline after the Obama campaign released an ad entitled 'One Chance'.
[...]
Ryan Zinke, a former Commander in the US Navy who spent 23 years as a SEAL and led a SEAL Team 6 assault unit, said: 'The decision was a no brainer. I applaud him for making it but I would not overly pat myself on the back for making the right call.
'I think every president would have done the same. He is justified in saying it was his decision but the preparation, the sacrifice - it was a broader team effort.'
Mr Zinke, who is now a Republican state senator in Montana, added that MR Obama was exploiting bin Laden's death for his re-election bid. 'The President and his administration are positioning him as a war president using the SEALs as ammunition. It was predictable.'
Senior military figures have said that Admiral William McRaven, a former SEAL who was then head of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) made the decision to take bin Laden out. Tactical decisions were delegated even further down the chain of command.
Mr Kyle added: 'He's trying to say that Romney wouldn't have made the same call? Anyone who is patriotic to this country would have made that exact call, Democrat or Republican. Obama is taking more credit than he is due but it's going to get him some pretty good mileage.'
I sense the tide is turning on this story and unless Obama drops it quickly, it will redound in Romney's favor. No one likes a braggart - especially one who fails to give proper credit to the true heroes in this story while making it appear that one's opponent has less courage.
It is a shabby, ugly political ploy and blowing up in Obama's face would be a deserving outcome.
Rick Moran

Source:http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/05/seals_slam_obama_for_giving_himself_credit_for_bin_laden_raid.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Obama Ready To Campaign Openly As A Marxist

Bee's Note:  So, this is what "Mr. Flexible" was referring to when whispering to Russia's president!  Obama is doing it "his" way - not the American way and if the GOP misses its opportunity to expose this "Forward" Marxism/Socialism/Communist agenda of Obama, then they deserve to lose!  It all makes sense now, from the refusal to salute the American flag, to replacing our flag with a logo that represents nothing but a puffed-up, egotistical, small-minded man and an ideology foreign to America.  No wonder his "foreign" policies have nothing to do with supporting our allies and no wonder he has hugged our enemies these past 3 plus years! 
And, no wonder he has no problem allowing Russian troops train on American soil!


Obama Ready To Campaign Openly As A Marxist

Obama Ready To Campaign Openly As A Marxist
SCREENSHOT
The Barack Obama campaign revealed its slogan on Monday.
President Barack Obama feels emboldened. He’s sensing victory in November, so he’s beginning to telegraph the way “Forward.”
“Forward.” was unveiled as Obama’s campaign slogan. It’s a word with strong ties to Marxism and socialism. “Forward!” (note the exclamation point) was a popular name for Communist and radical publications and entities during the 19th and 20th centuries. Obama’s slogan contains a period.
The Washington Times posits that the Obama campaign didn’t look backward into history when it selected “Forward.” as its campaign slogan. That’s not true. The Obama campaign has Marxists and socialists in its midst. It’s inconceivable the Marxists and communists in Obama’s campaign didn’t know the history of “Forward.” The campaign is a masterful marketing organization.
Obama himself is a Marxist. His mentor — and likely biological father — was the communist Frank Marshall Davis. Obama referred to him as “Pops” in his book, Dreams from my Father. Obama’s mother and grandparents — longtime friends of Davis — were also communists. His political career was launched from the home of the communist terrorist Bill Ayers. Obama belonged to the socialist New Party in Chicago in the mid-90s. In 1996 Obama received the endorsement of the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in his bid for the State Senate.
I often see it written or hear it said that Obama is stupid, clueless or out of touch. Don’t be deceived. Obama and his minions know what they are doing.
There are now 76 members of Congress who belong to the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). CPC was founded in 1991 by socialist Bernie Sanders. The DSA has been closely linked to the CPC for years. It hosted the CPC website in the beginning. TheCommunist Party USA identifies CPC members as “allies.”
According to a Pew Research Center poll released in December 2011, 31 percent of Americans view socialism in positive terms. Only 50 percent polled view capitalism in positive terms. A Rasmussen poll from last summer gave similar numbers: 53 percent to 47 percent prefer capitalism to socialism.
For the Obama campaign to boldly select “Forward.” as its slogan indicates Obama and his backers think the battle is won. In their minds, the transformation of the United States to a communist country is as good as done.

Bee's Note
:

Obama Youth - New Nazi Campaign Slogan




h/t THE WESTERN CENTER FOR JOURNALISM - To see Obama’s new slogan, watch this campaign video titled, “Forward.“ (VIDEO posted above)


The Forwardism Disease - by Sultan Knish

Tuesday, May 01, 2012


The Obama slogan for 2012 is in and it's "Forward", which is a compact version of that old classic, "Don't change horses in the middle of a stream" that every incumbent is forced to run on sooner or later. Forward implies that there's no alternative but to go backward, which is a place that no right-thinking person wants to go.

The left has always been enamored of "Forwardism" or "Progressivism" which mean much the same thing. Before MSNBC had Lean Forward, Mao had the Great Leap Forward which killed some 40 million people, far more people than MSNBC can ever dream of tuning in to their programs. 

When Lenin wanted to launch his own newspaper, he called it, "Vperod" or Forward. The name still lingers on among the left and appears on the mastheads of newspapers across the world. It's Vorwarts in Germany, Voorwarts in the Netherlands and Ila al-Amam in the Arab world. Back in New York it's The Forward, the venerable blotting paper of the Jewish left.

There are any number of left-wing political parties who have already named themselves "Forward", including the Forward Communist Party of India, Kadima, the left-wing opposition party in Israel, and Vperod, a Russian political party that split off from the Socialist Resistance on account of the latter not being radical enough.

Picking "Forward" as his campaign slogan puts Obama in good company with the likes of Lenin and Mao, and it sounds positive until you stop and realize that it's meant more as an order than a suggestion. There's a reason most leftist newspapers with that name add an exclamation mark at the end of it. It's not a proposal, it's a command. Lean forward, march forward, live forward and then die forward. We've burned the bridges, run up the deficit and trashed the economy so there's no going back.

An old Soviet era joke told the story of the wife of a Communist leader who upon hearing that her husband had developed a progressive paralysis, clapped her hands and exclaimed that at least it was progressive. That is the underlying message of "Forward" to voters, the country may be paralyzed, but at least it's a progressive paralysis which leaves us unable to move our heads and stop leaning forward while the Entertainer in Chief croons to us about the wonderful world to come.

That may be why it remains a popular campaign slogan among desperate left of center candidates. When Adlai Stevenson, dean of the liberal eggheads, ran in 1952, the campaign buttons read, "Forward with Stevenson". The country chose to go backward instead with Eisenhower winning by a landslide. 

Tony Blair ran for his third term under the slogan, "Britain, forward, not back", which despite its clumsiness did conclusively explain that"Forward" as a campaign slogan means there's no going back. However Blair forgot to tell voters that this referred to his immigration policy which helped create Broken Britain. 

In this forward-thinking Britain, the police are being trained to look for signs of sorcery among immigrants after children have been murdered on suspicion that they might be witches. The last woman to be executed on witchcraft charges in the area was back in 1727, but now the UK is back in the witch hunting business or the hunting witchhunters business as the case may be. That's not to mention the Islamic female genital mutilation business, which is also booming as part of Britain's forward march into the 7th century.

Had Blair been a touch more honest, the slogan would have been, "Britain, so forward, it's backward." Much like having a mind so open your brains fall out, that is one of the dangers of being so forward, going so far ahead you end up in the middle of the Arabian desert praising absolute monarchies and slave states like Qatar as beacons of freedom and democracy, while your police hunt witchhunters and the mutilators of little girls.

In Australia, Julia Gillard rolled out "Moving Forward", explaining that the slogan fit because Australians are an optimistic forward-looking people. Which they had to be as their country had suffered the worst economic decline in twenty years. When things are that bad, you might as well look forward and find something to be optimistic about.

The Grenadan Revolution had its own forward thinking slogans like "Who Controls the Minds of the People Have the Power" and "Forward Ever, Backward Never". Sadly the revolution ended up going backward when the reactionary running dog capitalists overthrew the Cuban backed revolutionaries and robbed them of control over the minds of the people.

The Obama campaign has largely adopted both Grenadan slogans, but its control over the minds of the people may prove to be as tenuous as that of the People's Revolutionary Army did over Grenada. The backward view is surprisingly appealing even to Obama supporters who can't help remembering that there used to be more jobs and more money before the Hope and Change revolution.

Romney might ask you if you are better off now than you were four years ago, but Obama will tell you to forget the past and look forward to the eternal future that is always peeking over the horizon. The mirage of the progressive world of tomorrow which we can reach over a pile of dead senior citizens, energy saving lightbulbs and multicultural coloring books.

The very use of "Forward" as a slogan summons up a century's worth of socialist ghosts that they are blind to. But recognizing that would require looking backward, which forward thinking people do not do. 

In Maryland, Governor Martin O'Malley, a liberal Democrat, turned a billion dollar surplus into a two billion dollar deficit, and then ran for reelection on what other slogan but, "Moving Maryland Forward". The people of Maryland have moved on to what else but more billion dollar deficits. That is what you get when you move "Forward", deficit spending today that will reap dividends in tomorrow's utopias, economics by officials who can't be bothered to count how much money they have because they're too busy looking forward to the future.

Forwardistan is not some enigmatic place, it's Lenin's Russia, Mao's China, O'Malley's Maryland and Obama's America. It's what happens when you drive leaning forward, because maps and rear view mirrors are for backward thinking people who lack the courage to take the great leap of faith forward into the economic dead zone of uncontrolled spending and crude control of the economy.

Progressives do not like looking backward in the rearview mirror, there's too many things there that they would rather not see, like the Great Leap Forward, the Gulags, the ghosts of Five Year Plans and a thousand failed ideologies and dead philosophies taunting them. Forwardism frees them from having to contemplate the unemployment figures or the deficit, there is no past, only the eternal future. Forget your troubles and groove to a new hopeful slogan that promises a better world tomorrow for a hamburger today. 

In 1887, Edward Bellamy published the classic socialist tract, "Looking Backward" that imagined a Socialist America in the year 2000 where all industries had been nationalized, the economy had been militarized into an industrial army and retirement age was set at forty-five. Though Bellamy named his book, "Looking Backward", he actually meant looking forward to the wonders of a new age that would apply progressive ideals and industrialization to every sphere of human affairs.

Bellamy's utopia never quite came about, except in parts of Europe, which are swiftly going down the economic tubes, and the Soviet Union, which imploded in failed production quotas, debt and senseless tyranny. But there is one brief excerpt from "Looking Backward" that amply sums up the wrongness of Forwardism.

"It is easier for a general up in a balloon with perfect survey of the field, to manoeuvre a million men to victory than for a sergeant to manage a platoon in a thicket," one of Bellamy's future mouthpieces explains, laying out why the individual businessman is inferior to the wisdom of a planned economy. 

Bellamy was fifteen when the Civil War ended and he died without ever seeing his country fight another major war. Had he lived to the Great War, he might have understood something of the wisdom of sergeants and the folly of generals. Perhaps he would have even realized that while generals can see farther than sergeants, they don't know the terrain or what it takes to hold it.

After a century of Bellamy's scientific generals of industry losing the battle on every front, his successors are still moving backward by looking forward, not to the year 2000, but perhaps to 3000, or at least 2100. Some year in the distant future when mankind will finally be run by a machine state that will run everything fairly and rationally under the guidance of the generals of the state.

That is what "Forward" really means. The "Forwardism" of that future which never seems to work, but is on the edge of working, with enough money, enough laws and enough marching orders, mankind will finally set foot into that mechanical state where leaders look upon us from their balloons and tell us how to live and how to die.

On college campuses, Obama stretches out his hand, urging students to take it and make that great leap forward with him into the future. That is what this election is really about and that is what this year will decide. Do we leap forward with him off the cliff or do we turn back and try to find a better way ahead? 



Bee's Note:
See The Washington Times article:









Obama’s Raid on Bin Laden Campaign

Bee's Note:  
The "Classic Liberal"  raises some very interesting "questions" about the death of Bin Laden - questions that will go unanswered for years to come (much like the JFK conspiracy theories).  How many books and movies are out there about "Who killed JFK?".  
Now, with a president making claims that if it were not for his sound wisdom, bin Laden would never have been caught and killed.  Really?  Is Obama known for telling the truth about anything?  I would believe the men who had boots on the ground that evening in Pakistan.  However there is a problem, since those involved with the actual "killing" of bin Laden are no longer alive to tell their story.  Members of Team 6 went down in a botched helicopter crash in Afghanistan shortly after the raid of bin Laden's home located in Pakistan.  It was as if the Taliban had been given advanced notice of that particular helicopter heading towards their mission - a mission that normally, according to some interviewed, that Team 6 would not be involved in and there lies another questions: "Who gave the orders to place so many of our elite team on "one" helicopter?"  Compare that to how many helicopters arrived at bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.  Team 6 did not arrive at the compound in "one" helicopter.
Team 6, the most elite military group in one fell swoop, is killed by the group claiming the downing of their helicopter, the Taliban!  Does anyone find this story more strange then the killing of bin Laden?  I, for one, find this story most disturbing and 50 years from today I believe questions surrounding the deaths of Team 6 members will remain a mystery, with many questions surrounding the deaths of these men unanswered.
As for the story of bin Laden's capture and killing, how many remember Saddam Hussein's capture?  He was put on trial, found guilty of crimes against his own people, and hanged.  The hanging is on video and the record of his trial erase many questions surrounding this Iraqi dictator.  It does not leave much for the imagination, as his story is recorded by both written testimony and scenes of his execution.
How different from the secrecy surrounding the death of bin Laden!  According to many Islamic leaders, bin Laden's burial at sea was not an "honorable" death for one who followed Islam, despite what Obama described as an "honorable" death for a Muslim.  What else is a fabrication surrounding bin Laden's death and burial?  We'll never know, because this administration inability to be transparent with the American people and for the sake of history, has a cloud over it so heavy, the light of day will never be one of President Obama's attributes.  Historians will have to wade through mountains of lies when searching for the truth.  The difference between the Bush administrations "capture" the enemy and Obama's "kill" the enemy is the difference between day and night; Bush never felt the need for cover-ups, while Obama covers-up every thing from his birth, up and through his handling of matters relating to America's security and this War on Terror.  

CLASSIC LIBERAL
Playing up the Osama bin Laden hit in his new campaign ad, President Obama has created yet another non-issue/non-controversy.

Obama's Bin Laden ad a low blow

The presidential campaigns are abuzz over a new campaign strategy by President Obama, who is playing up his decisiveness in the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden -- and suggesting that his Republican opponent Mitt Romney wouldn't have done the same. That's the theme rolled out recently by campaign pit bull (and Vice President) Joe Biden, and it's the topic of a new Obama ad that blogpreneur Arianna Huffington thinks is "despicable."
Romney's rather flippant response to all this -- "even Jimmy Carter would have given that order" to capture or kill Bin Laden, he told reporters at a campaign event Monday -- was pretty lame, but give his speechwriters time to catch up and he'll doubtless have something better. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign is smart to play up Obama's superior experience and his proven correctness is pursuing Bin Laden. But implying that Romney might have ignored the architect of 9/11 is taking things a big step too far.
Authoritarian statist and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, isoutrageously outraged!
"I say any president, Jimmy Carter, anybody, any president would have, obviously, under those circumstances, done the same thing. And to now take credit for something that any president would do is indicative of take over campaign we're under -- we're -- we're seeing … So all I can say is that this is going to be a very rough campaign," McCain told Fox News in an interview set to air Monday night. "And I've had the great honor of serving in the company of heroes. And, you know the thing about heroes, they don't brag."
Those remarks largely mirror a similar claim made by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earlier Monday. McCain has endorsed Romney's bid for the White House and served as one of his top surrogates on foreign policy issues.
DebtEconomyPolice state? No worries. We've got a good soap opera to distract us.
What was supposed to be an easy win—a victory lap on the anniversary of Bin Laden's death, trumping up the president's most militant moment—appeared to be slipping away.
The frustration—or, even anger—within the SEAL community is real, and has been brewing for months, particularly among a politically conservative core of operators. It started immediately after the raid, with questions among the Special Forces and intelligence community of whether the president should have waited to announce the kill to exploit the intelligence cache at Osama's compound. It simmered after a Chinook helicopter was shot down, killing 30 Americans, 22 of them Navy SEALs from Team Six.
Was it a coincidence, SEALs asked themselves, catastrophe hit Team Six so soon after being named as the team responsible for the killing?
The White House narrative on the Geronimo mission would soon come under scrutiny as well, after Chuck Pfarrer, a former member of Seal Team Six, published a book length account questioning the official version of the story. The controversial book was viciously attacked — a JSOC spokesperson called it a "fabrication" — and it was widely dismissed by the press.
What the pushback revealed, however, was an extreme sensitivity in the White House as to who would have the privilege to tell the Bin Laden story, best expressed in a compelling, if well stage-managed, story in the New Yorker …
But as the stagey outrage over the politicization of foreign policy from Mitt Romney and his Republican allies gained momentum … White House officials started to have their doubts. Was spiking the football, again, and again, and again, in a public such a good idea?
It wouldn't be surprising to see the website: navysealsagainstobama.com sprout up soon. Sure, military servicemen are accustomed to being exploited by both the left and the right. But … If the assault on the Bin Laden narrative continues, and if the anger expressed in private by the SEALs remains very public, the campaign might be forced to retreat.
So, a politician is making the bin Laden mission a political football … Outrageous!
It's a good thing public pensions are in order, so we don't have to talk about that. This is a Very Important Story. Certainly, our beloved Republicans would never ever ever politicize our, um, "national security," yet The Most Transparent Administration Ever™ is doing exactly that?
Unreal.
Wait a minute. Hold the phone. Come to think of it …
I don't recall any evidence whatsoever being presented that proves the hit on Osama bin Laden actually took place. I mean, who in their right mind believes a politician?
Paul Craig Roberts, May 13, 2011
The US government … finally told us the truth for once. Obama found Osama and had him murdered, apparently unarmed in his underwear, defended not by al Qaeda, "the best trained, most dangerous vicious killers on the planet," but by two unarmed women.
[I]f you believe this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I can let you have for a cheap price.
The government has created another reality for us proles. We won again. Us white hats got the black hat, just like in the western movie. Fantasy is better than fact, and us good guys are on a roll. It makes everybody happy, even those who have lost their jobs, their houses, their pensions.
Homeland Security says the next black hat will be "domestic extremists." The CIA says it will be the next al Qaeda leader, bin Laden's replacement … The neocon brownshirts say it is Pakistan … Hillary says it is China …
Airport Security will pat down more babies, feel more genitals, and radiate more air travelers.
Angelo M. Codevilla, March 2009
Seven years after Osama bin Laden's last verifiable appearance among the living, there is more evidence for Elvis's presence among us than for his. Hence there is reason to ask whether the paradigm of Osama bin Laden as terrorism's deus ex machina and of al Qaeda as the prototype of terrorism may be an artifact of our Best and Brightest's imagination, and whether investment in this paradigm has kept our national security establishment from thinking seriously about our troubles' sources. So let us take a fresh look at the fundamentals.
Negative evidence alone compels the conclusion that Osama is long since dead. Since October 2001, when Al Jazeera's Tayseer Alouni interviewed him, no reputable person reports having seen him—not even after multiple-blind journeys through intermediaries. The audio and video tapes alleged to be Osama's never convinced impartial observers. The guy just does not look like Osama. Some videos show him with a Semitic aquiline nose, while others show him with a shorter, broader one. Next to that, differences between colors and styles of beard are small stuff.
Nor does the tapes' Osama sound like Osama …
Above all, whereas Elvis impersonators at least sing the King's signature song, "You ain't nutin' but a hound dawg," the words on the Osama tapes differ substantively from what the real Osama used to say—especially about the most important matter. On September 16, 2001, on Al Jazeera, Osama said of 9/11: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation." … But in the so-called "confession video" that the CIA found in December, the Osama figure acts like the chief conspirator. The fact that the video had been made for no self-evident purpose except perhaps to be found by the Americans should have raised suspicion.
FoxNews.com, December 26, 2001
Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.
"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.
Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.
Strangely,
Three months after they killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan and cemented their place in military legend, the SEALs suffered a devastating loss when nearly two dozen of the elite troops were among 30 Americans who died when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan early Saturday.
It was the largest number of American troops killed in a single day in the war. U.S. officials said the helicopter appeared to have been felled by enemy fire, and the Taliban quickly claimed responsibility. Seven Afghan commandos and a civilian interpreter also were killed, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.
No member of the Bin Laden raid team was among the dead, said a Pentagon official briefed on the casualties who was not authorized to speak publicly while families still were being notified. But he said 22 of the 30 were Navy SEALs, and a significant number were members of SEAL Team 6, the unit that conducted the Bin Laden raid and is made up of just a few hundred of some of the best-trained fighters in the U.S. military.
The "official story" has, of course, changed numerous times and continues to changetoo. Something is very wrong with the story. Also, the CIA has admitted to creating fake bin Laden videos, while others believe he was killed long ago.
There's simply no evidence the Obama administration had anything to do with killing bin Laden. No evidence at all. Yet we're wasting ink, pixels and breathe, arguing over "bragging rights" ?????


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

It's "May Day" .. Go hug a Commie


Bee's Note:  Years ago, many years ago, or maybe I should say, "Once upon a time...", on the first day of May, the school I attended made it a fun day for all of us.  School lunch was moved outside, where we played games, sang songs, and had a picnic.  If it rained, the picnic and games were held inside, but it didn't rob us of the fun we had on the first day of May.  Times change and the schools no longer recognize May 1st as a "special" day and I think the children miss out on a lot of good memories.  May brings on the flowers, grass is greener, buds bursting on the trees and just around the corner is our beautiful but short summer.  However, times have changed and the first of May in today's world is a very different place, as "Is This Blog On" describes perfectly, from the side of the "Occupy" folks and the ever-draining moans from the White House and its administration. With dispositions so rotten, if they could, they would change May into December, but we can count our blessings - May still remains one of the most beautiful months of the year. 

IS THIS BLOG ON?

This entry was posted on May 1, 2012 at 7:25 am 

Happy Commie Day


It’s May Day, so go hug a commie. You shouldn’t have too much trouble finding one, because they’ve planned events all over the world. In the U.S. the occupy folks plan on participating in a “general strike” against “a system that does not work for us.”
Like most commie leaders, Obama is taking it easy today.
10:30 am || Receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
11:00 am || Meets with senior advisers
4:30 pm || Meets with Defense Secretary Panetta
Of course, all that football spiking is prolly wearing him out. Here, he addresses his role in the event. Smirk warning.

‘I said that I’d go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him, and I did,’ Mr Obama said. ‘If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they’d do something else, then I’d go ahead and let them explain it.’

Go ahead and admit it; when he said that, with that smirk on his face, you wanted to throw something.


The irony is rich, though – Obama as a man of his word? Yea, about that … Peter Kirsanow has a nice list of things he’s said. A few of my favorites:
If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”
“My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government.”
“I will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American people an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website.”
“No political appointee in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years.”

The Seals are not very happy about Obama using the OBL killing in his re-election:
A serving SEAL Team member said: ‘Obama wasn’t in the field, at risk, carrying a gun. As president, at every turn he should be thanking the guys who put their lives on the line to do this. He does so in his official speeches because he speechwriters are smart.
‘But the more he tries to take the credit for it, the more the ground operators are saying, “Come on, man!” It really didn’t matter who was president. At the end of the day, they were going to go.’

Even Jimmy Carter would have made the call, as Romney said yesterday.
‘In years to come there is going to be information that will come out that Obama was not the man who made the call. He can say he did and the people who really know what happened are inside the Pentagon, are in the military and the military isn’t allowed to speak out against the commander- in-chief so his secret is safe.’
Senior military figures have said that Admiral William McRaven, a former SEAL who was then head of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) made the decision to take bin Laden out. Tactical decisions were delegated even further down the chain of command.

In addition, Obama’s “Gutsy Call” apparently had an escape clause for blame.
A recently disclosed memorandum from then-CIA Director Leon Panetta shows that the president’s celebrated derring-do in authorizing the operation included a responsibility-escape clause: “The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out.”
Which is to say, if the mission went wrong, the fault would be Adm. McRaven’s, not the president’s.

But, of course, the mission went pretty well. When George W Bush announced the capture of Saddam Hussein, the speech went like this:
He called that success “a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq.” He attributed it to “the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator’s footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers. . . . Their work continues, and so do the risks.”
He did mention himself at the end: “Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate them.”

The I-Me-Mine President announcing the killing of OBL did things a little differently:
“I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority . . . even as I continued our broader effort. . . . Then, after years of painstaking work by my intelligence community I was briefed . . . I met repeatedly with my national security team . . . And finally last week I determined that I had enough intelligence to take action. . . . Today, at my direction . . .”

He’s a little man.





No safety in weaker al Qaeda - The Washington Times

Bee's Note:  Ever since the Obama administration declared "the war on terror is over", there have been numerous, reports that this administration is as wrong about the "War on Terror" being over, as it was when Bush first said, "Mission Accomplished".  We are fully aware of U.S. troops spread all over the world, continuing this on-going fight against Islamic terrorism and some groups may not be tagged "al Qaeda", but as you read  Kristina Wong's report in the Washington Times, the ideology of all Islamic terror organizations is the same.
As the war in Afghanistan winds down, the American citizens have been informed that we'll be paying billions of dollars for years to come to the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.  Talk about "nation building"!  Just thinking about supporting a crooked, poppy-growing, heroine-supplying government in Afghanistan boggles the mind! 
Were we once informed that oil-rich Iraq would be paying the United States back for removing Saddam Hussein?  And that poppy business brings in BILLIONS to Afghanistan, so maybe they could help out the Untied States weakened economy!  Oh, I know, silly me for thinking Americans who suffered the worse attack by Muslim terrorists on 9/11 would ever see the light of day - the smoke and ashes will remain with us forever.  It will remain every time a family member of the 9/11 attacks visits a cemetery; it will remain with us when loved ones visit the cemeteries of those who died during this War on Terror; and it will remain with us every time we look up at the new buildings where once the Twin Towers stood.  
 If we're not fighting the terrorists, we're supporting them; sometimes we do both at the same time!  Is it any wonder that when this administration announces that the "War on Terror" is over, Americans can only shake their heads in dismay, knowing this war will be on-going forever, or until Islam changes it ideology. Does anyone see that happening in the near future?  No, I don't see it happening either, as Islam will remain in its 7th century ideology for another 1400 years and so will their hatred, killings, murders and torture towards Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
The following two photos are the handi-work of the so-called "Religion of Peace", followed by the article from The Washington Times.
Pigeons fly near burning parts of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, India, on Nov. 27, 2008. Aggressive counterterrorism efforts - such as drone strikes and economic sanctions - have crippled al Qaeda's ability to replace leaders. (Associated Press)
Pigeons fly near burning parts of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, India, on Nov. 27, 2008. Aggressive counterterrorism efforts - such as drone strikes and economic sanctions - have crippled al Qaeda's ability to replace leaders. (Associated Press)
Onlookers examine a destroyed car at the site of a bomb blast at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla,Nigeria, on Dec. 25, 2011. An explosion ripped through the Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria's capital, killing 25. A radical Muslim sect claimed the attack and another bombing near a church in the restive city of Jos, as explosions also struck the nation's northeast. (Associated Press)

No safety in weaker al Qaeda

Romney: Even Carter would’ve made the call to kill bin Laden



One year after Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, a weakened, fragmented al Qaeda is collaborating with other terrorist and militant groups to target and attack U.S. and Western interests abroad, intelligence officials say.  
Aggressive counterterrorism efforts - such as drone strikes and economic sanctions - have crippled the global terrorist network’s ability to replace competent leaders, attract recruits and plan devastating attacks, said John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism.
Al Qaeda is losing - badly,” Mr. Brennan said during a speech Monday at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “[But] as the al Qaeda core falters, it continues to look to its affiliates and adherents to carry on its murderous cause.”
U.S. intelligence officials who recently briefed reporters on al Qaeda said bin Laden’s death removed the terrorist group’s most effective and inspirational leader and hobbled its capacity for staging a complicated assault. But they said the threat from al Qaeda affiliates has increased.
“The organization that brought us 9/11 is essentially gone,” a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said on the condition of anonymity, but “it’s really too soon to declare victory.”
Affiliates such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Qaeda in Iraqal Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Shabab in Somalia carry out the bulk of attacks, said Robert T. Cardillo, deputy director of national intelligence.
In Nigeria, the al Qaeda affiliate Boko Haram has increased its profile by attacking U.N. offices in August and bombing churches in December.
The future of al Qaeda
Officials ranked al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen as the top threat of the affiliates.
In 2009, the group inspired Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner with a bomb concealed in his underwear. In 2010, the group claimed responsibility for a failed cargo-bomb plot involving two planes headed for Chicago.
“They are not only intent on attacking the United States,” said a senior U.S. counterterrorism official, “but we are convinced they continue to plot against us. Their rhetoric, their propaganda is both widespread and effective.”
Mr. Cardillo said regional affiliates “will surpass the remnants of core al Qaeda remaining in Pakistan and seek opportunities to strike Western interests in its operating area. … But each group will have different intent and ability to execute those plans.”
To combat the threat posed by affiliates, the U.S. has expanded its drone campaign in places such as Yemen, its support for local governments and its work with local security forces to weaken the groups, said counterterrorism analyst Daniel L. Byman, a senior fellow at theBrookings Institution.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and NATO are winding down combat operations inAfghanistan, where they have ousted the Taliban-controlled government that sheltered al Qaeda before, during and after the terrorist group’s 2001 attacks.
About 100 al Qaeda members are believed to be still operating in the country, and most international combat troops are expected to leaveAfghanistan by the end of 2014.
The key challenge for the West over the next few years will be to balance aggressive counterterrorism operations against the risk of galvanizing new fronts for the terrorist movement, Mr. Cardillo said.
One such front is in Syria, where officials say al Qaeda in Iraq is trying to make inroads in the popular uprising against President Bashar Assad’s autocratic regime.
Little support in Arab world
Al Qaeda is interested in not only affecting the result, but in contributing to the fighting,” a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said.
However, the official said the terrorist movement has made few strides among Arab Spring protesters who have sought to overthrow longtime dictatorships - including in Syria, where there are few obvious sympathizers to al Qaeda’s cause.
A recent poll conducted as part of the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project found overwhelmingly unfavorable views of al Qaeda in Egypt, where Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president last year after a popular uprising.
Negative views of the terrorist network also were found in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and areas of Pakistan, where bin Laden was killed in hiding in May 2011.
“As these new governments take real steps to address public demands for political participation and democratic institutions and remain committed to [counterterrorism] efforts, we judge that core al Qaeda and the global jihadist movement will experience a strategic setback,” Mr. Cardillo said.
He warned, however, that any prolonged instability or missed promises by the new governments would give al Qaeda and its affiliates more time to establish networks, attract support and potentially engage in operations with less scrutiny from local security services.
Within U.S. borders, officials said, a mass attack by a foreign group using chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons would be unlikely within the next year but the threat would come from “lone wolf” attackers or small groups not formally affiliated with al Qaeda but inspired by its ideology.
“It’s more than just one person. It’s an idea. It’s a concept, and it’s a concept that exists in many parts of the broader world today,” said Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
While officials say al Qaeda’s new leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, is not as inspirational as bin Laden, it is much too early to count out core al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda is a resilient organization that’s faced incredible difficulties in the past after leaving Afghanistan,” the senior U.S. counterterrorism official said. “It was patient. It managed to wait us out, and they’re clearly attempting to do that again right now.”
“Despite the great progress we’ve made against al Qaeda, it would be a mistake to believe this threat has passed,” Mr. Brennan said.