IS IT TRUE MARCH 31, 2015

110

IS IT TRUE we watched with amazement the give and take conversation between the Mayor and City Council  concerning the proposed downtown Hotel at last night Council meeting?  …we thought the Mayor handled himself well?  …Although, It appeared the cost has again gone up and the city will be contributing more to the project than the City Council had allowed?

IS IT TRUE we commend the City, Evansville Sports Group and Convention & Visitor’s Bureau for a tremendous NCAA Elite Tournament at FORD CENTER?  …the hospitality and professionalism at FORD CENTER was unsurpassed and a shining example of how Venue Works operates this wonderful facility?

IS IT TRUE the political drama shall continue as the ERC meets tomorrow morning when the final contractual issues concerning the proposed Hotel comes before the board?  …we expect the “taxpayers watchdog” Cheryl Musgrave to ask the pointed questions while other less than involved Board Members look at the ceiling or tweet on their cell phones?  …Cheryl was truly a very good City Council appointee?

IS IT TRUE we were extremely impressed with Old National Bank President Bob Jones presentation concerning the Hotel project at last night City Council meeting?  …in  our opinion,  Mr. Jones presentation to the City Council was the turning point that garnered the much needed City Council support for the Hotel project?  …we were also surprised and impressed when Mr. Jones indicated the contribution from Old National Bank would exceed $10 million dollars?

IS IT TRUE we were not impressed that several City Council members failed to ask any questions, nor participate in the hotel discussion.  …we had to wonder if the 2nd Ward City Council Missy Mosby member and At-Large member Mr. Weaver was even present at last night City Council meeting?

IS IT TRUE that last week Missy Mosby not only refused to participate in the recent 2nd Ward Discussion on CCO and Woods and Woods Tri-State Voices TV Show, then misrepresented that she had only been given 48 hour notice when there is proof that she was notified ONE FULL WEEK in advance, given alternate dates and even offered her choice of dates for the taping?  …once, again, Missy failed to be honest with the public and voters of the 2nd Ward and showed her fear of her opponent and her unwillingness to discuss the important issues of the 2nd Ward in the only televised appearance of the campaign?

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

110 COMMENTS

  1. PEACEFUL PROTEST IN THE PARK
    This reader was encouraged by the peaceful activism on display at Evansville’s Riverfront – Monday afternoon. There was a sizzle of excitement wafting through the air that reminded me of the pro-peace rallies in the late 1960’s. Many in attendance spoke of, … “how wonderful it was that so many would come out to support equality,” …but wondered aloud, …”why has Governor Pence made it necessary – for us to do so?”
    Gail Reicken delivered a passionate speech calling for Pence to “kill RFRA now!”
    The protesters then moved to the steps of the Civic Center – proclaiming their continuing will to fight the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It was a good day for for Evansville – a bad day for RFRA. …

    • Bubba. I drove by the protesters along the River front yesterday and wondered to my self what was going on from afar. And then I got closer and figured out what they were doing. At the time I thought to myself “what are they don’t here and why are they not down at the Civic Center where the GOP Mayor can see them out his third story window. Did the Mayor turn off the City WiFi again or did they leave it on so that the press could borrow the internet in order to report back to the viewers?

    • Hate to disagree, bubba, but my memories of 60’s protests and protestors are far different than yours.

    • Bubba, you do not strike me as someone who would support a person being forced to participate in something that violates his religious convictions. So a good question would be how you would protect someone’s religious liberty if it was not a law like RFRA?

      I support peaceful protest, but I will remind you that these same peaceful protestors will the same people dragging ministers and wedding planners before the judge if they decline becoming involved in an event that violates their religious convictions.

      I have posted a lot on this issue because I abhor when the truth is maligned as much as this law has been and we are threatened with economic terrorism to fashion our laws rather than the legislative process.

      • This post is wrong Indiana-Enoch

        and here’s why:

        1. You’re having to resort to using terms like “economic terrorism” to describe a situation when someone decided to stop shopping somewhere. Boy, you are worried about something, and I think it is that you know (citing where you are wrong) that the law is vulnerable to accusations that it violates the individual civil liberties of gay people. The Fix that is coming to the law? It’s gonna be that it will be illegal to discriminate against a person because of their sexual orientation, just like it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of their ethnicity or skin color.

        2. No religion, no matter how strongly the person believes their religion permits it, trumps the Constitution in the US. In other words, if your religion says you can kill someone who looks rudely at your wife (granted, an extreme case, but nonetheless, accurate to explain the example), the law says that’s illegal. Your religion says that’s ok? Sorry, it’s still illegal. And the vulnerable New Law will…eventually….be acknowledged as one that violates the civil rights of gay people. Right now, the New Law says you can do that. That will change, either in The Fix that is coming, or the same way State laws banning interracial and same-sex marriage eventually lost their Constitutional standing.

        • 1 Terrorism is exactly what it is. In fact, these corporations and individuals boycotting Indiana and Hoosier business when no discrimination has occurred are practicing the very discrimination they claim to be fighting.

          2 The Constitution protects religion not trumps it, and your example are not within the scope of any RFRA law nor has any of your accusation resulted. Show me where the new law says you canado what you are accusing it of saying. Your ignorance of this law is blatantly obvious.

          • I-E, well now. You are hot under the collar. Sorry, it is foolish and telling that you equate terrorism with people and businesses objecting to something easily seen as discrimination against gay people. It is laughable to be called a terrorist because you choose not to patronize a business!

            Indiana Enoch, there are too many smart people, CEO’s, accomplished business people and professionals within those organizations….who immediately leapt to call out the New Law as wrong and discrimination against gay citizens. You disagree with them? Ok. But you call them terrorists?

            You are right to be fearful about the effectiveness of this law and fearful of its sustainability. Anyone who thinks it is within the law to discriminate against gay people’s, ….equal protection and civil rights….is a bigot, just as people who believed in seizing the civil rights of people based on their skin color were bigots.

            Yes, it IS bigotry, no matter how hard you try to hold it under the cloak of religious rights. You’re gonna holler…but it IS bigotry.

            The Constitutional law will catch up. It’s gonna be fine.

          • QD, I am no thot under the collar. You seem to have an issue with thinking that what you believe about a person makes it true.

            I am a little esparated with asking you to name even once where a RFRA has led to the discrimination you and others claim it will create, what part of this law would actually allow for that to happen, and where you get this speculation that the constitution trumps religious liberty.

            Playing your bigot card resolves nothing.

            This law will stand like the 19 before it. It’s the law, and it’s constitutional. You are not going to be able to force someone to be involved in a same sex wedding.

          • Indiana Enoch,

            Get used to it. The law is too new to cite examples, but I have cited the “No Gays Allowed” example umpteen times to you, and you ignore it. The New Law protects a business’ right to do that.

            The firestorm on this WILL make it come. Even Fox News reports the new Indiana version goes well beyond previous measures in other States…extending into business and corporate protections.

            The American business community has finally come to its senses and is gonna put a stop to this bigoted crap. There is a price….and it’s gonna be paid until the law is changed to include discrimination of gay citizen based on sexual orientation.

            Last, we both know the Constitution trumps illegal religious belief. Just stop that crap. It’s crap, and you’re trying to divert the argument.

            Thank God for sensible American business leaders.

          • QD,
            “The law is too new to cite examples, but I have cited the “No Gays Allowed” example umpteen times to you, and you ignore it. The New Law protects a business’ right to do that.”
            No, it does not.

            “The American business community has finally come to its senses and is gonna put a stop to this bigoted crap.”
            So big corporations rather than the legislative branches are going to dictate to little businesses the laws we all must live under?

            “we both know the Constitution trumps illegal religious belief.”
            Now the constitution defines illegal religious beliefs?

          • IE you wanted an example of how Pence (he basically helped to write the new law as Indiana’s Governor) feels about Gays. IIT that Pence and the IN right wing GOP members wanted to ban gay marriages? We can’t discuss this new religious freedom law out of context with the fact that Governor Pence is anti gay marriage and there for he is a homophobe. This is 2015 not 1715 and the mood of the country has shifted.

          • Move on, being against gay marriage is not being against guys nor does it prove this law will result in “No guys allowed.”

        • Well Said Quark. The courts will stike this new Indiana Law down as they have done before.

      • So you disagree with the Chamber of commerce and most conservatives? This new law was designed to protect religious zealots from prosecution when the discriminate against gay, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender. So who is the one not telling the truth? I think that Governor Pence knows exactly what the new IN law says and he is dodging questions about how this new law works. This law is NOT the same as federal law. Sections of the law are different which makes the meaning of this new law different from the Federal law. Which is that the law does not specifically prohibit discrimination against the LGBT community. The law and the naming of this law is designed to try to hide the intent of the new law. But the language is designed to provide legal protections for those that want to discriminate against others. It’s a bad law.

        • The new law was designed to protect Hoosiers of faith from gay zealots who would force them to participate in an activity which violates their religious convictions. Why should a LGBTs be permitted to force someone to be involved in their events? Should a caterer be forced to service a swingers’ key swap party?

          This law does not decide what is or is not discrimination. It only gives the court to ability to decided if a government entity is unduly burdening an individual or business.

          With the current situation, the law is as good as it gets and necessary.

          • I-E,

            Wrong. The law is intended to be used as legal justification for hanging a sign that says “No Gays Allowed.” You can’t hang a “No Blacks Alllowed” sign it is illegal. Same should be true for gay citizens.

            YOU want it to be legal to hang that sign. That much is clear. You won’t say that, instead you use weak responses like “It doesn’t say that.” BUT…you won’t answer if you think that it should be legal to discriminate against gay citizens…….and because that is true, it is obvious you WANT it to be legal to hang the “No Gays Allowed” sign.

            When it becomes Indiana law to make it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation, then this New Law becomes reasonable. Period.

            Until then……it is under legal attack, as it should be. Bad law is bad law.

          • I-E, you want to take bets that Pence is getting phone calls and visits from hate groups wanting to stop any law (The Fix underway) that makes it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation?

            What is wrong w/ such a law Indiana Enoch?

          • QD, “YOU want it to be legal to hang that sign. That much is clear. ” No that’s your lie. Your lie does not make it true about me, it only makes you a liar.

          • I-E…nope. It’ not a lie. If it was, you would state your acceptance of a new law in Indiana that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation – a civil right.

            You won’t do that.

            Asked. Answered. (About 10 times, but you ignore it each time.)

          • And I noticed you STILL won’t answer “Do you think it should be illegal in Indiana to discriminate against gay people based on their sexual orientation?”

            You won’t answer. It’s a YES or NO question.

          • QD, Do you still beat your wife? yes or no?

            I have said before that I do not support discriminating against anyone, and this law does not allow for the discrimination you claim it does. It’s a lie to say I want to discriminate or hang out “gays not allowed” signs.

            Please, for the adnauseum time,
            1 Tell me if people should be forced to participate in event that violate their faith?
            2 Tell me if any RFRA has resulted in the discrimination?
            3 Tell me how the constitution trumps religious liberty?
            4 If you don’t believe people should be forced to be involved in events that violate their religion, then what law would you have other than the RFRA?
            5 Tell which businesses the opponents of this bill want to boycott have actually discriminated against anyone?

          • Hoosier of faith already have adequate protection to practice their religion. They don’t need this law to protect them from discriminating against GLBT community. We already have the ability to practice our religion freely. What we can’t do is use our religion to break the law. That’s the main point in this discussion and this is exactly why the GOP passed this stupid law. It won’t stand up in the courts. We already have something called the separation of church and state in our constitution.

          • Hoosier of faith already have protection and don’t need a new law that allows them to discriminate against others while claiming that the law is there to prevent them from being discriminated against. That’s just looney.

        • Move, Your handlers gave you the wrong info again. If i were you i would start questioning things they say to post.

          • Cowboy Your handlers need to call my handlers. Oh, Wait I don’t have any handlers. Nice Try Cowgirl. And I stand by 99% of what I post. The other 1% were typos. 😉

  2. Missy is a mess. I wonder what she will do when she is booted off the City Council by the Voters? Is the main gate bar still open for business and in need of a waitress?

    • Missy is totally dependent on Carol McClintock for her subsistence. The maingate is closed but BJ Watts is part owner of a wateringhole over on Franklin St where she could get a job. The problem is the average voter in the second ward does believe it when she says she works for them not Winneke.

  3. IS IT TRUE – “It appeared the cost has again gone up and the city will be contributing more to the (Hotel) project than the City Council had allowed.”
    ~b~ Bait & Switch – kick up the price? …Kick it to the ditch – that sounds nice! …

    • The City’s Percentage of the cost went up but not the price of the hotel. Which means the Private Investors are kicking in LESS money and we get less of a Hotel. The sad part is that the City (taxpayers) don’t have any ownership in this hotel. we paid almost half the cost of developing the hotel yet we don’t have any ownership in the hotel. Some one want to buy a bridge to NOWHERE? It’s cheap. Only $20 Million. But after the sale you find out that the bridge goes around and around and you don’t have a ticket to the dance.

      • moveon
        Good points!
        Not only would the taxpayers/financiers of the proposed Motel have no equity, …but as this reader understands things, …developers could sell the project after some few years.

        City leaders seem desperate. Desperation derives from weakness. Weakness is a terrible position from which to operate. This reader suggests that the City back away from the Motel project, …focus on the IUMC, …after which – we would be in a position to operate from a place of strength. …

        • Stupid place tore down a stadium and said you were getting an arena. Then all you got was the crumby little “jiffy pop.” That opened the drain, Evansville has been circling it ever since.

        • I totally agree. They need to stop the bowling ball going down the alley and regroup for the next group of pins.

  4. ONB
    So they went from “up to14 million”, to “over 10 million”. Will this money be put into a third party “trust” fund right away so they can not back out again? Are those naming rights still part of the deal? And lastly, is ONB still position to receive a return of their money investment, while your city holds the empty bag?

    • C & P, 3-31-15, pg. 8A:

      ” HCW’s financing includes a $ 10 million equity investment from Old National Bank”.

      So, if it’s now EQUITY investment, and not naming rights, can we stop calling it the money-losing Old National Events Plaza ? And get back to the more familiar money-losing Centre ?

  5. So ONB can come up with the money now for a hotel with less value? What a joke. If you believe that snake in the grass I’ve got some nice oceanfront property in KY to sell you. Cheap. This hotel business should be an embarrassment to all involved. Why does nobody seem to care we just gifted $2 million to HCW for nothing?

  6. CCO: why the fawning by CC members over Bob Jones speech ? Weren’t they positively swayed by Jones’ rhetoric in round 4 (Friend admitted as much) ?

    Once burned, twice shy. The $ 14 million of naming rights was $ 6.5 Million short of value, per Jones in round 4. Now it’s an equity play of $ 10 Million. Gosh, how will ONB be compensated for its equity, and what will be their exit strategy on the investment ? Guess we $ 20 Million gifters don’t get to know those details . . . .. .

  7. I seem to recall that the $20 Million approved by the City Council was inclusive of the $3.5 Million that the County was contributing. Now it seems as though the City is in for $20 Million and the County’s $3.5 Million is added on. Would increasing the City’s commitment not require a vote of the City Council to affirm the $3.5 Million increase?

    • Joe: shouldn’t gifting ANY amount of money to a private developer for a private development result in an equity share in the development for the city? At the very least some sort of mortgage.
      Who “owns” the Ford Center?

      • HCW will own the thing free and clear and sell it for half of our subsidy amount as soon as they can. It’s all a big money grab.

        • That poorly maintained toxic infrastructure cannot support the garbage and blight that’s on it now. The phantom hotel/ “bait and switch” Monte motel, “shell and pea place” will never make Evansville or ONB’s shareholders a single positive dime. Just like the blunder dome __ord center cannot meet the black side of the ledger.
          The actual logistical throughput in Evansville’s downtown doesn’t sport any convenience what so ever. If the state does fall into the perception that a medical school could fit there it’ll ruin IU’s program from day one. The pain in the butt scramble to get from the clinical sites and USI is a carbon wasting student daily cost nightmare. Its about as stupid as the siting of the newer North high school on the north end of the counties edge. You people need some real leadership your town is a clown act laughing stock. The Common council inability to cut through the schmooze is inexcusable. Clowns.

          https://www.facebook.com/evansvilletransparency

      • commonsense:

        There is a difference in the terms: gift, and equity investment. Anyone of average intelligence knows that if you want the city’s financial bleeding to slow or stop, you do not continue to “gift” large sums of money to private, for profit, entities. An equity position that could be sold are traded at a later date would be a more responsible use of the taxpayers money.

      • Would the Ford Center be under the same owner type set up as the Civic Center?
        Where we pay for the construction of it, and turn around and pay again by a way of
        a lease?

        • Arm I never did like that setup. We paid for the Civic Center to be built and then turn it over to some quasi government ghost agency (Building Authority) and then ever city and county office that has space in the Civic Center pays the Building Authority a monthly Rent? This has been going on since way back in the late 1960 or early 1970’s now. How long do the tax payers have to pay on the bonds used to build the Civic Center, Convention Center and the Ford Center. Oh now wee need to add to that the Hotel and the IU Medical Center. Man the City of Evansville is paying on a lot of bonding.

      • Ford Center is owned by the City that paid for 100% of it. If the Ford Center was put on the auction block it would not bring 25% of the money the City borrowed to build it. The bottom line is that the investment in Ford Center destroyed about $100 Million taxpayer dollars. No private investor would ever touch an arena in a small market.

        As for the $20 Million for the hotel, my understanding is that $12.5 Million is for public infrastructure which should not be rewarded with equity. The other $7.5 Million is however an incentive for private money to build a hotel and should have some kind of equity associated with the investment. I would suggest that the people of Evansville should own 75% of whatever ONB gets for their $10 Million equity investment. A fair and equitable dilution based on a $44 Million hotel with the investment levels as published would be approximately as follows:

        HCW: 50%
        ONB: 25%
        City of Evansville: 17%
        County: 8%

        • Right, Joe. To say nothing of any tax abatement deals. Bad deal for taxpayers.
          And aren’t we heading into the same scenario with I.U.?

        • The shrunken head Hilton seems to sport even less plain old valuation than the previous phantom mock up. “Even less real true valuation”, man how does Evansville remain solvent with that kind of out right stupidity closing the cronies deals. “Everybody knows” the logistical infrastructure won’t support the development. Ever.

        • Joe:

          Can you find the Ford Center, 1 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, on the Vanderburgh County Assessor’s website?

          If so, could you put up the link?

    • I wonder why we should take ONB at its word that 10 million is available? Is the return there for them?

      I still contend that if Rieken is elected money will flow to her from the CC like sewage to the Ohio.

      • 1) Because Bob Jones said so. The mayor has squandered his credibility and needs a good wingman for appearances before the council.

        2) Any empirical evidence for your contention?

          • Oh, I see. The empire strikes back, it does resemble a starship. I didn’t know Gail was responsible. In any event, she’ll make us a fine mayor.

          • For the record, money will flow like sewage with Winnecke also. But maybe we can clog the pipes with him. Sad sad state of affairs.

    • Sir,

      How could the City Council vote on funds ($ 3.5 Million from the County) that they have no jurisdiction over ? I believe that the City Council could only vote on its own funds, and that was $ 20 MIllion/ which was a rejection of LW’s $ 37.5 MIllion initial request.

      I could be wrong, but this was much debated on this blog, ad nauseum re: $ 20 MIllion of public CITY funds ??? Obviously, let’s not rely on our memories, let’s find the Council Minutes to find out for sure.

  8. Looks like the ERC just approved Round 5 of the Wide Motel Downtown (WMD) by a 4-1 vote, with
    Cheryl Musgrave voting NO, as she has more questions re: financing.

    Good news, construction starts in August/September, and come hell-or-high-water by Election Day.

    • If they break ground that’s probably enough to reelect Winnie. Evansville residents are too stupid to understand the particulars of the deal and how they’re getting screwed. Couple that with the big R by his name and he may just get back in.

    • Fiasco # five pitiful, the mainstream also said the pool will not be inside the building, as well. Use plenty of Chlorine in that sucker, maybe then the sunbathers won’t smell the rotten sewers if so.
      The area around the motel site consistently smells like some just blew a monster load of flatulence over the entire location. Yuck.

      Quelle est cette odeur ..

    • I would not be surprised to see another fake golden plated shovel event with another dump truck of sand off loaded onto the vacant site and another pretty photo op. But don’t hold your breath as the Hotel is a dream that has not come true yet.

  9. Funny how even a gay rights and gay marriage proponent like Daniel O. Conkle, Prof. IU Maurer School of Law, disagrees with Quarkiee and other rabid anti-Christians about RFRA. Having been teaching Constitutional law for over 30 years, he’s under the impression it’s no different than the federal law and 30 other state’s laws and state constitutional laws. Just like the law professors at Harvard and Georgetown, he doesn’t understand the furor caused by this law and not the others that have been on the books since Clinton and the Democrats signed theirs into law in 1993.

      • And the mind-set these days is to find reasons to be offended. Victimhood is worn like a badge of honor.

    • Dis, The protesters need to load up their Volkswagen bus. Arkansas passed a RFRA bill today. It’s off to Little Rock.

    • Oh but it’s very different in section 8 or section 9. The federal laws don’t have language like
      that.

  10. Antarctica’s ice is melting away, the arctic northwest passage is going to become the route of choice for the new centuries sea waters shippers . Greenland’s glacial ice is well on its way into history. Climate migration proceeds actually at a rate well beyond the recent predictable sciences estimates.
    Our consortiums call to southwestern Indiana is to work hard and fast, for increased infrastructure pressures due the migrating climate will bury you in your blighted useless infrastructures otherwise. The area is going to get smacked with another heavy rain event this week, your downtowns dilapidated combined sewers system, heck that’s flat out CSO problems into the entire clean water balance of the nation, continent, and eventually the planets life giving oceans. Its sickening to watch Indiana and Evansville try to dodge the planets round that is zeroed squarely onto its populations well being.
    Build some updated infrastructure that allows for expansion before its flat too damned late for you.
    That downtown and its surrounding areas are a scourge to the United States public clean water balance. Just fix it.
    We observe daily the failures there, along with other locations as well, but your leadership fights the fix, and ignores the health and welfare of those whom by location are in fact regulated to live amongst the inexcusable mess. That’s going to be a huge payday for the law firm that gets the first case. The EPA mandate is due you, and what we’ve recorded gives you a ice cubes chance in sands Haiti of sustaining your environmental balance as it is now.

    The way they can toss your funding at the real estate cronies invested in that falsie of a downtown there we’ve concluded paying the EPA mandate fines should be a bunny as well.
    Best hope somebody with a less secure network doesn’t accidently drop a data dump on those clowns and their worthless infrastructure.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/03/27/antarctica-may-have-set-highest-temperature-ever-recorded-tuesday/

    • Bummer man. I thought you were coming to terms with your obsession. You did take the first step in defining it.

      • Mega piece go away “everyone knows” what your on this blog for. Like a cat kicking sand you alone, asshole dittos just can’t cover the that downtowns stink. You need help you should go get some. With Obama care its not excluded anymore….even though your case it always was pre existing.

        iɡˈzistiNG/
        adjective
        in existence or operation at the time under consideration; current.
        “proponents of the existing political system” 😉

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2iG9NQk9mI

        • yea but 10,000 years ago we didn’t have 7 billion humans living on the planet with a lot of them living along the coast where they will be flooded out by rising sea levels, high tides, bigger and more frequent storms caused by increasing energy levels attributed to global warming events.

          New York city already got a example of what’s coming as did New Orleans. Mega storms are created by more heat in the atmosphere and oceans. And all the data shows that the ocean and earth are getting warmer on average. Last year was the warmest on record. The global warming is getting warmer with each year passing.

    • Ah V, very clever with the sandbox and all. Please tell me what “everyone knows” about my posting here. Have you been dicussing it or are you just taking the liberty of speaking on behalf of the gang?

      • They know that you are wrong and nothing but a damn ignorant troll. Hey, you asked for it.

        • Yep and all the following comments in support of the ASS are in fact just as pitiful. Jerks. What a worthless load of losers . Dittos its your breath blowing back into that face of yours. That stinking BS is actually worse than the Downtown Evansville CSO stink. You little political bag.

          • You are just so darned clever. A cat litter box and now bad breath. Oh now that level of debate is going to be difficult to combat!

        • In the 70s global coolIng was the rallying cry. Warmest on record huh? And how long have these records been kept in relation to the age of the planet?
          These records are pee pee in the ocean when you consider the changes the earth has undergone in its history

  11. Excellent article showing the Community Organizer-in-Chief’s foreign policy blunders that have led to a destabilized Middle East that may very soon be in a nuclear arms race with radical jihadists ready to use them:

    “As country after country in the world’s most dangerous region fall into chaos—Libya and Yemen are essentially anarchic states, even as Syria and Iraq continue to devolve—Mr. Obama puzzlingly focuses much of his attention and rhetoric on Israel, childishly refusing to accept the mandate its people have given their prime minister in an election that, by the way, added three additional seats to the country’s Arab minority.

    We can debate whether we should ever have been in Iraq, but Mr. Obama’s hasty withdrawal to make good on a campaign promise created the power vacuum filled by the Islamic State. In Syria, he vacillated over the enforcement of red lines and whom to arm. There too, he created a vacuum filled by the Islamic State.

    As country after country in the world’s most dangerous region fall into chaos—Libya and Yemen are essentially anarchic states, even as Syria and Iraq continue to devolve—Mr. Obama puzzlingly focuses much of his attention and rhetoric on Israel, childishly refusing to accept the mandate its people have given their prime minister in an election that, by the way, added three additional seats to the country’s Arab minority.

    We can debate whether we should ever have been in Iraq, but Mr. Obama’s hasty withdrawal to make good on a campaign promise created the power vacuum filled by the Islamic State. In Syria, he vacillated over the enforcement of red lines and whom to arm. There too, he created a vacuum filled by the Islamic State.

    In Egypt, he withdrew support for President Hosni Mubarack, who for thirty years kept the peace with Israel and turned Egypt into a stable and reliable ally. Obama permitted the tyrannical Muslim Brotherhood to come to power failing to realize that one election, one time, resulting in a tyranny is not democracy.

    In Libya, President Muammar al-Gaddafi, once an international pariah, had reversed course as far back as 1999 and attempted to reenter the community of nations, even giving up his nuclear program. Libya was a stable dictatorship that was willing to engage in economic and diplomatic relations with the West. Its revolutionary ambitions of pan-Arabism and its expansionist tendencies had abated. When revolutionary forces rose up against Gaddafi, Mr. Obama not only verbally supported the revolutionaries, he sent NATO war planes to assist them. Gaddafi was defeated and murdered. Libya is now in chaos and another hot house for Islamic extremism.

    The deal with Iran follows in the wake of these foreign policy disasters. Among our traditional Sunni allies in the region, it is seen as a betrayal not simply because it advances Iran’s nuclear ambitions but also because it encourages Iran’s support for the Houthi Shiite militia in Yemen and Iran’s adventurism in Iraq. The lifting of sanctions means more resources for Iran to transfer to its meddlesome proxies like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the assassin of Lebanon’s democratic aspirations. The nuclear deal gives Iran an unacceptable nuclear umbrella that will compel the Gulf State Sunnis to launch their own nuclear programs, setting off a disastrous proliferation in the region.

    The Iran deal is a march toward the nuclear abyss hand-in-hand with the world’s largest exporter of terrorism– the patron of Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi militias in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq, and operatives killing Jews in Argentina. Regrettably, a naïve, petulant President Obama sees this as a crowning part of his legacy and nothing will stand in his way.

    Read more at http://observer.com/2015/03/president-obama-must-not-complete-a-disastrous-deal-with-iran/#ixzz3W0M85Qum
    Follow us: @newyorkobserver on Twitter | newyorkobserver on Facebook

    • Iran probably already has the bomb and there is nothing we can do about it. Even starting a war by bombing their know nuclear sites would not destroy their hidden and secrete sites. Do you really think that the President wants to start WWIII by attacking a nuclear equipped country like Iran. The only way we could wipe out their nuclear capability is with a ground war.

      BTW: didn’t North Korea develop their atomic bomb when Bush was President. And who was President when France, Russia, Pakistan, India and Israel got their atomic bombs? If it was so easy to bomb enemy atomic sites to prevent them from getting the bomb then why didn’t Bush do that? He bombed and then attacked Iraq but they were not developing atomic weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction. What a waste of resources. All it did was open the door for Iran to send in their people to take over Iraq.

  12. It Is True, Joe. Although I’m not so sure about Obama being naïve. There’s a distinct possibility he knows exactly what he’s doing.

    • I too think our president is acting with a purpose and that prpose is not in the best interest of the US. But thank you both for focusing on the issues that could render most of the fluff discussed here totally irrelevant – including global warming and climate change or whatever the kids are calling it now.

        • Cowboy – I am glad you post here. You are indeed a voice of reason amidst all the 12 year old girls that post here.

          • Moveon, thank you for demonstrating my point regarding the mental age of you folks. It is satisfying for mt to know that someday you will know the truth. I only hope its not too late by then

    • I agree. It only gets worse with Obama, this time very close to home:

      ” WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration’s plan for U.N. climate change talks encountered swift opposition after its release Tuesday, with Republican leaders warning other countries to “proceed with caution” in negotiations with Washington because any deal could be later undone.

      The White House is seeking to enshrine its pledge in a global climate agreement to be negotiated Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 in Paris. It calls for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by close to 28 percent from 2005 levels within a decade, using a host of existing laws and executive actions targeting power plants, vehicles, oil and gas production and buildings.

      But Republican critics say the administration lacks the political and legal backing to commit the United States to an international agreement.

      “Considering that two-thirds of the U.S. federal government hasn’t even signed off on the Clean Power Plan and 13 states have already pledged to fight it, our international partners should proceed with caution before entering into a binding, unattainable deal,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.”

      https://ca.news.yahoo.com/republicans-warn-world-obama-u-n-plan-could-231904316.html

    • One still needs to pay a subscription and use a real name before posting with a facebook account. Total BS IMHO. Opinion suppression just like voter suppression.

      • The wonderful thing about being anonymous on these forums is your neighbor, (who’s wife you help pick up limbs in the backyard,) (even though you’d rather be taking a nap,) has no idea you are his arch enemy competing with him on these threads.

        Politics can ruin a relationship before adultery, (believe it or not.)

        But I’m on the new C&P forum.

        Look me up, my name on there is Sarah Palin Enoch….

    • Click link X amount of times to get rid of commercial, BUT, “although I search myself, it’s always someone else I see.”

      Fascinating line man….

Comments are closed.