Obama: Right to vote is under threat in U.S.

Barry:

"I want to be clear: (Like he was with Benghazi and the IRS scandals) I am not against reasonable attempts to secure the ballot. We understand that. There has to be rules in place," Obama said. "But I am against requiring an ID that millions of Americans don't have." 

Really? 
Why can't they get a photo ID... especially when it's free at their local DOT? Why is it they can't seem to find the wherewithal to get a free ID but have no problem getting to the voting booth? How do they go about their day to day business without one?  

I can't. Occasionally at my local supermarket, bank, Home Depot, etc they want to see my ID to make a purchase on my credit card. What happens if you don't have one?

"But I am against requiring an ID that millions of Americans don't have." 

He's also addressing the "Americans"  (millions of illegal Mexicans) who vote for Democrats. 

Voter fraud isn’t a problem?

Yeah.. voting just once is so...yesterday.

This would  benefit committed Democrats like Melowese Richardson who voted five times. She was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but the Democratic Party does not abandon its own. So she got probation instead.

Wonder if they took her voting rights away... or cloned her?

After the lie of the decade.
 "You can keep your insurance period. No matter what."       

Can you really believe a word this guy says anymore?

DID OBAMA STEAL THE 2012 ELECTION?

Overwhelming evidence shows vote fraud, abuse played major role in outcome

http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/did-obama-steal-the-2012-election/

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press

Posted: Sunday, April 13, 2014, 3:01 AM 

NEW YORK - In an unsparing critique of Republicans, President Obama on Friday accused the GOP of using voting restrictions to keep voters from the polls and of jeopardizing 50 years of expanded ballot box access for millions of black Americans and other minorities. 

"The stark, simple truth is this: The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago," Obama said in a fiery speech at civil rights activist and television talk host Al Sharpton's National Action Network conference. 

Obama waded into the acrid debate over voting access in an election year where control of the Senate, now in the hands of Democrats, is at stake, as is Obama's already limited ability to push his agenda through Congress. 

Republicans say the voting measures guard against voter fraud, but Democrats say they erode the landmark 1965 law that helped pave Obama's path in politics. 

"Across the country, Republicans have led efforts to pass laws making it harder, not easier, for people to vote," he said, relating anecdotes of voters turned away because they didn't have the right identification or because they needed a passport or birth certificate to register. 

"About 60 percent of Americans don't have a passport," he said. "Just because you can't have the money to travel abroad doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to vote here at home." 

Obama's speech to a crowd of about 1,600 in a New York hotel ballroom came a day after he marked the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas, where he praised President Lyndon Johnson's understanding of presidential power and its use to create new opportunities for millions of Americans. 

The president pinned efforts to curb access to the ballot box directly on the GOP, declaring that the effort "has not been led by both parties. It's been led by the Republican Party." Mocking the Republicans, he said, "What kind of political platform is that? Why would you make that a part of your agenda, preventing people from voting?" 

Republicans have argued that the voter laws seek to safeguard the voting process and are not an attempt to limit Democratic turnout. 

A spokeswoman for Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a state whose voting laws are being challenged by the Obama administration, said the Supreme Court has ruled that voter identification laws are constitutional. 

"Protecting the integrity of the voting process is something that benefits everyone, partisan politics do not," the spokeswoman, Megan Mitchell, said. 

For Democrats this year, no political issue stands out more prominently than their ability to motivate voters to turn out at the polls in November.

But traditionally weak midterm turnout by Democrats coupled with efforts in some states to limit early voting and to enact voter identification requirements have prompted the president and his party to raise alarms and step up their get-out-the-vote efforts. 

"I want to be clear: I am not against reasonable attempts to secure the ballot. We understand that. There has to be rules in place," Obama said. "But I am against requiring an ID that millions of Americans don't have." 

Just last year, seven states passed voter restrictions, ranging from reductions in early voting periods to identification requirements, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

North Carolina alone adopted a photo ID requirement, eliminated registrations on election day, and reduced the number of early voting days. 

The North Carolina steps, which take effect in the 2016 election, came after the Supreme Court in June threw out the crucial section of the Voting Rights Act that required that all or parts of 15 states with a history of discrimination in voting, mainly in the South, get federal approval before changing their election laws. 

Obama: Right to vote is under threat in U.S.

If this bastard is a reverend I'm Saint Peter

I was not a rat! Al Sharpton defends recording mob bosses as 'what was right'



I'm sure Al is elated this video surfaced.

(If video won't load click post title)

Video 64

I like the hat he's wearing. He missed his calling. Should have been a pimp.

Now he has his own TV show "Politics Nation".  This video confirms what I knew all along. Sharpton has absolutely no credibility! MSNBC has even less for giving this scumbag the show. Wasn't Olbermann suspended and eventually let go for breaking company rules over campaign contributions. Doesn't that pale in comparison to what Sharpton has done?

-----------------------------------

By Associated Press and Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 10:53 EST, 8 April 2014 | Updated: 11:40 EST, 8 April 2014

The Rev. Al Sharpton said today that a report that he spied on New York Mafia figures for the FBI in the 1980s is old news, adding that he never considered himself an informant.

'In my own mind I was not an informant,' Sharpton said. 'I was cooperating with an investigation.'

Sharpton called a news conference at his Harlem headquarters to talk about a story The Smoking Gun website posted on Monday claiming he had recorded conversations with mobsters.

Defiant:

 He said he was simply cooperating with an investigation and was not an informant.

Bo Dietl had a slightly different account

Ex NYPD Cop: We Used to Call Sharpton ‘The Fat Rat’

'When he says he didn't know he was an informant that's a lot of baloney. Al Sharpton knew what he was doing'

April 8, 2014 11:04 pm

Former NYPD detective Bo Dietl told Sean Hannity Al Sharpton’s contention that he did not know he was an FBI informant in the 1980s is “a lot of baloney.”

Sharpton fiercely maintained in a press conference earlier today that he was not a “rat” following revelations Sharpton attempted to buy cocaine from an undercover FBI agent.

Dietl, speaking Tuesday evening on Fox News, revealed the NYPD had a special nickname for Sharpton after the current MSNBC host became an informant:

BO DIETL: There was a lot of involvement with the music industry at that time that Al was involved in. And then all of the sudden we used to pass through East Harlem, and everyone knew it. We used to call him the fat rat.

SEAN HANNITY: What do you make of that video with cocaine?

DIETL: The video stands for itself right there. He was talking about buying kilos of coke with an undercover. So who is he representing?

HANNITY: Do you think that resulted in him becoming — he was flipped as a result of that because they threatened to indict him?

DIETL: The majority of the times when we develop informants is when you get them on a felony case and then you flip them and they become an informant. When he says he didn’t know he was an informant that’s a lot of baloney. Al Sharpton knew what he was doing, he was cooperating with the FBI.

So who do you think is lying?

Vincent 'Chin' Gigante (C) was a Genovese crime family boss who pretended to be mentally ill in order to escape responsibility for his crimes -- but Sharpton helped foil his plot when he taped other mob figures discussing the ruse.

Wonder what the Gambino and Genovese family are thinking right now?

If this bastard is a reverend I'm Saint Peter

Brandeis to Ali...Check your freedom of expression at the door

Lib's where are you.. ya know...war on women?

I forgot it's a one way street.

Brandeis Not To Honor Muslim Women for Being Critical of Islam

PC or fear? I suspect a combination of both.

This is similar to the treatment the CEO of Mozilla received having to resign because he believes in traditional marriage. You would have thought he slapped Rosa Parks. BTW…if this woman was speaking out against Christianity she would have been the keynote speaker.

What she said about Islam could not have been said any better. She has first hand experience.

-----------------------------------------------------

Apr 09, 2014 05:42 AM EDT 

By Stephen Adkins, UniversityHerald Reporter 

Brandeis University in Boston, Massachusetts, has decided not to grant an honorary degree to a Muslim woman and a supporter of women's rights at its May 18 commencement ceremony for making critical comments on Islam.

Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been a member of the Dutch Parliament from 2003 to 2006 and is a public figure. The university said that it admired and recognized her work to defend the rights of women and girls worldwide. However, Ali's earlier statements conflicting with Brandeis University's core values could not be ignored, said university officials in a statement, Tuesday.

The officials said that they were not aware of Ali's past statements.

Speaking about the religion in a 2007 interview with Reason Magazine, Ali said, "Once it's defeated (Islam), it can mutate into something peaceful. It's very difficult to even talk about peace now. They're not interested in peace. I think that we are at war with Islam. And there's no middle ground in wars."

(Someday in a very painful way we'll all learn this.)

Ali, brought up in a conservative Muslim family, survived a civil war, genital mutilation and physical abuse. 

In a separate letter, more than 85 of 350 faculty members requested Brandeis to remove Ali's name from the list of honorary degree recipients. Meanwhile, students created an online petition Monday, seeking her removal from the list too and have gathered thousands of signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.

"This is a real slap in the face to Muslim students," said senior Sarah Fahmy, a member of the Muslim Student Association who created the petition. "But it's not just the Muslim community that is upset but students and faculty of all religious beliefs. A university that prides itself on social justice and equality should not hold up someone who is an outright Islamophobic."

In a letter to Brandeis President Frederick M. Lawrence, Council on American-Islamic Relations' National Executive Director Nihad Awad said that presenting an award to an advocate of religious discrimination like Ali is similar to encouraging work of "white supremacists and anti-Semites."

...REALLY?

"Granting her an honorary degree is unworthy of the American tradition of civil liberty and religious freedom represented by Justice Louis Brandeis and the great university that carries his name," Awad said in the letter, PR Newswire reports.

Thomas Doherty, chairman of American studies, declined to sign the faculty letter. He said that it would have been fantastic for the university to honor a strong believer in human freedom and women's rights.

Brandeis to Ali...Check your freedom of expression at the door

A marked man

Prelude to the story below.

Fundamentally changing America…taken to a whole new level.

Haven't we seen this movie before?

BTW…Someone should ask Stedman why the Mexicans he gave guns to which killed Brian Terry and Jamie Zapata were not wearing bracelets.

Then again this statement disarmed just about everyone in the "hood".

"By making them either through finger print identification, the gun talks to a bracelet or something that you might wear, how guns can be used only by the person who is lawfully in possession of the weapon."

-------------------------------------------------------

Holder: We want to explore gun tracking bracelets

April 3, 2014: Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.AP

Attorney General Eric Holder said gun tracking bracelets are something the Justice Department (DOJ) wants to "explore" as part of its gun control efforts. 

When discussing gun violence prevention programs within the DOJ, Holder told a House appropriations subcommittee on Friday that his agency is looking into technological innovations. 

"I think that one of the things that we learned when we were trying to get passed those common sense reforms last year, Vice President Biden and I had a meeting with a group of technology people and we talked about how guns can be made more safe," he said. 

"By making them either through finger print identification, the gun talks to a bracelet or something that you might wear, how guns can be used only by the person who is lawfully in possession of the weapon." 

"It's those kinds of things that I think we want to try to explore so that we can make sure that people have the ability to enjoy their Second Amendment rights, but at the same time decreasing the misuse of weapons that lead to the kinds of things that we see on a daily basis," Holder said. 

The Justice Department has requested $382.1 million in increased spending for its fiscal year 2014 budget for "gun safety." 

Included in the proposal is $2 million for "Gun Safety Technology" grants, which would award prizes for technologies that are "proven to be reliable and effective." 


On a side note:


A convicted felon can't purchase a gun. That makes sense. But someone who has a mental illness and is seeing a psychiatrist while taking 3 medications can??? 

A marked man

Planet Gaffe...I mean Biden

Newly discovered planet on outskirts of the solar system nicknamed Biden after the vice-president

Tracked: Astronomers used a camera on a ground telescope to find Biden, pictured here in November 2012. They asserted the distance from Biden to the Oval Office is actually greater than Planet Biden is from the sun.

------------------------------------------------

By Associated Press Reporter

PUBLISHED: 15:12 EST, 26 March 2014 | UPDATED: 16:24 EST, 27 March 2014

A frozen pink world, lurking in the far reaches of the solar system, has been nicknamed Biden after the American vice-president. 

The planet, which is seven and a half billion miles from the Sun, was found by astronomers searching an area of space beyond Pluto. 

Although it won't officially be named for a while, dwarf plant '2012 VP113' is being referred to as VP, or Biden, by scientists as they continue their research. 

Planet Gaffe...I mean Biden

Smidgen

The story below kills me. In short order Mastro digs up 250,000 documents and emails on Christie for a meaningless lane closure (it is meaningless compared to IRS corruption that may lead to the WH). Meanwhile, Issa and his crew are still dicking around with "Smidgen". The other day Jason Chaffetz asked one of Smidgen's attorneys for her emails and was told he won't get them for 2 years! Why is this investigation taking so long? One can only conclude from Smidgen if truthful testimony concerning her work for the IRS would tend to incriminate her then indeed she must be a criminal.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Christie Lawyers Release Internal Report On Bridgegate

BY ANGELA DELLI SANTI & GEOFF MULVIHILL, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — A law firm hired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday that the governor was not involved in a plot to create gridlock near a major bridge as part of a political retribution scheme.

The taxpayer-funded report released by former federal prosecutor Randy Mastro relies on interviews with Christie and other officials in his administration and 250,000 documents, many of them emails and text messages.

"We found that Gov. Christie had no knowledge beforehand of this George Washington Bridge realignment idea," Mastro said at a news conference.

He also said the lane closures were not reflective of the way the governor's office generally operates. "We found that this was the action of the few," he said. "This is not reflective of the whole."

His report comes out ahead of any results from independent investigations by federal prosecutors and a special committee of state lawmakers. Some of the key figures would not cooperate with Mastro's investigation, leading Democrats to question the credibility of the report and its thoroughness.

Defending the report at the news conference, Mastro said his team was able to review a trove of documents, including emails and text messages among Christie, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, top governor's office staff and former staffers. "We believe we have gotten to the truth or we wouldn't be reporting it," he said.

He also said his team was sharing information with federal prosecutors.

The September closure of lanes near the bridge that caused four days of massive gridlock in the community of Fort Lee have become a major scandal for Christie, a possible 2016 Republican presidential contender. Christie said on a radio show Wednesday that the events will not affect his decisions about his political future.

The report, issued at Mastro's New York law office, concludes that former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official David Wildstein and ex-Christie aide Bridget Kelly were behind the closures and that they were targeting Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich. But it did not conclude why they wanted to hurt the Democrat and said there was no evidence that it was because he refused to endorse Christie for re-election last year.

The report says that Sokolich himself brought up the possibility of endorsing Christie but ultimately decided against it. The report says that even after that decision, the mayor remained on a list of Democrats whom Christie was considering appointing to various boards.

Mastro said Wildstein seemed to have "bizarre political and personal animus" against a variety of people.

Mastro says that Kelly, who did not cooperate with the report, tried to cover her tracks when Christie began asking what happened last year by asking a colleague to delete an email about the plot. But the other staffer retained the email anyway, the report says.

Mastro also says that Wildstein suggested he mentioned traffic issues in Fort Lee to Christie at public event during the lane realignment. But he says Christie did not recall it being brought up and if it was, it would not have registered as significant to Christie — something Christie has said before.

The report also finds that a claim by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, that Christie's administration told her that Superstorm Sandy would be tied to a private redevelopment plan, is "demonstrably false." A spokesman for Zimmer did not immediately return a call.

Mastro calls for Christie's office staffers to cease using personal email accounts for official business, eliminating the office where Kelly had worked and appointing an ethics officer in the governor's office. He also recommends major changes to the structure of Port Authority, an agency jointly run by the states of New York and New Jersey.

Smidgen

This should be in the Constitution

When I first heard the term "two America’s" it came from John Edwards. I remember watching the lying, two-faced, SOB, peddling his “two-America’s”  bullshit wearing well worn blue jeans with his selves rolled up, contrarily sporting a $600 haircut, in some backwater town in Louisiana…that was just before he got on his private jet to fly back to his 28,000 sq. ft. mansion in Chapel Hill, NC. 

Chapel Hill

Beach house

Edwards handed the ball off to Barry and he is adhering dutifully to the George Bernard Shaw principle.

"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."

This is the insidious nature of the two-America's.

Read this hard hitting article below which puts America in its true perspective.  

----------------------------------------------------

On a tip from Ed Kilbane

Senior National Correspondent

In early January 2014, Bob Lonsberry, a Rochester talk radio personality on WHAM 1180 AM, said this in response to Obama's "income inequality speech": 

Two Americas

The Democrats are right, there are two Americas.

The America that works, and the America that doesn't. 

The America that contributes, and the America that doesn't. 

It's not the haves and the have nots, it's the do's and the don'ts.

Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don't. That's the divide in America.

It's not about income inequality, it's about civic irresponsibility. 

It's about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office.

It's about a political party that loves power more than it loves its country. That's not invective, that's truth, and it's about time someone said it.

The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting "income inequality." He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that's not just.

That is the rationale of thievery. The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote Democrat.

That is the philosophy that produced Detroit. It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America.

It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal.

The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope.

The president's premise – that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful – seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices.

Because, by and large, income variations in society is a result of different choices leading to different consequences. Those who choose wisely and responsibility have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure. Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income.

You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education. 

You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course.

Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take. 

My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do. There is significant income inequality between us. Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an in equality of effort. While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a restaurant.

He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes. His outcome pays a lot better than mine.

Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth? No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.

It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom. The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. 

There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure.

The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy. 

Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing. Even if the other guy made a lifetime's worth of asinine and shortsighted decisions.

Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort.

The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied as, "The harder you work, the more you get." Obama would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society.

Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way. He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity.

He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other. America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts. It is a false philosophy to say one man's success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man's victimization.

What Obama offered was not a solution, but a separatism. He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit. That's what socialists offer. Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow.

Two Americas, coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln's maxim that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

This should be in the Constitution

She who laughs last...

She who laughs last...

The real 1%

Two standouts:

If OWS had any brains... then again.. I'm becoming redundant.

The real 1%

Vlad vs Barry

Putin warns West against sanctions, says Ukraine interim leader 'not legitimate'

Of course in this situation I'm pulling for Barry. Never thought I would utter those words. That said, I sure as hell would feel more confident if someone like a JFK, a Reagan, a Truman, or a Bush were president right now.

---------------------------------------------------------

Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday blamed what he called an "unconstitutional overthrow and seizure of power" by Ukraine's opposition for the ongoing crisis in Crimea and rejected Western threats to punish Russia with sanctions by claiming that they will backfire if imposed. 

Putin spoke at a news conference at his residence outside Moscow as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was en route to Ukraine to show his support for that country's interim government. That leadership has accused Moscow of a military invasion in Crimea. The Kremlin, which does not recognize the new Ukrainian leadership, insists it made the move in order to protect Russian installations and its citizens living there. 

Putin said Tuesday that Moscow reserved the right to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine by any means necessary, but added that force would be used only as a last resort. 

Putin's remarks were his first public comments on the situation in Ukraine since its former President, Viktor Yanukovych, fled the capital, Kiev, February 22. The Russian leader accused the West of using Yanukovych's decision in November to ditch a pact with the 28-nation European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia to encourage the months of protests that drove him from power.

"Of course people wanted change," Putin said of the protests in Kiev's Independence Square. "But [people] cannot impose illegal change ...you need to use only constitutional means."

Putin went on to say that Ukraine's interim president, parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov, was "not legitimate. From the legal perspective it is Mr. Yanukovych who is president." Yanukovych fled Kiev one day after reaching an agreement with leaders of the opposition that was brokered by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Poland. Earlier this week, Yanukovych was granted protection by Russia. 

As part of the change of power in Ukraine, early elections have been scheduled to take place May 25, but Putin said that Russia would not recognize the results of those elections if they were held under what he called "such terror as we see now."

Putin said that Yanukovych has no political future and claimed that the former Ukrainian leader would have been killed if Russia had not granted him protection. Yanukovych is wanted by Ukraine's interim government on charges of planning the mass murder of civilians during the recent protests. At least 82 people were killed in Kiev in clashes between protesters and security forces prior to Yanukovych's flight into Russia. 

Putin echoed remarks made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Monday at a United Nations forum in Geneva in which Russia's top diplomat said that the price of halting Russian action in Crimea was reinstating the terms of the February 21 agreement, which called for early elections and limited Yanukovych's powers, but did not remove him from office. 

There have been no reports of fighting or casualties since the Russian troop deployments in Crimea began this past Friday. However, there have been signs of increasing tension as pro-Russian troops fired warning shots to ward off protesting Ukrainian soldiers at the Belback Air Base in Sevastopol.

Putin denied that the troops guarding Ukrainian military installations across Crimea were regular Russian troops, claiming that they were "local self-defense forces." Many of the uniforms on those troops lack identifying insignia, but their vehicles and uniforms appear to be Russian. Putin shrugged the accusation off Tuesday, saying "The post-Soviet space is full of such uniforms."

Earlier Tuesday, the Kremlin said Putin had ordered tens of thousands of Russian troops participating in military exercises near Ukraine's border to return to their bases. The massive military exercise in western Russia involving 150,000 troops, hundreds of tanks and dozens of aircraft was supposed to wrap up anyway, so it was not clear if Putin's move was an attempt to heed the West's call to de-escalate the crisis.

In Brussels, meanwhile, the ambassadors of NATO's 28 member nations will hold a second emergency meeting on Ukraine on Tuesday after Poland, which borders both Russia and Ukraine, invoked an article calling for consultations when a nation sees its "territorial integrity, political independence or security threatened," the alliance said in a statement.

President Barack Obama has said that Russia is "on the wrong side of history" in Ukraine and its actions violate international law. Obama said the U.S. was considering economic and diplomatic options that will isolate Russia, and called on Congress to work on an aid package for Ukraine.

In response, Putin said that the West should be bear in mind that it will also suffer damage from potential sanctions, which he called "counterproductive and harmful."

Earlier Tuesday, Russia's agricultural oversight agency issued a statement declaring a reversal of its earlier decision to lift the ban on imports of U.S. pork. It said the existing U.S. system of checks don't guarantee its safety.

Putin's economic advisor, Sergei Glazyev, said that Russia can develop financial ties with other nations to offset any potential Western sanctions.

The European Union's foreign ministers on Monday threatened Moscow with halting talks on visa liberalization and negotiations on further economic cooperation unless Russian troops on the Crimean peninsula pull back over the next three days.

The bloc's heads of state and government will hold an emergency meeting on the situation in Ukraine on Thursday that will decide on imposing the sanctions if there is no de-escalation on the ground, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.

Vlad vs Barry

What happens... when you don't do a kilo a month?

The only thing Barry knows about a Shirley Temple is… it's his favorite drink.

Check out Shirley's résumé:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple

(Sadly, in the long list of her credentials there was a absence of drug use)

---------------------------------------------------

Rest easy Mrs. Black. You entertained our nation, especially the greatest generation of them all, for decades. We are sorry our president's priorities are so ass-backwards.... 

WE will remember you none-the-less...

What happens... when you don't do a kilo a month?