The White House has decided that America needs more diversityand the suburbs are ground zero. The lower-income population needs better opportunities to succeed, and the plan is to use HUD subsidies to build more modest housing in “wealthier neighborhoods”. Of course, that actually means middle-class areas, as the wealthy, donor class will never tolerate such an assault on their neighborhoods.

    The result of this attempt at utopia will be a benefit for those moving to the suburbs, but, at the expense of those already there. Yes, the new residents will have access to better schools, therefore better opportunities. The middle class residents will be paying a higher percentage because their higher property taxes pay for more of the school resources. Also, HUD housing has a tendency to lower the values of surrounding areas, thus hurting the middle class resident. After all, who hasn’t seen the phenomenon of having a higher tax value than resale value on a house?

    The real reason for the concept isn’t to give a helping hand to the disadvantaged, it’s to help the Democrat Party. Metropolitan areas are more Democrat than the suburbs and rural areas. The further away from a city, the more Republican it gets. This is an effort to water down the Republican vote at the precinct level. Let’s face reality; no Democrat plan to help the poor has ever helped the poor, but it has been a great benefit for the Democrat Party.

    This utopian scheme has been tried before, by a different means. More than a decade ago, Democrat legislators tried to regulate the financial lenders to make it easier to borrow money for a home, ultimately leading to no money down loans. Add to that the tendency to purchase more home than a lended could afford and the result is the real estate and the financial collapse of 2008. That collapse caused the loss of many in the middle class. This idea will further decimate it.

President Theodore Roosevelt described his foreign policy with the statement, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” He increased the United States’ naval power to enforce that policy. Later, with the advent of the aircraft carrier and, specifically, the Nimitz-class carrier, we’ve become THE naval power. To wake up in the morning to find a state of the art carrier offshore gives our enemies some cause for thought. After a disaster, a carrier can provide electricity, fresh water and airlift capabilities for aid and relief. For people with evil intentions, it means deterrence. For many US Presidents, it has been a strong show of force, a projection of power.

Currently, this administration has ordered  nine US Navy vessels, centered around the Nimitz-class carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), to trail an 8-ship convoy of the Iranian Navy, five warships and three freighters, headed toward Yemen. The Iranian convoy is thought to be en route to Yemen to reinforce the Houthi rebels with weapons and supplies. It’s not clear what orders the US Navy carrier group has. They have the authority to board ships for inspection to combat piracy in the area, although they’ve never boarded Iranian ships before.

The State Department spokesperson said yesterday that the TR battle groups’ mission is not to intercept Iranian weapons. Then, why are they there? Is the thought that the mere presence of the battle group would be enough to deter the Iranians? Where will the administration draw its red line?

Barack Obama’s history with drawing red lines hasn’t exactly been the best. In Syria, he drew red lines time after time after time They were crossed each time, with no consequence. I’m sure Iran was watching. With this and the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, where we gave in at every turn, fresh in their minds, would Iran have any qualms about crossing a red line. And remember, just a month ago, the Iranian Navy held an exercise in which it launched attacks on a “carrier”. Of course, it looked more like the USS Langley, a cruiser hull with a flight deck on top that was our first aircraft carrier. It would be a much different thing to attack the Teddy Roosevelt.

When two opposing forces interact in such close proximity at cross purposes, people get hurt. This incident has the potential to get a lot of people killed, possibly even lighting the match that sets the entire region ablaze. More so that it already is.

On a campaign visit to Iowa in August, 2007, Senator Barack Obama pledged that, if elected as President, his administration would be the most transparent and accountable in history. We all know how transparent this administration has been: not at all! In fact, I’ve seen concrete clearer that this administration. How accountable has it been?

This weekend, I saw that a Colorado Veterans Hospital being built was a billion dollars over budget and the project was now going to cost $1.73 Billion. Outrageous! There are several others also over budget, though. Even worse, right? The worst part is the VA is awarding the construction execs over those projects huge bonuses! For what? I have a construction business and I have never been granted a bonus for being over budget or late on a project. In fact, it usually works the other way. I start losing money!

So, where’s the accountability at the VA department concerning the building of facilities? Who’s holding project managers and companies collective feet to the fire to get work done on time and on budget? The answer is nowhere! Can’t find it! Of course, this isn’t the only accountability problem at the VA. Remember the Phoenix VA hospital at the center of the waiting list scandal, which cost the lives of 40 veterans. The director was on PAID administrative leave for over 220 days before she was fired from her position. Waiting lists are still being used, although new legislation last year was supposed to end it. But, that legislation also provided funds for more facilities that, I’m sure will do nothing more than line the pockets of union officials.

Accountability has been non-existent throughout this administration. We have an  Attorney General held in contempt of Congress for withholding files surrounding the missing weapons during the Fast and Furious operation. The operation cost the life of a Border Agent, Brian Terry, along with more that a few Mexican citizens. No one was held accountable. The IRS was used as a weapon against Conservatives and the official at the center of that investigation, Lois Lerner, was placed on PAID administrative leave until she decided to retire, without accountability. There’s no one been held accountable for an ambassador and three security people being killed in Benghazi. Come to think of it, where are the emails concerning this scandal from the Secretary of State’s private server? No accountability surrounding the targeting of a non-mission capable helicopter shot down over Afghanistan killing 26 SEALs. The lack of any accountability in this administration goes on and on.

It has gotten to the point that we, as citizens, are far more accountable to the government than the other way around. When the question comes up over who is responsible for anything, some committee meets and fingers are pointed back and forth. No one gets held accountable. Patrick Henry said,”The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” Our Liberty is looking a lot less secure now.

After the State of the Union address, I felt so much more secure in the fact that the United States was doing fine , that America was strong and that we “turn the page.” The economy has turned around. The unemployment rate has dropped (because the administration controls the numbers), business has created 11,000,000 jobs (while 93,000,000 people have left the workforce, leaving the lowest worker participation) and the oil production here has almost freed us from foreign dependence (not because of the government, but in spite of it). “The shadow of the crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong”.

The White House was bold enough to issue a fact-check of the speech, suspiciously unsourced. Evidently, it remains true that if someone from the administration says something it’s truth. That’s how the media has operated for the last couple of decades. I’ve noticed large lay-offs in the media, apparently all from the research departments, since they take the manufactured “facts” as gospel.  The majority of the people feel we are still in a recession and don’t feel confident that things will get appreciably better any time soon. Actual unemployment, the rate which includes those looking for work, marginally attached worker and those working part-time because they can’t find full-time work (U-6) is 11.2%. The media reports the heavily massaged and seasonally adjusted U-3 rate of 5.6%. Currently, 14% of Americans are on food stamps; the number of recipients has doubled under Barack Obama. Doesn’t seem like the page has turned on the economic story. The shadow of crisis is still there.

How about the events where national security and foreign policy reign? During the campaign for President in 2012, Obama took great pride in stating he ended the war in Iraq. His path to that end completely disregarded all of the generals involved in the conflict. He never tried to get a Status of Forces Agreement from the Iraqi government and, ultimately, pulled American troops out of the country. In April of 2014, a new force appeared on the field and ISIS ( or the JV depending on who you ask) began taking territory, causing the Iraqi Army to flee. This was exactly what the general said could happen. Today, ISIS holds territory in Syria, Iraq and threatens Turkey. Granted, we are now bombing them from the air and we are told our goal is to degrade and destroy them, but they have actually increased their territory. Seems that the shadow of crisis still exists there.

Iran is still working toward achieving nuclear power status. This administration has allowed deadline after deadline to pass during negotiations. We talk and they build. Now, as an additional incentive to negotiate, we’ve relieved some of the sanctions against Iran. That should force them back to the table. It’s almost like this administration wants Iran to have the bomb. In fact, during the SOTU speech, Obama criticized Congress for wanting to re-apply sanctions. Iran might get mad.

Also during the speech, though not mentioned in the speech, The United States moved to amphibious ships closer to Yemen to facilitate evacuation  of the embassy personnel because the US backed government is about to fall to rebels. Even so, this administration just a few days ago, released Islamic terrorists (how un-PC of me) from Gitmo back to Yemen. Guess Yemen wants more of them. The shadow of crisis remains.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Paris was hit by a terror attack by Islamic jihadists, resulting in the deaths of 17 people along with the three terrorists. The day after the two hostage situations came to a conclusion, there was a multi-million person march in Paris with over 40 leaders in attendance. The United States wasn’t represented, but four days later, in a diplomatic marvel, John Kerry brought James Taylor to Paris to sing “You’ve Got A Friend” to the French President Hollande. Now, that’s world leadership. Police throughout Europe continue to conduct raids to arrest Islamic terrorists. Alerts of possible terrorism are still in effect in Europe and here in the United States. It doesn’t look to me like the shadow of crisis has passed. It looks like the State of the Union would be strong if we had a leader!