Tag Archives: Barack Obama

News

Is Colombia or Mexico better at dealing with criminal gangs?

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Colombian soldiers strike against FARC

Here’s a good story from Investors Business Daily.

Excerpt:

Colombia’s army blew away the field marshal of FARC’s narco-terror war Wednesday, showing with a jolt that to win, it’s terrorists who must “absorb” attacks, not innocents. Mexico and the U.S. have much to learn.

Seems the adage that Colombia is the only country where guerrillas die of old age isn’t true anymore.

On Thursday, Colombia celebrated news of the demise of Jorge Briceno, military commander and second-highest chief of FARC. The 57-year-old terrorist went down in a hail of bombs and gunfire over three days in a jungle bunker near La Macarena.

The Colombian army suffered no deaths and left at least 20 guerrillas dead on the jungle floor. Briceno’s demise marks the fourth knockout of FARC’s seven-man “Politburo”since 2008.

“This is the most crushing blow against the FARC in its entire history,” said Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, speaking from the sidelines at the United Nations in New York.

[…]Colombia’s war is in reality the southern flank of the same war that Mexico is fighting with its cartels — and that war is spilling over into the U.S. This is why Americans must pay attention.

The growing lawlessness on our border encompasses drugs, but also alien smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting and other acts of organized crime, with ties to global terror.

In Colombia’s case, it brooks no talk about “absorbing” terror attacks, as President Obama recently suggested in the U.S. If anything, Colombia seems to have taken lessons from Gen. David Petraeus’ surge in Iraq that took the war to the terrorists — and made sure they were the ones to worry about “absorbing” the attacks.

FARC is a left-wing Marxist terrorist group that traffics in cocaine. Hmmm. Cocaine? Terrorism? Marxism? That reminds me of someone. Who could it be?

Do you know what we should do to help Colombia defeat the Marxist-terrorist-drug cartel? We should sign a free trade deal so they can buy our stuff and we can buy their stuff. That will help them to grow more prosperous, and we’ll be more prosperous too! In fact, Canada has already done that. Canada likes Colombia. That’s why they signed a free trade agreement with Colombia. But the Democrats don’t like Colombia. Obama and the Democrats have delayed the signing of a free trade agreement with Colombia since they came into office.

Videos

Obama supporter says she is “exhausted” from defending Obama

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From National Review. (H/T ECM)

The video:

Excerpt:

One of the more memorable moments from the Obama CNBC town hall came when an African-American woman — a military veteran and mother of two — told the president she was “exhausted of defending” his administration:

“I’m one of your middle-class Americans, and quite frankly I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration,  defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now. I had been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I’m one of those people and I’m waiting, sir. I’m waiting. I don’t feel it yet, and I thought that — while it wouldn’t be in great measure — I would feel it in some small measure.”

The woman than talks about the impact of the recession on her family, her worry about being able to pay her two daughters’ tuition, and her fear that her family may be heading back to their “hot dogs and beans days.”

“Quite frankly Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly: is this my new reality?”

Wow. Hot dogs and beans!

News

Los Angeles spent $111 million stimulus dollars to create 55 jobs

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Patterico has found the audit of how Los Angeles spent $111 million dollars of taxpayer money.

Here’s the PDF of the audit.

Excerpt:

CITY CONTROLLER RELEASES AUDITS OF HOW LOS ANGELES HAS USED FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY

$111 Million in ARRA Funds Has Only Created 55 Jobs So Far

Continuing her efforts to ensure that taxpayer money is spent efficiently and effectively, City Controller Wendy Greuel released two audits today of how the City of Los Angeles has used American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. The audits looked at the how the two departments that have received the largest amount of ARRA funding so far – the Department of Transportation (LADOT) and the Department of Public Works (DPW) – have used those funds and how many jobs were created. Los Angeles becomes the largest City in America to conduct an audit of how ARRA funds have been expended.

DPW has received $70.65 million and created or retained 45.46 jobs, though they are expected to create 238 jobs overall (the fraction of a job created or retained correlates to the number of actual hours works). LADOT has been awarded $40.8 million and created or retained 9 jobs, though they are expected to create 26 jobs overall. Overall, the Departments have received $111 million in federal stimulus funds out of the $594 million the City has been awarded so far and created or retained 54.46 jobs.

That’s how Obama stimulates the economy.