H/T Instapundit How to repossess an airliner without getting shot, or thrown in jail, or beat up, or slammed into a wall, or...
What year did we snatch the president of the Congo's airplane?' Nick Popovich asks. Outside, chilly rain soaks the pastures of his rolling Indiana country estate. From a pond with a gushing fountain, waterfowl honk faintly.
An assistant rifles through records as Popovich assures me cheerfully, We're not going back to central Africa soon. There's still a death warrant out for me.' Sounds like an interesting way to make a living. Great read.
The image of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wielding what resembled an oversized mallet while leading a mob of congressmen across Capitol Hill on the day of the health-care vote is the stuff of nightmares. It is also instructive. As a metaphor for how the Democrats view their power, the Pelosi hammer-pose could not be more perfect.
Just ask Honduras.
Last year, the U.S. tried to force the reinstatement of deposed president Manuel Zelaya. When that failed and Team Obama was looking like the Keystone Cops, it sent a delegation to Tegucigalpa to negotiate a compromise.
Participants in those talks say Dan Restrepo, senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, let slip that the U.S. interest had to do with American politics. The Republicans, he said, were using the administration's support for Mr. Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan Hugo Chavez, against the Democrats. It's not going to work, Mr. Restrepo is said to have informed the other negotiators, because "we have the power" and would be keeping it for a long time.
It can't have been comforting for Hondurans to learn that while their country was living a monumental crisis, fueled by U.S. policy, Mr. Restrepo's concern was his party's power. For the record, an NSC spokesman says "Mr. Restrepo didn't say that." But my sources are more plausible considering what has transpired since.
Four months after a presidential election, reports from Honduras suggest the Obama administration remains obsessed with repairing its foreign-policy image by regaining the upper hand. The display of raw colonialist hubris is so pronounced that locals now refer to U.S. ambassador Hugo Llorens as "the proconsul."
Washington's bullying is two-pronged. First is a maniacal determination to punish those involved in removing Mr. Zelaya. Second is an attempt to force Honduras to allow Mr. Zelaya, who now lives in the Dominican Republic, to return without facing any repercussions for the illegal actions that provoked his removal. Both goals are damaging the bilateral relationship, polarizing the nation and raising the risk of a resurgence of political violence.
The U.S., as represented by Mr. Llorens, has been at the center of the Zelaya crisis all along. People familiar with events leading up to Mr. Zelaya's arrest on June 28 say that had the U.S. ambassador not worked behind the scenes to block a congressional vote to remove the president a few days earlier, the dramatic deportation would never have happened.
The State Department denies this allegation. But numerous sources maintain that Mr. Llorens' interference allowed Mr. Zelaya to push ahead with an unconstitutional referendum. Fearing he would use violence--as he had before--to trample the rule of law, the Supreme Court took action. Mr. Zelaya was arrested, shipped off to San José, and removed from power by a vote of Congress the same day.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Because President for Life Obama hates democracies?
#2
Of course he hates them: they aren't fair. I'm not sure exactly how he defines "fair" but rest assured, in the Obama world-view, people being able to get along on their own without the government constantly at their elbow just isn't fair.
There was much laughter following the president's signing of the health care bill. Democrats were positively giddy over having successfully secured Americas decline. There were fist bumps and back slapping; the champagne flowed.
Democrats were not alone in their celebration. Republicans too shook hands with constituents and lapped up attention and praise for, lets face it, having done very little. But, hey, why let that spoil a good time? My fear is that not only will Republicans not "repeal the bill" should they take control of congress after the mid-term elections, but that in the very near future Republican candidates will also be running on promises to nurture it. Such is my confidence in the current GOP.
Inasmuch as we are toasting the expansion of the administrative state (and thus the demise of our American Republic) we should perhaps also raise our glasses to Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. All these nations are on the verge of economic collapse due to their fiscal promiscuity. They too love their entitlements and are demanding them even as the ship of state sinks. Portugal is currently running a deficit that is 9.3% of GDP with a debt that is 80% of their GDP. Greece has a deficit of 13% and a debt of 113% of GDP. Just for laughs consider that they are appealing to the United States for financial aid. The U.S. currently carries a deficit that is over 12% and debt that is 94% of GDP.
Closer to home we should also raise our flutes in celebration of, or perhaps in memory of, an American icon: the United States Postal Service.
At the same time President Obama was putting his signature on Obamacare, the Postal Service Board of Governors announced its decision to drop Saturday delivery, close some post offices and increase rates for service. Before instituting the changes, the Postal service must first get an official opinion from the postal regulatory commission followed by the approval of congress. Good luck.
This year the postal service projects a deficit of $7 billion. Without changes that shortfall is expected to increase to $238 billion by 2020.
Post Master General John E. Potter argues that if the agency were "provided the flexibilities used by businesses in the marketplace to streamline their operations and reduce costs, we would become a more efficient and effective organization." Word has apparently not trickled down to Potter that the way to save money is to spend goo-gobs of it along with establishing several more layers of federal regulation. As they say in the white house, "You've got to spend a trillion to save a billion." That's the way they do it in Greece.
How odd. Rather than requesting that the postal service be subject to 100 new government boards and a 3000 pages of new official directives, and that he be named Postal Czar, Potter demands the freedom to respond to market signals -- to run the postal service as a (hide the women and children) profit making enterprise as opposed to a quasi government enterprise.
This is exactly the opposite of what we have been told as it pertains to healthcare. The left argues that profit is the enemy of reform; that in fact the only way to bring quality healthcare to the most people along with fiscal discipline is through large administrative oversight -- that and about 3 trillion dollars.
How is it that the same political considerations that have governed the postal service into billion dollar deficits will elude governance of healthcare? They will not.
I will no doubt be admonished by new liberals: "don't disturb this groove." However, clear thinking Americans, which apparently exempts the entire democratic caucus, understand that the choice was never between Obamacare and doing nothing as was often charged. As Potter articulated in his plea to congress, it was always a question of the inflexibility and stagnation of government bureaucracy on the one hand and the fluidity and dynamism of the market on the other.
The magic of the present moment may do much to cement Obamas legacy, but it does little to change this nations fiscal reality to whit: the nation is running huge deficits, has grown the national debt, has unfunded promises it cant keep and for the first time the majority of this nations debt is in foreign hands (alas, not in the hands of Greece, Portugal et al.) Rather than seek market alternatives that would cost nothing, this president and this congress chose to inflict upon the nation an expensive boondoggle that will, they have explained -- in the odd dialect of congressional-ese and in contradiction of actual historical evidence -- actually make us fiscally sound. It will not.
From lurker Arnold Kling:
For many Americans, March 21, 2010, is a date that will live in infamy. Unlike Pearl Harbor or the September 11, 2001, attacks, which offended nearly all Americans, the health care legislation only angered a significant proportion of the population. However, those of us who are outraged are motivated to wage a long fight, and out aims go much further than rolling back this one bill.
The health care legislation represents a culmination of a sequence of unpopular major initiatives from Washington. First, there was Henry Paulson's massive transfer of wealth from the people most hurt by the financial crisis to some of the people most responsible for it. Next, came the massive, ill-conceived stimulus bill, which was not timely, targeted, or temporary but instead a pure power grab by Washington. Health care legislation is merely the latest straw.
The American people are watching their country being transformed from an exceptional, vibrant free economy to a broken European welfare state, and many of us do not like the direction of change.
The elites have so mistreated the American people that we should declare that a state of war exists between America and Washington. Our goals in this war must go well beyond the repeal of this year's health care legislation. Here is a list of additional goals that I would propose:
1. End the current bailouts and prevent future bailouts. Starting immediately, limit the Federal Reserve to holding only Treasury instruments. The Fed needs to go back to being a central bank, not a piggy bank.
2. Cut the pay of civilian Federal workers by 10 percent. The private sector is making painful adaptations to hard times. The government needs to start doing what any other organization would do when its revenues are down.
3. Restructure entitlements so that the future path of spending is sustainable. Congressman Paul Ryan's "road map" is an example of what an honest budget would look like. If Democrats would prefer higher taxes to such a road map, then those taxes should be explicitly budgeted, rather than pretending that the funds for future benefits are going to appear by magic.
The point here is that health care legislation was just one battle. The overall war is larger. After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Yamomoto is reported to have said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." So it should be with us today.
#1
And Again, I'd sooner be trapped in a room with a spider monkey wielding a chainsaw than have the dipstick in the oval office dictating my health care anything.
#5
The elites have so mistreated the American people
The little secret here is the HCR law is not as divisive as the media would have you believe. Some of my self described Proud Democrat friends are not just upset about this their spittin mad. This boondoggle has brought strange bedfellows together united against the corrupt Progressive elites.
#6
All the anti-Health care folks need to do is go to a few Democratic rallys and ask questions like: "Sure I love the health care bill, but I wonder, what will happen to my Health Care when an evil Genius like George W. Bush, or Cheney, or Rumsfield, or Palin is elected President. I mean all that power, they could just start killing old people and mixing up batches of soylant green and force feeding it to us."
Let that seed grow in the liberal minds. What happens when the other party has all that power, because it will eventually happen. Yes the conservatives are more likely to dismantle rather than misuse, but the power-hungry will not imagine others would not take advantage of the power and will soil themselves.
#1
Shortly before Obamas inauguration, 51 percent of Americans said they thought the facility in Cuba should be closed. Now that number is down to 39 percent
Sure......now that the only place to put them is in thier back yard.......bunch-a-morons
#2
Shortly before Obamas inauguration, 51 percent of Americans said they thought the facility in Cuba should be closed. Now that number is down to 39 percent
Sure......now that the only place to put them is in thier back yard.......bunch-a-morons
#3
Barry and Holder will just continue to go four corners and stall and stall and stall. "We're working on it...uh huh, uh huh, uh huh..."
I'm betting Gito's still open a long time after these two are writing their memoirs of a failed presidency.
#5
I am all in favor of closing the prison at Gitmo. The question is what to do with the prisoners. I think we should simply follow the Geneva convention, give them a drumhead trial and then execute them.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/30/2010 22:08 Comments ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] It can't be a coincidence that Hamas announced on Saturday its clashes with the Israelis in order to "deter Zionist arrogance and confront the occupation forces...and respond to the continued crimes of the ongoing occupation," according to the Al Qassam Brigades statement, and at the same time Iran called on the Arab Summit in Libya to make tough decisions and "raise the alarm" to protect Jerusalem. The reason we say this can't be a coincidence is because Hamas avoided responding to Israel for 14 months, so why now? What raises suspicion is the fact that there was disagreement within Hamas, and in some Palestinian factions, after Mahmoud al Zahhar's statement in which he called for avoiding firing rockets towards Israel in order not to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an excuse to get out of the tense predicament he is in that has strained his relationship with President Barack Obama.
The truth is that there is nothing surprising about the positions of Hamas and the "sons" of Iran in our region as long as they do not face real Arab accountability, at least with regards to Arab public opinion, so that they bear the consequences of their actions. Some Arabs take advantage of Iran's agents [in the region] in order to accomplish narrow interests and some others fear clashing with public opinion especially if it is enraged, forgetting that tears dry quickly and accordingly the facts on the ground remain visible to us and we suffer from them for a long time.
What the Arabs are not paying attention to today is the fact that the magnitude of Israeli tension does not only emanate from the Netanyahu-Obama dispute but also from the comments made by Chief of the US Central Command General Petraeus, who said in his last congressional testimony that the Arab-Israeli conflict "foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favouritism for Israel." This was echoed by the US Defense Secretary Robert Gates who said, "There is no doubt that the lack of peace in the Middle East affects the interests of US national security." Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also agreed with this as he said, "It is a very, very serious issue and all of us would like to see progress there." Those who monitor the Israeli press can feel the amount of tension and will notice the intensity of the attacks on General Petraeus.
An American source tells me that this issue is worrying the Israelis a great deal, especially when comments like these are made by military leaders and no one in the US administration is trying to soften this discourse or back down from it. Moreover, it also has historical dimensions as the former administration of Ronald Reagan (republican) resorted to using the same military expressions in the eighties when it expressed its belief that Israeli opposition to selling AWACS to Saudi Arabia threatened US security interests in the Middle East. My source told me that at the time Reagan's team used the expression "Reagan or Begin" indicating the amount of defiance Reagan displayed against the Israeli lobby in Washington in order for the AWACS deal to be passed in Congress. Reagan won in the end.
Therefore, it is very important that the Arabs pay attention to the complexity of the current disputes between the Israeli government and the Obama administration, which might lead to the fall of Netanyahu's right-wing alliance. Consequently, the Arabs must not give Iran and its "sons" in our region the opportunity to threaten our interests in order to serve Iran's ambitious goals.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Wow, they're really scared of Iran. Upon reflection, given the transformation of their traditional defender USA into Sweden Magna, its not surprising.
While America has been battered by the ObamaCare Putsch, other events of interest have gone a bit under-reported. One such was an e-mail written by François Houle, Provost of the University of Ottawa, to Ann Coulter in anticipation of her giving a speech on his campus. Its content was publicized by FiveFeetofFury.com and others, including columnist Mark Steyn. The e-mail threatened criminal prosecution under Canada's hate speech laws or suits for defamation if she promoted "hatred." More than a few observers believe Houle's e-mail directly encouraged students at his university to violently prevent Coulter from delivering her speech, thereby violating the hate laws with which he threatened her. Coulter has filed a complaint with Canada's Human Rights Commission and seems to be enjoying her ironic counterattack immensely. I'd like to send an open letter to Provost Houle in reply to his e-mail.
Dreary Provost Houle:
You have written Ann Coulter to warn her that "promoting hatred against any identifiable group" can lead "to criminal charges" or defamation suits in Canada. You said she should "weigh [her] words with respect and civility in mind." You claim "restrictions to freedom of expression ... lead not only to a more civilized discussion, but to a more meaningful, reasoned and intelligent one as well." There is, however, nothing civilized about threatening legal penalties if a speaker offends official sensibilities. There is nothing meaningful, reasoned or intelligent in government-censored discussion. Reason and intellect rightly rebel at restrictions on the expression of thought and, quite pragmatically, we require free debate to discover truth. How can we know what is true without questioning and open discussion of alternative ideas? Restricted freedom of expression creates a cave of winds where official thought is ritualistically repeated, brainwashing the uncritical. Isn't there a Volvo somewhere on your campus with a "Question Authority" bumper sticker on it?
You pompously proclaim that Canadian law prohibits promoting hatred for an "identifiable group." While I find it hard to believe that Canadians, with a history of loving freedom and sacrificing in its defense, have sunk so low as to criminalize free speech, it is apparent that this is indeed the sad case. Since I don't reside north of the 48th, I can, for now, disregard this restriction. And so, I hereby promote hatred for an "identifiable group." That group is the politically correct, mealy-mouthed, oppressive, petty, puffed-up, would-be-Hitlers that wish to destroy freedom of speech. They blight your otherwise dandy country and are, unfortunately, rising to power in every corner of the once Free World.
I hate this "identifiable group," which includes you, Provost Houle. I urge any and all to hate you and your kind, to loathe you, to taste bile at the thought of you, to shudder at your approach and rejoice at your departing, to see your shadow and draw back as from a viper. May your children hate you, your neighbors hate you, your mom, dad and Aunt Ida hate you. May your dog and his fleas hate you. I urge all people to band together into societies, clubs and fraternal associations to hate you. I beg them to relentlessly revile you, to rename fungal diseases and offal-eating insects after you, to, when they step in something loathsome, look at their shoe bottom and think of you. I urge the world's artists to illustrate their hatred of you in paintings, sculpture, and, dare I say it, cartoons. May they be joined by the world's writers whom I implore to write epics of hatred of you, the world's musicians to compose songs of hatred of you, and the world's dancers to choreograph interpretive dances of hatred of you. May Wal-Mart sell inexpensive T-shirts and coffee mugs embellished with "I H8 [insert your picture here]." I entreat the Founding Fathers to rise up from their graves and with Canada's departed patriots meet in convention to solemnly resolve to hate you in a document I suggest be titled: "Hey Dummy, What Part of Free Speech Being Fundamental To Liberty Don't You Get!" At Christmastime, may the citizens of communities all around the world gather together in their public spaces, join hands in great circles, smile upon each other, and, while swaying rhythmically, harmoniously chant "We Hate Hou-le! We Hate Hou-le!" I beseech all the creatures that walk the land, all the fish that swim in the sea, and all the birds that flit through the sky to hate you. May the dirt beneath your feet hate you. May burning hot hatred of you grow till it provides an economical substitute for fossil energy. May amoeba evolve enough wit to hate you.
If there be life on other planets, may it construct complex vessels and span the vasty depths of cold space to land in your back yard and sneer at you through your windows. If there is an afterlife, may all the departed, be they gazing down from Heaven, glaring up from Hell, or peering sideways from Purgatory, hate you. May every generation till the end of time hate you. And, if mankind becomes extinct, may the last learned men, before they, too, fade away, devise a self-perpetuating automaton to carry on hating you through the long, long eons till the very heat death of the universe. Then, I suppose, we can, wherever our spirits find final rest, stop hating you and just resent you.
I feel comfortable promoting hatred of those who want to criminalize speech. They deserve hatred and hatred isn't always a bad thing. Hatred of evil can motivate us to defend that which is good. Besides, hatred is an interior phenomenon that has no arms or legs to injure anyone. Hatred vocalized may anger, it may spoil someone's day, it may put a frown on your face, but it has no physical impact. Threats of violence, such as a shouting mob armed with rocks and sticks demanding entry into a hall reserved for an opponent's speech, and actual physical violence, such as that mob toppling tables and setting off blaring fire alarms to make the speech impossible, are hurtful and should be criminalized. No respected voice on Coulter's side of public debate advocates the kind of violence her opponents employed. Coulter and those who assembled to listen to her were only trying to exercise a little free expression, something once thought a blessing of liberty. In the topsy-turvey world of Houle, however, the speaker and her audience are the criminals and the mob the victim.
You and yours, Provost Houle, have imposed your tyrannical policies under the cover of niceness, smarmily invoking respect and polite concern for the feelings of others. As the baying protestors at your university proved, this is a lie. That you have been raised high in academe, an institution once dedicated to education, inquisitive thinking, and free speech, is ghastly. It has taken centuries of struggle to establish the right of free speech. That you and yours, citizens of a free nation who should damn well know better, have decided to destroy it is abominable.
Yours with the most sincere hatred,
Ed Morrow
PS: Now, I doubt if my little jibes have punctured your hide, Provost Houle. And that is the point. In keeping with the old adage that your mother probably taught you shortly after you hatched, sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. If you find someone's words hateful, respond with your own words, not threats of criminal prosecution or thuggish mobs shouting for the silencing of those they oppose.
Ed Morrow is an author and illustrator who lives in Vermont. Morrow's books include "The Halloween Handbook," "599 Things You Should Never Do," and "The Grim Reaper's Book of Days."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2010 08:50 ||
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Morrow lives in Vermont? Well I suppose we all have our crosses to bear.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
