Random Thoughts And Outrages By Ellen Sauerbrey

KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) -- The crisis in Crimea didn't keep President Barack Obama from forging ahead with a weekend getaway with his wife and daughters in the Florida Keys.  But it's more than the Oval Office that will be dark as Russia's incursion into Ukraine reaches its one week mark. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife are vacationing in the Virgin Islands.

On Friday, China complained to North Korea when one of its missiles crossed paths with a civilian jet last Tuesday that had departed Tokyo’s Narita airport en route to the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.  Could a missile have taken down the Malaysian passenger plane?

President Obama wants the US to sign on to the UNs International Criminal Court (ICC), which would allow the UN's ICC to arrest and try US troops for War Crimes, without the legal protections guaranteed under US Law, and from which there is no appeal.  I helped the Bush Administration block this repeatedly, while I was at the UN..

Remember when Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted "You lie!" as President Barack Obama told Congress that Obamacare would not cover illegal immigrants? In a Latino town hall meeting President Obama urged people to sign up for Obamacare.  While acknowledging that the law does not allow illegals to be covered, he made a pledge that his administration will not use Obamacare sign up data to deport illegal aliens: "Will we hear from you a pledge, a personal promise, that the information provided in the registration process will not be used for deportation purposes in this country?"  “Absolutely," Obama said, putting his hand down for emphasis.

The Califronia Echage actually says in Spanish,( translated here in English ) "Fear not if you are undocumented and want to enroll your family in health insurance"

And speaking of State Exchanges, only 33,251 Marylanders have chosen to enroll in private health plans through Maryland Health Connection; and 156,561 have signed up for Medicaid.  This is further demonstration that Obamacare is encouraging more and more Americans to be dependent on government.  In future years the Federal subsidy to states for Medicaid enrollees will decrease and probably disappear and Maryland taxpayers will be hit with the bill.

The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll asked whether a candidate's support for "a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants," i.e. quasi-amnesty, made them more likely or less likely to vote for that candidate. Among registered voters, support for that idea drove more voters away than it attracted. Twenty-seven percent of voters were "more likely" to support a candidate who favored a path to citizenship, while 39% were "less likely" to do so.

Maryland House of Delegates voted to raise the minimum wage  from #7.25 to $10.10 an hour-- a 39% increase,  which a George Mason study projects will result in the loss of 12,000 jobs in Maryland.  Sadly, as history shows, every time the minimum wage has increased  joblessness among young unskilled workers increases also.

Alliance for American Manufacturing - : First, the Labor Department announced that America created only 6,000 manufacturing jobs nationwide last month. Then, the Commerce Department reported that our trade deficit increased to nearly $40 billion in January, and $27.8 billion of that was with China alone. Worse, we're now finding out that the U.S. economy added less manufacturing jobs in 2013 than at any point since the recession.

A TIMELY QUOTE FOR THE MESS WE ARE IN TODAY! "Let us disappoint the Men who are raising themselves on the ruin of this Country. Let us convince every invader of our freedom, that we will be as free as the constitution our fathers recognized, will justify." --Samuel Adams, A State of the Rights of the Colonists, 1772.

More on Obamacare: According to the Washington Post, "just one in 10 uninsured people who qualify for private health plans through the new marketplace have signed up for one." But the numbers are worse than that. The Post reports that nearly half of the previously uninsured Obamacare enrollees failed to pay their premiums. Maybe they thought it was free.

Pew Opinion Survey on Hillary Clinton: Heaven help us!

Nearly seven-in-ten say Hillary Clinton is described as tough (69%) and 56% say she is honest. In addition, most reject the notion that she is hard to like – just 36% say this. 67% of Americans approve of the job she did as secretary of state