Stupid Media Bias Tricks, The "What A Bunch Of Turkeys" Edition

Thanksgiving, Chanukah, a lousy deal with Iran, Obamacare and much more. This week the Turkeys appeared on the mainstream media as well as on the Thanksgiving tables.

It was the week Alec Baldwin who said something inappropriate in the street was fired, but Martin Bashir who said something disgusting on air was spared. It was the week Obama made a deal with Iran that put Israel and the United States in danger, the mainstream media lied about it and the President to the Israeli Prime Minister to stop talking about it.

This week one college professor told white men they deserve to die, another said Thanksgiving was for sociopaths and a third ruined the holiday by suggesting Obama should have four more years as President.  On Thanksgiving we also remembered when the media claimed that George Bush's turkey was plastic.

Since last Friday, a man with cancer was audited by the IRS because he complained to Megyn Kelly about losing his healthcare, the Huffington Post got Anti-Semitic and Obama's polling numbers were brutal.

Below are those stupid media bias tricks plus many more from the last seven days. Headlines are linked to the full article (and will open a new window).  When it is a broadcast story the video/audio will also be found at the end of the link.

Obama to Netanyahu: Shut Up About Iran Deal Already!
President Barack Obama has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tone down the negativity about the deal nuclear deal made between the P5 +1 and Iran. On Wednesday night, the Prime Minister made it clear he would continue to object loudly to ...

Salon: Thanksgiving is for Sociopaths
For most Americans, Thanksgiving is a day to remember all the thing we have to be thankful for, get together with family and friends, eat way too much and possibly watch some football. According to Robert Jensen, a professor of journalism at the Universit ...

MSNBC's Chris Hayes Omits Fact Guest Was Adviser To Ahmadinejad As He Trashes P5+1 Deal's Opponents
On Monday's All In With Chris Hayes, the host invited Hooman Majd, NBC News contributor and former adviser to Iranian Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mohammad Khatami, to discuss the P5 +1 deal with Iran. ...

Washington Post Column Calls For Four More Years Of Obama
Reacting to FDR's four elections to the Presidency, Congress passed and the States approved the twenty-second amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which limits a president to two terms. Historian Jonathan Zimmerman disagrees with that amendment. ...

Obamacare Victim Appears On Fox News; Gets IRS Audit
On November 6th cancer patient Bill Elliott was interviewed on Fox News' The Kelly File and described how his health insurance was being canceled due to the new Obamacare regulations. Now he is being audited by the IRS. ...

'If You Are A White Male, You Don’t Deserve To Live'
During his final class before retirement, Dr. Noel Ignatiev a tenured history professor at Massachusetts College, presented a rousing lecture espousing his unique look at history. Ingnatiev is founder of a journal called Race Traitor believes that “ ...

George W. Bush And The Case of The Not Fake Thanksgiving Turkey
In 2003 President George W. Bush made a surprise trip to spend Thanksgiving dinner with the troops in Iraq. ...

CNBC's John Harwood Misleads About Iran Deal
John Harwood, the Chief Washington Correspondent for CNBC, was on John Robert's MSNBC program on Monday to give context to the nuclear agreement between the Iran and the P5 +1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany). Ha ...

Huckabee: If They Don't Fire Bashir, MSNBC Needs to Explain Their Standards
MSNBC's firing of Alec Baldwin was part of the discussion on Wednesday morning's episode of Fox and Friends. When weekend host Mike Huckabee was brought into the discussion, the former presidential candidate was asked to discuss the hypocris ...

MSNBC's Ari Melber: Freedom of Religion=War on Women
On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court announced it would review provisions in the Affordable Care Act requiring employers of a certain size to offer insurance coverage for birth control and other reproductive health services without a co-pay. The is ...

Former Obama Press Sec. Robert Gibbs Said Obamacare Had Death Panels
President Obama’s health care law empowers IPAB, an “unelected, unaccountable” panel of bureaucrats, to make decisions that will cause people to lose access to health care treatments. That's the belief of Obama's first Press Secretary Robert Gib ...

The Protocols of The Elders of Huffington Post
Monday, the Huffington Post doubled-down on their usual anti-Semitic conspiracy theories with a piece called "Overplaying Its Hand, Israel Still Holds Plenty of US Cards​" written by Norman Solomon and Abba Solomon. The article suggests that unt ...

Daily Beast's Brown: Obama 'Reforming the Map of the World'
On Tuesday's Morning Joe, the panel reviewed a CNN poll reporting that American's perception of President Obama's honesty has plunged to record lows. When asked by host Joe Scarborough if the President could discuss issues such as immigrat ...

AP Buried Story of Secret US-Iranian Talks for 8 Months
Hidden in its reports about the P5+1 deal with Iran was AP's revelation that it learned about secret talks between the United States and Iran back in March but didn't report them until eight months later, when the deal was signed on Saturday eve ...

President Obama: I Don't Think MSNBC Should Carry Those Kind Of Hateful Remarks
In April 2007, as the controversy over MSNBC/CBS Radio host Don Imus 's "nappy headed hos " comment was building to a boiling point, presidential candidate Barack Obama appeared on Hardball to comment on the news of the day. When guest ...

Daily Beast Editor: Obama's Performance in CNN Poll 'Brutal'
A new CNN/ORC International survey released Monday morning indicates that 53% of Americans now believe that Obama is not honest and trustworthy, the first time that a clear majority in CNN polling has felt that way. Those and other results of the poll w ...

Baltimore Sun's Zurawik Rips MSNBC for Inaction on Bashir
Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik was a guest on Fox News' MediaBuzz on Sunday to discuss Martin Bashir's disgusting statement about Sarah Palin and MSNBC's and NBC News' lack of reaction to the scandal. Zurawik excoriated MSNBC ...

The Chris Matthews Race-Bait of the Day is...
Chris Matthews was a guest on Friday's Now With Alex Wagner and participated in a discussion of how Harry Reid's use of the "nuclear option," eliminating the possibility of filibuster for presidential appointments except the Supreme ...

The REAL Chanukah Story-It Was a "Civil" War Over Assimilation

So you think you know what Hanukkah is all about?  Think again. What most people (even Jews) know about Chanukah is either wrong, half the story, or laden with nice legends. Despite what you may have been told,  the meaning of the holiday is not "let's come up with a holiday around Christmas time so Jewish kids have something to do at the end of December (although a liberal Rabbi did try to tell me that over the weekend). Neither is the meaning of Hanukkah "lets come up with a holiday with many different English spellings so we can drive the Gentiles crazy."

I can't speak for the other holidays, but I can tell you that as Jewish holidays go, Chanukah is among the least important, unlike the "big ones" like Passover, Sukkot, or Shavuot you can work, drive, etc. Heck, the Books of the Maccabees weren't even included in the Jewish canon (that's another and longer story).

The most common view of the holiday generally includes the miracle of the one day of oil that lasted eight days, the defeat of the superior forces of King Antiochus, the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, etc.

Truth is the oil thing never happened and the battle Judah and brothers won  was a civil war against Jews who turned away from their faith. Antiochus and his army was there to intervene in the civil war they just picked the wrong side to support.

Antiochus invaded Judea, at the request of the assimilated Hellenized Jews who were expelled to Syria around 170 BCE when the high priest Onias (a buddy of Cleopatra's husband Ptolemy)  wrested control of the Holy Temple from them. The exiled assimilated Jews lobbied Antiochus to recapture Jerusalem. Judah the Maccabee's dad Mattathias, a Priest in the town of Modiin started the revolt because the king had issued decrees that forbade Jewish religious practices.

Two hundred years later the failed Judean General-turned traitor-turned historian; Josephus wrote

"The king being thereto disposed beforehand, complied with them, and came upon the Jews with a great army, and took their city by force, and slew a great multitude of those that favored Ptolemy, and sent out his soldiers to plunder them without mercy. He also spoiled the temple, and put a stop to the constant practice of offering a daily sacrifice of expiation for three years and six months."

Now as far as the holiday goes, Hanukkah is not an important Jewish holiday because like Purim, it was created by rabbis. The command to observe the big holidays such as Passover, Sukkot, or Shavuot is in the Torah which was given to us by God. Since God outranks the rabbis, his holidays are much more important. The Books of the Maccabees weren't even included in the Jewish canon and it was all because of politics (sort of). And they can't be added back because no Hebrew version of the full text has ever been found (for all of you pickers out there, here is an opportunity). 
From the time of Moses and Aaron the offices of head of state and high priest were separate. the two "offices" were separate. Once the Kingship was established with Saul the separation became permanent as the priestly family was from the tribe of Levi and Saul was from Binyamin. David who succeeded Saul was from the tribe of Judah, which is why the land eventually became known as the Kingdom of Judah and its people were called Jews.

Y'hudhah HamMakabi or Judah the Maccabee was a nickname it means Judah the Hammer, Maccabee is also an anagram  for a Hebrew phase which translates into "Who is like You among the heavenly powers oh God?"

Once the Jews regained Jerusalem and the Temple, Judah's family (the Hasmoneans)  took over  and became both the Kings and the Priests, a biblical no-no which some people say eventually lead to the destruction of the second Temple. Before you liberals start claiming biblical proof of separation of church and state, the reason for the biblical separation wasn't a fear of religious influence on govt., but the possibility of a corrupt government's influence on religion. God knew that governments could become corrupt and the plan was for an incorruptible Priesthood was supposed to keep the politicians in line.


Chanukah was really Sukkot. When the Maccabees finally retook the Temple in the month of Kislev, they decided to celebrate Sukkot, the seven-day pilgrimage holiday which they had missed during their battles with the Greeks. At the end of Sukkot is Shemini Atzeret, an eighth day of celebration. So the Maccabees rededicated the Temple and immediately set out to celebrate for eight days.


Also the story the oil, eight days etc--it was a nice fairy tale---it never happened.  The first celebrations of the re-dedication of the Temple were called the festival of lights Josephus says:

Now Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the temple for eight days, and omitted no sort of pleasures thereon; but he feasted them upon very rich and splendid sacrifices; and he honored God, and delighted them by hymns and psalms. Nay, they were so very glad at the revival of their customs, when, after a long time of intermission, they unexpectedly had regained the freedom of their worship, that they made it a law for their posterity, that they should keep a festival, on account of the restoration of their temple worship, for eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this festival, and call it Lights. I suppose the reason was, because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us; and that thence was the name given to that festival. Judas also rebuilt the walls round about the city, and reared towers of great height against the incursions of enemies, and set guards therein. He also fortified the city Bethsura, that it might serve as a citadel against any distresses that might come from our enemies

I believe it is called the festival of lights because Jews believe that God's teachings brings light into the world, and the festival was not only a re-dedication of the Temple but a re-dedication of the Jews to the Torah and the light of God. Neither Josephus nor the Book of Maccabees discusses any oil that lasts eight days.


Sorry if I destroyed any of your childhood myths by telling the truth about the candles, but (to me) the miracle of Hanukkah was the victory of the Jews against superior forces and faith is all about believing that God is involved even when you don't see him.  God repeated the miracle of Hannukkah with Purim, with Israel in 1948, the Six-Day-War and in even more recent times, and the miracle year of New York Sports 1968-69 (the Mets, the Jets, and the hobbled Willis Reed Knicks).

The oil lighting story and candle tradition is very nice, and it teaches all about the Jews role of helping the light of God spread throughout the world.  It also helped established the tradition of eating greasy donuts and potato latkes on Chankukkah, Hannukkah, Hanukkah or however you wish to spell the holiday.


The Rabbis tell us that we are not to use the Chanukah candles for reading or seeing, as we would with a regular candle or a light bulb. The Chanukkiyah (it's not a menorah which was in the Temple in Jerusalem and when fully lit had seven instead of nine candles) is supposed to be placed near a window so the light of God and his miracles will shine outward into the world.

Even though Chanukah is a minor holiday it is one of my favorites, not because of the eight days of gifts (that is an American custom based on trying to one-up Christmas) and not because of the greasy clogged artery-inducing food. Chanukah is a holiday about Jews fighting against assimilation a lesson which needs to be reinforced over and over here in the diaspora. The holiday and candles is also a reminder that in Judaism, the light of God begins in the home lit by the observance of a single family unit and  just like the Chanukiah (Menorah) that light is supposed to radiate from the home to the community and eventually throughout the world.

May you all have a Chag Chanukah Samayach, a happy Hanukkah holiday, and may the light of God soon radiate throughout the world and bring us peace. As the words said over and over during every prayer service wishes;

Oseh Shalom bimromav, hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu ve'al kol yisrael, ve'imru amen.

He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace, upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving From President Lincoln

Following the end of the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving and later that year proclaimed another day of thanks which is now celebrated annually the fourth Thursday in November. Along with that proclamation, Lincoln made the following address, widely known as Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth

President Lincoln did not start off his proclamation by focusing on the problems of the day, instead he gave thanks to God for what the country had — the proper order of prayer.

The Difference Between Christmas And Chanukah (With Tongue Firmly in Cheek)

Most Jews do not understand Christmas...and most Christians don't get Hanukkah... Since Hanukkah starts tonight, I thought it is time to explain. From now on if anyone asks you what the difference is between Christmas and Chanukah you will know what and how to answer!

1. Christmas is one day, same day every year, December 25. Jews also celebrate December 25th...it's a paid day off work. We go to movies (there are no lines) and then go out for Chinese food (a traditional Jewish food). Chanukah is 8 days. It starts the evening of the 24th of Kislev, whenever that falls. Most Jews never know when that day falls until a non-Jewish friend asks when Chanukah starts, forcing us to consult a calendar provided free from the kosher butcher, or the local Jewish Funeral Home.

2. Christmas is a major Christian holiday. Chanukah is a minor Jewish holiday. It isn't mentioned in the Tanach (Jewish scriptures). In fact the books of Maccabees isn't part of the Jewish canon but it is party of the Christian bible. Chanukkah does have the same them as most other Jewish holidays, They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat.

3. Christians get wonderful presents such as jewelry, perfume, stereos. The traditional Jewish gift is Chanukah Gelt (coins made from chocolate). Since the increase of type two diabetes and the protests about childhood obesity, many Jewish kids are feeling left out because they aren't getting good stuff like their Christian friends, here in America Jewish kids get eight days of presents. Not all of the presents are stuff they want...some days they get practical presents such as pajamas, underwear, socks, and a scholarly Jewish books (which look great on their book shelves).

4. There is only one way to spell Christmas. No one can decide how to spell Chanukah, Chanukkah, Chanukka, Channukah, Hanukah, Hannukah, etc. I like to use them all--even in the same post.

5. Christmas is a time of great pressure for husbands and boyfriends. Their partners expect special gifts. Jewish men are relieved of that burden on Hanukah. Adults give each other cheap gifts just to teach the kids gift giving. My father was a painter. He used to get two wallets as gifts from the store he used to purchase supplies from. Every year my mother would wrap up the wallets, my dad would give one to mom and mom would give one to dad (we knew what they were doing but didn't say anything). Even better, for guys dating the same girl for a long time, Chanukah is much better... no Jewish woman expects a diamond ring on Hannukah, no they want Jewelry on Hanukkah and the diamond ring another day.

6. Christmas brings enormous electric bills-lights around the outside of the house..the inside, on the tree..etc. Trees are sometimes lined with popcorn on a string. Hanukkah is a green holiday, it uses candles. Not only are we spared enormous electric bills, but we get to feel good about not contributing to the energy crisis. We don't give coal to the bad kids, it might make a mess of the carpet and the cleaning girl doesn't come till next week. And as for the popcorn and candy canes on trees; waste food, are you kidding? There are children starving in Africa.

7. Christmas carols are beautiful...Silent Night, Come All Ye Faithful.... Of course, we are secretly pleased that many of the beautiful carols were composed and written by our tribal brethren, like White Christmas written by Irving (Isaac) Berlin. And doesn't Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond sing them beautifully? Most Chanukkah songs are about dreidels made from clay or having a party and dancing the hora. God-forbid a famous Jewish pop singer record some Hanukkah song. But we do have Adam Sandler playing Jewish geography.

8. A home preparing for Christmas smells wonderful. The sweet smell of cookies and cakes baking. Happy people are gathered around in festive moods. A home preparing for Chanukah smells of oil, potatoes, and onions. During Hanukkah as well as every time Jews get together, every Jewish home is supposed to be full of loud people all talking at once.

9. Christian women have fun baking Christmas cookies. Jewish women burn their eyes and cut their hands grating potatoes and onions for latkas (potato pancakes) on Chanukah. It's another reminder of the suffering of our people through the ages, and another opportunity for Jewish mother to radiate guilt "You see what's happening to me...and just for you?"

10. Parents never withhold gifts to their children during Christmas. Jewish parents have no qualms about withholding a gift on any of the eight nights Hannukah.

11. The players in the Christmas story have easy to pronounce and spell names such as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The names in the Chanukka story are Antiochus , Judah Maccabee, and Matta whatever. By the way the Maccabee's last name was not Maccabee, the word means hammer and is an anagram for a Hebrew phrase, "Who is like you oh Lord." It doesn't really matter what their names are, no one can spell it or pronounce them anyway. On the plus side, we can tell our Gentile friends anything with a lot of guttural cchh sounds and they will believe we are wonderfully versed in Jewish history.

12. In recent years, Christmas has become more and more commercialized. The same holds true for Hannukah, even though it is a minor holiday. But it kind of makes sense. I have been in marketing for over 30 years and still haven't figured out how to market a major holiday such as Yom Kippur. No food...music is somber.... "Hey everybody...Come to synagogue, starve yourself for 27 hours, become one with your dehydrated soul, beat your chest, confess your sins, a guaranteed good time for you and your family."

Chanukah Starts at Sundown Wednesday, Nov. 27 almost a month before Christmas.

Whichever one you celebrate...I wish you all a joyous holiday surrounded family and friends. And may the coming year be filled with love and good health.

Chag Chankukah Samayach/Merry Christmas!! A Joyous Thanksgiving And a Happy New Year

White House Begging Allies "Please No Marketing For Obamacare Yet..Site May Crash"

There is no better proof that the ill-fated Obamacare website will not be ready by the November 30th deadline is the White House announcement that they are delaying a "sign up for Obamacare" marketing program scheduled for December and have asked others to delay theirs as well.

As reported in The NY Times, 

White House officials, fearful that the federal health care website may again be overwhelmed this weekend, have urged their allies to hold back enrollment efforts so the insurance marketplace does not collapse under a crush of new users.

At the same time, administration officials said Tuesday that they had decided not to inaugurate a big health care marketing campaign planned for December out of concern that it might drive too many people to the still-fragile HealthCare.gov.

Notice, they are not just worried about traffic the initial weekend or the first few days, they are moving marketing/promotional efforts back at least a month, indicating that they will not be confident about the site until at least January. But the problem is consumers must sign up by Dec. 23 to obtain coverage that takes effect on Jan. 1. So those five million people who have lost their plans will really need to get into the site before then.

“We are definitely on track to have a significantly different user experience by the end of this month,” Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said Tuesday. “That was our commitment.”

Perhaps Ms Sebelius is suffering from some sort of dementia because that wasn't the commitment. America was promised the site would be fixed.

Officials said the website was now able to handle 50,000 users at a time, providing enough capacity on a daily basis to enroll millions of people in the next four months.

But those charged with fixing the site worry that 250,000 people might try to use the site simultaneously at times on Saturday and in the days ahead. They say that pent-up demand for insurance in the federal marketplace, combined with a surge of interest among people merely curious about whether it is working, could bring the website to a crawl. 

On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) spokeswoman Julie Bataille made a similar warning, saying errors that persist past this weekend would be “intermittent” and, in line with a promise made by the White House, would not affect the vast majority of the site’s users.

On the other hand Ms. Bataille said that some would still experience “periods of suboptimal performance” by the system due to either heavy traffic or technical issues that are still being addressed.

“The system will not work perfectly on Dec. 1, but it will work much better than it did in October.”

Gee that sounds awfully like  "Other than that how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
In an effort to ease pressure on the website, officials have created what they call a waiting room for times when the site is operating slowly. People can ask the government to notify them by email of a better time to use the site, and they will then go to the front of the line, officials said.

There is a rumor that for consumers in the "waiting room" Healthcare.gov will not be playing muzak, but instead will be streaming some of Chancellor Angela Merkel's most entertaining cell phone calls courtesy of the NSA.


In the end it may be just that the Administration is being cautious--we will know for sure in a few days.

NEWSBUSTED: Macy's Cancels Obamacare Balloon in Parade-Because Obamacare Won't Float

Those watching the famous Macy's Day Parade at the White House tomorrow will be a bit disappointed. The Department and Human Services created a "fun" balloon to help sell the President's failing signature program to the public.  Newsbusted Anchor Jodie Miller has brought us the very sad news from New York, the balloon will not be showing up in tomorrow's parade. According to the report the Obamacare balloon is acting like much of the rest of the program...it won't float.

Other news items covered in the latest installment of Newsbusted the weekly faux news feature from Newsbusters.org (embedded below) include; racism at Black Universities; the closing of the last blockbuster video stores; the Senate takes the nuclear option; and much, much, more.

Please make sure you watch the video below because something bad always happens to the people who don't. Last week Alec Baldwin forgot to press play and yesterday his show was cancelled.

So if you want to lose any opportunity to have a program on MSNBC.....you better press the play button below.

Oh and if you cannot see the video player below please click here

The Consensus is DEAD: 48% of Meteorologist Don't Believe in Man-made Global Warming

This story is going to make former VP Al Gore choke on his lettuce. The proponents of the global warming theory clam there is a near unanimous consensus of scientists that the world is getting warmer, and its all mankind's fault.

Now there is actual research conducted by the American Meteorological Society, which shows meteorologists, scientist who study climate are divided almost equally between those who believe in man-made global warming and those who disagree (embedded below).

The survey of AMS members found that while 52 percent of American Meteorological Society members believe climate change is occurring and mostly human-induced, 48 percent of members do not believe in man-made global warming.

Furthermore, the survey found that scientists who professed “liberal political views” were much more likely to believe in the theory of man-made global warming than those who without liberal views.

“Political ideology was the factor next most strongly associated with meteorologists’ views about global warming. This also goes against the idea of scientists’ opinions being entirely based on objective analysis of the evidence, and concurs with previous studies that have shown scientists’ opinions on topics to vary along with their political orientation,” writes survey author Neil Stenhouse of George Mason University.

“The result suggests that members of professional scientific organizations have not been immune to influence by the political polarization on climate change that has affected politicians and the general public,” Stenhouse writes.

President Barack Obama and Democrats have often touted the “97 percent” consensus among scientists that climate change is driven by human activity, primarily through the burning of fossil fuels. However, that study has been proven to be a lie.

Investigative journalists at Popular Technology looked into precisely which papers were classified within Cook’s asserted 97 percent. The investigative journalists found Cook and his colleagues strikingly classified papers by such prominent, vigorous skeptics as Willie Soon, Craig Idso, Nicola Scafetta, Nir Shaviv, Nils-Axel Morner and Alan Carlin as supporting the 97-percent consensus.

Cook and his colleagues, for example, classified a peer-reviewed paper by scientist Craig Idso as explicitly supporting the ‘consensus’ position on global warming “without minimizing” the asserted severity of global warming. When Popular Technology asked Idso whether this was an accurate characterization of his paper, Idso responded, “That is not an accurate representation of my paper. The papers examined how the rise in atmospheric CO2 could be inducing a phase advance in the spring portion of the atmosphere’s seasonal CO2 cycle. Other literature had previously claimed a measured advance was due to rising temperatures, but we showed that it was quite likely the rise in atmospheric CO2 itself was responsible for the lion’s share of the change. It would be incorrect to claim that our paper was an endorsement of CO2-induced global warming.”

A more accurate study such as the one below would suggests there is still a wide open range of opinions regarding global warming, anyone suggesting a consensus is simply afraid of the truth coming out.

BAMS-D-13-00091.1 by Jeffrey Dunetz

Forget Mark Halperin: Obama Press Sec. Robert Gibbs Said Obamacare Had Death Panels

Time Magazine's Mark Halperin got himself in a bit of trouble by telling radio host Steve Malzberg that health care rationing, which Sarah Palin called "death panels" were part of Obamacare.

"You believe there will be rationing, aka death panels?" Malzberg asked.
"It's built into the plan," Halperin said. "It's not like a guess or like a judgment. That's going to be part of how costs are controlled."

The progressive world went crazy, forcing Halperin to back away from his statement:

In Mon intv I did not say "death panels" nor do I believe ACA contains them. Was speaking of political/policy challenge of IPAB cuts. My bad
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) November 26, 2013

Halperin's first statement was correct. President Obama’s health care law empowers  IPAB an “unelected, unaccountable” panel of bureaucrats to make decisions that will cause people to lose access to health care treatments. That's not my belief, its the belief of one of Obama's close first-term advisers. In August of 2012, after a bit of adept questioning by Fox's Chris Wallace--Robert Gibbs, Obama's former press secretary admitted that an unelected board of bureaucrats will be making decisions about life and death coverage.

Chris Wallace: "That is the argument that the Obama campaign makes - that the $716 billion is all in cuts to providers and insurance companies and it will have no effect on benefits or services to the beneficiaries. Let me ask my question. Medicare's own actuary, own actuary of Medicare - not of the Romney campaign - says that is impossible. That you can't have the same services for $716 billion less. And let's put up some of what the Medicare actuary says. They say that 15 percent of Medicare providers will be unprofitable by 2019. 25 percent of Medicare providers will be unprofitable by 2030. And the Medicare actuary concludes - this is his quote - in practice Medicare providers could not sustain continued negative margins and, absent legislative changes, would have to withdraw - withdraw - from providing services to Medicare beneficiaries, merge with other provider groups or shift substantial portions of the Medicare costs it to their non-Medicare non-Medicaid providers. In other words, according to the actuary, Medicare patients, millions of them will lose access to Medicare benefits."

Robert Gibbs: "If Medicare companies that are involved in the program continue doing what they are doing, which is inefficient."

Wallace: Wait a minute. The actuary says, in practice, Medicare providers could not sustain continuing negative margins.

Gibbs: If Medicare providers continue to do what we are doing. Right now, under the old program, Chris, if a senior got readmitted over and over and over to the hospital for the same illness, they got paid every single time the senior got admitted into the hospital. Why not strengthen the benefit by adding preventive health care to it and trying to ensure that the patient gets accountable care and treated before they get that disease.

Wallace: If the providers don't do it, then what happens is, under your plan, this unelected board, 15 bureaucrats come in and they decide what, well, you are laughing at it but that is it. The IPAB.

Gibbs: I guess I am laughing at your characterization of it.

Wallace: Are they an elected board?

Gibbs: They are medical professionals, they are people we trust to make medical decisions.

Wallace: Are they elected by anybody? They are an unaccountable unelected board that comes in and will make decisions on what the providers and what hospitals have to do and Congress either has to vote it all up or all down.

While they aren't called death panels, Sarah Palin was right about the existence of an unelected board of bureaucrats who will be making decisions about life and death coverage.

Obama Administration Warns Healthcare.gov Won't Be Fixed By Deadline.

Uh-oh...it looks like another promise is going to be broken. According to administration officials some visitors to HealthCare.gov will experience outages, slow response times or try-again-later messages after the November 30th deadline (this coming Sunday).

Right now, Democrats up for reelection are praying that healthcare.gov will be working by the end of the week as promised.  But the warning signs of failure are there, as the White House has been inching back from their promise that the site will be all fixed by the end of November (the latest estimate is 80% fixed but most observers believe that wont happen either). On Monday the Obama administration proved that their fears were justified.

In their latest attempt to walk away from the November 30th promise, on Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) spokeswoman Julie Bataille said errors that persist past this weekend would be “intermittent” and, in line with a promise made by the White House, would not affect the vast majority of the site’s users.

On the other hand Ms. Bataille said that some would still experience “periods of suboptimal performance” by the system due to either heavy traffic or technical issues that are still being addressed.

“The system will not work perfectly on Dec. 1, but it will work much better than it did in October.”

Gee that sounds awfully like  "Other than that how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"

Ms. Bataille's comments came after HealthCare.gov experienced an unscheduled outage on Monday for one hour. This happened a few day's after the CMS bragged the site was no long randomly crashing.

The CMS said that, by this weekend, the site will be able to handle a full user load and will have a “queuing” system in place in case of traffic above that threshold. Under that program, users can either wait to be granted access or choose to receive an email when traffic dies down.

But not all parts of the system are working well, even two months after the exchanges launched.

HealthCare.gov has struggled to transmit accurate application information to insurance companies in forms known as 834s. The CMS did not provide an update Monday on that fix, suggesting that officials are still struggling to ensure the forms are correct.

The 834 issue highlights the range of problems that could arise for HealthCare.gov even if the site’s user experience improves.

Even if the website's problems go away, there are issue with  Obamacare introduction that are much bigger than the website despite what the Administration claims. There is still the issue of the President's lie and people losing the plans they were promised they could keep, then there is the sticker shock of the exchange plans and the doctor shock of the new plans having fewer doctors on their networks.

For Democrats, "this ain't gonna be pretty."

Democrats Flipping Out Because Obamacare May Cost Them The Senate

As recently as last week, the President was urging congressional Democrats to refocus their attention on the economy saying the focus on the problems with Healthcare.gov was a "distraction" from more important work on the minds of voters.

That's easier said than done, first of all the problems with the Obamacare introduction is much bigger than the website despite what the progressive pundits are saying, there is still the issue of the President's lie and people losing the plans they liked, then there is the sticker shock of the exchange plans and the doctor shock of the new plans having fewer doctors on their networks.

The other issue, especially for Senate Democrats in red states, is the fact that they backed Obamacare at all. The bill was unpopular in their states even before the failed introduction.

But for Senate Democrats who backed the unpopular legislation, avoiding the subject isn't so easy. Republicans are armed with reams of polling data showing how the health care law could overturn the Democrats' majority, and are already hitting vulnerable Democrats on the subject. Indeed, Democrats who voted for the law face a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't crisis: flip-flop on legislation they actively embraced or tie themselves to an increasingly unpopular law that could doom their reelection prospects.

Right now, the Democrats are praying that healthcare.gov will be working by the end of the week as promised.  But the warning signs of failure are there, as the White House has been inching back from their promise that the site will be all fixed by the end of November (the latest estimate is 80% fixed but most observers believe that wont happen either).

As Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal points out Democratic Senators in shaky seats are springing into to action:

Some of the most vulnerable senators, like Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Begich of Alaska, have proposed their own fixes to the legislation designed to inoculate them from blowback with their conservative constituencies back home. Even Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, a loyal ally of the president's on health care, suggested he could support a delay in the individual mandate if the website still isn't working in short order by the end of November.

They're all echoing the line Democratic campaign officials are privately urging their members to take: stress the promised benefits, offer constructive criticism, and hope their constituents are patient enough to sustain them through the rocky rollout. Some may even call for more aggressive oversight of the law's implementation. But it's an open question whether that political line will be sustainable if the health care exchange website is still dysfunctional heading into next year, and an older, sicker insurance pool could mean a "death spiral" of ballooning premiums for 2015. In a telling sign of the White House's longer-term political fears, the administration delayed the second round of open enrollment for one month—to occur right after the 2014 midterms.

But voters know there is a big difference between taking a stand to fix a problem and flip-flopping for political expediency. 

Kraushaar reports that

Race-by-race polling conducted over the last month has painted a grim picture of the difficult environment Senate Democrats are facing next year. In Louisiana, a new state survey showed Landrieu's approval rating is now underwater; she tallied only 41 percent of the vote against her GOP opposition. In Arkansas, where advertising on the health care law began early, Sen. Mark Pryor's approval sank to 33 percent, a drop of 18 points since last year. A new Quinnipiac survey showed Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, who looked like a lock for reelection last month, in a dead heat against little-known GOP opponents. Even a Democratic automated poll from Public Policy Polling showed Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina running neck-and-neck against Republican opposition, with her job disapproval spiking over the last two months. These are the types of numbers that wave elections are made of.

The party of a sitting President usually does poorly in second term mid-term elections. Results are even worse when the President's approval is in the tank, and as the latest polling has shown the Obama's ratings are near record lows.

Indeed, there's a growing sense of fatalism among Democrats. Even as strategists are advising their clients on how to best talk about health care, they badly want to change the subject and hope that the problems go away. On that point, the White House and congressional Democrats are on the same page.

"If the election were held today, Republicans would probably win back the majority," said one longtime Democratic operative tracking internal Senate polling. "But we know for sure the election would not be held today."

In the end the question of who will control the senate beginning in January 2015 rests upon how well the Republicans can force the Democrats to explain their support of Obamacare and how well the Democrats can run away from the President's signature legislation.

Talking Iran and More: The Lid On The Radio 2x

Yesterday was a bad day for the quality of the radio medium but a fun day for me, as yours truly was a guest on two different radio shows.

The top player below will allow you to listen to The Ed Morrissey Show. I joined by good friend Ed a half our into his show to discuss the deal between the US-led P5+1 and Iran.

Video streaming by Ustream And then last night I joined Katrina Jørgensen on Allan Bourdius' program Their Finest Hour (have been experiencing problems embedding this one. If player doesn't show up click here) :

Abbas' Fatah Party Calls for the Kidnapping of Israeli Soldiers

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Fatah publicizes threats
to kidnap, kill, and bomb Israelis
by terror organization
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades -
the military wing of Fatah

"Death is in your cup - make them [Israelis] drink"


"We are preparing to kidnap Zionist soldiers," is part of a promise made by the terror organization Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - the military wing of Fatah, and published in a video on Fatah's official "Main Page" on Facebook.

In the video, a masked terrorist sitting among dozens of rockets states that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is preparing to kidnap Israeli soldiers in order to "empty out the Zionist prisons." This is a warning that Fatah terrorists plan to follow the precedent set by Hamas, who kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and held him hostage for five years until Israel released over 1,000 terrorists including many murderers, to enable Shalit's release:

"We are preparing to kidnap Zionist soldiers to settle accounts with the Zionist enemy properly, in order to empty out the Zionist prisons."




The same video threatens to fire rockets that will "reach the Zionist depth," and "strike the Zionist enemy on its own ground." A song in the video calls to kill Israelis - which is worded as "death is in your cup - make them [Israelis] drink."

Fatah, headed by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, claims to have recognized Israel. However, the video refers to Israel as "occupied Palestinian territories":

"These rockets... will reach the Zionist depth [Israel], Allah willing, to a distance of 45 km. inside the occupied Palestinian territories."

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is listed as a terror organization by the US and the EU. Recently, the official Palestinian Authority daily reiterated that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is Fatah's military wing:
"The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, also denounced the explosion that occurred yesterday in Beirut's suburb..."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 17, 2013]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that Fatah uses its Facebook page for glorifying terrorists, among them suicide bombers, and promotes violence.

Click to see more examples of the PA and Fatah policy of using social media to glorify terrorists.

The following is a longer excerpt of the video publicized by Fatah:

Text on screen: "Military Information
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - Palestine"

Song: "Detonate your revolution of rage in their midst
Bombard them with your fire and shoot them..."

Masked terrorist: "The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades... Praise Allah, our Jihad fighters have managed to develop these rockets so they will reach the Zionist depth [Israel], Allah willing, to a distance of 45 km. inside the occupied Palestinian territories. We will strike the Zionist enemy [Israel] on its own ground... Yes, we in the Al-Aqsa Brigades are preparing to kidnap Zionist soldiers to settle accounts with the Zionist enemy properly, to empty out the Zionist prisons..."

Song: "Slap the tyrant's face and rebel
Step over the oppressor's ambitions
Be like Yasser [Arafat] - do not fear them
Death is in your cup - make them drink!...

Masked terrorist: "With these rockets we will liberate our Jerusalem. With these rockets we will crush the Zionist enemy in sensitive areas where it didn't expect us to crush it, Allah willing."
[Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page," Nov. 17, 2013
Al-Aqsa Brigades YouTube channel, Nov. 16, 2013]

Source Palestinian Media Watch

CIA Personnel in Benghazi Suspected They Would be Attacked on 9/11/12

Fox News is reporting that according closed door testimony to congress report, the folks working at the CIA annex in Benghazi knew very well that there could be attacks on  9/11 anniversary last year, they even posted a warning on a bulletin board at the annex warning of hostilities against western targets during that period. And their suspicions had nothing to do with a bad you tube video.

The witnesses which included CIA personnel and former contractors also voiced concern about Ambassador Chris Stevens’ visit to Benghazi right before the 9/11 anniversary.

Given an understanding between the local CIA personnel and the nearby State Department operation that they would come to each other’s aid, the CIA on the ground in Benghazi was aware of Stevens’ arrival in Benghazi on Sept. 10, according to the witnesses. But they told lawmakers they were puzzled as to why Stevens was there during a period of heightened threat without significant additional security.

The new testimony appears to challenge the findings of the Accountability Review Board -- known as the State Department ARB -- which explicitly stated that the Benghazi consulate and the State Department “were well aware of the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks but at no time were there ever any specific, credible threats against the mission in Benghazi related to the September 11 anniversary."

Witnesses also testified that as early as August 2011, 13 months before the Benghazi terrorist attack, it was understood by CIA personnel at the annex that military assets were moving out of the region, and the CIA operation was potentially left exposed in the event of a terrorist strike.

Fox News is told the directive reflected the fact that NATO operations were winding down, and as a result, fewer military assets were in the region. It was described as a hard copy document. The CIA declined to comment. As a matter of policy, the agency does not discuss internal communications.

According to the report  Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland – who is leading the House subcommittee investigation on Benghazi – is also trying to find out why the CIA personnel were asked to sign a second non-disclosure agreement at the ceremony honoring the two former CIA contractors and Navy SEALs, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, who were killed by mortar fire defending the CIA annex in Benghazi.

The agreements, one of which CIA personnel had already signed before the May event, have raised concern among some lawmakers that CIA personnel were being pressured not to talk about Benghazi.

Westmoreland said the witnesses testified they did not feel “threatened” but the circumstances did not feel right. “I think the timing speaks for itself,” Westmoreland said. “We are going to run everything we got to the ground.”

The Benghazi scandal keeps rolling along under the radar of the mainstream media. While CBS tried with their 60 minutes the fact that they were snookered by a false witness, has driven the rest of the mainstream media off the case.

Is Norway Trying to Kick Out Its Jews?

Norway’s Health Ministry is considering a proposal on regulating the circumcision of boys. Some political parties are calling on a complete ban of the practice on minors, a possibility that would affect Jewish and Muslim communities.

Two years ago, the ministry was tasked with reviewing circumcision and how it should be practiced in Norway. It is yet to finalize its stance, but it promises a proposed bill by Easter 2014, Health Minister Bent Hoie told Aftenposten, Norway’s largest newspaper.

Their timing is impeccable. Part of the story behind the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah which starts on Wednesday evening, is the Syrian-Greek invaders' ban on Jewish practice, including circumcision. The ban on circumcision was based on not damaging the 'human form."

The issue was brought to public attention after the resent call by Norway Children’s Ombudswoman Anne Lindboe to ban circumcision of boys before age 16, unless the procedure is warranted by medical needs.

Lindboe, who last year advised Jews and Muslims to replace circumcision with “a symbolic ritual,” also told the paper that non-medical circumcision of pre-teen boys should be outlawed and those performing it should be punished in a similar fashion to people who use violence against children.

“We introduced a law on violence against children even though we had reason to believe that individuals would still be beaten and mistreated,” she said, dismissing concerns raised in the Norwegian media that a ban on ritual circumcision would mean that parents would perform it illegally.

“If 15 years is set as the minimum age, we expect Norwegian parents to follow and respect the law,” said Lindboe, a longtime advocate of the criminalization of ritual circumcision, which she considers a form of abuse and infringement of children’s rights to “physical integrity.”  

Violence against children? I don't think so! Jews have been circumcising their male children on the eighth-day of life ever since Isaac (Abraham's circumcision was when he was in the 90s).

Is Norway really saying they do not wish to have Jews or Muslims in their country?

Historically movements to ban circumcision are centered in attempts to move the Jewish commitment from God and refocus it on man. In fact almost every campaign to destroy the Jewish people started with a ban on circumcision, followed by a ban on kosher slaughter and finally a ban on teaching Torah. Whether they were meant to be anti-Jewish or not, a bill to ban circumcision is fundamentally anti-Semitic. Even if you give them the benefit of the doubt and believe their intent to be Humanist or Hellenistic the end result is banning key Jewish rituals.

The brit milah (covenant of circumcision) is one of the most central practices of Judaism. The Rabbis tell us that males are not born perfect on purpose. Circumcision gives fathers (the parent who is ordered to conduct the ritual) a chance to participate in the act of creation. We believe that God has a huge role, and mothers obviously have the role of developing the baby within her body, but through the act of brit milah dad has the role of adding the final touch, making the boy perfect.

Don't get the idea that circumcision is something some ancient rabbis dreamed up. There are Jewish practices originate from Rabbinical interpretation of what is written in the Torah, such as not eating milk with meat (Rabbis got that from the Torah saying "Do not boil a kid in its mother's milk 3x)

Circumcision however, is directly commanded in the Torah, the five books of Moses. The command for circumcision appears in Bereisheet (the Hebrew name for the book of Genesis which roughly translates to In the Beginning).

You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, as a sign of the covenant between Me and you. At the age of eight days, you shall circumcise every male child born to you throughout the generations ...Bereisheet 17:11-1

 Circumcision is not interpretation of what God wants, but according to Jews (and Muslims as well) it is a direct order --right there in ink and parchment. From what I understand from my Christian friends, they too believe that the Torah is the word of God (but commandments such as circumcision apply only to Jews)

There is also a medical reason for circumcision; it is an established scientific fact that circumcision helps prevent HIV.

In the end this new effort by Norway sends a clear message to Jews and Muslims and all people of faith,  "Get The Hell Out!" Because today it's circumcision, tomorrow they can claim communion encourages alcoholism and ban the Catholic ritual.

Saudi Arabia and Israel Together In Opposition to Iranian Deal-A Major Obama Accomplishment?

For much of the past five years these pages have been critical of President Obama's foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. It would be unfair if we neglected to mention a great Middle East accomplishment of the Obama Administration.  This President has been able to do something no other President has been able to do, bring together Saudi Arabia and Israel.

On Friday, Prince Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia commented on the then proposed deal:

He notes this startling alliance of Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, custodian of Islam's holiest sites, and the Jewish state. "For the first time, Saudi Arabian interests and Israel are almost parallel," he says, his voice rising. "It's incredible."

The prince stops short of endorsing an Israeli military strike on Iran, but in the same breath says he thinks a military option to "neutralize" Iran's nuclear potential is preferable to a bad diplomatic deal.

The day after signing a deal with Iran, President Obama finally got around to calling Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. And according to sources gave him an earful.

"The prime minister made it clear to the most powerful man on earth that if he intends to stay the most powerful man on earth, it's important to make a change in American policy because the practical result of his current policy is liable to lead him to the same failure that the Americans absorbed in North Korea and Pakistan, and Iran could be next in line," Likud Beytenu MK Tzachi Hanegbi told the Knesset Channel.

Saudi Arabia had been more low profile in its opposition, but its diplomats have been quietly briefing the US media about the dangers posed by Iran.

But yesterday, they brought their objection out into the open, big time. Yesterday after the deal was made Nawaf Obaid., a senior adviser to the Saudi royal family has accused the West of deception in striking the nuclear accord with Iran and said Riyadh would follow an independent foreign policy.

Nawaf Obaid told a think tank meeting in London that Saudi Arabia was determined to pursue its own foreign and policy goals. Having in the past been reactive to events, the leading Sunni Muslim nation was determined to be pro-active in future.

Mr Obaid said that while Saudi Arabia knew that the US was talking directly to Iran through a channel in the Gulf state of Oman, Washington had not directly briefed its ally.

"We were lied to, things were hidden from us," he said. "The problem is not with the deal struck in Geneva but how it was done."

Last week there were reports that Israel and Saudi Arabia were working together on a plan to militarily attack the Iranian nuclear program. Whether or not that is true (neither side will ever acknowledge it publicly) what can be said is Israel and Saudi Arabia are speaking with one voice on the issue of Iranian nukes.

While there are attacks on the deal Obama made with the Iranians which IMHO are all true, and the deal does make the world more dangerous, what can be said is it created an alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia. I does not matter that any alliance may be blown up by an Iranian nuclear attack. It should be seen as an Obama accomplishment.

Who says President Obama has accomplished nothing in the Middle East?

Obama’s Iran Deal: So Bad, The Democrats Hate It

How bad is the deal the Obama Administration made with Iran?  It is so bad that leading Senate Democrats have attacked it.

Within hours of the announcement that an agreement was made, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the No. 3  Senate Democrat and a man who would run over his own mother if it would show support for the Obama administration, said he was “disappointed” by the pact and opined that Iran won more from the deal’s loosening of economic sanctions than the international community gained by slowing down the country’s nuclear program. He went on to say that more sanctions would be coming.

“This disproportionality of this agreement makes it more likely that Democrats and Republicans will join together and pass additional sanctions when we return in December. I intend to discuss that possibility with my colleagues,”

Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) told The Washington Post he had problems with the pact for disproportionately aiding Iran and called for vigorous enforcement of existing sanctions and “ongoing” verification of the nuclear program’s scale-back, particularly given “Iran’s history of duplicity."

Menendez said the committee would continue with the passage of new sanctions, but add a provision that delays their implementation.

“I expect that the forthcoming sanctions legislation to be considered by the Senate will provide for a six month window to reach a final agreement before imposing new sanctions on Iran, but will at the same time be immediately available should the talks falter or Iran fail to implement or breach the interim agreement,” he added.

Democratic Senators Blumenthal (CT) and Cardin (MD) expressed similar reservations as Menendez and Schumer.

Mike Rogers (R-MI) Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee agrees with his Democratic Party colleagues:

“Think about what this agreement does. It says you can continue to enrich. That’s what the Iranians believe. And they have made no changes—no changes—in the development of their nuclear weapon program, and I can tell that you with a high degree of certainty.”

These members of Congress are correct, Iran will get to pocket the billions of dollars they get, using it to stabilize the collapsing Iranian economy, bolster its nuclear program, and fund its global terror network. Ultimately the deal allows Iran to start chipping away at the sanctions regime, and eventually it will lead to its complete disintegration, or at very least collapsing it to the point where they no longer matter.  

Iran can use the short-term financial injection to bide its time, waiting for major powers and corporations to engage in a capitalist frenzy: no one wants to be left behind as Iran’s market opens up, so everyone will try to get in first.

As John Bolton said of Fox News, Iran has broken the psychological momentum and effect of the international economic sanctions. And while estimates differ on Iran’s precise gain, it is considerable ($7-20 billion) it is worth much more.   A six-months’ easing of sanctions will create contracts and business arrangements which will make it extremely hard for the West to reverse direction.

Amongst the issues with the with the supposed controls put on the Iranian nuclear program is it’s vague language for example the deal calls for‘“a mutually defined enrichment program with practical limits and transparency measures to ensure the peaceful nature of the program.”

In announcing the deal, Iran’s leaders and state-owned media began to brag about the US’s capitulation on their insistence they retain the right to enrich uranium. This is huge because it leads a final agreement that allows Iran to continue spinning centrifuges would leave the terrorist-supporting regime with the ambiguity it needs to dash across the nuclear finish line.  It also means the Obama Administration has abandoned a decade of Security Council resolutions demanding that Iran stop all uranium-enrichment activities. 

The agreement does not cover centrifuge manufacturing (they can replace broken machines which does not stop them from upgrading and replacing existing ones). The deal does not stop Iran’s ballistic missile program, whose purpose is creating weapons delivery system.  

While the agreement requires Iran to dilute some of its weapons grade uranium, it is being done via a process  (converting to oxide fuel) that will take about two weeks to reverse, so the converted uranium oxide can be easily converted back.

With all this in mind it’s no wonder that it was reported that Obama avoided calling Netanyahu as the deal was being finalized and announced and why the Israeli Prime Minister had such an angry and public reaction.

“What was achieved last night in Geneva is not an historic agreement; it is an historic mistake. Today the world has become a much more dangerous place because the most dangerous regime in the world has taken a significant step toward attaining the most dangerous weapon in the world. For the first time, the world’s leading powers have agreed to uranium enrichment in Iran while ignoring the UN Security Council decisions that they themselves led. Sanctions that required many years to put in place contain the best chance for a peaceful solution. These sanctions have been given up in exchange for cosmetic Iranian concessions that can be cancelled in weeks. This agreement and what it means endanger many countries including, of course, Israel. Israel is not bound by this agreement. The Iranian regime is committed to the destruction of Israel and Israel has the right and the obligation to defend itself, by itself, against any threat. As Prime Minister of Israel, I would like to make it clear: Israel will not allow Iran to develop a military nuclear capability.”

Netanyahu might say that he will not allow Iran to develop a military nuclear capability, but with Saturday night’s agreement, the military option has been taken out of his hands even though the ability to “rush to a bomb” as Netanyahu has described it in the past has not been taken out of Iran’s hands.

In the end that was Iran’s biggest gain. There is no way that the Jewish State can attack the Iranian nuclear program, no matter how close it gets to the bomb after the entire international community shook hands with Iran and signed an agreement.

Iran gets its protection, Obama gets a few days of relief from media reports of all the problems with his signature health care plan, and Israel (and in the long term the American people) is left holding the short end of the stick, a continued Iranian nuclear threat.