Earlier this week the Census Bureau released more bad news for the current regime: The rate of homeownership has fallen to a 20-year low, continuing a slide that began at the apex of the housing market in 2004. Ten years ago, 69% of Americans owned homes, but that has fallen to 64.5% in 2014. As loose lips Joe Biden keeps telling us, Barack nObama's economy is terrible: "The middle class is being killed." Unfortunately, the economic conditions that led to the dramatic increase in the decade from 1994 to 2004 can't be duplicated today. What was once an era of steady, mainly full-time employment and ample economic growth has now stagnated to a point where those most likely to enter the housing market and become owners are saddled with part-time gigs and staggering student loan debt. Meanwhile, older generations have been struggling with issues of their own, as the equity they once possessed in their homes has long since been wiped out, leaving some unable to keep the dwellings they once owned. After the housing bubble a decade ago led to the economic devastation of 2008, it would make sense to tighten the housing market and have banks ensure that borrowers are more qualified. But recent steps by Barack nObama's Federal Housing Administration indicate the desire to return to the reckless practices that wrecked our economy in the first place. -The Patriot Post
Will Jeb Bush make his case to the GOP base or will he stand his ground as a moderate willing to “lose the primary to win the general?” That’s the question hanging over today’s packed schedule at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington. CPAC, which is kicking the GOP nominating process into high gear, will afford the former Florida governor his best chance yet to make his case to the party’s conservative activist core. Bush will be interviewed this afternoon by Sean Hannity, who has been tough on issues like Bush’s support for citizenship for illegal immigrants and Common Core federal school curricula. Bush’s decision to emphasize his moderate stances or his areas of agreement with the party base, particularly on abortion, will tell us a great deal about what kind of campaign to expect from the GOP frontrunner.
Jeb says he ‘won’t cower’ on immigration - Wash Ex: “In perhaps his most campaign-style speech so far, not-yet-official GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush vowed Thursday not to alter his views on immigration despite intense opposition among some parts of the Republican base. ‘If I go beyond the consideration of running, I'm not backing down from something that is a core belief,’ Bush told a gathering of the conservative Club for Growth here in Florida. ‘Are we supposed to just cower because at the moment people are all upset about something? No way, no how.’” -Fox News
David Drucker nabbed a sit-down with Sen. Marco Rubio in which the Florida Senator laid out a few policy targets for a hypothetical presidency. Rubio spoke forcefully about undoing President nObama’s agenda on foreign policy and health insurance, but also hinted at what his immigration agenda would look like. WashEx: “Rubio indicated that he would immediately call for passage of legislation to secure portions of the border that remain ‘largely’ unprotected; implement new enforcement tools, including an entry-exit system to track visa overstays; and modernize employment verification to discourage the hiring of illegal immigrants. ‘Once that system is in place and functioning, I believe that that’s the key that opens the door to, one, modernizing our legal immigration system towards a merit-based system; and two, dealing with those who are here illegally but have been here for a long period of time and have otherwise not violated our laws,’ Rubio said.” -Fox News
Wash Ex: “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has walked back a remark in which he equated pro-union protesters in Wisconsin with the Islamic State. Speaking to a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, Walker was asked how he would address national security threats including the Islamic State. ‘I want a commander in chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists does not wash up on American soil," Walker said. "If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.’ After the comment sparked blowback, Walker said later he did not mean to equate the protestors in Wisconsin, who opposed Walker's move to limit collective bargaining, with terrorists. ‘My point was just, if I could handle that kind of a pressure and kind of intensity, I think I'm up for the challenge for whatever might come, if I choose to run for president,’ Walker clarified to Bloomberg Politics.” -Fox News
(Onan Coca) - The U.S.-led coalition has launched three air strikes on the Islamic State in northeastern Syria...An estimated 300-400 Syrian Christians were abducted by militants in the region, according to Kino Gabriel, a commander for the Syriac Military Council. The strikes succeeded in slowing the movement of Islamic State forces. Speaking to The Daily Caller News Foundation via Skype from Syria’s northeastern Al-Hasakah province, Gabriel said Islamic State militants started setting tires on fire in order “to generate smoke to cover their movement, heavy weapons and machines.” Air strikes won't cut it. http://lastresistance.com/10333/300-400-syrian-christians-kidnapped-isis-usa-responds/
For the Islamic State and other Muslims, this gesture signifies allegiance to Islam’s absolute monotheism. Whatever nObama may have meant by it, the revelation that he had made the gesture — coming so soon after his renewed refusal at his “Countering Violent Extremism” summit to identify Islamic jihadists as Islamic — raised new questions about nObama’s relationship with Islam. Why won’t nObama identify Islam as having anything to do with the jihadis, when they themselves consistently explain and justify their actions solely in Islamic terms? Why won’t he do anything about mosques in the U.S. with ties to jihad terror? Why does he coddle the Muslim Brotherhood? Why, in sum, does he seem to love Islam so much, even if he isn’t a practicing Muslim?
And it does seem most likely that nObama is indeed not a practicing Muslim, despite the remarkable persistence of rumors and suspicions to the contrary. It is extremely unlikely that a Muslim would publicly proclaim himself a Christian over and over, as nObama has. While it is possible that this would be justified under Islam’s doctrines of deception, there is no evidence that Muslims have ever behaved this way. Ground Zero Mosque imam Faisal Abdul Rauf did say several years ago, “I am a Jew,” but he only said it once, in the context of ecumenical generosity; he didn’t try to pass himself off as one. There is a way in which a Muslim could say he is a true Jew or true Christian because he follows the true teachings of the Torah and the Gospel, but there is no known case of a Muslim behaving this way in a sustained manner. If nObama were a secret Muslim, he would be the first Muslim to carry out such a sustained deception of claiming not to be a Muslim.
There is little doubt, however, given his consistent policies throughout his presidency, that nObama holds Islam in high regard, for whatever mix of personal affection (his father and stepfather were both Muslims) and political calculation (he may believe that calling the jihadis Islamic will alienate Muslim allies of the U.S., such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, however unreliable those alliances have been). His Administration backed the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt with such loyalty that Egyptian protesters held signs accusing nObama of supporting terrorism. He aided Islamic jihadis to overthrow Gaddafi in Libya and continues to aid those trying to overthrow Assad in Syria. (He insists that those he is backing in Syria are “vetted moderates,” but they have ransacked churches, terrorized Christians, and collaborated with the Islamic State too often for that to ring true.) He has repeatedly called for self-censorship to conform with Islamic blasphemy laws, most memorably declaring at the United Nations, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”
And while his Justice Department aggressively pursues businesses and educational institutions to compel them to grant special privileges and accommodations to Muslims, it has shown no similar energy regarding terror-tied mosques in the U.S. Not only do these mosques remain open and their leaders uninvestigated and unprosecuted, but all too often the only contact law enforcement officials have with them is for “outreach.”
Only nObama knows what he may be thinking in all this, but a few conclusions seem obvious: he is afraid that speaking honestly about the jihadis’ motives and goals will alienate actual and potential Muslim allies. Since he believes Islam to be a peaceful religion, he doesn’t accept the idea that Muslims become jihadis because the Qur’an and Sunnah exhort them to do so. That leaves only the grievances that Islamic advocacy groups (and jihad groups) endlessly retail as the fundamental engine of the “radicalization” of Muslims – so nObama apparently sees redressing those grievances as the primary means of preventing Muslims from becoming terrorists.
This has led to foreign and domestic policies of accommodation and appeasement, along with an ominously cavalier stance at best toward the First Amendment’s protection of the freedom of speech. Coupled with a dogmatic refusal to identify properly those who have vowed to destroy the United States and address their belief system and ideology, nObama’s stance toward Islam is a recipe for catastrophe. The United States is weaker and more vulnerable for it.
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