A Message Obama Needs to Deliver and Putin Needs to Hear

Missile Defenseby George Landrith

Russian President Vladimir Putin has authorized, and his military forces have carried out, an unprovoked armed invasion of a neighboring nation, Ukraine — whose sole transgression was wanting closer diplomatic and economic ties with the West. Despite wide condemnation of the invasion and now the occupation of the Crimea region of Ukraine, Putin is unrepentant and China is now standing with Russia. As if the invasion wasn’t provocative enough, Putin also test-fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) only days after the invasion. These are dangerous times.

But it doesn’t stop there. Russia is helping Iran develop nuclear capabilities, giving them cover as they arm terrorists in the Middle East with missiles, and aiding Syria’s Assad cling to power despite his crimes against humanity. [Read more…]

“Not even smidgen of corruption…” Really?

Obama Smirk

by George Landrith

On Super Bowl Sunday, President Obama was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly. In that interview, he claimed that there was zero evidence of any scandal or corruption in the IRS scandal. “Not a smidgen,” were his exact words. But the facts do not support the President’s assertion. In fact, while there is much more to be learned because the DOJ’s investigation hasn’t even interviewed the known targeting victims yet, what we do know is damning indeed. A top IRS official has pleaded the Fifth in response to very simple questions. If the IRS targeting was the result of some honest confusion at the IRS, why plead the Fifth? Plus, most everything the White House has asserted about this scandal has already proven to be false. Remember how the White House said it was just a couple low-level rogue employees in Cincinnati?  We now know that there isn’t a smidgen of truth in that assertion. [Read more…]

Obama: If you like your privacy, you can keep it

Obama Privacy NSA

by George Landrith

President Barack Obama had too little to say about the needed reforms at the National Security Agency in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. His previous comments on the subject have captured the natural and necessary tension between one’s right to be left alone by the government and the government’s responsibility to catch criminals and prevent terrorist attacks.

At other times, however, Obama has telegraphed that he has no real interest in reform. In his recent speech devoted to the subject, the president suggested no one should be overly concerned because “the folks at NSA and other intelligence agencies are our neighbors. They’re our friends and family.”

This sounds good but is in fact a Pollyannaish view: Those who act on behalf of the government are our neighbors, friends, and family, but America is a nation of laws. [Read more…]

Doubling Down on Absurdity

Obama Biting Lip

by George Landrith

While British Prime Minister David Cameron was in town this earlier this week, President Barack Obama held a press conference and was asked about several growing scandals including the Benghazi coverup. At issue were the CIA talking points that Administration officials radically changed – removing all references to warnings before the attack, terrorism, al-Qaeda, and the planned and coordinated nature of the attack. Obama claimed it was all a politically motivated “sideshow.” [Read more…]