New $1.38 Billion NATO Headquarters begins construction

Simply amazing as I look back on my post on October. Both Clinton and Gates knew that the NATO members were slashing budgets, yet as well knew that a $1.38 Billion headquarters was about to begin construction. Read the whole thing over at the Spectator if you have the stomach for all of this weird stuff.

“It is somewhat ironic that NATO breaks ground on its new headquarters at the same time the fundamental sinews binding the alliance together are coming apart,” says Marko Papic, a senior analyst at Stratfor, a global intelligence analysis firm based in Austin.

New $1.3 Billion headquarters just beginning construction

With policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic slashing public spending and searching for ways to reduce military budgets, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has just begun construction of a splendiferous new $1.38 billion headquarters on a 100-acre site in Brussels. Designed by Chicago architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, renowned for luxurious commercial buildings including the tallest in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the futuristic new NATO offices will feature eight sweeping wings covering 2.7 million square feet. Glass-walled elevators overlooking cavernous atriums showering natural light. Ecologically correct grass growing on the roof. Seventeen conference rooms. A range of amenities from cafeterias, restaurants, and banks, to shopping, sport, and leisure facilities. Pentagon staffers, eat your hearts out.

Other major NATO members are also cutting defense spending, Britain by 8 percent, Germany by some $11.5 billion. The spectacular project at least has the virtue of symbolizing what has gone wrong with this self-aggrandizing, self-perpetuating body whose main mission often seems to be not collective defense of its members, but its own self-preservation.  American Spectator

Back in October, we posted this U.S. is concerned by UK and Europe Defense Cuts

With the defence negotiations in near deadlock over about £1bn of cuts, the heads of all three armed services met the prime minister in Downing Street on Thursday to raise the alarm over the dangers of such a tight settlement.

Their warnings were amplified by Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, and Robert Gates, US defence secretary, who made public their worries over cuts across Nato.

Members of the organisation are asked to spend 2 per cent of national income on defence.

Mr Gates expressed his fear that the US would be called upon more often to cover Nato capability gaps. “As nations deal with their economic problems, we must guard against the hollowing out of alliance military capability by spending reductions that cut too far into muscle,” he said.How psychic was that! More at CNBC

Carter calls for the release of Cuban Five Murderers

Hang it up Jimmy. Time to go back to your Peanut Farm.

From the Book: Betrayal: Clinton, Castro & The Cuban Five

On February 24, 1996, three Brothers to the Rescue aircraft took off from South Florida on a search and rescue mission meant to save the lives of Cuban balseros – yet their mission would end in death, with two planes shot down by Cuban MiG fighters.

Four aviators were lost – Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, Armando Alejandre and Pablo Morales. Their murders were perpetuated by La Red Avispa, the “Cuban Five” spy ring and a DIA analyst turned Cuban agent, Ana Belen Montes, Castro’s Queen of Spies.

Cuba declares them heroes, yet the “Cuban Five” are serving jail sentences for espionage and murder. Now, in an opening gesture toward improving relations with Havana, the Obama Administration contemplates their release – but will the USA have to go so far as to pardon murderers?

H/T Commie Blaster

Carter Slams US Policy towards Cuba
HAVANA, Cuba Mar 30 (acn) Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter criticized today in Havana the U.S. Government’s policy toward Cuba and said he was satisfied with his meeting with Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro

“It is untrue that Cuba collaborates with terrorism,” he said, calling it unreal

At a press conference at the Havana’s Convention Center, Carter slammed the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which reinforced the US economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, and the unjust imprisonment of the five Cuban antiterrorists in the US since 1998.
The “embargo,” he said referring to the blockade, “is counterproductive and only punishes the Cuban people.”
Carter reminded the audience that the Helms-Burton Act was passed after his term in office (1977-1981). He also said it was a mistake to keep Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
The former US president described as unfair the sentences imposed upon Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and René González —internationally known as the Cuban Five—, and said he was satisfied to have met with the mothers of two of them and the wives of three.

He wished for the Cuban Five’s prompt return “to their homes in Cuba.” Carter said he was pleased by the good health of Fidel and the opportunity Cuban President Raul Castro gave him to visit Cuba again

 “It is untrue that Cuba collaborates with terrorism,” he said, calling it unreal.
Cubaweb

Retired Teachers in CA make more than a lot of working Teachers

I wonder if the United States has entered a “Dark Ages” period in her History. Wisconsin is in a battle for her life. Now Businesses are being strong armed, threatened in supporting the local goon squad that comes in the form of the Unions. They are being “asked” to post signs that they support the Unions. There are recalls of elected Representatives on the table. A State Supreme Court election next week that will determine the majority either Republican or Democrat. The poll numbers in support of those who fought to stave off the Unions from bankrupting the State are sinking. The Governor’s poll numbers are not good. Who is going to pay for all of this? Here is California? Retirement is better than working teachers in 28 States.

Intercepts reports:

I came across the most recent summary report for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) and I thought its pared-down tables and graphs nicely encapsulated the pension situation in the state.

First note that the average annual salary in 2010 for active working educators enrolled in the system was $64,156. The next table states that the average retirement benefit paid out in 2010 was $4,256 per month. That’s $51,072 annually. In other words, the average retired teacher in California made more than the average working teacher in 28 states, according to the salary rankings published by NEA.  H/T:  News Alert

Here are a couple of previous posts we did on the NEA NEA orders members to read Communist guide book or how about this for the kids: NEA Lets celebrate Communism

Who is tracking your every move? Your cell phone

Not only is your phone tracking you, the company is storing the information as well. Be sure and check out the interactive map link.

I had just read that Google had more or less settled with the FTC regarding the sharing of private information. Story here at Cnet . I was about to opine that there must be some Republicans left on this Commision. I was on the track to do a post so I went to one of my favorite sites, EFC. What I came upon is this one. Scary dude stuff. Here tis a piece of it:

Your cell phone company knows everywhere you go, twenty-four hours a day, every day. How concrete is this fact for you?

It’s very concrete for Malte Spitz, a German politician and privacy advocate. He used German privacy law — which, like the law of many European countries, gives individuals a right to see what private companies know about them — to force his cell phone carrier to reveal what it knew about him. The result? 35,831 different facts about his cell phone use over the course of six months. As the German newspaper website Zeit Online reports:

This profile reveals when Spitz walked down the street, when he took a train, when he was in an airplane. It shows where he was in the cities he visited. It shows when he worked and when he slept, when he could be reached by phone and when was unavailable. It shows when he preferred to talk on his phone and when he preferred to send a text message. It shows which beer gardens he liked to visit in his free time. All in all, it reveals an entire life.

To show just how extensive this data is, Spitz chose to make it all available to the public; Zeit Online used it to prepare a remarkable interactive map, which animates Spitz’s movements, moment by moment, over the course of half a year. It’s correlated with information Spitz willingly posted on the web, and, according to him and the newspaper, is remarkably, eerily accurate. Try it out. Full story here: Electronic Frontier Foundation

Planned Parenthood lies, does not provide Mammograms

The corporation abort 332,278 unborn boys and girls each year. Why are we required to support this with tax payer money? It is always nice to catch someone in a lie. Isn’t the internet great? Super great Video.

Big Government:

Just a few weeks ago, on national television, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said thisabout Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment to defund Planned Parenthood:

“If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are gonna lose their health care access–not to abortion services–to basic family planning, you know, mammograms.”

Yet this is blatantly false.

We got a tip from former Planned Parenthood director, Abby Johnson, that Planned Parenthood does not provide any mammogram services. Just to be sure, our investigative team called up 30 Planned Parenthood
clinics in many major metropolitan areas. Every single one of the clinics told our actor that no, they do not provide mammograms. “We don’t provide those services whatsoever,” one staffer in Arizona said.
Another in Wisconsin remarked, “We are just a surgical center, we don’t really do health services.” In Overland Park, KS, at Planned Parenthood’s “Comprehensive Health Center,” they said, “We don’t actually have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics.”

In the wake of undercover evidence revealing Planned Parenthood’s abusive and illegal activity, the America’s biggest abortion business unrolled a massive PR campaign to defend its $363-million-a-year taxpayer subsidies. The campaign included TV, print, radio and online ad buys, a big pink bus rolling across the country, and numerous appearances and opinion pieces by Planned Parenthood spokespersons and supporters (including this gem by PP vice-president of communications Stuart Schear. More at Big Government

9th State to get an Obamacare waiver?

Many of us have thought the method behind the madness was to end up with a single payer system in Healthcare. A thousand companies get waivers, and now the States. GOP- defund this beast. First thing, or you  will bankrupt our country sooner rather than later. The intent is/was to bankrupt Health Insurance Companies. There will be none left. Where are you Tea Party?

(Frugal Cafe)
Louisiana became the 9th state to request an Obamacare waiver.

Investor’s Business Daily reported:

IBD has just gotten word that Louisiana will become the ninth state to request a waiver from ObamaCare’s medical-loss-ratio regulations.

An MLR is the share of health premiums spent on medical costs. Under ObamaCare, insurers in the individual and small group market must have an 80% MLR, which means that 80% of premiums are spent on medical care, leaving 20% for things like salaries, advertising, fraud prevention and profits.

Violate that minimum and an insurer must rebate the difference to policyholders.

Many insurers have MLRs considerably lower than 80%, which means that they will have to rebate the difference. Of course, if they can’t afford to do that they will simply drop out of the market. Since states would rather not let that happen given that people losing their policies can turn into angry voters, they have begun requesting a reprieve from ObamaCare’s MLR regulations.

More and H/T: Gateway Pundit

Gibbs to join Facebook – White House will control social media

Hot Air seems to be trying to figure out why Bob is in the front row for a seat with Face Book.

Facebook interested in hiring Robert Gibbs for some reason

A job for Mr. Gibbs at Facebook could be worth millions of dollars. While details of his potential compensation package have yet to be discussed, people briefed on the talks said that he would receive a cash salary as well as shares ahead of the initial offering. Facebook is being valued by some investors at more than $60 billion and could be the largest offering in history.

Obama and a Search Engine get you am Egyptian Revolution: Of course you would want to get the White House operative on board. Bob will get his direction from Obama and Hillary in keeping control of Facebook. The Cabal of Google, Facebook and Obama. It is well documented that the Facebook Executives as well as Google  were instrumental in stirring up the young folks and fermenting revolution

Here is what is going on with Facebook right now regarding Israel  from Yid with Lid:

There is an attack against Israeli Jews happening on Facebook but the social media site refuses to shut the incitement down. Its called the Third Palestinian Intifada, and the site is almost totally in Arabic. The ‘Third Palestinian Intifada’, urges its readers to copy the link, place it in their profiles and publish it on all pictures, videos and pages – everywhere they can. An alert announces that a march to “Palestine” will begin from neighboring countries on May 15 and soon after, “Palestine will be liberated and we will be freed. Our goal now is to reach millions of subscribers on this page before May.”

The page also includes hateful language  calling for its supporters supporters to build on the previous two murderous previous intifadas in which Arab terrorists murdered and wounded thousands of Israeli civilians and caused the death and injury of thousands of innocent Palestinians.

The Facebook page directs readers to supplementary content on other sites such as Twitter and You Tube. And ends with a warning to Facebook. “If Facebook Blocks this page..All Muslims Will Boycott Facebook Forever.” Full Story over at Yid with Lid:

Here is a bit of a refresher-

“What we shared is a belief in changing the world from the bottom up, not from the top down,” Obama told Google employees during a 2007 visit to its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Money CNN Didn’t Van Jones say something like that?

ERIC SCHMIDT, FORMER GOOGLE CEO: My view of Mr. Soros is that he is one of the most important people in the world today in terms of the impact he has had.

Three reasons to be wary of Google

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO, he resigned two weeks ago, he is on the White House council for science and technology, co-chaired by John Holdren. They also have privileged access to NASA airfields.

Second point — they are working way too close with hard-core leftists. Eric Schmidt is on the board of an organization called the Politics of Trust Network. You might recognize a couple of other names on that board like Van Jones, oh, and Drummond Pike, the former CEO and founder of the Tides Foundation.

In 2010 the Google, Inc. charitable giving fund of the Tides Foundation gave over $145 million directly to nonprofits and academic institutions. Google has made donations in the seven figure range to Moveon.org. George Soros is doing that, too, one of farther left political action groups in America.

They also gave money to the Trickle Up Program, a big recipient of cash from the Tides Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Institute. Full story here at  Fox News

New ADA regulations announced by the EEOC

See our earlier post: Pro-Abortion Obama EEOC Chai Feldblum who brought us this nonsense.

I caught this story on Fox News last night. This will be an attorney’s field day. It is estimated that the majority of the population now qualifies under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I can  find little about this today, but apparently there was amendment legislation a few years ago, and now an unelected Czar has created an  interpretation. It was indicated that depression and PTSD are now covered, with employer’s having to make “reasonable accommodation”.

Minn Lawyer:

The  final regs implementing the  ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) are now available on the Federal Register website.  ”Like the law they implement, the regulations are designed to simplify the determination of who has a “disability” and make it easier for people to establish that they are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),” the EEOC’s website states.

The regulations clarify that the term “major life activities” includes “major bodily functions,” such as functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, and brain, neurological, and endocrine functions. The regulations also make clear that, as under the old ADA, not every impairment will constitute a disability. The regulations include examples of impairments that should easily be concluded to be disabilities, such as HIV infection, diabetes, epilepsy, and bipolar disorder.

Following the dictates of the ADAAA, the regulations also make it easier for individuals to establish coverage under the “regarded as” part of the definition of “disability.”  In some cases, establishing such coverage posed  significant hurdles, but under the new law, the focus is on how the person was treated rather than on what an employer believes about the nature of the person’s impairment, the EEOC stated. Full story here at  Minn Lawyer

President Obama used his recess appointment power to appoint Feldblum and two others to the commission on March 27, 2010.Geidner, Chris, “Recess Appointment for Feldblum,” Metro Weekly, March 27, 2010.⁽¹⁾

In the mid-1980s, Feldblum clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the notorious liberal judge who authored the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand. He invented a right to abortion not found in the Constitution. Feldblum praised him as someone who had the “ability and desire to look behind the law and see the people is not the classic way to do law …. He brings a sense of caring and compassion that will be missed.” Clearly, Feldblum favors liberal judicial activists who ignore the Constitution and who impose their own political views on the law. Traditional Values

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the Middle East

From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli.

It was Jefferson’s Quran that the first Muslim Representative Keith Ellison used when he was sworn into office. Jefferson understood the Muslims. Our nation has been dealing with these folks since the beginning of our nation. Since the beginning, Tunisia and what was then known as the Barbary Coast, the Muslims were cruel and barbarous. Adams wanted to pay ransom to secure the release of hostages. Jefferson said no more. Appeasement? Or war. A great read over at US Veteran Dispatch. It is good to review this piece of History at this time. Here tis a piece of it:

When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776, American merchant ships lost Royal Navy protection. With no American Navy for protection, American ships were attacked and their Christian crews enslaved by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the “Dey of Algiers”–an Islamist warlord ruling Algeria.

Because American commerce in the Mediterranean was being destroyed by the pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties with the four Barbary States. Congress appointed a special commission consisting of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the negotiations.

Lacking the ability to protect its merchant ships in the Mediterranean, the new America government tried to appease the Muslim slavers by agreeing to pay tribute and ransoms in order to retrieve seized American ships and buy the freedom of enslaved sailors.

Adams argued in favor of paying tribute as the cheapest way to get American commerce in the Mediterranean moving again. Jefferson was opposed. He believed there would be no end to the demands for tribute and wanted matters settled “through the medium of war.” He proposed a league of trading nations to force an end to Muslim piracy.

In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and Adams, then the American ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the “Dey of Algiers” ambassador to Britain.

The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress’ vote to appease.

During the meeting Jefferson and Adams asked the Dey’s ambassador why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.

In a later meeting with the American Congress, the two future presidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that Islam “was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

For the following 15 years, the American government paid the Muslims millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in 1800.

Not long after Jefferson’s inauguration as president in 1801, he dispatched a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and informed Congress.

Declaring that America was going to spend “millions for defense but not one cent for tribute,” Jefferson pressed the issue by deploying American Marines and many of America’s best warships to the Muslim Barbary Coast. Full Story here at: US Vet .

Obama changes Miranda rights for “domestic” terror suspects

Why am I so suspicious of this? While many Conservatives may applaud this move, I know enough about Eric Holder and Obama to know that there is more to this than appears. Tinkering with Miranda… is this another step… “Obama can unilaterally change Supreme Court rulings should be concerning to all Americans”. Obama has contempt for the Supreme Court, the Constitution which he says is flawed, and Congress. “Domestic Terror” suspects…my guess he has in mind American Citizens who he may feel are a threat to his growing usurping of all powers which belong to other branches of government.If he gets by with this one, what will be the next change to Miranda or any law for that matter. What is your guess?

Obama has already given Miranda rights to foreign terrorists and Somali pirates waging jihad against U.S. soldiers and civilians.

Now Obama and Holder have revised Miranda rights for what the Wall Street Journal describes as “domestic-terror” suspects. The policy is so vaguely described here, if at all, and who the new Miranda policy applies to and how Obama can unilaterally change Supreme Court rulings should be concerning to all Americans.  via Rights Are Curtailed for Terror Suspects – WSJ.com.

New rules allow investigators to hold domestic-terror suspects longer than others without giving them a Miranda warning, significantly expanding exceptions to the instructions that have governed the handling of criminal suspects for more than four decades.

The Supreme Court’s 1966 Miranda ruling obligates law-enforcement officials to advise suspects of their rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present for questioning. A 1984 decision amended that by allowing the questioning of suspects for a limited time before issuing the warning in cases where public safety was at issue.

The Justice Department believes it has the authority to tinker with Miranda procedures. Making the change administratively rather than through legislation in Congress, however, presents legal risks.

“I don’t think the administration can accomplish what I think needs to be done by policy guidance alone,” said California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “It may not withstand the scrutiny of the courts in the absence of legislation.”

More at Creeping Sharia