Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was removed from office early Sunday morning by the Honduran army, on the orders of the country’s Supreme Court. He was deposited in Costa Rica in his pajamas, and the Congress appointed a new president. The media, the White House and regional leftist despots are calling it an illegal military coup. In reality, this is a forced impeachment.
Zelaya proposed a referendum to change the Honduras constitution, which imposed term limits on the president. In attempting to follow in the footsteps of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and assume a lifetime office, Zelaya miscalculated, believing he could strong-arm his country into allowing him to disregard his country’s rule of law. He pushed ahead with the referendum, against Honduras law, Congress, and the Supreme Court, at which point he was deposed.
Secretary Hillary Clinton says this should be condemned by everyone. President Obama said, “We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras,” claiming, “We stand on the side of democracy.”
The White House is joining a chorus which includes Venezuelan dictator and Zelaya's close ally Hugo Chavez, who himself had successfully maneuvered into a lifetime presidential term, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who earlier this year railed against the United States in a speech before President Obama, and Fidel Castro, as well as unanimous condemnation from the U.N.
Honduras was well within its own rights to depose Zelaya to protect its constitution and its democracy, despite President Obama and other leftist leaders’ accusations that this action trampled democracy.
Zelaya routinely riled up the poor in a proletariat versus bourgeoisie type of populist “democracy”, much to the detriment of Honduran prosperity. According to Ray Walser, writing in the New York Post, “Honduras is a poor nation, and got worse on Zelaya's watch. But rather than blame the global downturn or his own failures, Zelaya sought to rally the masses behind him by fingering the nation's elites as behind the nation's woes.”
The success Hugo Chavez had securing a lifetime presidency inspired Zelaya to emulate it. Instead, Honduras resisted and is now being condemned by the one who should be celebrating the safeguarding of constitutional law and the democratic process, and thwarting a dictatorship, the President of the United States.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
It's a better game than checkers.
The new "smart foreign policy" of the United States is apparently uncontested concession. Whereas France, long the butt of jokes and mockery for their foreign policy style of surrender, has stepped up to condemn the sham elections in Iran, the United States now resembles George McFly in the beginning of Back To The Future.
"I'm afraid I'm just not very good at confrontations."
Gordon Brown, Great Britain's maligned Prime Minister, also had strong words for Iran's leaders. "The regime must address the serious questions which have been asked about the conduct of the Iranian elections."
Meanwhile, Barack Obama does not want to be seen as "meddling" in Iran's affairs.
If the United States, the Light of Liberty in the world, does not stand with an oppressed populace, who will? Iranians are being killed for protesting. They are risking their lives, the lives of their families, and the lives of their friends, all for the slightest shred of freedom. President Obama is sending all oppressed peoples buried under harsh, cruel regimes throughout the world the message that the United States will not stand with them.
It makes sense, given President Obama's worldview of moral equivocation. The United States has committed atrocities in Iraq, throughout the Middle East, and throughout its history at home. Perhaps we, in our previously flawed condition, have no right to condemn Iran's atrocities. Perhaps we are more to blame than them.
But President Obama's squishiness denies the good that America has done. Iraq, for example, is now freer than is has been in many years. We have built schools, hospitals, infrastructure. This is America's Exceptionalism, that, by virtue of our freedom and liberty, we are free to help others and to free others. This is not to say that America is better than other peoples or nations. Rather, we are freer.
President Obama's apparent compulsion to straddle both sides of a debate is weakening him, weakening the United States, weakening our allies, and strengthening the resolve of the worst factions. Even more dangerous, his weakness worsens the plight of the oppressed in these regimes. Those whose sole goal is to attain a sort of worldwide dominance are hastening their ascent.
North Korea has ramped up their braggadocio, largely in response to Obama's tepidity. President Obama called North Korea's antagonistic accelerated nuclear weapons program a "grave threat." North Korea replied with a threat of a "thousand-fold" military retaliation to any U.S. actions.
As a former educator, perhaps Mr. Obama will be familiar with this scenario:
Teachers often encounter one student whose goal, it seems, is not to learn, but to continuously, antagonistically, test the limits of the teacher's patience. When told to sit in their desk, the student will instead run around and poke other students. When told to be quite, the student will instead talk incessantly to any student who may or may not listen. When told to hand in an assignment on Thursday, the student will instead hand in the first page the following Wednesday.
It's a lot easier when the teacher can simply send the student to the Principal's office to be disciplined, or send a note home to the student's parents. Perhaps, in a university setting, the teacher can simply drop the offending student from the class.
The game changes when the teacher is the final authority, but is reluctant to dispense any sort of punishment. Or when the principal, allegorically, the U.N., is as toothless as an old man who forgot his dentures, eyeing an apple.
Or when the student's rogue actions could destroy half the planet, and leave the other half in the darkness of nuclear winter.
North Korea is reportedly preparing additional tests of long-range missiles that could reach the U.S. According to the Associated Press, a Japanese newspaper report suggests North Korea might fire a long-range missile toward Hawaii in early July. North Korea is thought to possess enough plutonium for several atomic bombs, and is reportedly enriching uranium.
Aggressive threats from North Korea, Iran and other unscrupulous, unpredictable regimes require consequential responses. Potential destructive acts wreaked upon South Korea, Japan, Israel, the United States, or even upon their own citizens will require necessarily strong punitive actions. A foreign policy that relies on concession, or in President Obama's case, perhaps overly self-confident personal charm, will fail. Kim Jong Il will have his nukes if he wants them. So will Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs in Iran. The stakes in this game are too high, and the consequences too dear.
Historically, for better or worse, the United States has assumed the responsibility of maintaining the peace, so to speak. It is in the interest of our continued liberty, but is also the product of a general lack of resolve for a cooperative, forceful effort among other nations. The U.N. can impose sanctions or pass resolutions, but is often powerless to enforce them.
The saying goes, "To whom much is given, much is expected." President Obama must now assume responsibility not just for the safety and welfare of the American people. As the leader of the free world, now he must lead.
"I'm afraid I'm just not very good at confrontations."
Gordon Brown, Great Britain's maligned Prime Minister, also had strong words for Iran's leaders. "The regime must address the serious questions which have been asked about the conduct of the Iranian elections."
Meanwhile, Barack Obama does not want to be seen as "meddling" in Iran's affairs.
If the United States, the Light of Liberty in the world, does not stand with an oppressed populace, who will? Iranians are being killed for protesting. They are risking their lives, the lives of their families, and the lives of their friends, all for the slightest shred of freedom. President Obama is sending all oppressed peoples buried under harsh, cruel regimes throughout the world the message that the United States will not stand with them.
It makes sense, given President Obama's worldview of moral equivocation. The United States has committed atrocities in Iraq, throughout the Middle East, and throughout its history at home. Perhaps we, in our previously flawed condition, have no right to condemn Iran's atrocities. Perhaps we are more to blame than them.
But President Obama's squishiness denies the good that America has done. Iraq, for example, is now freer than is has been in many years. We have built schools, hospitals, infrastructure. This is America's Exceptionalism, that, by virtue of our freedom and liberty, we are free to help others and to free others. This is not to say that America is better than other peoples or nations. Rather, we are freer.
President Obama's apparent compulsion to straddle both sides of a debate is weakening him, weakening the United States, weakening our allies, and strengthening the resolve of the worst factions. Even more dangerous, his weakness worsens the plight of the oppressed in these regimes. Those whose sole goal is to attain a sort of worldwide dominance are hastening their ascent.
North Korea has ramped up their braggadocio, largely in response to Obama's tepidity. President Obama called North Korea's antagonistic accelerated nuclear weapons program a "grave threat." North Korea replied with a threat of a "thousand-fold" military retaliation to any U.S. actions.
As a former educator, perhaps Mr. Obama will be familiar with this scenario:
Teachers often encounter one student whose goal, it seems, is not to learn, but to continuously, antagonistically, test the limits of the teacher's patience. When told to sit in their desk, the student will instead run around and poke other students. When told to be quite, the student will instead talk incessantly to any student who may or may not listen. When told to hand in an assignment on Thursday, the student will instead hand in the first page the following Wednesday.
It's a lot easier when the teacher can simply send the student to the Principal's office to be disciplined, or send a note home to the student's parents. Perhaps, in a university setting, the teacher can simply drop the offending student from the class.
The game changes when the teacher is the final authority, but is reluctant to dispense any sort of punishment. Or when the principal, allegorically, the U.N., is as toothless as an old man who forgot his dentures, eyeing an apple.
Or when the student's rogue actions could destroy half the planet, and leave the other half in the darkness of nuclear winter.
North Korea is reportedly preparing additional tests of long-range missiles that could reach the U.S. According to the Associated Press, a Japanese newspaper report suggests North Korea might fire a long-range missile toward Hawaii in early July. North Korea is thought to possess enough plutonium for several atomic bombs, and is reportedly enriching uranium.
Aggressive threats from North Korea, Iran and other unscrupulous, unpredictable regimes require consequential responses. Potential destructive acts wreaked upon South Korea, Japan, Israel, the United States, or even upon their own citizens will require necessarily strong punitive actions. A foreign policy that relies on concession, or in President Obama's case, perhaps overly self-confident personal charm, will fail. Kim Jong Il will have his nukes if he wants them. So will Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs in Iran. The stakes in this game are too high, and the consequences too dear.
Historically, for better or worse, the United States has assumed the responsibility of maintaining the peace, so to speak. It is in the interest of our continued liberty, but is also the product of a general lack of resolve for a cooperative, forceful effort among other nations. The U.N. can impose sanctions or pass resolutions, but is often powerless to enforce them.
The saying goes, "To whom much is given, much is expected." President Obama must now assume responsibility not just for the safety and welfare of the American people. As the leader of the free world, now he must lead.
What have we got?
There is a story that, after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin, "What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
"A Republic", he replied, "if you can keep it."
In this country today we have a president who criticizes one particular news network he does not like for a perceived lack of "positive" stories about him.
We have a news media which has discarded all pretense of being impartial as they fully and openly support and endorse a president and ideology.
We have a president, a party in power and a complicit media who silence opposition.
We have a president who eliminates people who threaten to expose his friends' corrupt or criminal behavior.
People do not yet realize or understand what is taking place under their blissfully ignorant noses. The threats America faces are much subtler and much more subversive than a nuclear U.S.S.R. threatening children cowering under their school desks, fearing an impending shower of missiles raining radioactive death.
America faces the threat of losing itself to insidious forces working from within to destroy it. America faces a crisis of identity.
"A Republic," if we can keep it.
Barack Obama, President of the United States, leader of the free world, in an interview on CNBC Tuesday singled out and accused a TV news network of being "entirely devoted" to attacking his administration. In an unprecedented, egregious abuse of the Office, President Obama indicted Fox News Channel claiming, "You'd be hard-pressed, if you watched the entire day, to find a positive story about me."
Since when have "positive stories" been a prerequisite of responsible journalism? Is it the job of the journalist to please the President or to report the truth? Is favoring an egotistical, narcissistic demagogue the new journalistic ethic?
When President Obama claims all he wants to do is bring "competition" to the health care marketplace with a competitor that by its very nature fights unfairly, is it not the responsibility of the journalist to report his deceit?
There was a time when the news media was considered the fourth branch of government. They were entrusted to act as a watchdog for the people of this country. Their job, once upon a time, was to keep government honest, so to speak. Those days have passed. Like George Orwell's 1984, the news media is a government appendage. Or, more specifically, a tool of the Democrat party. In this "Big Brother" world news is state-run. All Obama, all day long.
On Wednesday, June 24, the ABC network plans to air their nightly news program directly from the Blue Room at the White House. Unfortunately that is not a trendy new nightclub. Rather, in broadcasting directly from the Obama White House, it is a blurry Obama/media cooperation to fundamentally alter society and suppress dissent. ABC will also air an hour-long special from the East Room at the White House entitled "Questions for the President: Prescription for America" to advance the Obama administration's health care "reform" agenda. ABC is literally in bed with Barack Obama. A fine example of unbiased journalism from the All Barack Channel.
And what happens when you displease President Obama? He will either demonize you, as with Fox News, or he will extend his reach into your workplace and eliminate your job. Recall the unceremonious firing of GM CEO Rick Wagoner. Centuries ago monarchs would simply have critics and rivals killed. In these civilized times, political murder is too extreme. But imposing your dictatorial will in a formerly independent private sector is, apparently, perfectly acceptable.
Last Wednesday Barack Obama fired the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service with little notice and for flimsy reasons. Apparently Obama did not have the "fullest confidence" in Gerald Walpin, whose job was to act as a watchdog to ensure taxpayer money used by volunteer organizations such as Americorps is being spent responsibly. He was investigating alleged misuse of grant money by Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, former NBA player and Obama friend and supporter.
The President is required by law to give 30 days notice and proper reasons for firing an inspector general. The White House notified Walpin and gave him one hour to either resign or be fired. He refused to resign, so Obama fired him.
The job of the inspector general is to protect taxpayer money from misuse for political reasons. A lot of money floats around among service organizations, volunteer and other government services. A lot of politicians want to use that money for their own interests. This firing is another dangerous precedent set by the President, circumventing and politicizing the oversight and independence of such organizations.
Eliminate your foes, reward your allies.
Benjamin Franklin understood the potential promise and the imminent danger of the new American government. "A Republic," if we can keep it.
President Obama seems intent on transforming his office into a monarchy, unchecked, unregulated, and unquestioned.
What has happened to our country?
"A Republic", he replied, "if you can keep it."
In this country today we have a president who criticizes one particular news network he does not like for a perceived lack of "positive" stories about him.
We have a news media which has discarded all pretense of being impartial as they fully and openly support and endorse a president and ideology.
We have a president, a party in power and a complicit media who silence opposition.
We have a president who eliminates people who threaten to expose his friends' corrupt or criminal behavior.
People do not yet realize or understand what is taking place under their blissfully ignorant noses. The threats America faces are much subtler and much more subversive than a nuclear U.S.S.R. threatening children cowering under their school desks, fearing an impending shower of missiles raining radioactive death.
America faces the threat of losing itself to insidious forces working from within to destroy it. America faces a crisis of identity.
"A Republic," if we can keep it.
Barack Obama, President of the United States, leader of the free world, in an interview on CNBC Tuesday singled out and accused a TV news network of being "entirely devoted" to attacking his administration. In an unprecedented, egregious abuse of the Office, President Obama indicted Fox News Channel claiming, "You'd be hard-pressed, if you watched the entire day, to find a positive story about me."
Since when have "positive stories" been a prerequisite of responsible journalism? Is it the job of the journalist to please the President or to report the truth? Is favoring an egotistical, narcissistic demagogue the new journalistic ethic?
When President Obama claims all he wants to do is bring "competition" to the health care marketplace with a competitor that by its very nature fights unfairly, is it not the responsibility of the journalist to report his deceit?
There was a time when the news media was considered the fourth branch of government. They were entrusted to act as a watchdog for the people of this country. Their job, once upon a time, was to keep government honest, so to speak. Those days have passed. Like George Orwell's 1984, the news media is a government appendage. Or, more specifically, a tool of the Democrat party. In this "Big Brother" world news is state-run. All Obama, all day long.
On Wednesday, June 24, the ABC network plans to air their nightly news program directly from the Blue Room at the White House. Unfortunately that is not a trendy new nightclub. Rather, in broadcasting directly from the Obama White House, it is a blurry Obama/media cooperation to fundamentally alter society and suppress dissent. ABC will also air an hour-long special from the East Room at the White House entitled "Questions for the President: Prescription for America" to advance the Obama administration's health care "reform" agenda. ABC is literally in bed with Barack Obama. A fine example of unbiased journalism from the All Barack Channel.
And what happens when you displease President Obama? He will either demonize you, as with Fox News, or he will extend his reach into your workplace and eliminate your job. Recall the unceremonious firing of GM CEO Rick Wagoner. Centuries ago monarchs would simply have critics and rivals killed. In these civilized times, political murder is too extreme. But imposing your dictatorial will in a formerly independent private sector is, apparently, perfectly acceptable.
Last Wednesday Barack Obama fired the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service with little notice and for flimsy reasons. Apparently Obama did not have the "fullest confidence" in Gerald Walpin, whose job was to act as a watchdog to ensure taxpayer money used by volunteer organizations such as Americorps is being spent responsibly. He was investigating alleged misuse of grant money by Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, former NBA player and Obama friend and supporter.
The President is required by law to give 30 days notice and proper reasons for firing an inspector general. The White House notified Walpin and gave him one hour to either resign or be fired. He refused to resign, so Obama fired him.
The job of the inspector general is to protect taxpayer money from misuse for political reasons. A lot of money floats around among service organizations, volunteer and other government services. A lot of politicians want to use that money for their own interests. This firing is another dangerous precedent set by the President, circumventing and politicizing the oversight and independence of such organizations.
Eliminate your foes, reward your allies.
Benjamin Franklin understood the potential promise and the imminent danger of the new American government. "A Republic," if we can keep it.
President Obama seems intent on transforming his office into a monarchy, unchecked, unregulated, and unquestioned.
What has happened to our country?
Monday, June 8, 2009
A tale of angst, love, sorrow, vampires and "saved" jobs...
Perhaps President Obama's third book will be young adult fiction, because the media squeals like teenage girls when he spins his yarns. Here's a helpful tip: vampires are popular.
William McGurn writes in the Wall Street Journal of the President's rhetorical slight-of-hand, "Invoke the magic words, however, and -- presto! -- you have the president claiming he has 'saved or created' 150,000 jobs. It all makes for a much nicer spin."
But it's not just President Obama weaving fantastical tales of far-off lands, where leprechauns are all happily employed, dancing and singing folk songs in a lush green valley teeming with unicorns, rainbows and pots of gold.
The media is complicit as well, a fawning accomplice, as though all their adolescent dreams have come true as they transform Newsweek and the New York Times into Teen Beat. "So long as the news continues to repeat the administration's line that the stimulus has already 'saved or created' 150,000 jobs over a time period when the U.S. economy suffered an overall job loss 10 times that number, the White House would be insane to give up a formula that allows them to spin job losses into jobs saved."
President Obama is the magician and the media is the ditsy assistant in the skimpy dress. The American people are the guest from the audience who gets called up to the stage to participate in the grand illusion at the end of the show.
Except the President hasn't practiced this trick. We're going to get sawed in half.
The Media Fall for Phony 'Jobs' Claims
William McGurn writes in the Wall Street Journal of the President's rhetorical slight-of-hand, "Invoke the magic words, however, and -- presto! -- you have the president claiming he has 'saved or created' 150,000 jobs. It all makes for a much nicer spin."
But it's not just President Obama weaving fantastical tales of far-off lands, where leprechauns are all happily employed, dancing and singing folk songs in a lush green valley teeming with unicorns, rainbows and pots of gold.
The media is complicit as well, a fawning accomplice, as though all their adolescent dreams have come true as they transform Newsweek and the New York Times into Teen Beat. "So long as the news continues to repeat the administration's line that the stimulus has already 'saved or created' 150,000 jobs over a time period when the U.S. economy suffered an overall job loss 10 times that number, the White House would be insane to give up a formula that allows them to spin job losses into jobs saved."
President Obama is the magician and the media is the ditsy assistant in the skimpy dress. The American people are the guest from the audience who gets called up to the stage to participate in the grand illusion at the end of the show.
Except the President hasn't practiced this trick. We're going to get sawed in half.
The Media Fall for Phony 'Jobs' Claims
Welcome to the Obama Recession.
Despite constantly blaming the Bush administration for our economic woes, this is now the Obama Recession.
President Obama met with his cabinet today to discuss the economy and his "stimulus" spending program.
He made clear the difficult position in which he purports to be entangled. "We're still in the middle of a very deep recession that was years in the making."
Had he done nothing, he posited, our economy could have gone into a tailspin. It's a disingenuous rhetorical maneuver, as the option of doing nothing was never suggested. But, in his relativistic view, that matters little.
What does matter, however, is the economic maelstrom of his own making.
Last Friday documented unemployment reached 9.4%. The economy has shed more than 2.7 million jobs since January and 6 million since the recession began.
Since the "stimulus" package was passed more than 1.6 million jobs have been lost. Yet Obama claimed the 345,000 jobs lost in May are a "sign that we're moving in the right direction.
Obama as much as conceded his "stimulus" package has not been effective, however. "I'm not satisfied. We've got more work to do."
Again, in his position above the fray, he bears no blame. He is too much of a transformative, inspirational figure for such petty squabbles. Likely because, as we learned last Friday from Newsweek editor Evan Thomas, Obama is god.
No, he places the blame squarely at the feet of the previous administration. "When we arrived here, we were confronting the most significant recession since the Great Depression. It was bad and it was getting worse."
He went on to promise to accelerate distribution of "stimulus" spending to create 600,000 jobs this summer, although the White House conceded nearly a quarter would only be temporary summer jobs. Considering his promise the "stimulus" spending would create or save 3.5 million jobs, they have a long way to go.
In the reality in which the rest of the country lives, after more than 100 days the "stimulus" plan continues to fail. Of the $787 billion spending spree, only $44 billion has been distributed. President Obama claims 150,000 jobs have been "saved." If we are on track to create or "save" approximately 50,000 jobs per month, it will take ten years to recoup the 6 million jobs lost during this recession.
The illusion of jobs "saved" is nothing more than statistical slight-of-hand. There is no way to accurately and reliably quantify jobs "saved". If you know how, email me. Then email the Department of Labor, because they have a very high-paying job for you.
Public support is waning as well. According to a recent Rasmussen poll from June 1, only 31% say the "stimulus" package helped the economy and 27% say it has hurt the economy. 31% say it's had no impact.
Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp, which owns Fox News and many other media assets expressed worry today that unemployment could reach 10 or 11% and would likely continue to rise. Factor in the inevitable tax increases and hyperinflation as a result of all this "stimulus" and irresponsible, extreme deficit spending, and America is bracing for stormy weather.
Welcome to the Obama Recession.
President Obama met with his cabinet today to discuss the economy and his "stimulus" spending program.
He made clear the difficult position in which he purports to be entangled. "We're still in the middle of a very deep recession that was years in the making."
Had he done nothing, he posited, our economy could have gone into a tailspin. It's a disingenuous rhetorical maneuver, as the option of doing nothing was never suggested. But, in his relativistic view, that matters little.
What does matter, however, is the economic maelstrom of his own making.
Last Friday documented unemployment reached 9.4%. The economy has shed more than 2.7 million jobs since January and 6 million since the recession began.
Since the "stimulus" package was passed more than 1.6 million jobs have been lost. Yet Obama claimed the 345,000 jobs lost in May are a "sign that we're moving in the right direction.
Obama as much as conceded his "stimulus" package has not been effective, however. "I'm not satisfied. We've got more work to do."
Again, in his position above the fray, he bears no blame. He is too much of a transformative, inspirational figure for such petty squabbles. Likely because, as we learned last Friday from Newsweek editor Evan Thomas, Obama is god.
No, he places the blame squarely at the feet of the previous administration. "When we arrived here, we were confronting the most significant recession since the Great Depression. It was bad and it was getting worse."
He went on to promise to accelerate distribution of "stimulus" spending to create 600,000 jobs this summer, although the White House conceded nearly a quarter would only be temporary summer jobs. Considering his promise the "stimulus" spending would create or save 3.5 million jobs, they have a long way to go.
In the reality in which the rest of the country lives, after more than 100 days the "stimulus" plan continues to fail. Of the $787 billion spending spree, only $44 billion has been distributed. President Obama claims 150,000 jobs have been "saved." If we are on track to create or "save" approximately 50,000 jobs per month, it will take ten years to recoup the 6 million jobs lost during this recession.
The illusion of jobs "saved" is nothing more than statistical slight-of-hand. There is no way to accurately and reliably quantify jobs "saved". If you know how, email me. Then email the Department of Labor, because they have a very high-paying job for you.
Public support is waning as well. According to a recent Rasmussen poll from June 1, only 31% say the "stimulus" package helped the economy and 27% say it has hurt the economy. 31% say it's had no impact.
Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp, which owns Fox News and many other media assets expressed worry today that unemployment could reach 10 or 11% and would likely continue to rise. Factor in the inevitable tax increases and hyperinflation as a result of all this "stimulus" and irresponsible, extreme deficit spending, and America is bracing for stormy weather.
Welcome to the Obama Recession.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
