Follow Barack Obama prior and during his tenure as the 44th President of the United States. Read about my personal observations along with every day facts as they happen. This blog will only submit factual information about the first black President, now in his 2nd term of office.
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News Media Stories, Now to Include Journalist Jim Foley's Beheading

Thursday, August 21, 2014



THE GRUESOME VIDEO ABOVE WILL NOT BE SHOWN ON THIS BLOG!

All over the news for the last 10 days or so has been the racial issues facing the Midwestern town of Ferguson, Missouri. It seems that for some reason, the lead story of the day seems to be the ONLY issue on reporters minds. Wall to wall coverage on the unrest in Ferguson seems to be the major news story of the day, or of the week for the last two weeks for that matter. Personally, I'm burned out with the repeated story, over and over and over again on the news. All the news outlets seem to say the same thing, except Fox news seems to report only what they want to report. If there ever was a biased news organization, it would be FOX NEWS.

Other issues around the globe now seem to be no consequence to the news outlets, including MSNBC and CNN, besides Fox News. It seems now as if the conflict in Gaza is not as important in the news as the reporting in Ferguson Missouri. The border crises seems to have all but cured itself. Really? Are there still woman and children crossing the border that are facing persecution in their own country? Of course. Then why are we not hearing more of this issue? What about the airline disasters? Will they forever be silent with the news media, and will they only report on current events? I just do not have answers to these questions. Maybe when the 'do-nothing' Congress gets back from vacation, you may hear about these stories, especially about the border issue.

But W-A-I-T ! ! ! ! There is something new that the news media wants to talk about. An American journalist by the name of James Foley who has been missing after being captured in Syria almost two years ago, was beheaded by ISIS on a YouTube video just a few days ago. ISIS sent an email to Jims family telling them that they were going to kill their son in retaliation for what America is doing against ISIS in Iraq. The killer gave an ultimatum for the President of the United States that if the attacks on ISIS do not stop, then more Americans will die. Where did all of the captured Americans come from? It has been reported by the news media, and on social media throughout the internet that there are dozens of converted Americans now within the ISIS ranks in Iraq. Do these people have plans to secretly return to the United States and commit terrorist acts? Does America even know who these traitors are?

What the hell is going on? It was reported that ISIS paid Jim Foley's captors 100 million dollars for his exchange. Where is this terrorist organization coming up with all of this money for randsom, just to smear their horror into the America's eyes. It is now clear, that ISIS, also known as ISIL, not only want to convert every person in the world to ISLAM without their consent and kill anyone who refuses to convert, but their main mission is to destroy the United States. Everything they do, every fabric of their being, is aimed at destroying the United States, and they do not care who they kill in their drive to destroy the United States. They are baiting the United States to re-enter the war in Iraq. Will they succeed will this challenge? President Obama has repeatedly stated that he will not put troops on the ground, but the fact is that nearly 1000 "advisers"  have been sent back to Iraq to help curb the present crisis. Do these advisers carry weapons by any chance? You can bet that they do.

ISIS is a sick organization, capturing Christians and everyone who will not convert. In one report, ISIS fighters approached the home of a resident, and told the husband that if he didn't let his solders rape his daughter, that they would kill his wife. The husband agreed to protect his family. After about 6 or 7 men raped their daughter, they tied up the father and child, and let them watch the rape of his wife. Then, they killed his wife and eventually his daughter. The captors didn't know that there was still another relative in the room who was hiding who witnessed the whole incident, and then escaped to report it.
Recently, thousands of people fled to the Sin-jar mountains to run from ISIS, who drove them out of their homes and were just waiting for these people to die. They were told if they leave the baron mountain, that they would be killed. This mountain provided no food or water. The people only had what they were able to take with them when they left their homes. They were dying a slow death of starvation. Eventually, President Obama decided to initiate a humanitarian mission to save these people, along with a campaign to destroy ISUS, who was now threatening American interests throughout the country of Iraq.

Thousands upon thousands of people are getting slaughtered in the name of ISUS, and one of their fighters, apparently of British decent, murdered Jim Foley and posted a video of the murder on Youtube.

The President responded, with one of his harshest statements since he because president 6 years ago.

The following are President Obama's complete comments in a live statement on August 20, 2014.

"Today, the entire world is appalled by the brutal murder of Jim Foley, by the terrorist group ISUL. Jim was a journalist, a son, a brother, and a friend. He reported from difficult and dangerous places, bearing witness to the lives of people a world away. He has been taken hostage nearly two years ago in Syria and he was courageously reporting at the time on the conflict there. Jim was taken from us in an act of violence that shocks the conscience of the entire world. He was 40 years old. One of five siblings, a son of a mom and dad who worked tirelessly for his release. Earlier today, I spoke to the Foley's and told them that we are all heartbroken at their loss and join them in honoring Jim  and all that he did. Now, Jim Foley's life stands in stark contrast to his killers. Let's be clear about ISIL. They have rampaged across cities and villages, killing innocent unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence. They abduct women and children and subject them to torture and rape, and slavery. They have murdered Muslims, both Sunni and Shia, by the thousands. They target Christians and religious minorities, driving them from their homes, murdering them when they can, for no other reason that they practice a different religion. They declare their ambition and commit genocide against an ancient people. So ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches how to massacre innocence. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day. ISIS has no ideology of any value to human beings. Their ideology is bankrupt. They may claim out of expediency that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is that they terrorize their neighbors, and offer them nothing but endless slavery to their empty vision, and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior. People like this ultimately fail, They fail because the future is won by those who build, not by the ones who destroy. The world is shaped by people like Jim Foley, and the overwhelming majority of humanity that were appalled by those who killed him. The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what is necessary to see that justice is done, and we act against ISUL, standing alongside others. The people of Iraq who with our support are taking the fight to ISUL, and must continue to come together to expel these terrorists from their communities. The people of Syria, the story that Jim Foley told, do not deserve to live under the shadow of a tyrant or terrorists, and have our support in their pursuit of future rule from indignity. From governments and peoples across the middle east, there has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so that it does not spread. There has to be a clear rejection of these and of anallistic ideologies. One thing we can all agree on that a group like ISUL have no place in the 21st century. Friends and allies around the world, we share a common security and a common set of values rooted in the opposite of what we saw yesterday, and we will continue to confront this hateful terrorism and replace it with a sense of hope and civility. That's what Jim Foley stood for. A man who lived his work, who courageously told the stories of fellow human beings, and was liked and loved by friends and family. Today, the American people will all say a prayer by those who loved Jim. All of us feel the ache of his absence. All of us mourn his loss. We keep in our prayers those other Americans who are separated from their families. We will do everything that we can to protect our people and the timeless values that we stand for. May God bless and keep Jim's memory, and God bless the United States of America."

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Indications that Hilary Clinton is now Launching Her Presidential Campaign

Saturday, August 9, 2014



  As reported by Hollywoodlife.com, something seems to be stirring in New York City. All indications are that she has now launched her 2016 presidential campaign. Evidence shows that now "Hillary has leased office space on a high-level floor of a corporate New York City office building, overlooking Times Square, for what sources are saying, is her campaign headquarters." as published in a recent article dated August 5, 2014 on Hollywoodlife.com.

The lease has reportedly been acquired for 2 years. At the age of 66, she now plans on moving into the new headquarters sometime during the week of August 11. Things like this most likely do not get leaked out, but it is my opinion that if this is true, that Hilary has purposely leaked this information. It will be interesting to see how the news reporters actually report this story, and if and when they ever do.

According to HollywoodLife.com reports in their article, "Her expansive new space includes nine offices, 14 workstations, one large conference room, and features modern finishes and white walls. It also features floor-to-ceiling glass doors, and windows with sweeping views of Times Square."

Also previously reported by HollywoodLife.com, back in December of 2013, "she replied that she would deliberate on her potential campaign plans "next year" - in other words, in 2014."

On another note since this information may be true, I am preparing to launch my next website located at http://www.clintoninthewhitehouse.com. Be on the lookout for it !  As was done with President Obama before he became President, I reported on his campaign before he was elected and plan to do the same if and when Hilary Clinton formally begins her campaign.


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Obama Family Portrait

Friday, August 8, 2014

2011 FAMILY PORTRAIT











The above portrait of the Obama Family was taken in 2011. Soon to be released is the newest family portrait. 


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Renewed Military Action by the U.S. in Iraq

The top story in the country today is the renewed U.S. military action in Iraq. President Obama is the 4th straight President to authorize the use of American military force in Iraq.  There now has been multiple target strikes around the city of Erbil in northern Iraq.  There were 2 separate predator drone strikes on a border position where mortars were being launched as well as a strike from Navy fighter jets using eight 500 pound bombs on a convoy of seven ISUS vehicles.  Two  U.S. FA-18 fighter jets bombed a piece of ISUS artillery as well as the vehicle that was pulling it.  According the the Pentagon, ISUS was using that artillery to shell Kurdish forces that are fighting to protect Irbil, which is the Capital of Kurdistan, now finding itself under seige by ISUS forces.  
The United States has dropped a second round of aid packages in the Sinjar Mountains where thousand of Yuzidies, a religious minority in Iraq have been without food and water. ISUS had cut the roads off, trying to starve the fleeing civilians to death, and threatening to kill anybody who would come out of the mountain.
It has also been recently reported that hundreds of Yuzidie women have been taken captive by ISUS.
In another news conference, the President stated that he was committed to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which he has done just that. But with the recent problems in Iraq, threatening the Kurds and Yuzidies, the President states that he will not put American troops on the ground. His goal is to help the Kurds defend their territories in Northern Iraq, and to help the desperate Yuzidis in the Sinjar mountains.
The President states that when many innocent people, men women and children are in danger of being wiped out by this terrorist organization, and when we have the power to do something about it, we will take action. He says this is our responsibility as Americans which is a hallmark of American leadership.
America is now helping in Iraq, but what does this really mean? Also, how long are we going to be offering this help? The answers to these two questions are not clear, but one main objective according to the President is to provide help with no American forces on the ground in Iraq.  There is also no set end date for the air strikes, as they have been authorized by the President in an open-ended basis.
The march across Iraq had began since January of this year,  and now control a wide swath of the country including parts of Syria to the west.
The United States would also use air power to protect Baghdad if ISUS threatened that city, just as the United States defended Irbil.

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U.S. Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq

President Obama successfully carried out a first of possibility many humanitarian missions over Iraq, dropping rations of food and water over the Sinjar mountains located in Northwestern Iraq near the Syrian border. Forty thousand Yazidis fled to the mountains after ISUS raided their town just below the mountains. This large group of people are literally starving to death. Forty have already died because of dehydration. The reason for the mass exodus of these people from their homes is because ISUS threatened these people to the extent that they would kill anyone who did not convert to Islam. It is estimated that there are as many as 25,000 children with no access to food or water, except for the food and water dropped off by American military planes just a few hours ago.
President Obama met with his national security team. At a news conference this evening, President Obama said that he authorized two operations in Iraq. First were targeted air strikes to help protect U.S. personnel, and a humanitarian effort to help Iraqi civilians, trapped on the Sinjar mountains, surrounded by ISUS militants. Without the food and water that President Obama sent to these people, they would have faced certain death.

As President Obama stated in the recent past, the United States would be prepared to take military action if and when the situation in Iraq required it. As noted in recent days, especially with the fleeing of Iraqi citizens from their homes now hiding in the mountains. Also, ISUS is nearing the city if Erbil, where there are diplomats serving in a U.S. Consulate. If there were any threats to this Consulate, the President vows to defend it with military force. Then and only then will the President authorize 'boots on the ground'. Before any such ground mission, the President vowed to take targeted air strikes against ISUS convoys, if they decided to move closer to the city of Mosul. to protect all American interests in the country of Iraq.

ISUS continues to rein terror on Iraqi citizens, as there have been mass executions of anyone not willing to convert to Islam, to include enslavement of Yazidis women. In the recent days these men women and children have fled Sinjar for their lives. ISUS now has called for the systematic elimination of the Yazidis people which would constitute genocide, in which the President of the United States claims that we cannot just stand by and let the atrocities happen.

At the same time, the President claims that we cannot take every global situation in our own hands to help solve a specific problem, but due to the humanitarian issue that now exists on top of the mountain, the President is compelled to provide help. There has also been a mandate issued by the Iraqi government and other countries for the request for help, along with our ability to help avert a massacre. The President then says that we have a responsibility to help. As he stated, we cannot "turn a blind eye". People on Capital Hill have also pushed for American intervention regarding this Iraqi issue that is now affect tens of thousands misplaced families from their homes.

It is also expected that this first drop of food and water will not be the last. In the meantime, the President has sent several military people to help coordinate the Iraqi military to push ISUS back and away from the mountain, so that people there can return to their homes.

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Prresident Obama signs a Bi-partisan VA Bill

Thursday, August 7, 2014


  At Fort Belvoir, Virginia today, the President signed a Veteran's health care bill, which was passed by bi-partisan support in Congress, just before Congress left for their summer vacation. The VA Reform bill gives veterans more resources and care for the help that many of them so truly need.

   The VA reform bill was passed with bi-partisan support which also begs the question as to why it took so long to get the bi-partisan bill submitted to the President. But nevertheless, the bill has passed and the President gladly signed the bill this morning. The President claims that it is a good deal, something that Veterans truly needed a long time ago. With veteran ranks growing with members from Iraq, and soon to be Afghanistan, the new bill could not have come soon enough. It will be through the test of time whether or not the bill actually addresses enough issues to make the VA process run smoothly again. The President highlighted on what the bill will actually do. Survivor benefits, educational opportunities, to improving care to veterans that experienced traumatic brain injury, but first and foremost, the bill insures that veterans have access to the care that they earned while protecting this country and fighting in foreign lands. Because of the backlog and in some cases, where veteran live that may not be near a VA facility, the President stated that specific vets will be authorized in seeking a doctor and a facility not within the VA system, thus insuring that each veteran receive the best possible care and as soon as they need it, regardless on how busy the VA doctors and hospitals are at a specific moment. Veterans that live more than 40 miles away from the nearest VA hospital or can go to a civilian hospital and acquire the care of the specific medical help that he/she needs.

  During his speech, President Obama outlined some very disturbing revelations concerning health care in facilities is specific states. Longer wait times before a veteran could be seen by a doctor, sometimes when it was just too late, and in some cases more than a year, the veteran had passed away before receiving the care that he/she so desperately needed. President Obama came out and told the audience that it was wrong and outrageous. He stated how the VA will change its ways on how they do business, along with making people accountable for misconduct, and would be relieved of their duties. The wait lists are shrinking, as 215,000 veterans have been tended to since the issues with the VA have became known. Stronger management and leadership display heightened reforms that will make better the VA organization, with a new culture of accountability. People that have been directly involved hampering the VA process have been relived of their positions. The leadership team, starting with  new VA Secretary McDonald, whose first order of business is to conduct town halls throughout the country so that the VA can hear the arguments and assessments of what is going on from veterans so that specific issues that can be addressed. It demonstrates a new sense of accountability that the VA needs.

  The President stated that implementing the law would take time and will require focus from everyone. As time goes on, changes may have to be made and Congress may have to approve another bill, or act to amend the current bill. The disability claims backlog has now been cut in half, but the President claims that this is actually not good enough. He states that the "backlog must be eliminated". Homeless veterans must be removed from the streets, and there needs to be a special effort to end veterans homeless. Veterans in cities and towns across America deserve to be in the facilities and homes that can take care of their needs.

  The President stated that more than a million Vets and family members now have attended colleges because of the post 911 GI bill, but the question is, are these Vets getting a good bargain in the schools that they enroll in. The President has rallied around companies to hire veterans and their spouses.

  Specific confirmation appointments for the VA have been hampered for over a year, and the President is urging the Senate to act on nominations. Others have been waiting for months for a yes or no vote and the Congress just seems to 'do-nothing' except not to forget to go on their vacations. Actually, it is law that Congress go out on recess for vacation in August. The Senate needs to come back in September and act to put these well deserved appointments in place. The President stated that the Veterans do not have time for politics, but they need these public servants on the job right now. Throughout his speech, the President received much applause for his statements, indicating that most people in the room were believing his every word.

  The news conference to be held for the new VA bill was delayed almost an hour, and indications were that it was because the President was in meetings concerning an ISIS threat to religious rites that have now been trapped on-top of a mountain with no food or water. The number of people trapped there have been reported to be around 40,000+ innocent Iraqi's. The next article most likely will be about the developments regarding what the President may do concerning humanitarian help and if and what may be done if military exercises will be held against ISIS.

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Yet A New Benghazi Investigation to Come in September

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

The U.S. Congress is on vacation for the next 5 weeks, and then they will come back in September for only 10 days of work, then another 5 weeks again in October going through the first week of November. It seems like all that the taxpayers do now-a-days is to fund their vacations, along with funding their do-nothing tactics in Congress, and they seem to get away with this every year. Why doesn't someone sue Congress for doing nothing, or to put it more bluntly, not doing the will of the people.
With so much to do, what do you think that the House Republicans plan to do in September? If you guessed Benghazi, you would be right. Never mind about the children on the border. Never mind tackling the issue of minimum wage or the millions of people that no longer have funds coming in because they lost their jobs because of no fault of their own. Never mind about the bridges scattered throughout the country that desperately need repair. Never mind about those serious issues affected the middle class on a daily basis, but it is OK to continuously poke at something that happened over 2 years ago, still trying to pin the blame on someone, after there has been committee after committee investigating the Benghazi affairs, and nothing of any consequences has been found to blame anyone.  Most likely President Obama will take some type of Executive measure while Congress is gone on vacation, because the Congress has crippled themselves by not acting to solve so many issues facing the country. Then this will give Republicans ammunition to then push for impeachment, which again would be another waste of time. In a sense, just talk about impeachment seems to fire up the Democratic base, something that hasn't happened with Democrats prior to a mid term election in a long time. This may be just what is needed to keep the Senate majority and maybe take back the House.  Impeachment would never pass in the Senate, and even if the Senate turns to a Republican majority in November, House Republicans starting with John Boehner claim that impeachment would be off the table. Do you think that the tea party followers, like Michelle Bachman and Ted Cruz would sit back and not force John Boehner to take up impeaching the President? Of course they would, as they have allot more say about what goes on in the House than the Speaker of the House has control of. Boehner has repeatedly shown that he is nothing more than a puppet of the extreme right wing tea party. It is like he is the Speaker of the tea party, instead of the Republican party.
Trey Gowdy, U.S. Republican Representative has been named the head of a "special House committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi and plans to hold his first public hearing in September about changes the State Department has made to better protect diplomats," U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy said.
More witnesses than ever before will be the plan of the day. Most people are tired of hearing the same old story coming up time and time. Benghazi has been so burned out over the past few years since the attack that killed 4 diplomats. So far to date, there has been 7 separate Congressional probes investigating Benghazi.

The 7 committees that have already investigated the allegations by Republicans on Benghazi are as follows:

1) House Intelligence Committee
2) Senate Intelligence Committee
3) House Armed Services Committee
4) Senate Armed Services Committee
5) Senate Homeland Security Committee
6) House Oversight Committee
7) House Foreign Affairs Committee

There has even been one more if you were to count the State Department Independent Accountability Review Board.

Out of all of the committees findings, there has absolutely nothing that came out of any of the hearings, except a concern about protection at the Libyan Embassy. There has been nothing found to prove that the Obama administration tried to cover anything up or screwing up anything in some fairly obvious way concerning Bengahzi,  as there just is absolutely no evidence of ANY wrong-doing.

Because of this, people now are asking why still another hearing. After two years of investigation, now the House Intelligence Committee again has found no apparent wrong doing by the Obama administration. The Intelligence Committee report "confirms that no one was deliberately mislead, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. Forces) was given." According to Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena.

Since all these findings, the Democrats and Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee have voted unanimously to declassify and release the latest report. This hasn't been the first time that a Republican backed committee has found nothing about Benghazi, but the Republicans are bent is spending an additional 3.3 million dollars to investigate the Benghazi attack once again. This will be done when the House Republicans come back from vacation in September.

It is now obvious why the Republicans plan to conduct these hearings in September. Since the committee will only be assembled for a few days in September before going back on vacation, it is just another stall tactic for the Republicans not to have time to do anything else, like pass legislation like immigration. The Republicans know full well that the U.S. Senate will not address the bill that the House just most recently passed because it is so radical and so far to the right that many main stream Republicans really don't support it. The bill is a product of tea party members that are trying to forge their own agenda in the Republican party.

The conspiracy theories keep coming, and one must wonder when it will be enough to actually put Benghazi to bed. Most likely, this will not happen until the mid-term elections in November. At that point in time, all you will hear about is impeaching President Obama.

Yes, the 'do-nothing' Congress will live up to its name most likely at least until the Presidential elections in 2016. At that time, it is my belief that the Republican party or the tea party will get disbanded, as an internal war on the Republican side will take place, and just maybe the right wing party will gain some legitimacy. But unfortunately for them, until they can win over minorities and the middle class, it will be a long time before they can get another Republican President put in the White House. Before this is all over, I highly expect that Congress will once again be Democratically led in both the Senate and the House, with another Democratic President. Will the citizens of America be willing to allow what just happened with Congress be allowed to happen again? When will the Republicans wake up and realize that until they support middle-class families of all races, not just whites, that their agenda will not have any place in American society.

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President Obama Full Press Conference – 8/1/14

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Prior to the House of Representatives successfully ramming new bills through their own body, the President spoke openly for 40 minutes, to include an already foregone conclusion that whatever the House Republicans were trying to pass, it would be too little, too late, as the U.S. Senate had already left for their summer recess. Because of the House Republican obstructionism and their lack of leadership to pass bills in their own caucus, the President highlighted that he most likely will have no choice with acting on their in-action regarding the people crossing the Southern border, mainly into South Texas.

 The highlighted points of his speech which can be watched immediately below the highlighted points in his speech are as follows:

 1) The economy created over 200,000 new jobs in July after creating 300,000 new jobs in the prior month of June, a streak that has been happening for at least 6 months in a row. A total of 9.9 million new jobs have been created during the past 53 months. According to the President, it is the largest streak of job creation in U.S. history.

2) The President highlighted on what he believes that Congress seems to throttle down that would help the economy, but has failed to do so, that includes:

    a) Rebuilding the U.S. infrastructure in ways that are sustained over many years.
    b) Advocating to raise the minimum wage
    c) Making it easier for people to pay off their student loans
 
Bills associated to what has been mentioned above has been blocked by members of Congress. It is the reason why President Obama is taking action on his own to help working families. All of these facts are stated in his video below.

3) Congress did pass legislation to strengthen the VA.

3) Congress decided to continue to fund transportation project for the next few months, but it is not the long term solution that the President is looking for. The Congress is not doing a thing in this regard to accellerate the economy by not providing funds to cover for the long term.

4) Things that affect middle class families are not getting done in Congress.

Examples:

    a) Child migrants on the border of Texas, as the Republicans passed the most extreme and unworkable bill that they already know that is going nowhere, even after they have been setting an a bi-partisan immigration bill for over a year. It is just a message bill that they can take back to their constituents when they go back home on vacation to show them that they are doing something and the President will do nothing.  Because the Congress will be out on vacation, the President says that he will have to make some tuff choices to meet the challenge. Immigration has not been addressed.

  b) A student loan bill where people have debt that could be re-financed at lower rates did not pass.

  c) The transportation bill just gets the country through the spring instead of planning years in advance, according to the President.

  d) States and businesses are raising the minimum wage for their workers, because the U.S. Congress fails to act on the minimum wage bill already passed in the U.S. Senate. The Speaker of the House John Boehner will not even bring the bill to the floor. Why? Because he knows it will pass, and that is against his agenda while President Obama is in office, and that is to 'do-nothing' to give ANY credit to the President.

4) Approving career diplomats with bi-partisan support for posts throughout the world are not getting done, and for a brief time during the voting, the Republicans were trying to block the new ambassador to Russia, even in a time when the Ukraine has become a world issue involving President Putin of Russia, who has received some of the stiffest sanctions to his country since the cold war. The Congress is blocking ambassadors from serving in countries where we need  to have a presence there. It now involves over 40 diplomats waiting for confirmation, but the House just will not act.

5) Congress is still blocking the Ambassador to Sierra Leon where there is an EBOLA outbreak.

6) Congress is blocking the Ambassador to Guatemala as the Republicans demand that the U.S. do more in stopping unaccompanied children from Guatemala.

The President wants Congress to focus on people's concerns, and they are just not doing that in Congress at this time. The economy could be allot better and the country could be much further along if Congress would just do their job, which is to create and pass laws, not to stop them from being created.

7) The President claims that he will not stop trying to help middle class families, and will continue his fight with Congress when they get back from their vacation. Broad agreement must be made in key areas of issue between both the Democrats and Republicans need to take hold. The President mentions this and and also claims that Congress is standing in the way of our country's success.

The President's comments didn't originally include the problem in the middle east, but reporters were sure to immediately bring the topic up in the first question after his prepared speech.

1) The President says that he condemns Hamas, the Palestinian factions responsible for killing even right after a stated cease-fire was announced. Another soldier was abducted, but most likely would be killed.

2) The President says that Israel has the right to defend itself, including the right to destroy tunnels being built under their land for use in terrorist attacks.

3) The President continues to support Israel in what is known as 'the Iron Dome Program', which is a missile system designed to intercept rockets being fired by Hamas into Israel before they hit their targets.

4) The President stated that at the same time that innocent civilians in Gaza that get caught in the cross-fire coming from Israel needed to be protected.

    a) A cease-fire was the first way that killings of innocent civilians could be at least temporarily stopped so that both sides could step back and try to resolve some issues diplomatically without further bloodshed.
It was a 72-hour cease fire that Israel committed to, but was violated in less than an hour into the cease fire by Hamas.

    b) The President gave John Kerry credit for his persistence and for enduring unfair criticizm by the people in Israel. John Kerry will be continually committed in this objective to aim for peace in the region, according to the President.

    c) The President wants to see everything that is possible that can be done so that Palestinians would not be killed.

The President says that a dilemma exists.

  1) Israel has the right to defend itself, and to go after the rockets and destroy the tunnel network.
   2) On the other hand, because of the incredibly irresponsible reactions of Hamas to include rocket launchers located right in the middle of civilian neighborhoods, innocent Palestinians are getting hurt.
   3) The President has been pushing hard for a cease fire because of the innocent civilians that have been either maimed or killed during the Israel attacks.

The second question was regarding the U.S influence in the world, or the loss of it according the the reporter asking the second question.

    1) The President says that the people have forgotten that even America, the most powerful nation on earth still does not control everything around the world.  He claimed that diplomatic efforts take time. He claimed that diplomacy does not always include steps forward, but also will include steps backward that need to be re-addressed.   Proof of this has been the middle-east crisis, in Europe and Asia, which is the nature of world affairs.

   2) The President claims that we have delivered necessary sanctions to Russia,  actions that the U.S. said that it would do, now to include European Nations siding with the United States, especially now if  Russian President Putin continues to arm separatists with heavy armaments, as evidence shows were responsible for 300 innocent people dying on a Malaysian flight over Ukraine. The President claims that Russia continues to break international law and disregards the sovereignty of Ukraine.  The President has attacked Russian energy, Russian defense and their financial systems with the sanctions to date. Further sanctions are possible, but careful sanctions that would backfire onto Europe and the U.S. are weighed in the President's decision with sanctions he imposes to Russia.  Still, the President talked to President Putin prior to his speech and is willing to resolve issues with Russia diplomatically if Putin respects and honors the right of Ukraine to determine their own destiny.

Just because we cannot finalize solutions to issues between countries does not prove the fact that U.S. influence around the world is diminishing.

The President mentions the issues of Kosovo and Bosnia, that raged for some time but ultimately the problems there were resolved.

The third question concerned 'Executive Orders' and does the President take any blame for not reaching agreement with the Republican led House of Representatives.

   1) The President brings up immigration as a bi-partisan bill passed in the Senate cosponsored by Democrats and some very conservative Republicans to include labor, the Evangelical community to law enforcement. He claims that the real disagreement is between House Republicans and Senate Republicans and the House Republicans and the business community, the House Republicans and the Evangelical community. He claims that he is just one of the people that they seem to disagree with on this issue regarding immigration.

  2) Regarding the short term crisis involving the Rio Grande valley, the President claims that the Republican House states that Texas needs more resources, tougher border security in the area where unaccompanied children are showing up.   The President agreed, so the President offered a supplemental amount of funds needed to succeed in what the Republican House claims that the U.S. should be doing, and Congress could not pass the bill. The President claims that the Republicans cannot even pass their own version of the bill, even though after the statements of the President, the House did finally pass their own radical version of the bill, even though they know that it cannot pass in the Senate. The Senate now vows not to even take it up on the floor. So their bill, the Republican bill that the House spent during their so called first day of vacation, is dead on arrival in the Senate.  The President will not even see their bill to sign.

The President claims that he is taking Executive actions because of the failure of Congress to pass bills that the American people care about. Regarding the border supplemental, the President stated that he will have to act alone, because presently the U.S. does not have enough resources, as an example, the resources will have to be re-allocated in order to make sure that some of the basic functions that must take place are in force.
For example, the unaccompanied children need to be properly housed. Enough immigration judges need to be available to process their cases. So the President will now have to act alone. The President claimed that all that would have to be done for him not to act on Executive Orders is for Congress just to pass legislation, then there would be no need for such actions by the President.

The President claims that the Republicans cannot even act on what they say their priorities are. They will not compromise even with Senate Republicans on certain issues.

Again, all of these facts are reiterated in the speech by President Obama in his Press Conference on August 1, 2014.


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The Dysfunctional House of Representatives - polluting the U.S. Congress

Earlier in the week, the U.S. Congress spent a whole day in discussion and then a vote on suing the President of the United States regarding his so called 'misuse of Executive Power'.

Does this make sense? If you look at the facts, it does not make one bit of sense. The Congress has just about a 0% chance of successfully suing the President, but they decided that this was more important to pass than to actually work on the VA issues up before them and also about immigration and the border issue with thousands of children crossing into Texas. They wait until the last minute to do ANYTHING, and then when they act, it's too little and too late.

Ok, so NOW they have now voted and formally plan to sue the President?

Really?!?/!

So the next order of business came late in the day on Thursday, when the House of Representatives were supposed to introduce a bill to enhance security on the U.S. southern border. In a bill presented to the House by the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, before the bill actually reached the floor of the House on Thursday, he decided to scrap the bill because the House Speaker knew that he could not get his own Republican caucus in the House to vote in favor of his own bill.

What an embarrassment for the Speaker of the House. Actually, Boehner has become one glaring embarrassment to the Republican party, as a Speaker of the House of Representatives that cannot get his caucus to vote on literally ANYTHING worth while, or bills that would pass in his House of Representatives, but he elects to only push bills through for a vote that has Republican party interest, not Democratic interest, or the interest of the voters, especially the middle class.

Talk about a misuse of power, John Boehner is the one who should be sued by the U.S. taxpayers for misrepresentation of his office.  Then the Speaker turns around and formally initiates a lawsuit of President Obama, who is only reacting for the House of Representatives non-action, doing the will of the people and now has been formally told through this lawsuit that he is misusing his executive powers.

A Republican Senator of the U.S. Senate - Ted Cruz, convinced his tea party followers that they should not vote for John Boehner's bill. Michelle Bauchman agreed with Cruz in an effort to go against the Speaker of the House and now all of a sudden Boehner did not have enough Senators in his own Congressional body of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote in favor of his bill. This is direct proof that he has no control of his own party as Speaker of the House.

So in response, the House of Representatives elected to postpone their month long vacation in August, and stay through Friday to re-create a border bill in reckless fashion with much haste, and the new $694 million bill was born. It had NO Democratic support in the House. The vote was strictly on party lines. Does it have a chance to pass in the Senate? Of course not. It in itself is more radical than the bill that John Boehner originally introduced into the House of Representatives that they did not get the chance to vote on. Why? Because the tea party that controls the Republican party, led by junior Senator Ted Cruz gets to dictate now what he thinks is better. He's the same guy directly responsible for shutting down the U.S. government last year, with his over-reaching power to other Conservatives in the House of Representatives, which incidentally is not the body of Congress that he actually works in. His position resides in the U.S. Senate. So why then, does he pose so much power over the House of Representatives as a junior Senator in the U.S. Senate. Yes, it is mind-boggling, but the fact is, that the House of Representatives has no true leader.

So why waste time creating a bill that will not pass the Senate? Why take a day away from your very unearned vacation to work on a bill that will not pass the Senate, and as the President Stated in an earlier national address, even if the Senate would pass the bill, he (President Obama) would veto it?

Does this sound like government is working? It sounds kind of dysfunctional to me.

The answer to the questions are simple. Now that they are going on a vacation for a month, and most all are planning to go home to try and convince their own followers of their party that they are doing something in Washington, and that the reasons why things are not happening in Washington are because of President Obama, or the U.S. Senate failures. Does that make any sense? It does if you understand that the U.S House of Representatives only motive until President Obama leaves office is to refuse to do any work or pass any bills in Congress until Obama leaves office. So it must be the President's fault for being President for a second term! Right? The Republicans apparently are second guessing the American People, saying that they were wrong for electing Obama for a second term. Even if that were true, who did they have to oppose him, Mitt Romney! Right!!!!

But what the Republicans are doing here will backfire. Yes, they passed a border security bill, but will ANYONE benefit by it? Of course not, especially the people who came across the southern border and many will continue to stay. Eventually if any of these people become U.S. Citizens, will they vote for the party who wanted to deport them? Of course not? Republicans must open their eyes and observe that this is not only a 'white race' country anymore, and really never was, and that unless they support issues affecting the minority and middle class, they will never again elect a Republican president.  Instead of directly addressing the issues when they had time before their summer break, the only thing they concentrated on was suing the President. So what will happen now? What will continue to happen is that an average of 400-500 immigrants will cross the southern border each day during the Congress's absence, and then the Congress expects the President of the United States to just wait for them to perform more inaction when they come back because they will turn right around and go on another undeserved vacation. There could be an upwards of 15,000 more people crossing the border by the time they come back instead of really addressing the issue when they had the time to do so, instead of trying to sue the President.

Because of their in-actions, the President most surely will come up with another Executive Order. This time, the undocumented aliens, the mothers and children will gain the rights to permanently stay in the U.S., especially if the child has a relative in the United States who is a U.S. Citizen or a legal alien. That is the most popular guess, and I also believe this to be right. It may not be accurate, but you can surely bet that the Republicans will act strongly against whatever action the President takes, especially if he acts favorably on the children at the border, and does not consider the House bill. Of course, he doesn't have to consider it formally at this time, because it must get through the U.S. Senate first, and that is not going to happen. Even if it did get passed in the U.S. Senate, the President would VETO it.

It is like the Republicans who know what is about to happen with this Executive order to come, is now coaxing the President to perform an executive action. What? First, they say that the President is over-riding his power in Executive actions, but now want him to perform an Executive action.  Actually, the Speaker of the House, the one who initiated the suit to sue the President of the United States now even made a formal public announcement that he encouraged the President to perform the action. What would this action lead to? Of course, most on both sides of the isle would say would lead to impeachment hearings. But again, the Republicans will fail, as the Senate would never impeach President Obama. It happened to our last Democratic President, Bill Clinton, and it surely will happen again if it were up to the Republicans. Of course, President Clinton stayed and was not evicted from the White House, and neither will President Obama, regardless of what he does on immigration on the border when the Congress is out of Session.

Now is that Hippocratic or what? John Boehner is nothing short of an child, who is performing at the level of the worst Speaker of the House of Representatives ever known to Congress of either party for that matter. He has become the puppet of the tea party, and cannot stand on his own. He can only do things that the far right, the tea party caucus want. The regular Republican establishment has no say so on their own any more, at least not at the moment. It will be interesting to see what is going to happen with the Republican party, and the tea party for that matter if and when the House goes Democratic this fall, or if another Democrat is elected as President to succeed President Obama in 2016. One or the other will become extinct.

Now for the second order of business for what was supposed to be their first day of vacation in August. There was another bill that would speed up child deportations. Presently, only Mexican and Canadian nationalists can be immediately deported. Thanks to President George W. Bush, he passed a law that stated that Latin countries did not fit in this group of 'immediate export' aliens. So now the Republicans are passing a bill the the House of Representatives that even go against what George W. Bush signed when he was in office. The House then votes 216-192 to scale back Pres. Obama's 'Dreamers' program.  Does this have a chance to reach President Obama's desk..  Not a chance! EVER. Even if it did, the President would VETO it!

So if laws cannot get passed in Congress, it is a forgone conclusion that the Congress is very Dysfunctional, yet the country must go on, and in some cases, without them and with the help of Executive Orders by the President of the United States.

So what else did they vote on at the last minute. A bill for the VA? My goodness! They are working so hard on their first day of vacation. Actually, what they have done when they were supposed to be doing when they were not scheduled on vacation, absolutely nothing is what their own constituents will tell them when they actually go home for vacation. But when they get home, I expect those Republican Senators to receive a wake up call, one that they received after President Bush was re-elected, and that was to go out and help the middle-class in their issues, to welcome immigrants to this country, and ESPECIALLY do not condemn innocent women and children at our southern border trying to flee persecution from their own country.

What the Republicans have successfully done is energize the Democratic base, and I can now foresee a record turnout of Democratic voters in November, and a good chance that the House of Representatives will go Democratic. At that time, if the Democrats keep the U.S. Senate, President Obama most likely will have free rein on passing bills that he could not get passed with the 'do nothing' Republican House. He will no longer be considered a 'lame-duck' President.

Then who knows. If Hilary Clinton becomes President in 2016, and if the House and Senate stay controlled by the Democrats, many more things will get done, one of them being to tame the Republican caucus and get rid of the tea party, as the tea party has been absolutely poison to the Republican cause, under the internship of Ted Cruz, who at the moment has more influence as a new Senator than John Boehner ever had with all of his experience and years in office in Washington. If and only if the Congress is led by Democrats will you see the middle class re-gain the stature it deserves as citizen's of the United States.

Now check this out...  Here is an immigrant, Ted Cruz from Canada, who has voted against bills that would directly affect him if he were trying to enter this country now, instead of in his past. Most recently, he had to renounce his Canadian citizenship, as for whatever reason he had discovered that he may have dual-citizenship, and of course unless you are a citizen of another country, then you cannot run for office as President of the United States, and most everyone knows he plans to run for President, where he will further damage the cause of the Republican party and others to oppose him to become the Republican nominee for President in 2016.

Yes, dysfunction is the name of the game for the ALL Republicans in Congress who happen to be destroying their own cause as Republicans.

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