The White House cries “breach of protocol“, or something:

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that usually leaders inform the White House before planning a trip to the U.S. He said the administration will decide a course of action after speaking with the Israelis about what Netanyahu will say in his address, the Associated Press reported.  (link)

WASHINGTON DC – Speaker John Boehner has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress about Iran next month, a move sure to inflame the Obama administration, which is trying to negotiate a nuclear deal with the Islamic republic.
Netanyahu is vehemently opposed to the emerging deal, and has been very vocal that the United States is making a mistake in negotiating with the nation. In many ways, he’s served as President Barack Obama’s foil as negotiations have progressed. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, is setting up a major confrontation with the Obama administration one day after the State of the Union – a move that is sure to put him in good graces with his House Republican Conference. Boehner has invited Netanyahu to address Congress for a third time Feb. 11. (more…)

This is so typically Clintonian. Hillary is asked about whether or not she supports the Keystone Pipeline.
She’s frozen in political fear. If she supports it, she’s undermining the far left and fueling the Elizabeth Warren support crowd; if she doesn’t support it, she’s against 70% of the U.S. electorate’s position. So, she takes the position of “no position”.

WASHINGTON DC – The woman whose story of economic recovery was showcased by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address is a former Democratic campaign staffer and has been used by Obama for political events in the past.
Rebekah Erler has been presented by the White House as a woman who was discovered by the president after she wrote to him last March about her economic hardships. She was showcased in the speech as proof that middle class Americans are coming forward to say that Obama’s policies are working.
Unmentioned in the White House bio of Erler is that she is a former Democratic campaign operative, working as a field organizer for Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.). (more…)

This was a no-brainer for anyone who followed the case. As early as August 18th, just a week after the Mike Brown shooting (pictured below), both Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama knew there was no foundation for any charges against officer Wilson. They allowed the fiasco to continue for election benefits.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is taking the final steps toward closing the politically charged investigation into the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., and clearing the white police officer involved of civil rights charges.

Federal prosecutors have begun work on a legal memo recommending no civil rights charges against the officer, Darren Wilson, law enforcement officials said.
That would close the case in the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. An investigation by the F.B.I., which is complete, found no evidence to support the charges against the officer, the officials said. (read more)

Everyone can rest easy knowing Obama has the priorities in order.

OBAMA: In the Asia Pacific, we are modernizing alliances while making sure that other nations play by the rules — in how they trade, how they resolve maritime disputes, and how they participate in meeting common international challenges like nonproliferation and disaster relief. And no challenge — no challenge — poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.

2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does — 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century. (more…)

Example: 2013 President Obama announces 41 new legislative proposals.  Two actually came to fruition.

WASHINGTON – Judging by his recent history, it doesn’t really matter what President Obama says in Tuesday’s State of the Union address — Congress is going to ignore him anyway.
Mr. Obama has the second-worst record of getting his State of the Union policy requests enacted into law of any president in the last five decades, according to an analysis by two scholars that puts him only above the unelected two-year presidency of Gerald Ford.
From 2009 through 2014, Mr. Obama issued 209 different calls for action from Congress in his speeches, but only saw lawmakers follow through on 64 of them — good for just 30 percent. That’s only slightly better than Mr. Ford’s 28 percent success rate, and is well below the likes of President Clinton, the previous Democratic president, who won 44 percent of his policies even though he faced a Congress more Republican than Mr. Obama has. (more…)

I’ve spent some time going back through the post election -yet pre-holiday- white house briefings, and comparing them to recent pre-SOU leaks.
What strikes me as odd is how people are discussing the Obama “Legislative Proposals“, ie. “free college” and “tax the rich”, as if he actually means it. I’m sure people reading this understand that: ♦ the legislative branch passes laws; ♦ the executive branch enforces laws; and ♦ the judicial branch interprets laws.
So why is so much attention being paid to President Obama’s “legislative proposals”?
Why doesn’t everyone in congress just ignore him. Elections have consequences, he lost.
Let President Obama banter on listening to his own voice at yet another grand State of The Union speech, filled with so much rhetoric and nonsense, that no-one can ever remember from year to year. And then ignore it. I certainly hope the “GOP response” which customarily follows the SOU doesn’t give the “legislative proposals” any mention, because there is simply no need to.
Republicans control the House and the Senate chambers with majorities in both legislative houses – they don’t need to engage in a futile discussion about legislation they will never bring forward, so why talk about it. (more…)

It is always important to remember the White House logic – when you hear the Islamic State make demands, according to President Obama they are not Islamic.  It is only when you accept the futility in conversation with the professional left, that you are able to reduce your frustration. 

President Obama and the professional left perceive the world as they wish it would be, not as it is…  In essence, they are modern Peter Pan’s. 

CAIRO (AP) — An online video released Tuesday purported to show the Islamic State group threatening to kill two Japanese hostages unless they receive a $200 million ransom in the next 72 hours.

The video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, mirrored other hostage threats made the group. The man speaking also resembled and sounded like a British militant involved in other beheadings by the Islamic State group, which now holds a third of Iraq and Syria under its self-declared caliphate. (more…)

SAUDI ARABIA – Islamic State lists the capture of Saudi Arabia, home to the holy Muslim grounds of Mecca and Medina, as a key goal.
Just over a week ago, IS militants launched an attack on a Saudi border post, killing a senior Saudi general and two border guards, marking the first direct IS assault on Saudi grounds, The Telegraph reported.

In an effort to defend itself from the IS threat and further attacks, the kingdom launched a massive project to construct a “Great Wall” along it’s northern border with Iraq, where IS presence is heavy. (more…)

(Washington Times) There’s a solitary man at the financial center of the Ferguson protest movement. No, it’s not victim Michael Brown or Officer Darren Wilson. It’s not even the Rev. Al Sharpton, despite his ubiquitous campaign on TV and the streets.
Rather, it’s liberal billionaire George Soros, who has built a business empire that dominates across the ocean in Europe while forging a political machine powered by nonprofit foundations that impacts American politics and policy, not unlike what he did with MoveOn.org.

(more…)