When Obama Threatens, The World Laughs. Kiev To Get New Parking Meters In Response To Putin's Seizure. Is He Really This Stupid Or Something Else?

OBAMA RESPONDS TO RUSSIAN AGGRESSION WITH ... METER MAIDS

Set to modernize Ukraine capital's 'parking infrastructure'

 STEVE PEACOCK 

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President Obama says he is “deeply concerned” about escalated aggression by Russian-backed separatists and has pledged to “raise the costs” for Moscow’s annexation of territory in Ukraine.

One of the costs that Obama intends to impose upon Russians and Ukrainians alike will be the cost of parking a car in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

Obama, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has developed a plan to help modernize the Ukrainian capital’s municipal parking infrastructure.

Currently the agency says, it is “burdened by outdated payment infrastructure, non-compliant drivers, unauthorized parking services and national and city-level legislation that hampers the enforcement of parking violations.”

U.S. taxpayers will help correct the inefficient system by subsidizing a contractor that will visit Ukraine for 84 days to “generate options to make reforms to the municipal parking situation so that the city can administer it more efficiently and cost-effectively,” according to planning documents WND located via database research.

Although the official parking authority, KievParkService, owns more than 18,000 lot- and curb-side parking spaces – which are operated by 350 parking attendants and 73 administrators – the parking bureaucracy by a large measure annually fails to meet its projected collection of fees and fines.

USAID acknowledges that part of the problem is corruption, as the parking system largely relies on cash transactions. Additional obstacles stem from a “shadow economy” of competing and often illegal parking-lot owners who operate with impunity in the face of lax enforcement.

“Kiev city cannot tow or boot cars in parking violation,” the agency says. “Ticketing limits and procedures are ill-defined.”

Kiev officials last year approached the Obama administration in search of help to modernize this system. Obama through USAID this month agreed to step in to correct the problem but did not disclose the estimated cost.

Obama on Sunday told reporters in New Delhi, India, that the U.S. will continue to use a combination of “economic pressure” and “diplomatic isolation” against Russia, while “making sure that we’re continuing to provide the support that Ukraine needs to sustain its economy during this transition period.”

Although a U.S. military option is not a consideration, the administration will continue to help the Ukrainian military “with basic supplies and equipment, as well as the continuing training and exercises that have been taking place between NATO and Ukraine for quite some time.”

Recent global aid

Other projects USAID recently launched around the globe include the Indonesia Sustainable Ecosystem Advanced, or SEA, project, a five-year, potentially $33 million endeavor.

The agency will hire a contractor to help strengthen the ability of the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries plus local governments “to promote conservation and sustainable fishing” across the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Middle East senior advisers are being recruited by USAID to help the agency plan and administer projects dealing with democracy, peace, governance and security, or DPGS, in response to the “Arab Awakening.”

The private contractors selected for the positions will support various USAID missions and U.S. embassies in the region while also “leading analytical DGPS research agenda and pilot projects for the Middle East.”

This personal services contractor slot, which requires a Top Secret clearance, pays in the $107,325 to $139,523 range. USAID said it may create two of these positions at its discretion.

The U.S. Trade & Development Agency, or USTDA, has agreed to pay for a feasibility study costing $503,000 that could lead to the strengthening of Hama Holding Investment Company/Hama for Food Industries, or Hama, an Egyptian “export-oriented citrus fruit processor,” as USTDA describes it.

Due to Hama’s increased agricultural production, the company “seeks to enhance its postharvest processing capacity and capabilities,” which, over five years, will enhance its export capabilities by creating “additional processing lines, cold storage capacities and new juicing and corrugated carton operations.”

The Florida Citrus Commission did not respond to a request for comment. WND inquired whether the group thinks this U.S.-funded modernization-support initiative is a wise or even permissible investment of U.S. taxpayer dollars, particularly in light of recent struggles of the U.S. citrus industry.

The question was posed to the commission in the context of Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations legislation, which restricts U.S. foreign assistance from being used to provide “direct assistance for establishing or expanding production of any commodity for export by any country other than the United States.”

The restriction applies, according to the law, “if the commodity is likely to be in surplus on world markets at the time the resulting productive capacity is expected to become operative and if the assistance will cause substantial injury to United States producers of the same, similar, or competing commodity.”

USTDA separately offered a $573,215 grant to OC-SENI, a nonprofit group in the Dominican Republic composed of electrical generation and distribution companies and the national transmission company.

The technical assistance grant, which would be paid to a U.S. contractor on behalf of OC-SENI, will help evaluate the level of new smart grid and other technology upgrades that this Caribbean nation needs and will also “assess how best to integrate them into the national grid.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/obama-responds-to-russian-aggression-with/#VKoQBJ6hkvte84Wq.99

Obama's Fingerprints Are All Over The Effort To Defeat Netanyahu.

NETANYAHU FIRES BACK AT 'OBAMA ARMY' PLOTTING HIS DEFEAT

Demands injunction against U.S.-linked group trying to swing Israeli election

Published: 2 days ago

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 AARON KLEIN About | Email | Archive

 

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama

EILAT, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party hit back Sunday at a U.S.-linked organization staffed with former Obama campaigners now working to defeat Netanyahu in an upcoming general election.

Victory 2015, or V15, attracted U.S. media attention after it hired 270 Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior leadership is comprised mostly of former top staffers for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

During a press conference Sunday, the Likud Party officially accused V15 and other related nonprofits of being supported “through millions of dollars funneled from Europe, the U.S. and the New Israel Fund and international factors interested in bringing down Prime Minister Netanyahu” who think “that all means are appropriate.”

The Likud further called for Israel’s Central Elections Committee to outlaw V15′s activities to “ensure the integrity of the election.”

The party today will be filing an official complaint with the Committee seeking an injunction against V15, Likud sources said.

Reacting to the developments, Uri Wollman, V15′s spokesman, told WND his organization will not stop its campaign to ensure a center-left coalition forms the next government in Israel.

Wollman accused Netanyahu and the Likud of “fabricating” a relationship between V15 and the Obama administration.

“We have no relation to any U.S. political party, the White House or the State Department,” Wollman told WND.

Confirming the official Likud complaint, the contents of which were shared with WND, Wollman conceded the V15 effort against Netanyahu is funded primarily by three private philanthropists, two of whom are American:

• S. Daniel Abraham, the billionaire founder of the Slim Fast food line. Abraham is a major donor to the Democratic Party and the Clinton Foundation
• Daniel Lubetzky, a social entrepreneur whose OneVoice Movement is partnered with V15
• Alon Kastiel, a Tel Aviv-based businessman and owner of multiple local venues, including bars, clubs and hotels.

WND previously visited V15′s Tel Aviv headquarters and interviewed the group’s founder, Nimrod Dweck, who explained the ultimate goal of his campaign was to ensure “center and left parties will form the next coalition.”

State Department ties

V15′s headquarters is actually the offices of a U.S.-U.K. group calling itself OneVoice.

OneVoice bills itself as an “international grassroots movement that amplifies the voice of mainstream Israelis and Palestinians.” It has a clearly leftist tone.

OneVoice is reportedly sponsored by scores of nonprofits and received two grants in the past year from the U.S. State Department.

The State Department is also listed as a partner of OneVoice on the group’s website.

OneVoice development and grants officer Christina Taler told the Washington Free Beacon that “no government funding” has gone toward the V15 voter mobilization effort.

V15′s complete takeover of OneVoice’s Tel Aviv offices, however, may raise some questions not only about the grant usage, but also about the State Department’s current partnership with OneVoice.

Indeed, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has called for an investigation into the State Department’s ties to OneVoice and the group’s anti-Netanyahu effort.

Aside from the State Department, OneVoice is also openly partnered with Google, the U.K. Labour Party and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

‘Obama army’ deploys to Tel Aviv

For its anti-Netanyahu campaign, OneVoice and V15 recently hired 270 Strategies, whose founder is ex-Obama campaign staffer Jeremy Bird.

Bird served as a data analyst and a deputy director for Obama’s 2008 campaign and was the national field director for the president’s massive re-election machine.

Dweck told WND that Bird’s organizing skills are central to designing the evolving V15 battle plan.

“Israelis don’t know how to run field (operations) as Americans [do], and that was the major contribution of Jeremy’s team,” he said.

Bird has provided “very professional help about how to organize, manage people, how to go door-to-door, how to talk to people on the street,” Dweck said.

270 Strategies’ team of 45 staffers includes 16 members who worked directly for Obama’s campaigns. Most of the former Obama staffers hold senior posts at the firm. Others worked for the Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee or grassroots groups involved in progressive efforts, including a group to enroll Americans in Obamacare.

The involvement of Bird’s team has ignited reports in some conservative media outlets that Obama or his surrogate are attempting to influence the Israeli elections.

Dweck dismissed those claims as “bullsh-t.”

“It’s a matter of finding the right professionals,” he continued. “And if I need to pick the best professional in the world for the job, [Bird] knows what he is doing. 270 [Strategies] is a great company.”

Besides the initial work to organize the group’s efforts, Dweck said he and V15 continue to consult with Bird and his firm on a regular basis.

The conservative blogosphere is largely focusing on the involvement of Bird in the V15 campaign.

A closer look at Bird’s consulting firm as well as its working relationship with the Israeli groups finds he is just one of scores of former senior Obama election campaign staffers now working on the anti-Netanyahu effort.

Besides Bird, the 270 Strategies team includes the following former Obama staffers:

• Mitch Steward, a 270 Strategies founding partner who helped the Obama campaign build what the U.K. Guardian called “a historic ground operation that will provide the model for political campaigns in America and around the world for years to come.”
• Mark Beatty, a founding partner who served as deputy battleground states director for the Obama campaign. He had primary responsibility for Obama’s election plans for the battleground states.
• Marlon Marshall, a founding partner at 270 Strategies who joins the team after holding several key positions in national Democratic politics, most recently as deputy national field director for the 2012 Obama campaign.
• Betsy Hoover, a founding partner who served as director of digital organizing on the Obama campaign.
• Meg Ansara, who served as national regional director for Obama for America where she was responsible for overseeing the 2012 programs in the Midwest and southern states.
• Bridget Halligan, who served as the engagement program manager on the digital team of the 2012 Obama campaign.
• Kate Catherall, who served as Florida deputy field director for Obama’s re-election campaign.
• Alex Lofton, who most recently served as the GOTV director of Cleveland, Ohio, for the 2012 Obama campaign.
• Martha Patzer, the firm’s vice president who served as deputy email director at Obama for America.
• Jesse Boateng, who served as the Florida voter registration director for Obama’s re-election campaign.
• Ashley Bryant, who served most recently as the Ohio digital director for the 2012 Obama campaign.
• Max Clermont, who formerly served as a regional field director in Florida for Obama’s re-election campaign.
• Max Wood, who served as a deputy data director in Florida for the 2012 Obama campaign.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/netanyahu-fires-back-at-ex-obama-team-plotting-his-defeat/#IU8PCVKZbfUcirew.99

MSNBC Host Equates Babies To Cancer.

Do babies equally cancer? Watch the following video and see how certain people think.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlflPhhPJd4

The Tenth Amendment Starting To Get Used Like The Framers Wanted It To Be Utilized.

STATES GO FULL THROTTLE TO LIMIT FEDS

Hundreds of bills looming in legislatures on Common Core, NSA, marijuana

Published: 17 hours ago

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 BOB UNRUH About 

It’s only days, a few weeks at most, into the 2015 season for state legislatures, and already there are hundreds of bills looming that  challenge the power of Washington on issues ranging from Common Core to marijuana and the National Security Agency, according to a new report.

The Tenth Amendment Center, which tracks legislation at the state level, has listed some 200 state bills “seeking to block or limit federal power.”

“Sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans, these bills range from narrowly focused legislation that would allow terminally ill people access to experimental drugs and medical treatments despite FDA regulations, to bills that would deny resources and assistance from states to the NSA. Other legislation addresses the Second Amendment, the federal prohibition of hemp and marijuana, Common Core, the use of drones for surveillance, the Affordable Care Act, and even federal grant programs that arm local police with battlefield-ready military equipment,” the center said.

Center Communications Director Mike Maharrey told WND the observed “dissatisfaction level” in states is far higher now than the group has seen before.

Last year, he noted, there were half as many bills challenging federal power.

200 and counting

Maharrey said the rejection of Washington’s micromanagement is “broad-based” as well as “bipartisan.”

Many of the bills, he said, are going to pass.

And many, he noted, are a rejection not necessarily of federal laws but of the rules imposed by bureaucrats.

He suggested the marijuana issue as an example. Multiple states allow the legal use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and Washington and Colorado allow it for “recreational use.”

Maharrey noted when the federal government wanted to ban alcohol, it required a constitutional amendment and another amendment to repeal it. Yet the bureaucrats have created a framework now that could be used to punish states that allow marijuana use.

WND reported just weeks ago on the use of executive action and regulations to run Americans’ lives.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, described the problem posed by professional government managers.

“You can’t fire them every two years, as is the case with representatives, or every six years, as is the case with senators. But you can fire your representatives and senators. And so, the ultimate decision-making authority needs to rest with people who are elected,” he said.

The White House has stated it will not wait for legislation to implement so-called “net neutrality” rules because it the Federal Communications Commission can simply write new regulations.

The White House claimed the regulations would ensure Internet service providers treat all Web content fairly, but critics say it would give the federal government virtual control over the content of the Internet.

For instance, they say the government could effectively censor content it finds objectionable by simply slowing the delivery speed.

Additionally, broadband companies say the burdensome regulations would drive up costs and drive down investment and innovation.

Rules

The Obama administration is particularly fond of regulations:

• Nov. 24, 2014: The White House quietly released plans for 3,415 regulations ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday

• Dec. 23, 2014: It crammed in more than 1,200 new regulations just before the New Year

• Dec. 31, 2014: A report found 21,000 regulations so far under Obama with 2,374 set for 2015

The White House also has changed Obamacare with nothing more than Obama’s pen and is trying now to change immigration and amnesty laws through executive memos.

But Lee said that for every one page of legislation signed into law, there are 100 pages of regulations.

And he said those regulations are written by unelected bureaucrats with little, if any, input from the people’s elected representatives in Congress.

He said it’s because Congress has given virtually unhindered rule-making power to bureaucrats with little resistance.

Lee offered an even more graphic illustration, on display in the reception area of his D.C. office: a small stack of 800 pages comprising the bills passed in 2013, dwarfed by a cabinet full of the 80,000 pages of proposed regulations those bills generated.

“When you add up all the laws that give discretion to executive branch agencies, you have, for instance, many hundreds of instances of delegation of regulatory authority in Obamacare. And you likewise had many hundreds instances of delegation of authority in the Dodd-Frank act a few years ago,” Lee said.

“You add those two bills up with all others that have been passed in the last seven or eight decades since Congress has really started taking this approach, and you get a lot our law being made by executive branch bureaucrats.”

Sea change coming?

Maharrey says there will soon be a sea change in how states react to federal power.

If a citizen calls his member of Congress, Maharrey said, he might talk to an intern. But people are recognizing “they can go and make an impact in state legislatures.”

“People have enough power to move these bills along,” he said, calling it a “legal way to undermine the federal bureaucracy.”

The federal government, he said, soon will be following the lead of the states.

“It will change from the bottom up – this attitude is going to work its way up to Washington,” he said.

Regarding marijuana, he said, at some point Congress will decide to no longer prohibit it, based on pressure from the states.

The National Conference of State Legislatures, which couldn’t be reached immediately, tracks a number of bills that challenge federal power.

Michael Boldin, executive director of the Tenth Amendment Center, said the moves by states this year are stunning.

“This is unprecedented. From mass spying, to gun control, property rights, militarized police, the drug war and everything in between, we’ve never seen so much activity to push back on a state level,” he said.

“The great misconception is that this is a right-wing movement that is trying to oppose federal power, and with some issues, like the Second Amendment and the ACA, that’s certainly true,” he said. “But we’re tracking more than 200 bills, and many of the most successful – like marijuana, hemp farming, ‘right to try’ bills, and stopping NSA spying – lean strongly left or are totally bipartisan. Anyone claiming this is a partisan fad is either not paying attention, or lying.”

Feds can’t force states

Boldin said a key component of the movement is the recognized principle that the federal government cannot force states to expend resources or manpower to do its work.

That issue is before the U.S. Supreme Court in an Obamacare case that challenges the federal subsidies to people who obtain insurance from a federal exchange. The creators of Obamacare knew they could not force states to create state exchanges, so they wrote in the law that only those who get insurance through state exchanges would get subsidies, as an incentive.

However, when most states simply refused to do the federal government’s bidding, the bureaucrats opened up the subsidies to all, and the dispute now is before the Supreme Court.

Boldin said state governments are learning they can simply say to the feds, “You want this program, you do it, we aren’t going to help.”

“The beauty of this strategy is in many situations, the feds just don’t have the manpower or resources to get the job done without help from the states. They depend on the states for pretty much everything.”

He continued: “We generally call these acts nullification. Some disagree. But we don’t really care what you call it, though, as long as the end result is the same – stopping the federal government from doing things it shouldn’t be doing.”

The organization has created a page to track legislation on issues such as the NSA, Second Amendment, marijuana, right to try, hemp, police militarization, Obamacare, drones, Common Core and the Defense Authorization’s provision for indefinite detention of Americans.

The site includes links to descriptions of proposals and more.

A trend

WND reported two years ago when 39 states had passed various laws attempting to exempt themselves from implementing Obamacare.

In addition, Arizona and Alabama had passed controversial immigration laws aimed at regulating illegal immigration.

A Washington Times editorial then said supporters of nullification “see it as a necessary and effective tool to protect states and citizens from the every-growing power of the federal government.”

The Times noted the first advocates of the idea were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who drafted the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, which declared, “Whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/states-go-full-throttle-to-limit-feds/#jo7PJ6lBWlZYvKjL.99