Stephen Martino

The AP writes: Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Saturday night that President Obama has jeopardized U.S. national security by nominating substandard candidates for key Cabinet posts and by degrading the U.S. military.

“The performance now of Barack Obama as he staffs up the national security team for the second term is dismal,” Mr. Cheney said in comments to about 300 members of the Wyoming Republican Party.

Mr. Cheney, a Wyoming native, said it was vital to the nation’s national security that “good folks” hold the positions of secretary of state, CIA director and secretary of defense.
“Frankly, what he has appointed are second-rate people,” he said.

John F. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, has been confirmed as secretary of state. CIA-designate John Brennan and Defense Secretary-nominee Chuck Hagel are still awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation.

Wyoming’s two U.S. senators, Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, voted for Mr. Kerry’s confirmation. Both Mr. Enzi and Mr. Barrasso gave introductory speeches for Mr. Cheney on Saturday night.
Mr. Cheney said Mr. Hagel, a former Nebraska U.S. senator, was chosen because Mr. Obama “wants to have a Republican that he can use to take the heat for what he plans to do to the Department of Defense.”

He said Mr. Obama’s plans are to allow severe cuts in U.S. defense spending, which would limit the capability of the U.S. military to respond to future foreign crises well after Mr. Obama has left office.
“He is today … establishing what limitations will be on future presidents,” Mr. Cheney said.

Mr. Cheney noted that the security situation in the Middle East and North Africa has worsened under Mr. Obama’s watch with Iran actively pursuing nuclear weapons and with turmoil in Egypt, Syria, Mali and elsewhere.

“That part of the world is as dangerous now as it has ever been,” he said.

The Obama administration’s response has been to pull back U.S. military presence and influence, resulting in rising mistrust of the U.S. from allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, he said.
Despite Mr. Obama’s re-election victory, Mr. Cheney said he hopes Republicans can revive their political fortunes by holding to conservative principles.

“I believe we’re all going to pull together, work hard, dig in and do what needs to be done,” he said.
Mr. Cheney, who received a heart transplant about a year ago, appeared fit, although his voice turned hoarse on occasion during his half-hour speech.

Pictures say a 1000 words:

Obama continues to kill the economy. Yet it never makes the front page. Taxes are up for everyone and now the economy is shrinking! This should be no surprise to anyone with any common sense.

The U.S. economy posted a stunning drop of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus.
The economy shrank from October through December for the first time since the recession ended, hurt by the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles.The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter. That’s a sharp slowdown from the 3.1 percent growth rate in the July-September quarter.
The surprise contraction could raise fears about the economy’s ability to handle tax increases that took effect in January and looming spending cuts.
Still, the weakness may be because of one-time factors. Government spending cuts and slower inventory growth subtracted a total of 2.6 percentage points from growth.
And those volatile categories offset faster growth in consumer spending, business investment and housing — the economy’s core drivers of growth.
Another positive aspect of the report: For all of 2012, the economy expanded 2.2 percent, better than 2011’s growth of 1.8 percent.
The economy may stay weak at the start of the year because Americans are coming to grips with an increase in Social Security taxes that has left them with less take-home pay.
Subpar growth has held back hiring. The economy has created about 150,000 jobs a month, on average, for the past two years. That’s barely enough to reduce the unemployment rate, which has been 7.8 percent for the past two months.
Economists forecast that unemployment stayed at the still-high rate again this month. The government releases the January jobs report Friday.
The slower growth in stockpiles comes after a big jump in the third quarter. Companies frequently cut back on inventories if they anticipate a slowdown in sales. Slower inventory growth means factories likely produced less.
Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar, Inc. said this week that it reduced its inventories by $2 billion in the fourth quarter as global sales declined from a year earlier.
The biggest question going forward is how consumers react to the expiration of a Social Security tax cut. Congress and the White House allowed the temporary tax cut to expire in January, but reached a deal to keep income taxes from rising on most Americans.
The tax increase will lower take home pay this year by about 2 percent. That means a household earning $50,000 a year will have about $1,000 less to spend. A household with two high-paid workers will have up to $4,500 less.
Already, a key measure of consumer confidence plummeted this month after Americans noticed the reduction in their paychecks, the Conference Board reported Tuesday.
Economists expected the first reading on gross domestic product to show growth of 1 percent, down from the third quarter’s reading of 3.1 percent

Obama’s shameless exploitation of children as set pieces is hardly new or original. In fact, tyrants and dictators have used kids as props down through the ages.
Here are a few more recent examples:

The Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin

China’s Mao Zedong

Germany’s Adolf Hitler

Cuba’s Fidel Castro

North Korea’s Kim Il-sung

Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez

Dictator Obama Exploiting the Children for Executive Action on Gun Control

I just read the unemployment numbers and as expected it rose again. This time it’s 8.3%. I’m not exactly sure how Obama and his Stalinesque team of cronies fixed the numbers before the election, but with the poor economy the number was bound to rise.

After listening to Obama’s plans for the future and reviewing his deplorable record as a leader, I must ask myself this: Is Obama doing all this on purpose? Or how about this: Is he trying to punish America? It’s a serious and legitimate question. What he is doing now is just a smoke screen. The rhetoric we hear spewing from his hate-filled mouth about the rich not paying enough really does not make rational sense. If he gets all the tax hikes he wants on the rich and gets everything tax loophole closed, the revenue generated from it won’t sustain our economy for even 2 weeks! This is not political spin. It’s political fact, and no economist out there will argue this point.

The scariest thing about this tax hike is that’s only half of Obama’s plan to the next four years. The other part is increase to governmental spending and to haul out another failed stimulus package. I don’t care at this point what your political affiliation is, I just want you to do the math. Based upon Obama’s record over the last four years, his grand economic plan for the next four years is to raise enough money to run the federal government for 2 weeks borrowing at least another 6-10 trillion dollars to support the socialistic society he created?

What sane person thinks this economic plan makes sense at all? The numbers add up to only one thing: Bankruptcy! It is complete BS. What is happening is that he is hiding behind a smoke screen of inane rhetoric and class warfare. We’ve seen it in Nazi Germany, the USSR, Iran and other oppressive governmental systems in the past. Now, it’s happening to the greatest bastion of democracy, the USA!

Now I get back to my question: why is Obama doing this? Is it retribution or is there some other sinister underlying plan for this country (and possibly the world)? I don’t know, but what I can honestly say is that the answer is one of the 2 I just mentioned.

The bottom line is that Obama neither cares for you, me or this country. It’s all about himself and his ideology. If the country crumbles under his lead and we enter a time of anarchy, it does not matter to him.

It’s time to impeach Obama before he destroys the country!

Don’t you all feel as if Obama is driving us right off the fiscal cliff? In fact, doesn’t it seem as if he’s flooring it the whole way!

Say so long to prosperity and say hello to socialism, rationing, government control and the end to individual prosperity!

Here’s the question: what will America be like in 4 years? With the second pork filled stimulus bill on thits way, the feds printing more money and no economic plan for the next 4 years, the future looks grim. There are many consequences to ponder. However, I will just write on one of them.

There is no doubt in my mind that the stimulus bill on its way will put us in another 6 trillion of debt in 4 years- which means our economic ranking will drop, inflation will rise and the economy will be on the verge of collapse. We’ve reached a point where the debt is unsustainable. I was warned of this day back in grade school and now it is upon us. The reason Obama is leading us down this road is debatable. Is it punish our country for our previous historical errors, or is he just a mindless pawn told to do this for some higher economic purpose such as a one-world government.?In a way it does not matter. Obama is like the captain of the Titanic, but unlike Titanic’s captain, he’s knowingly leading us directly into the iceberg.

In the end, the economy is bound to fail. I can’t see any other alternative. Then what happens? Who will there be to blame? Obviously, the media will not hold the anointed one accountable. No. Instead, I believe the country could possibly play the “class warfare” card. “It’s the rich people’s fault we’re in this predicament” and “If those rich guys weren’t so greedy, our economy wouldn’t have collapsed” may just be what we’re going to hear.

We’ve already seen the movement against Wall Street and heard how Obama supported it. Will the people and the media turn on the businesses, those that create jobs and those that have achieved the American dream? Will the successful now become the enemy? I hope we don’t go down the a similar road such as the former Soviet Union, Cambodia and other such places as Iran. I hope us Americans are smarter than that. But after Obama got enough votes to be re-elected, I have serious doubts.

Unfortunately, the road ahead will be very rocky. I just hope at the end of this road there isn’t a cliff!