Note to Congress: Keep America Safe...Impeach Obama Now

Reuters and AP carried the same in-depth reports today - about top US military officers telling the Senate on Thursday that across-the-board sequestration defense budget cuts have seriously eroded the American military's preparedness. Their message was simple : the next round of reductions in 2014 will further reduce American military preparedness. To achieve the cuts that went into force last March, US military chiefs cut big-unit training for soldiers, curbed flying time for pilots and canceled regularly scheduled ship maintenance. "This is the lowest readiness level I've seen within our army since I've been serving for the last 37 years," General Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, told a Senate hearing : "I believe our challenge is much greater today than it has been since I've been in the Army." Odierno said only two Army brigade combat teams in the US have received the full training they would need to go to war. Even those in Afghanistan have undergone only the training to advise and assist local forces, rather than training for combined forces combat they might face elsewhere, he said. With the Iraq war over and the Afghanistan conflict winding down, the Pentagon has been told to pare its budget by $487 billion over the next decade. Congress and the White House, struggling to control the massive US deficit, also directed the Pentagon to slash an additional $500 billion in spending over a decade unless lawmakers could agree on alternative budget cuts and revenue increases. No deal was reached in the last negotiations and the first across-the-board reductions went into effect in March. Reuters quotes Lawrence Korb, a defense analyst at the Center for American Progress, as saying that the issue is not Pentagon base funding levels - about $500 billion in the fiscal year that started on October 1 - but the inflexible mechanism "that requires them to cut all items in the budget other than military personnel, by an equal amount." The generals appealed to the Senate Armed Services Committee for more flexibility to deal with the reductions, saying they could cope with the cuts if they had additional time. "Sequestration reduces our capability and capacity over time, but it doesn't break us," said General Mark Welsh, Air Force Chief of Staff. "The mechanism is what breaks us." Admiral Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations told lawmakers the Navy always has two aircraft carrier strike groups deployed overseas and a third one in the US fully trained and ready to respond to emergencies. The cuts make that increasingly difficult to do, Greenert said. With a carrier strike group in the Gulf, another in the western Pacific, and the carrier intended for emergency responses in the eastern Mediterranean because of concerns about Syria's chemical weapons use, Greenert told the Senate : "Consequently, because of fiscal limitations and the situation we're in, we don't have another strike group trained and ready to respond on short notice in case of a contingency,...We're tapped out." Further across-the-board cuts will force the Navy to halt the planned purchase of a Virginia-class submarine, a littoral combat ship and a forward staging base ship, he said. The Navy also would have to stop plans to buy 11 tactical aircraft. General Welsh said further cuts in 2014 would force the Air Force to curb flying hours to the point where within three or four months, many units "won't be able to maintain full mission readiness." ~~~~~ Jump to Iran. A top Iranian military leader announced Tuesday that Iran has developed “indigenous” ballistic missile technology, which could eventually allow it to fire a nuclear payload over great distances, estimated to be at least anywhere in the Middle East or Europe - and the American West Coast if launched from North Korea. Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the lieutenant commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), made the announcement just days after Iran and the West signed the nuclear deal. Salami claimed that “Iran is among the only three world countries enjoying an indigenous ballistic missile technology,” according to the state-run Fars News Agency. "Many countries may have access to cruise missiles technology, but when it comes to ballistic missiles, I am confident that only the US and the [former] Soviet Union could master this technology, and now we can announce that we own this technology as well,” Salami told Fars, adding that Iran is quickly developing advanced military know-how. “While we did not have any knowledge about drones, we have developed [N.B. : reverse engineered a downed US drone] and acquired drones that travel 2,000 kilometers, conduct their operations, and then land in our desirable regions,” according to Salami. Experts say Iran’s claim to ballistic missiles would be a major development for a country known to use its military machinery as a means of intimidating its regional neighbors. Former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said Iran’s ballistic missile announcement is no surprise : "Iran’s ballistic missile program has always been to provide the delivery vehicles nor nuclear warheads,...The timing of the IRGC announcement is no coincidence.” So, in classic white-hat-black-hat tradition, while Iranian President Rouhani and other officials celebrate the recently announced nuclear accord with the West, Teheran’s military leaders have taken a threatening hard line. Another IRGC leader said on Tuesday that Americans only understand “the language of force....The US has double standards towards social issues of nations and the language that Americans understands is the language of force,” according to General Ramezan Sharif, Head of the IRGC’s Public Relations Department. Sharif noted that US power is growing weaker every year : “The pillars of the US strength have become seriously shaky in the world, especially in the Middle-East.” Other Iranian military officials claim that Teheran no longer needs to import key weapons as they once did. Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Brigadier General Aboutaleb Shafaqat also commented on Tuesday : “Today, we are honored that we have been able to grow needless in the defense equipment sector with the help of our young scientists and thinkers and now we provide all the needs of the Armed Forces with the best quality.” Former Pentagon adviser Michael Rubin said that the US is not paying sufficient attention to Teheran’s military advancements : "Perhaps, [Secretary of State] John Kerry believes that Iran only wants ballistic missiles for peaceful purposes.” Rubin, author of Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes, added : “The fact of the matter is that Kerry and crew left both ballistic missiles and the nuclear warhead trigger experimentation at Parchin [military site] off-the-table” during talks in Geneva,...It’s the diplomatic equivalent of installing a burglar alarm system in your house but leaving the keys in the door.” ~~~~~ Dear readers, President Obama knows that Iran is advancing its ICBM and drone programs - unless the White House has quit giving the President a morning news briefing book. BUT, perhaps no one in the Obama administration knows what's going on in Iran. ITEM : when asked on Tuesday about a Monday report that Iran does not need to freeze its nuclear program until final details of the recently announced nuclear pact are hashed out, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said the negotiated six-month nuclear enrichment freeze in the deal will not actually begin until Iran and western powers finalize the deal at a later date : “The next step here is a continuation of technical discussions at a working level so that we can essentially tee up the implementation of the agreement, so that would involve the P-5 plus one - a commission of their experts working with the Iranians and the” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Psaki said she did not know when the actual deal will be finalized and go into effect : “Obviously, once that’s - those technical discussions are worked through, I guess the clock would start.” Psaki said the US must put its faith in Iran to uphold the spirit of the deal in the interim : “In terms of what the Iranians are or aren’t doing, you know, obviously, our hope would be, given we are respecting the spirit of the agreement in pressing for sanctions not to be put in place and beginning the process of figuring out how to deliver on our end of the bargain, that the same would be coming from their end in the spirit of the - of the agreement." ~~~~~ Obama & Co. are playing fast and loose with America's security. Obama used sequestration as an excuse to curb the US military. Now he's signed a nuclear deal with Iran, listed as a terrorist state by the State Department, without including ICBM delivery programs - and relying on Iran's good faith. Will Congress please impeach this reckless President. While there is still a free-and-prepared America to save from Obama.

Thanksgiving is a Christian Holiday and America is a Constitutionally Christian Country

When the 106 Calvinist Pilgrims landed in America, later named Plymouth, Massachusetts, in November1620, they conducted a prayer service, then began building shelters. Starvation and sickness during that first New England winter killed almost half of thrn, but with prayer, hard work, and the assistance of their Indian friends, the Pilgrims reaped a rich harvest in the summer of 1621. Most information about the Pilgrim Thanksgiving of 1621 comes from original handwritten accounts of the young colony’s leaders, Governor William Bradford wrote : “They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; for some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no wante. And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter aproached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degree). And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they took many, besids venison, &c. Besids they had aboute a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corne to yt proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports.” W.B. (William Bradford). And Edward Winslow wrote : "...at which tine,...many of the Indians coming amongst vs, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed fiue Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed upon our Governour, and upon the Captaine, and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time with vs, yet by the goodneses of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.” E.W. (Edward Winslow) Plymouth, in New England, this 11th of December, 1621. ~~~~~ By the mid-1600s, the custom of Thanksgivings was established throughout New England and spread southward during the American Revolution, as the newly established Congress officially recognized the need to celebrate a day for giving thanks to God for His benefits. The first Thanksgiving Proclamation was issued by the Continental Congress on November 1, 1777. Written by Samuel Adams, it was one 360-word sentence, which read in part : “Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received…together with penitent confession of their sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor; and their humble and earnest supplications that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance…it is therefore recommended…to set apart Thursday the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feeling of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor… acknowledging with gratitude their obligations to Him for benefits received….To prosper the means of religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth ‘in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost’.” ~~~~~ It was 180 years after the 1621 Thanksgiving that the Founding Fathers officially recognized the day by proclamation of the Constitutional government. After adopting the Bill of Rights, a motion in Congress to proclaim a national day of thanksgiving was approved : Congressional Record, September 25, 1789. “Mr. [Elias] Boudinot (who was the President of Congress during the American Revolution) said he could not think of letting the congressional session pass over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. He offered the following resolution : Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with gratefu hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God….The resolution was carried in the affirmative.” This resolution was delivered to President George Washington, who issued the following proclamation : "A NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me 'to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness' : Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best. Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, AD 1789. George Washington. ~~~~~ After 1815, there were no national thanksgiving proclamations until the Civi War, when Abraham Lincoln declared November 26, 1863, the last Thursday in November, a Day of Thanksgiving. In early July of 1863, there were 50,000 American casualties at the Battle of Gettysburg, and President Lincoln went to the battlefield in November to deliver the Gettysburg Address. Deeply moved by the sacrifice of the soldiers, President Lincoln issued a national thanksgiving proclamation which set in motion the national celebration of the modern Thanksgiving Day. For 75 years, the resolution was repeated by every President. And in 1939, Congress and President Roosevelt made Thanksgiving permanent. ~~~~~ Dear readers, when we study this history, we not only learn about the American custom of Thanksgiving, we also must realize just how fundamentally Christian the United States was until this foundation began to be chipped away in the last 50 years by small special interest groups aided by the courts. It is impossible to trace the history of Thanksgiving and continue to believe that the Founders meant to write a Constitution that suppressed Christianity. The Founders and their Constitution were profoundly Christian, as was America until the mid-20th century. While state and church were constitutionally separated, Christianity was meant to be the guiding ethos of America. That has not changed and the country would be healthier if Christian ethics were once again admitted into the fabric of America.

The Chinese Air Defense Zone Connects Dots Between Iran and North Korea

It is interesting that at the same time that the US-Iran deal was being formalized in Geneva last weekend, China announced a larger perimeter to its maritime air defense zone. The announcement flies in the face of American-Chinese efforts to forge deeper ties needed to make East Asia more stable. Beijing's declaration has escalated its territorial dispute with US ally Japan over islands in the East China Sea controlled by Japan but claimed by China. At the center of the island dispute is the possibility of large natural resource deposits around the islands. The US responded to the Chinese announcement that included these islands in the zone by flying two unarmed B-52 bombers through the zone on a training mission Tuesday without informing Beijing, in what US officials said was a long-planned training mission. A Chinese Defense Ministry statement said China detected and monitored the bombers, adding that all aircraft flying through the zone would be monitored, but China made no mention of a threat to take "defensive emergency measures" against noncompliant aircraft that was included in the original announcement Saturday. The expanded Chinese air defense zone was rejected by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. "China has the capability to exercise effective control over the relevant airspace," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regularly scheduled briefing, noting the US incursion had been handled according to procedures laid out in the Saturday statement, but offering no specifics. Meantime, relations between America's core allies in the region, Japan and South Korea, have deteriorated. South Korea is bitter over Japan's attitude toward its colonial past and wants more contrition from Tokyo for Japan's use of Korean sex slaves in World War II. Bonnie Glaser, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, expected US Vice President Joe Biden to raise these issues with civilian and military leaders in China on his Asian tour next week. She said that while countries have a right to declare such a zone - the US, South Korea and Japan all have them - there will be concern about how China would enforce it. "The question is how many times China will scramble their jets and against whom," Glaser said. ~~~~~ The Chinese action complicates the strategic picture for the Obama administration as it looks to advance its so-called "pivot to Asia," with the goal of strengthening not only its own alliances, but getting its partners in the region to collaborate more. Evans Revere, a former senior US diplomat and East Asia specialist, made the following comment to AP about the Chinese action : "That's the result of territorial disputes, historical issues, long-standing rivalries and the inability of countries to put history behind them and move forward in improving relations." To add to US problems in the region, there is the threat posed by an unpredictable North Korea. The deal the US concluded with Iran to temporarily freeze its nuclear program, after thirty years of animosity, is a stark reminder of the impasse in negotiations with Pyongyang. Unlike Iran, North Korea already has a nuclear bomb, and there's worrying evidence it is pressing ahead with weapons development. And Biden is going to visit Japan, South Korea and China as part of his tour because US Secretary of State John Kerry's primary focus is on the Mideast for the foreseeable future as he works on the difficult goals of an end to Syria's civil war, peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran after the current pact expires in six months. ~~~~~ In addition, US domestic problems have contributed to the sense in the region that Asia is a secondary concern to the administration. Obama felt compelled to cancel an Asian trip in October because of a partial US government shutdown and the threat of a debt default. His travel schedule now includes a trip to Asia in April. Obama made Asia a priority in 2009 and he has been particularly active in engaging China. Lacking the ability, or inclination, to forge personal relationshios with foreign leaders, Obama did seek to create a relationship with new Chinese leader Xi Jinping when he met him in June at a California resort, as part of what is regarded as the Obama strategy to promote cooperation between the world's two largest economies and prevent conflict in the Asia-Pacific Rim. But China's declaration of its East China Sea air defense zone will be viewed as a set back. ~~~~~ Dear readers, even if we give President Obama the benefit of putting his Middle East non-support-for-allies strategy in the best possible light, we are compelled to acknowledge that when any part of the world is abandoned by America, the entire world responds. If the United States is not the leader of the entire world, it risks creating a world in which there is no leadership - a world in which aggressive countries will seek to fill the vacuum with their own desire for regional or world dominance. The latest Chinese action is a very small step in that direction. And China is well-known for pushing aggressively until someone says 'Stop.' This time, the US seems to be stepping up to its responsibility. But when the day comes that North Korea pushes with an Iranian nuclear-armed ICBM, it will be too late for pushing back. The only way to prevent that day from arriving is to stop Iran's nuclear program. Stop it totally. Stop it before it can arm North Korea or any other rogue state friend of Iran.

Iran Deal Highlights Obama's Weakness and Fear as President

"We have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat ... you will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude ... we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road ... we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting". And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martia vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time." ~~~~~ This was the speech of Winston Churchill, still a member of the opposition, in the House of Commons after the Chamberlain agreement with Hitler, the Munich Agreement that ceded effective control of Czechoslovakia to Germany in 1938 and was seen by Hitler as the assurance he sought that the European powers would not interfere with his land grab accross central Europe. It led directly to the September 1, 1939, Nazi invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War Ii. ~~~~~ John Bolton, former American UN Ambassador, wrote in the Weekly Standard last Sunday that "the Obama administration feared an Israeli airstrike on Iran more than it feared Iran building a nuclear weapon, and that's why it pushed for a deal to reduce sanctions against Iran....Buying time for its own sake makes sense in some negotiating contexts, but the sub silentio objective here was to jerry-rig yet another argument to wield against Israel and its fateful decision whether or not to strike Iran,...Obama, fearing that strike more than an Iranian nuclear weapon, clearly needed greater international pressure on Jerusalem." Bolton wrote that he believes Israel knows it was the target of the Geneva negotiations that produced the deal early Sunday morning. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deal a "historic mistake." Israel has repeatedly warned that Iran's nuclear goal is to obliterate the Jewish state and he has vowed to take action to prevent that from happening, as it has done by eliminating earlier nuclear programs in Iraq and Iran. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel has the right to act in its own defense : "The Iranian regime is committed to Israel’s destruction, and Israel has the right to defend itself, by itself," Netanyahu recently told his cabinet. "Israel won’t let Iran develop military nuclear capability." And, along with most observers, Bolton is certain that Iran will continue to move forward with its nuclear program in the shadows while the agreement signed Sunday is in effect. If Israel waits, according to Bolton, it will be more difficult to take effective action. "An Israeli strike during the six-month deal would doubtless spark outrage, but it would spark the same condemnation - if not more - later." He urged the Netanyahu government to not fall prey to "the psychological warfare successfully waged so far by the ayatollahs....An Israeli military strike is the only way to avoid Teheran’s otherwise inevitable march to nuclear weapons, and the proliferation that will surely follow," Bolton wrote. ~~~~~ Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra is in almost total agreement with John Bolton, but stops short of calling for an Israeli air strike against Iran. Hoekstra told Newsmax late Saturday to "count me as a huge skeptic" of the deal in which Iran would receive $4.2 billion (n.b.: the real figure looks more like $12-20 billion) and limited sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program."This president hasn't developed the trust in his foreign policy judgment over the past five years," Hoekstra said in an exclusive Newsmax interview. "He's got a Middle East policy that is in tatters. All we have to show for this agreement is that two of our staunchest allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are very skeptical of it. They're wondering where the United States is heading when they've got an agreement with Iran. They may or may not abide by the limitations on their nuclear program, but they're getting immediate relief of sanctions," Hoekstra said of Iran. "They'll continue to fight us in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan." The Iranian undertakings are not enough for Hoekstra, who served eight terms in the House of Representatives and chaired the Intelligence Committee from 2004 to 2007. "They’re getting a break beginning right now - and they've got a plan to start moving money around, getting essential materials into their country that are going to alleviate some of the problems they've had with sanctions. That's going to prop up the regime. Then, the question becomes : 'When do we get access to their nuclear programs? When do we get access to make sure we're stopping their program, or that they have stopped them?'" Hoekstra added : "This administration has a habit of immediately claiming victory instead of saying, 'Let's see where we are in 12 months.' They claimed victory in Egypt. It was disastrous. They claimed victory in Libya. It's been disastrous. They claimed victory in Iraq, and Iraq has not been good. They claimed success with Obamacare when they passed it. It's been disastrous. It's too early to claim success. Let's see where we are in 12 months," Hoekstra said."This strength of the hand of Iran weakens our position in the region." ~~~~~ Dear readers, these are not the lightweight voices of TV analysts. They are the voices of men experienced in dipomacy and intelligence matters at the highest levels. They would have stood with Churchill in 1938. They have had to deal with Iranian treachery in real time, not as President Obama, a junior Senator who was elected President because of innocuous words and a charming demeanor. The world has been accumulating evidence of the folly of America's choice for five years - through Libya and Benghazi and Egypt and Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan -- all sadly mismanaged by Obama. But the prior errors in judgment were in places and over issues that, while heart-wrenching, were not in and of themselves critical. BUT they did teach Iran, always a country to be the first to find chinks in the world's armor. Obama has taught Iran, as Chamberlain taught Hitler, that he is weak and fears conflict and war. Perhaps the pro-shiite pattern in Obama's prior decisions also taught Iran that he would finally deal with their shiite regime and favor them. Iran has been proven right in the short term. It is now time for the world to come together to prevent another Obama catastrophe, this time one that could lead to a nuclear World War III. For there is something worse than fear. That something is loss of liberty and defeat by a religious fanaticism that leads to enslavement. As Churchill so magnificently put it : "The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end there it is...Never, never, never give up."