Sandy aid shows, Irish sit in the back of the Democrat party bus

Rockaways

President Obama cobbled together a new coalition of special interests that he was able to win a 2^nd term with.  Minorities, single women, gays, union members, government employees, etc., helped put him over the top. 

The Irish American coalition used to have great sway in the Democrat party.  But some high profile Irish Americans weren’t even invited to a traditional St Patricks special event dinner in Obamas 1^st term.

If Irish Americans had clout in the Democrat Party, the Sandy devastation in the Rockaway’s would have been dealt with swiftly and surely.

Democrat luminaries were falling all over themselves for photo ops right after the storm. Wearing hard hats and making promises to the cameras, they scored big in the PR dept.

But today, months after the storm, many residents still have no homes to move into and no power for their homes, if they still have one standing.

These neighborhoods are slowly being relegated to back page status in the media and when that happens,  it is as if the problem isn’t there anymore. But it is there.

Federal aid has been slow.  Democrats blame the Republicans for holding up an appropriations bill. But Republicans say the reason for the delay is that the bill put forth by Harry Reid and the Democrats, was loaded with billions in pork that had nothing to do with Sandy relief

Bill Clinton photo op

If Democrats were serious about protecting and aiding their constituency, they wouldn’t have played political games. Evidently they felt, after the media storm died down, they could relegate Sandy to politics and special interests without fear of media or political blowback.

Read Townhalls excellent exposure of the Democrat pork laden Sandy relief bill by Katy Pavlich. It itemizes the billions that have nothing to do with Sandy relief. Article

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the din from the media was ear splitting.  News teams were on the ground at all times.  The damaged city was kept front and center throughout the entire Bush term, as billions upon billions were poured on the city and its residents.

But this disaster in New York is different. The leader in the White house is a Democrat and so are most of those officeholders in this damaged area.

President Bush was blamed incessantly for acting slowly to respond to the disaster that hurricane Katrina caused. But the truth was ineptness by Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, both Democrats that caused the lack of preparedness and response to Katrina. 

Mayor Nagins “chocolate city” as he referred to it, was showered with billions in federal tax dollars to show the media and the rest of America we cared. 

Indicted mayor of New Orleans

The media microscope was kept focused on New Orleans recovery efforts and any delay in aid was headline news. Charges of racism were raised by civil rights leaders for any perceived lack of aid, real or imagined.

As a side note Mayor Nagin is facing criminal corruption charges for misappropriating federal funds destined for the repair of his city. Did you read that in the headline news?

But President Obama & Democrat leaders are held to a different standard. New York’s Rockaway’s are still a disaster area and federal feet are dragging. The quiet desperation of American citizens needing aid from their government is being ignored in the media.

Democrat Irish Americans should take note of the shabby treatment they are getting from the very politicians they help put in office.  Notice what it is like to be relegated to old news by the lap dog media.

Heads roll as the religion of “turn the other cheek,” meets the religion of “peace”

Burning church

The latest casualty in the war against Christianity, is a Tanzanian pastor who lost his head to an outraged Muslim mob.  The incensed mob was demanding all non-halal butcher shops and especially pork butchery, be forbidden

A spokesman said a group of youths believed to be Muslim, assaulted several Christians, including a butcher shop owner, using sticks and machetes.  During the confrontation Pastor Mathayo Kachili, of the local Assembly of God Church, was beheaded.

Besides the Pastors beheading, several other people were injured critically during the incident and taken to the local hospital in Buseresere for treatment. See this and other stories excerpted from link: Tanzanian News

Christians in a small village in southern Egypt are rebuilding their lives and homes after hundreds of Muslims rampaged through their community firebombing houses and businesses, over rumors of a romantic relationship between a Christian and a Muslim.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram, a group seeking to impose Islamic law on the country, picked out Christians in a small village, gathered them in a group before massacring them. 15 people died in the attack; many had had their throats slit.

These are not isolated incidents as Muslim extremists attack other religions wherever the two meet, but Christianity seems to be singled out.

Pastor Mathayo Kachili

According to a report named Christiana-phobia, by the think tank Civitas: The “lion’s share” of persecution faced by Christians arises in countries where Islam is the dominant faith. Between half and two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have left the region or have been killed in the past century.

“There is now a serious risk that Christianity will disappear from its biblical heartlands,” it claims.

Violent oppression of Christians has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations, especially in Africa and the Middle East. In some countries it is government sanctioned violence that burns down churches and imprison parishioners.

In others countries, groups and vigilantes take matters into their hands by murdering Christians and driving them out of regions they have called home for centuries.

One Christian pastor in an affected country described the situation this way: “On the Christian side, strong emphasis is placed on the teaching of Christian love, patience, mercy and forbearance. But in such a situation one wonders what the future of Christianity and of the nation as a whole can be.”

“Muslims believe that if they die in the course of a Holy War (or Jihad) they will go directly to heaven. We are dealing with a religious philosophy where war is a must! The whole weight of the challenge is now on our shoulders. Who can tell how successfully we will respond?”

It seems, the Christian philosophy of turning the other cheek, is on the road to running out of cheeks to turn, in Muslim dominated countries. It seems when it comes to tolerating other religions, the religion of “peace” isn’t so peaceful.

Fox News adds Scott Brown to join Dennis Kucinich - Will Mitt Romney be next?

Republican Scott Brown joins the Fox News team

Where do failed politicians go after they’ve been rejected by their electorate? It seems Fox News is their new destination.

To help ratings, Fox has been shifting the face of its commentators steadily more to the left in order to keep it more “fair and balanced.”

Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, lost his gerrymandered district in Ohio and had to try a stab at a re-gerrymandered constituency that would never elect him. 

The far left, camera whore/congressman, was said to have his eye on a new congress gig representing Washington state, but his magic carpetbagger ride was interrupted by lagging poll numbers.

Read more US politics news here

Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich

But not to miss a paycheck, or camera time, Kucinich was scooped up by Fox where he can dazzle the viewers with his practiced, non answer answers, on many topical subjects.

Ex-Massachusetts Senator and Playgirl centerfold, Scott Brown, is the latest addition to the Fox contributor stable.

Brown, fresh off a humiliating defeat to a candidate who should have been shamed out of the campaign for abusing the system, rather than being coronated Senator of Massachusetts, can grace Fox viewers with his vanilla views on national politics.

Brown and Mitt Romney, both headquartered in Massachusetts, used the same political playbook as they waged their campaigns.  Both of them seemed hesitant to answer back attacks waged on them and never took advantage of clear targets when it came to their opponents glaring weaknesses.

Read more on the Republican Party here

Brown pulled punches with Elizabeth Warren, by not aggressively going to the source, legally, on how she received her positions in govt/universities by claiming to be a Native American.  Clearly, a fraudulent abuse of federal/state affirmative action laws, as it was found Warren had no legitimate claim for Native American status.

As a result of his vanilla campaign, he lost to Elizabeth Warren and the Senate has another far left ideologue in its midst to wage war on its private sector, and tax and spend the country into oblivion.

Mitt Romney’s campaign was similar to Browns, in that it was hesitant to exploit the failures of Obama and aggressively go after Obama's past…on many levels.  In the few times Romney actually called out Obama on his issues, his poll numbers rose.  

The first Romney/Obama debate showed how America responded to a forceful and pro active stance by Romney when he battered Obama on his many failures.  Romney got a tremendous lift in the polls as a result of that performance.  It clearly showed Romney was willing to fight and that’s what America wanted.

But Romney failed to keep up the attack and soon lost the messaging war in the media to Obama.  Romney failed to punch back at Obama.  Romney failed to play by the same Chicago street rules the Obama campaign played by. 

Romney/Brown preferred to politically box by the Marquess of Queensbury rules, when their opponents in the ring were playing by the, “just win baby” rules.

As a result, these nice guys finished 2nd….and the nation is the real loser.

But Fox’s Roger Ailes knows how to take lemons and make lemon-aid out of them…will we soon see Mitt Romney as a contributor?  Stay tuned.

Will President Barack Obama's State of the Union Speech be like a scene from the movie "Outlaw Josey Wales"?

Clint Eastwood’s 1976 iconic hit, Outlaw Josey Wales, starts out in 1865 Missouri. The civil war had just ended and a small force of confederate guerilla fighters had been persuaded to turn themselves in to federal forces for amnesty.

They arrive at the federal encampment, to be disarmed and then told to assemble in the middle of the camp.  There they are instructed to raise their right hands and repeat the oath to the union, as read by a union officer.

They start to repeat the oath of allegiance:

“I swear to uphold the laws and constitution of the United States.  I swear that I will never again take up arms against the government”

But the script takes a horrible turn as the union officer starts to insult the men, expecting them to repeat his insults; the men grumble that this isn’t what they bargained for.  

The next words from the union officer are:

“I pledge that I will be loyal to the United States of America, and recognize that it is one nation…Though I be murderous, verminous, lying Missouri scum…” [Open fire]

The assembled men, who expected to hear unification and a welcome back into the fold; instead are bushwhacked and massacred.

If the past is any predictor of the future, President Obama’s State of the Union speech set for tomorrow, will have shades of the repatriation scene (figuratively) in Josey Wales.

Democrat operatives have said the intent of the president is to destroy the Republicans, so his party can gain control of both houses of the legislature.

The Republicans have been bushwhacked and massacred on many occasions during sessions like the State of the Union speech by this president; will they again just sit there and take it?

In the past, President Obama has insulted Republicans in Congress, forcing one congressman to blurt out “you lie,” during the presidents speech.

Even the Supreme Court has been targeted.   In an unprecedented breach of propriety, he berated the justices sitting below him for  their decision to give free speech rights to American Corporations in political campaigns.

After Obama slammed them for their decision, Justice Alito shook his head and appeared to say “not true," as Democrats stood and applauded all around the Supreme Court members.

President Obama has shown by his actions in the past he won’t hesitate to use his bully pulpit, to be a bully.

Will the Republicans push back? 

Perhaps tomorrow will mark the beginning of a new strategy to fire back at the president.  Obamas speech will be followed by a rebuttal from Republican rising star, Marco Rubio.

Rubio is well spoken and well respected; he knows how to deliver a powerful speech.  He will not be afraid to call out President Obama for any misstatements or insults he hurls at his party.  He will also do it speaking English as well as Spanish.

Obama CIA appointee Brennan gets heckled by code pink and mugged by senators

Hecklers at Brennan hearing

After serving 4 turbulent years in the Obama administration as counter terrorism advisor, and highly partisan spin doctor for President Obama, John Brennan was nominated to be the new director of the CIA.

If Mr. Brennan expected a placid sail through the senate confirmation process in Washington today, he was sorely mistaken.

Right off the bat, he was heckled by members of Code Pink, who hold him responsible for masterminding armed drone strikes on terrorist targets in the middle east that have resulted in the deaths of thousands, including innocent women and children.

Code Pink was synonymous with activist Cindy Sheehan as they stalked President Bush during his terms, or anyone in his administration they felt responsible for the war in Iraq.  Heckling, die ins and throwing blood on members of the Bush administration were a regular occurrence.    

Yet Code Pink has been strangely quiet for the past 4 years of the Obama administration, which exposed their partisan political agenda…Until today, when they got a chance to show their displeasure with Obama policies.

But senators from both parties picked up where Code Pink left off after security cleared the protesters from the room. 

Senators demanded Brennan explain Obama policy justifying the killing of Americans on foreign soil who they feel could be a threat to America. These killings can be done without a hearing or any semblance of rights Americans are entitled to. Brennan did not have a satisfactory answer for many of the senators, who feel the Obama administration has set itself up as judge jury and executioner.

Additionally, Brennan was criticized for the drone program which is killing suspected terrorists instead of capturing them and gaining valuable intelligence. One Senator asked how many terror suspects have they brought in for interrogation since the drone program began 4 years ago.  Brennan said he would have to check on that.  The senator said, “don’t bother I have the answer:  it is one suspect.”

This showcases the logic of this administration who says enhanced interrogation techniques, like pouring water on a terrorists face, is inhumane, yet when they drop a bomb on a suspected terrorists head it is morally acceptable.

He was also questioned on his involvement in the leaking of highly classified intelligence to the press in order to make President Obama look "commander in chief" like.  This public leak of our intelligence has been said to be deeply damaging to operations affecting counter terrorism and efforts to thwart Iran’s aim to obtain nuclear weapons.

Read about damaging leaks here: Is Obama White house willing to jeopardize national security for political gain?

Brennan has a long history of statements during the Obama administration, where he doesn’t seem to acknowledge Islamic terrorism and has wrapped himself up in pretzel-like semantics to avoid mentioning it.  He was asked to explain those statements as well, since he is a reflection of the Obama administration who would rather use the term “man caused disaster” rather that Islamic terrorism, when it occurs.

Read article on Obama administration refusal to call terrorism, terrorism.

One issue that was brought up and should be squarely focused upon in the next hearing, are the murders of our personnel in Benghazi. The Obama administration, including Brennan, has been given a pass on this by the main stream media. It has been too long for the Obama administration to come forward with the truth on this.

After today’s confirmation hearing ended, Senator Saxby Chambliss said he was not satisfied with Brennan's answers and looked forward to next Tuesdays hearing to probe him further on these and other issues.  

NRA’s Wayne LaPierre singles out violent Chicago and calls for 1,000 federal agents to patrol its streets

National Rifle Association's Wayne la Pierre

On Fox News Sunday, National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre came out with both barrels blasting, singling out the gun violence in Chicago.

Chicago, a city with one of the nation’s strictest gun control laws, is also one of the nation's most violent, leading it in death by gunfire.

LaPierre took on the violence in Chicago and noted that if federal gun laws already on the books were enforced, instead of putting even more restrictions on gun legal ownership, it could help solve the city’s violence problems.

"We are all obsessed with the Taliban and we ought to be. What about the gangs?"  "They are ruining neighborhoods all over the country? We need a federal task force, if it takes 500 agents; if it takes a thousand agents, go into Chicago."

"Every gang member on the street of Chicago, starting tomorrow morning, let's pick 'em up, we've got a federal law to get them off the street and put them in prison, and that would cut crime and we're not doing it."

There seems to be a lack of will to enforce existing gun laws. New York for example, has a mandatory law requiring prison time for anyone found with an illegal gun in his possession…Yet the law is full of loopholes and less than half of those arrested for illegal gun possession face any prison time.

There are over nine thousand gun laws on the books already. Perhaps it’s time for existing gun laws to be enforced, before any new laws are proposed.

Several years ago a city in the San Francisco bay area was suffering from a massive wave of violence.  East Palo Alto was becoming a shooting gallery; so violent it was dangerous for the thousands of motorist who used its main artery daily to travel to other parts of the bay.  Shootings, rapes, armed robbery, arson, carjacking and open drug dealing were the norm.  The local police department was not up to the task to protect its citizens and put a halt to the crime.

To combat this unprecedented crime wave, communities in the San Francisco bay area & the state of California pitched in with extra police forces to swarm the city.   They soon had rounded up gang leaders and the violent individuals who were creating much of the crime.  They had a task force that instantly responded to crime and aggressively hunted down the criminals.  Existing laws were enforced and soon the streets of this city were relatively safe.  The criminal element had been broken.

LaPierre’s suggestion for federal intervention in Chicago is a good one.  Bring in federal police forces to help patrol the violent streets.  Make it a national priority to protect the law abiding citizens of Chicago. When the criminals are taken off the streets, the percentage of gun violence will be drastically reduced.

This same formula should be used to target other crime and violence plagued cities.  Disarm and jail the criminals who use guns, enforce the existing gun laws.

Cliffside Malibu: Sharing the Secrets to Real Addiction Treatment

Richard Taite didn’t know if he would ever experience a normal life. Ten years ago, it was unclear whether or not he’d even survive his addiction. Addicted to cocaine, briefly homeless, living on an occasional Big Mac and not sleeping, he was constantly at war with his inner demons. 

Like many addicts, Taite tried everything he knew to overcome his addiction but every effort failed. Each failure decimated the little self-esteem he still had.

                 

In desperation, Taite surrendered himself to a sober living facility, where he was exposed to a new world of possibilities. He began seeing a therapist who introduced him to ideas about change that literally saved his life. This was the “Stages of Change” model, developed by Dr. James Prochaska and his colleagues. Taite learned, through intensive therapy, about the core issues that triggered his drug addiction. Taite took to this new life with a zeal that only a rescued man knows.  He married an amazing woman who consistently inspires him to be a better man and together they created a family.

Taite decided to pay his good fortune forward. He created one of the leading and arguably one of the most effective treatment centers in the world, Cliffside Malibu Treatment Center.  There, on a sprawling property overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Taite and his team of professionals help addicts attain the kind of life they only dreamed of, but didn’t think was possible for them.

Building the treatment center and helping the addicts who come through its doors wasn’t enough for Taite. “I operate a boutique facility. We can only help eighteen or twenty people at a time; yet there are millions of addicts who are suffering in this country alone. There are few treatment facilities that have the resources we do or the success rate we have. I wanted to get the word out that people really can recover from hopeless cases of addiction like I did. That’s when I decided to write, Ending Addiction for Good.”

To get the word out about his cutting edge treatment protocol, Taite teamed with friend and colleague, Constance Scharff, PhD. Scharff has a PhD in Transformative Studies in which she specialized in addiction recovery. “I became interested in addiction research because I wanted to help those with severe trauma successfully overcome their addictions,” Scharff said. She should know. Before earning her PhD, she was a hopeless alcoholic with a two liter a day habit. She drank, she reports in her story in Ending Addiction for Good, to ease the pain of horrific childhood abuse and neglect. However, she too became sober using the same principles Taite used.

Taite and Scharff write that the core issues with addiction for most people come from being unable to deal with pain. This pain could stem from long held, erroneous beliefs that began in childhood or could come from traumatic events in one’s adult life. Abusing alcohol or drugs is an attempt to cope with the pain these experiences cause when no other solutions seem available.

Cliffside Malibu’s methods, which are detailed extensively in the book, center on helping addicts uncover and face the core issues that started their addictive process, based on the addict’s level of readiness to change. Treatment is based on intensive one-on-one psychotherapy. In addition to psychotherapy, Cliffside Malibu also offers a range of holistic treatments given on a highly individualized basis. These include but are not limited to: acupuncture, massage, yoga, meditation, orthomolecular medicine, personal training, and equine therapy. Each type of treatment is given by the most highly skilled staff available. Most importantly, each member of the Cliffside Malibu staff is dedicated to the client’s recovery. As Taite states, “They’re here because they love what they do and never lost that.”

Cliffside Malibu treats all forms of addiction and welcomes clients with co-occurring disorders. The treatment center has a successful history with treating alcoholics and also specializes in pharmaceutical addiction. As individuals are increasingly over-prescribed potent medications by doctors, Taite has been asked to provide treatment for a whole new group of addicts who might never have needed treatment in the past.  Special protocols are in place to assist those recovering from prescription medication abuse and addiction.

Taite says that at the end of the day, his goal is to create a shift in his clients’ hearts and heads, in which their lives are no longer driven by the anxiety and trauma of their past, but a desire to live a hopeful, contented life.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  It’s that all important first step in changing your life forever that Cliffside Malibu offers.  Recognizing the roots of your addiction, receiving holistic treatment and intensive psychotherapy opens the gateway to a full and addiction-free life.  You just need to make a simple phone call.

To learn more about Cliffside Malibu, go to www.CliffsideMalibu.com. Links to purchase the Amazon.com bestseller Ending Addiction for Good are on the website, as are phone numbers to speak to an intake specialist 24 hours a day.