Four more years?

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
Andrew Carnegie

Count me as one of those people conflicted regarding the upcoming election. For the first time in my life I am giving serious consideration to sitting this one out. Not that I could ever pull the lever for Romney.  These supposed "fiscal conservatives" ride into office to fix the economy and then like wolves in sheep's clothing, they unleash a whole passel of laws reinforcing that hidden social agenda. Smite the infidels, teach creationism, stop choice, punish the poor, banish the sodomites.

As I have said before, for me  it all comes down to who has a better chance of nominating decent Supreme Court justices, although as we have seen recently, sometimes they are not such a sure bet.

The little things bother me about Romney. The rich kid who bullies the gay kid in high school and cuts his hair off while his friends hold him down, like some dark scene from Lord of the Flies. It is surely a sign of one's character, like the kid who tortures cats usually ending up in the state pen for committing some grisly murder.

Having said that, it is almost impossible to believe in Barack Obama either. Initially he was like a progressive rorschach blot, giddy liberals listened to his passion and eloquence and thought that the deliverer, the kingdom of heaven was near at hand. But instead we get more of the same.

Unfortunately our President likes to promise one thing and then either forget it completely or do the opposite, like we are living in some bizarro alternate universe where nobody is actually paying attention or keeping score. He has the great facility to look you in the eye while delivering his prevarications, as if his forthright stare and delivery will somehow reassure us of his integrity and good intentions. Probably not a bad calculation on his part when you consider the lack of knowledge and participation of the american population.
*

Three bees got under my bonnet yesterday.  They lead me to wonder if our commander in chief is directing those agencies below him or more charitably, has perhaps lost control of them?


The first was the New York Times article that showed that the FDA was recording email communications, right down to the keystrokes, of doctors and whistleblowers who questioned the agency's approvals of certain drugs and medical devices.

The surveillance project nabbed over 80,000 documents and showed the existence of an enemies list of people who were allegedly bucking the agency. The list included congressional aides from both parties.

"What began as a narrow investigation into the possible leaking of confidential agency information by five scientists quickly grew in mid-2010 into a much broader campaign to counter outside critics of the agency’s medical review process, according to the cache of more than 80,000 pages of computer documents generated by the surveillance effort.


Moving to quell what one memorandum called the “collaboration” of the F.D.A.’s opponents, the surveillance operation identified 21 agency employees, Congressional officials, outside medical researchers and journalists thought to be working together to put out negative and “defamatory” information about the agency.



The agency, using so-called spy software designed to help employers monitor workers, captured screen images from the government laptops of the five scientists as they were being used at work or at home. The software tracked their keystrokes, intercepted their personal e-mails, copied the documents on their personal thumb drives and even followed their messages line by line as they were being drafted, the documents show.


The extraordinary surveillance effort grew out of a bitter dispute lasting years between the scientists and their bosses at the F.D.A. over the scientists’ claims that faulty review procedures at the agency had led to the approval of medical imaging devices for mammograms and colonoscopies that exposed patients to dangerous levels of radiation.


A confidential government review in May by the Office of Special Counsel, which deals with the grievances of government workers, found that the scientists’ medical claims were valid enough to warrant a full investigation into what it termed “a substantial and specific danger to public safety.”"

These intercepted emails included some directed to the President. The F.D.A. memo described the Congressional officials and other “actors” as collaborating in the scientists’ effort to attract negative publicity.

Now there are laws on the books making it illegal to attempt to intimidate whistleblowers but that apparently wasn't enough to dissuade the FDA to engage in this rogue and gestapo like surveillance operation.

Apparently much of the FDA's concern was a desire to protect companies' trade secrets. The investigation started after a March 2010 article in the NYT about faulty imaging devices made by GE Healthcare that doctors felt ignored dangerous radiation risks.

Now just who is the CEO of GE Healthcare? Why none other than Obama crony and the leader of his Jobs Council, Jeff Immelt. Could it be that the Food and Drug Administration put the financial interests of a big Obama donor above the health and welfare of the American people? Hmmm...

*
"I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It's not a good use of our resources." Candidate Barack Obama -August 21, 2007, event in Nashua, New Hampshire
“The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our nation’s marijuana laws.” - Barack Obama 

On the campaign trail Barack Obama fervently made clear that he would respect state's rights and laws concerning medical marijuana. Obviously anyone watching the news knows that he has been even worse than his predecessor, raiding dispensaries that are in full compliance with the statute and with the blessings of local and state authorities.

This week Melinda Haag, the U.S. attorney for California's Northern District, moved to seize the properties where Harborside operates, alleging its marijuana sales violate federal law and that its size as a "superstore" increases the likelihood that it is in violation of state law. A civil forfeiture action was served Wednesday against Harborside's two landlords.

Coming to the defense of Harborside on Thursday were Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland); State Board of Equalization member Betty Yee, who said her office collects $58 million to $105 million in annual state tax from California dispensaries; and Oakland City Atty. Barbara J. Parker, a former federal prosecutor.

 Harborside paid $3.5 million dollars in taxes in the last year alone.

Haag describes her draconian steps against Harborside as measured. "The larger the operation, the greater the likelihood that there will be abuse of the state's medical marijuana laws, and marijuana in the hands of individuals who do not have a demonstrated medical need," she said.

She is closing down the largest facility in the state because of the likelihood that some people obtained sham doctors' recommendations. No actual evidence, mere likelihood. So much for state's rights. Federal judge and jury, case closed.

I cannot believe that this is a rogue U.S. Attorney that Attorney General Holder or Barack Obama can not control. More likely, just another case of tell them what they want to hear until you get elected and then do whatever the hell you want.

Good luck trying to ask the President about his turn around on the issue, he won't touch it with a ten foot roach clip.

*

“No president since Harry Truman has done more for Israel’s security than Barack Obama.” Joe Biden

The Vice President made this rather ridiculous statement a few weeks ago. It is unfortunate on two fronts. Truman was a noted anti semite, who did recognize Israel and the partition but offered no aid or no assistance and, despite his goodwill, left it isolated in the diplomatic world with even the U.S. calling for it to retreat from the 1949 armistice lines to accommodate the Arabs.

In David McCullough's Truman biography, it is mentioned that in private, Truman was a man who still, out of old habits of the mouth, could use a word like 'kike,' or, in a letter to his wife, dismiss Miami as nothing but 'hotels, filling stations, Hebrews, and cabins.' And how about this quote from his diary: "The Jews, I find are very, very selfish," Truman wrote on July 21, 1947. "They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as DP (Displaced Persons) as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog."

Now Truman is in good company, a lot of people don't like jews but here I am straying off topic.

Barack Obama has not been a good friend of Israel, whatever its real and imagined faults. He has dealt with the Likud government contemptuously and in the most patronizing manner possible. And it has all been according to plan. Read this incredible article from the Washington Post yesterday, Where Obama failed on forging peace in the Middle East.

“Look at the past eight years. During those eight years, there was no space between us and Israel, and what did we get from that? When there is no daylight, Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that erodes our credibility with the Arab states.” Barack Obama

Barack Obama sure created daylight. He deals with Israel like a displeased parent, and with an obdurate and harsh tone that he never uses with the other regional players.

I understand to some degree, Netanyahu is a consumate game player and it must be exceedingly difficult to have to negotiate with him. He has not been honest or forthright on the settlement issue. By the time he is done carving up the West Bank what will be left for the Palestinians?

Obama has never been to Israel and I suppose is trying the tough love approach with the jewish state. Perhaps he has lost interest completely? Or maybe he has a master plan up his sleeve for after he secures the re election? Maybe he cuts the cord completely.

Israel is in a difficult situation, surrounded by enemies who have vowed their annihilation and supposed friends who simply can not be trusted. They cannot afford to make one even mistake, while the interests of the United States appear to be mostly academic.

It is like the old metaphor about commitment being like bacon and eggs. The chicken has one level of commitment, the pig another altogether. They are all in. Israel is the pig, albeit kosher pig, in all this.

“What you saw, at several turns during Obama’s management of this, was a complete lack of an emotion-based relationship with Israel,” said a former Palestinian political adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide a candid view.


“The Cairo speech was excellent, important,” the adviser said. “But it didn’t preclude a Jerusalem speech. It didn’t show any emotional smarts.”


As a jew, I am worried about what a second Obama term might mean to Israel and the middle east and I say that in all seriousness. I have trusted him but have now learned not to trust him. Hs condescending tone concerning Israel speaks volumes.


I realize that many Americans could care less and would just as soon intransigent Israel fight its own battles and I have no problem with that either. I don't necessarily think that the second term President emerges from some telephone booth wearing his Barack Hussein supermuslim costume. I just caution you to look at the President's record, both what he says and what he does, on these and a variety of other issues. It can't make anyone feel very real secure.

Think that they would be able to at least spell Israel, right?

Doesn't it violate an I.R.S. rule to hold political events in religious institutions?