By Jonathan Spyer*

This week, the European Union approved sanctions of unprecedented severity against Iran, because of its refusal to desist from enriching uranium. The EU decision follows the recent fourth UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran, and the subsequent additional package of measures approved by Congress and the White House.

Three things are worth noting regarding the new sanctions. They are substantive.

They are likely to have a serious effect on aspects of the Iranian economy. This effect is almost certain not to cause a rethink on the part of the Iranian regime regarding its nuclear ambitions.

Nevertheless, the European decision is significant for an additional, slightly less tangible reason. It is the latest evidence of a hardening attitude on the part of the Western democracies with regard to the Iranian nuclear program.

The new sanctions are focused on the Iranian financial sector and the country’s vital gas and oil industries. These are precisely the areas of the Iranian economy most vulnerable to international measures.

From this week on, any further investment or technical assistance from EU companies in these areas will be prohibited.

Iran is particularly vulnerable in this area because, despite its vast oil reserves, the country lacks the ability to produce sufficient refined petroleum to meet its population’s needs.

In addition, the new sanctions will ban European companies from providing insurance services to Iranian bodies, and will ban Iranian banks from opening any additional branches in the European Union.

The former measure is significant because it will negatively affect the Iranian transport and shipping sectors.

The EU decision was sufficient to coax from Iran a renewed expression of willingness to reconsider the long-standing proposal for Teheran to export its enriched uranium to another country, where it would be converted into fuel rods for a medical research reactor.

Teheran has enjoyed toying with the West over this proposal since its emergence last year, as an exercise to buy time. (more…)

By Barry Rubin*

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s July 27 speech in Turkey will not live on in history. But it should, as an example of the decline of Western diplomacy, of suicide by Political Correctness, as a textbook example of how not to conduct international affairs.

It crossed my mind that the speech was written by the Foreign Office for the express purpose of making Cameron look foolish, but then I realized that he and his top advisors probably have no idea why it was such a disaster.

Suppose you are the British prime minister going to Turkey, or to just about any country, what should you say? The theme should be: We can cooperate and do mutually beneficial things. Here’s what I can do for you, here’s what I’d like you to do for me. And here’s what you must not do in order to reap the benefits of my friendship and favor.

Obviously, you need to dress that up in appropriate language. But everything should be conditional. The message to be delivered is that it is in your interest to respect my interests.

Cameron did the precise and exact opposite. His message was: The UK needs Turkey. Turkey is wonderful. Its behavior has been perfect. We are desperate for your help.

What is the effect? A man goes into a bazaar, points to a carpet and says: That is the most beautiful carpet I have ever seen. I must have it no matter what the price! How much is it?
(more…)

From Gateway Pundit

This is unbelievable… Now they won’t allow our seniors to pray before meals.
When did America become a communist regime?

Senior citizens are no longer allowed to pray before meals at the Port Wentworth’s Ed Young Senior Citizens Center near Savannah, Georgia. Local officials say the meals are now provided with federal money and therefore the seniors are not allowed to pray before meals.
WSBTV reported:

Preston Blackwelder proudly showed off a painting of his grandmother that had hung next to the front door of his Port Wentworth home.

She was the woman who led him to God, Blackwelder said Friday.

And with that firm religious footing, Blackwelder said it would be preposterous to stop praying before meals at Port Wentworth’s Ed Young Senior Citizens Center near Savannah because of a federal guideline.

“She would say pray anyway,” Blackwelder said of his grandmother. “She’d say don’t listen.”

But Senior Citizens Inc. officials said Friday the meals they are contracted by the city to provide to Ed Young visitors are mostly covered with federal money, which ushers in the burden of separating church and state.

On Thursday, the usual open prayer before meals at the center was traded in for a moment of silence.

The dilemma is being hashed out by the Port Wentworth city attorney, said Mayor Glenn “Pig” Jones.

Tim Rutherford, Senior Citizens Inc. vice president, said some of his staff recently visited the center and noticed people praying shortly before lunch was served. Rutherford said his company provides meals like baked chicken, steak tips and rice and salads at a cost of about $6 a plate. Seniors taking the meals pay 55 cents and federal money foots the rest of the bill, Rutherford said.

“We can’t scoff at their rules,” he said of federal authorities. “It’s a part of the operational guidelines.”

also:

EU Unveils Unprecedented $1 Trillion Loan Package

This doesn’t sound good…

Europe’s debt crisis is starting to affect the bank funding system. Today the European Union unveiled an unprecedented loan package worth almost $1 trillion.
Bloomberg reported, via Drudge:

Europe’s government debt crisis is starting to infect the bank funding system, driving borrowing costs higher from Asia to the U.S. and threatening to slow the global economic recovery.
(more…)

Ukraine drops bid to join NATO, turns toward Moscow

By Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor

MOSCOW — Ukraine’s once deeply controversial bid to join NATO appears to have died a little-noticed bureaucratic death this week, as incoming President Viktor Yanukovich moved to abolish a commission that had been overseeing the country’s preparations for eventual entry into the Western military alliance.

Monday’s presidential decree scrapping the commission came as Mr. Yanukovich was meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev amid his second official visit to Moscow since being elected in February. Another commission, whose brief was to promote Euro-Atlantic integration, was cut along with a few dozen other advisory state bodies associated with the Western-leaning former president Viktor Yushchenko.

Experts say there’s little surprise in the action, since Yanukovich was elected, at least partly, on a platform of repairing relations with Moscow, which had been so infuriated by Mr. Yushchenko’s pro-NATO tilt that Russia refused to send an ambassador to Kiev for almost two years.

“It is definitely not the policy of Yanukovich to join NATO,” says Oleksandr Sushko, research director of the independent Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation in Kiev.
(more…)

From Powerline

Scott Rasmussen finds that 75% of likely voters are either “very angry” or “somewhat angry” about the federal government’s current policies. A plurality of 45% are “very angry,” up nine points since September. A mere 19% say they are not very or not at all angry about the federal government’s policies.

That’s a lot of anger for the Democrats to overcome between now and November.

also:

Jack Murtha, RIP

I won’t speak ill of the departed, and therefore have nothing at all to say about Jack Murtha. Philip Klein, however, notes a potentially important point: if the Republican wins the special election to succeed Murtha in May, the Democrats’ government medicine bill could have trouble passing the House. Let’s hope so.

Via Hot Air.

Finally:

A Significant Admission

Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has directed enrichment of a portion of that country’s stockpile of uranium to 20 percent. Experts regard this as an important step forward for Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The reaction of Defense Secretary Robert Gates seems significant:

At a news conference with French Defense Minister Herve Morin, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised President Barack Obama’s attempts to engage the Islamic Republic diplomatically and chided Tehran for not reciprocating.

“No U.S. president has reached out more sincerely, and frankly taken more political risk, in an effort to try to create an opening for engagement for Iran,” he said. “All these initiatives have been rejected.”

So Gates was, evidently, praising Obama for pursuing a policy that has been, by the Secretary’s own admission, a complete failure. The stern action now being contemplated by the administration consists of new sanctions. the AP concludes its account in a realistic vein:
(more…)

Five people died in Tehran on Sunday when pro-reform protesters clashed with security forces, police said, in the worst outbreak of violence since June’s contested presidential election sparked political turmoil.

Opposition websites said eight people were killed in Tehran and other cities across Iran when tens of thousands took to the streets during a religious festival. Police in the capital said they were investigating the “suspicious” deaths, the IRNA news agency reported.

Among the dead was opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi’s nephew. State TV said “unknown assailants” killed Ali Habibi Mousavi Khamene, whose death was described as a “martyrdom” by a Mousavi ally.

It is the first time people have died in street protests since the immediate aftermath of the June presidential election in which the opposition says more than 70 people were killed.

The authorities have estimated the post-vote death toll at about half that number, including pro-government militiamen.
(more…)

Is This What Obama Thinks, Too?

Jeremiah Wright was Barack Obama’s close friend, spiritual mentor and pastor for twenty years. Obama finally jettisoned Wright during the campaign, but Wright has refused to go away. Now we have a video of Wright giving a speech recently to a group hosted by Monthly Review, a socialist magazine, that reveals a bit more of his thinking. Here is the beginning of the speech:

“Land of the greed, home of the slave.” Wright always could turn a phrase.

One wonders, though: Obama says that Wright brought him to Christianity; in Wright, Obama finally found a form of the religion to which he could relate. In Wright’s speeches and writings, it is impossible to separate his “Christian” beliefs–I do not accept that his hate-filled rants are, in fact, Christian–from his socialist, anti-American views. I don’t know how to escape the conclusion that anti-American socialism, wrapped in a thin veneer of Christian jargon, was exactly what Barack Obama knew he was getting when he chose Wright as his spiritual mentor. And how could this happen, unless Obama shares, to a considerable degree, the same anti-American, socialist world-view?

If that’s true, it would explain a lot of what we have seen from President Obama in his first nine months in office.

also:

Russia Steps Up the Pressure on Eastern Europe

In September, the Russian military carried out war games. What did they simulate? A nuclear attack on Poland:

The armed forces are said to have carried out “war games” in which nuclear missiles were fired and troops practised an amphibious landing on the country’s coast.

Documents obtained by Wprost, one of Poland’s leading news magazines, said the exercise was carried out in conjunction with soldiers from Belarus. …

The Russian air force practised using weapons from its nuclear arsenal, while in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which neighbours Poland, Red Army forces stormed a “Polish” beach and attacked a gas pipeline.

These war games took place at almost the precise moment when the Obama administration double-crossed Poland by announcing that, in order to placate Vladimir Putin, it was canceling the Bush administration’s plan to put anti-missile defense installations in Poland and other eastern European countries. That announcement, in turn, came just one month after Russia threatened Poland with a nuclear attack in August.

Two questions: 1) Is there some explanation for all of this other than the hypothesis that the Russians are moving rapidly to take advantage of what they know is a weak administration in Washington? (more…)

from Flopping Aces

Hope, Change and a Nobel Peace Prize don’t cut the mustard with the Mullahs!

It was supposed to be Obama’s first big achievement in foreign affairs. Michael Adler, who has been gushing about a new age of diplomacy and peace called it possibly “an “Audacity of Hope” moment in foreign diplomacy, a potentially transformative development.” That was 12 days ago. Thursday, the Iranians announced that they rejected the deal to ship uranium out of the country for processing and asked instead for a new round of negotiations which can have only one purpose: to stall for more time as Iran works to build a bomb.

Look back over the past nine months since Obama took office. He’s gone out of his way to be nice to the mad Mullahs who run Iran. He found it difficult to condemn Iran even as it was butchering it’s citizens in the streets of Tehran. He bashed his own countries “arrogance” and offered to reset relations with the world. All that hope and change with nothing to show for it.

The day before Michael Adler gushed about Obama’s “transformative development” Charles Krauthammer showed his prescience once again:

What’s come from Obama holding his tongue while Iranian demonstrators were being shot and from his recognizing the legitimacy of a thug regime illegitimately returned to power in a fraudulent election? Iran cracks down even more mercilessly on the opposition and races ahead with its nuclear program.

What’s come from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton taking human rights off the table on a visit to China and from Obama’s shameful refusal to see the Dalai Lama (a postponement, we are told)? China hasn’t moved an inch on North Korea, Iran or human rights. Indeed, it’s pushing with Russia to dethrone the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

What’s come from the new-respect-for-Muslims Cairo speech and the unprecedented pressure on Israel for a total settlement freeze? “The settlement push backfired,” reports The Post, and Arab-Israeli peace prospects have “arguably regressed.”

And what’s come from Obama’s single most dramatic foreign policy stroke — the sudden abrogation of missile defense arrangements with Poland and the Czech Republic that Russia had virulently opposed? For the East Europeans it was a crushing blow, a gratuitous restoration of Russian influence over a region that thought it had regained independence under American protection.

But maybe not gratuitous. Surely we got something in return for selling out our friends. Some brilliant secret trade-off to get strong Russian support for stopping Iran from going nuclear before it’s too late? Just wait and see, said administration officials, who then gleefully played up an oblique statement by President Dmitry Medvedev a week later as vindication of the missile defense betrayal.

The Russian statement was so equivocal that such a claim seemed a ridiculous stretch at the time. Well, Clinton went to Moscow this week to nail down the deal. What did she get?

“Russia Not Budging on Iran Sanctions; Clinton Unable to Sway Counterpart.” Such was The Post headline’s succinct summary of the debacle.

Note how thoroughly Clinton was rebuffed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that “threats, sanctions and threats of pressure” are “counterproductive.” Note: It’s not just sanctions that are worse than useless, but even the threat of mere pressure.

Yes, we even trashed politically difficult agreements with our Polish and Czech allies hoping for Russian help with Iran and we got nothing. It’s actually worse than nothing. We’re back to square one with Iran and we’ve squandered what little diplomatic and political capital we have while at the same time giving Iran’s rogue regime legitimacy through high profile negotiations in Geneva.

The Iranians know that Obama is a pussycat, or as Gerald Warner at the U.K. Telegraph describes him: “President Pantywaist: the new surrender monkey on the block.” Our allies know Obama won’t be providing the strong leadership which most of them complain about in public but demand in private (except in the case of the French President who demanded it at the UN Security Council in September). Strategic competitors like Russia and China know all they have to do is string the Obama Administration along all the while asking and most likely receiving gifts like the termination of the Polish/Czech missile deal while giving up nothing in return.

The Obama Administration demonstrates such naive incompetence on foreign policy that it’s actually making Jimmy Carter’s disastrous presidency look good by comparison. As an example of the idiocy which pervades Obama land, take that of Scott Gration, Obama’s envoy to Sudan:

“We’ve got to think about giving out cookies,” said Gration, who was
appointed in March. “Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces,
handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement.”!

Meanwhile, the Iranians proceed on their way to building an atomic bomb and the kiddies running the White House take a break from bashing Fox News and send Iran’s Ahmadinejad cookies and smiley faces!

also:

Anti- Free Speech Hate Crime Legislation Attached to the Defense Spending Bill

Matthew Shepard’s death was a tragedy. But I think it’s a shameful political hoax to make him the poster boy for the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

President Obama signed this into law Wednesday:

This year, with enlarged majorities in Congress, Democrats attached the hate crimes law to a $681 billion defense spending bill this month over GOP objections. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said the approach put “radical social policy” on the “back of our soldiers.”

The legislation extends provisions first passed in 1968 that make it a federal crime to target individuals because of their race, religion or national origin. Under the law, judges can impose harsher penalties on crimes that are motivated by such animus, and the Justice Department can help local police departments investigate alleged hate crimes.

I truly do not understand the redundancy of hate crime laws- especially at the federal level. Why punish the thoughts behind crimes rather than just the action of the crime itself?

But, it’s one of those things that make liberals feel good about themselves; that they are fighting the good fight. President Obama’s remarks:

Now, speaking of that, there is one more long-awaited change contained within this legislation that I’ll be talking about a little more later today. After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we’ve passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray, or who they are. (Applause.)

I promised Judy Shepard, when she saw me in the Oval Office, that this day would come, and I’m glad that she and her husband Dennis could join us for this event. I’m also honored to have the family of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who fought so hard for this legislation. And Vicki and Patrick, Kara, everybody who’s here, I just want you all to know how proud we are of the work that Ted did to help this day — make this day possible. So — and thank you for joining us here today. (Applause.)

So, with that, I’m going to sign this piece of legislation. Thank you all for doing a great job. All right.

I guess the Nobel Peace Laureate has now officially accomplished something this year. Still amounts to a big nothing for me, though.

Incidentally, also attached to the bill was a revival of military trials for Guantanamo detainees, expanding their legal rights, but not to the extent that the ACLU would have liked.

Update: This is a reprint of an article from Laryn on the same legistislation:

Democrats to Curtail Free Speech

by Laryn

Byron York blows the whistle on Democratic legislation, about to be enacted by Congress, which purports to partially repeal the First Amendment:

The [hate] crime bill — which would broaden the protected classes for hate crimes to include sexual orientation and “gender identity,” which the bill defines as a victim’s “actual or perceived gender-related characteristics” — passed the House earlier this year as a stand-alone measure. But it’s never had the votes to succeed by itself in the Senate. So over the summer Democrats, with the power of their 60-vote majority, attached it to the defense [appropriations] bill.

Republicans argued that the two measures had nothing to do with each other. Beyond that, GOP lawmakers feared the new bill could infringe on First Amendment rights in the name of preventing broadly defined hate crimes. The bill’s critics, including many civil libertarians, argued that the hate crimes provision could chill freedom of speech by empowering federal authorities to accuse people of inciting hate crimes, even if the speech in question was not specifically related to a crime.

Republican Sen. Sam Brownback offered an amendment saying the bill could not be “construed or applied in a manner that infringes on any rights under the First Amendment” and could not place any burden on the exercise of First Amendment rights “if such exercise of religion, speech, expression, or association was not intended to plan or prepare for an act of physical violence or incite an imminent act of physical violence against another.”

The Senate passed Brownback’s amendment. After that, several Republicans, their fears allayed, voted for the whole defense/hate crimes package, which passed the Senate last July. …

Then it was time for the House and Senate bills to go to a conference committee, where the differences between them would be ironed out. That’s where the real action began.

First, the committee — controlled by majority Democrats, of course — inserted the hate crimes measure into the House bill, where it had not been before. Then lawmakers made some crucial changes to Brownback’s amendment. Where Brownback had insisted, and the full Senate had agreed, that the bill could not burden the exercise of First Amendment rights, the conference changed the wording to read that the bill could not burden the exercise of First Amendment rights “unless the government demonstrates … a compelling governmental interest” to do otherwise.

That means your First Amendment rights are protected — unless they’re not.

Needless to say, the First Amendment does not contain a “compelling governmental interest” exception. Legally, of course, no statute can trump the Constitution. But that doesn’t mean the Democrats can’t try, and it doesn’t mean that Barack Obama’s intensely politicized Justice Department won’t try to bring criminal prosecutions against the administration’s political opponents. Indeed, that appears to be the destination the Democrats have in mind when they continually try to demonize opposition to left-wing policies as “hate speech.

New Federal Hate Crime Statute Still Allows Free Speech, to the Extent Government Deems It Prudent

They’ve attached new hate crime categories and penalties to a military budget bill, trusting that Republicans won’t vote against it, and if they do, they’ll have ads taken out against them for doing so.

To make sure that Republicans were damned if they do, damned if they don’t, our civil libertarians and First Amendment fans in the Democratic Party made sure they drafted the provisions as odiously and as unconstitutionally as humanly possible.

First, the committee — controlled by majority Democrats, of course — inserted the hate crimes measure into the House bill, where it had not been before. Then lawmakers made some crucial changes to Brownback’s amendment. Where Brownback had insisted, and the full Senate had agreed, that the bill could not burden the exercise of First Amendment rights, the conference changed the wording to read that the bill could not burden the exercise of First Amendment rights “unless the government demonstrates … a compelling governmental interest” to do otherwise.

That means your First Amendment rights are protected — unless they’re not.

Finally:

AP Uncovers Stimulus Jobs Created Are a Fiction

Associated Press confirms what we first reported a few days ago…

Stimulus jobs overstated by thousands
By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and MATT APUZZO
Associated Press
Oct 29,2009

WASHINGTON (AP) – An early progress report on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports.

The government’s first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts.

The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.

For example:
(more…)

From Flopping Aces

Iran continues to treat us like suckers because we behave like suckers born every minute:

“I made it quite clear that when they argue that their nuclear facilities are genuinely for peaceful purposes the burden of proof is on their side,” he said.

Ahmadinejad said Friday his country has complied with requirements to inform the IAEA six months before a new enrichment facility becomes operational, and was giving 18 months notice.

Iran has agreed to allow the IAEA to inspect the new facility. At the news conference Tuesday, Ban was asked why he didn’t wait for the U.N. nuclear agency to issue its report, as Ahmadinejad said.

“To be transparent and credible, when you have such an intent to build facilities, they should have informed _ notified the IAEA long time before, not just before everything would be completed,” Ban replied.

“That’s what I’m raising. So there is a question of transparency. That is why the world leaders have expressed their deep concern and that is why I have also expressed my concern,” he said.

“I urged him that Iran as (a) historically rich and proud country should take the constructive role in the international community by making very transparent and directly involvement and engagement in negotiations to prove all the pending issues,” Ban said.

The secretary-general said he was following up his meeting with Ahmadinejad with a meeting later Tuesday with Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

“I sincerely hope that all these questions pertaining this new facility and other facilities _ all the pending issues concerning nuclear development programs of Iran should be resolved through dialogue in a transparent and objective manner with (the) international atomic agency involved,” he said.

*Groan*…why do we insist on being played like a violin?

Last week in wake of the disclosure of Iran’s “secret” “semi-industrial enrichment fuel facility”, Curt linked to this sentence in the WaPo:

President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are peaceful.

“Prove its aspirations are peaceful”?!

Nima Gerami and James M. Acton at Foreign Policy spell it out:

the evidence that the new facility is part of a military program is compelling. According to unclassified U.S. government talking points, the clandestine facility near Qom is “intended to hold approximately 3,000 centrifuges” of an unknown type. In 2007, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, then head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said that Iran’s target was to have 50,000 centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility. This number was needed to make “meaningful amounts of nuclear fuel” for one or two commercial-scale power plants to generate electricity.

Thus, by Iran’s own admission, the Qom facility is too small for civilian purposes. It is not, however, too small to produce meaningful amounts of highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapons program.
(more…)

From Flopping Aces

Obviously, Obama has higher priorities! Like seeing how many times he can say “I” or “my” in his next speech!

General Stanley McChrystal told CBS reporter David Martin in a television interview that aired Sunday on 60 Minutes that he’s only spoken with the President once in the 70 days since being appointed by Obama to oversee our efforts in Afghanistan.

Remember that during the 2008 campaign and at the start of the Obama Administration the focus was on making Afghanistan the highest priority national security issue.

Remember also that in 2008, candidate Obama promised to listen to the generals. This was a mantra that Democrats beat like a drum during the Bush years.

But now, the Gen. McChrystal writes a requested report leaked in PDF in which he says:

“Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) — while Afghan security capacity matures — risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible.”

Time is critical to turning this situation around. But Obama’s response is to wait, study and evaluate. Evaluate what? Either you believe the general you appointed knows what he is talking about and give him the support he requests or you don’t.

Team Obama will only start discussing the issue this week with the first of what is billed as a series of meetings with no deadline set for reaching a decision regarding Gen. McChrystal’s request for tens of thousands of additional troops.

How long will we have to wait until a reporter asks Obama why he doesn’t listen to his general?

How long will our troops in Afghanistan have to wait to find out whether the Commander in Chief will support their mission?

also:

Socialists Repudiated in German Elections. Will U.S. Follow the Lead in 2010?

It was a victory for tax cutting, pro-business, labor union reform that swept the field in Germany!

German Chancellor Angela Merkel savors conservative victory.

Results in this weekend’s parliamentary election in Germany has achieved what some in Europe call a “resounding triumph” for conservatives. One which saw the Social Democrats (socialists), who were part of the former governing coalition with Merkel, getting beat worse than at any time since World War II.

Merkel can now govern without compromise with socialists. All of this on a low tax, pro-business, labor reform platform!

Merkel’s victory follows on the trend in other western governments like Italy, France and Canada (Britain may soon follow in the next six months).

The aberration among western governments is the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

The world and our friends are turning to tried and true conservative solutions. How much longer until we join them?

Finally:

Obama’s Blunder On Iran

Obama suggested that he could resurrect the European missile defense plan if Russia doesn’t help with the threat presented by Iran. This kind of accessory statement further weakens America’s hand. It suggests a lack of resolve on the initial reversal of the strategy, and it also infers apprehension about the new strategy and the underlying technology. Can America rely on the new capabilities and technologies or not? Are the interceptor capacities more flexible and cost-effective? Are the advanced sensor technologies capable of detecting and tracking enemy missiles, or aren’t they? Why would Obama even hint at such uncertainty?

The signals showered on Americans and their allies by this Administration’s decisions and announcements are confusing, but to Russia, they seem to be welcome and they reinforce its strategy of saber rattling. Sanctions have also not deterred Iran’s ayatollahs. Now, with the loss of a major strategic and negotiating option against the Kremlin, the enlistment of the Russian bear’s assistance will undoubtedly be impossible, and will lead to a more belligerent Iran. We can expect an increase in its destabilizing activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its financing of terrorism. The violence we witnessed against the Iranian people after the recent elections should be indication enough that a strategy pursuing, “engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect,” as Obama wishes it, is simply just that, … wishful thinking.

From Powerline

As Scott noted here, President Obama’s insistent support for deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is bizarre, in view of the fact that Zelaya is a) virulently anti-American, and 2) apparently insane. The Obama administration’s demand that Zelaya be returned to power is based on the claim that he was removed “illegally” by a “military coup.”

Many observers, however, have pointed out that the deposition of Zelaya was entirely legal under the Honduran Constitution, and that constitutional formalities were followed by both the National Congress and the Supreme Court of Honduras. Now, the Law Library of Congress’s Directorate of Legal Research has reviewed the legal issues under Honduran law and concluded that the deposition of Zelaya was entirely legal:

As stated in the answer to question II(a), above, the Supreme Court, based on its constitutional powers, heard the case against Zelaya and applied the appropriate procedure mandated by the Code of Criminal Procedure. … Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system.

What was going on, of course, was that Zelaya was trying to set himself up as an anti-American dictator for life, along the lines of his heroes Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Why an American administration would want to lend support to such a usurpation of power is inexplicable, assuming that the administration is not itself anti-American. (more…)

From Flopping Aces

Let’s see Obama spin this one!

By now readers may be aware that the health care bill proposed by Democrats creates an individual mandate which requires all Americans to buy health insurance (illegal aliens will still be able to get their care free).

Even though then Sen. Obama campaigned for office against a mandate, he’s on record supporting one now and claiming that it does not constitute a tax even though just about everyone else concedes it is a tax.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate tried to get the individual mandate removed from the bill Democrats are pushing rapidly through the Senate Finance Committee but their amendment was voted down on a largely party line vote.

What readers may not be aware of is the penalty for not buying insurance is more than a fine. It may also include jail time. Senator John Ensign (R-NV) questioned Senate Finance Committee Chief of Staff Thomas Barthold on the issue of penalties and got a handwritten response:

“If there is a willful failure to file, pay, maintain appropriate records and the like the taxpayer may be charged with a misdemeanor with a penalty up to $25,000 and not more than one year in jail.”

Democrats will use the I.R.S. to enforce this tax and to hold every American accountable for signing up for health care insurance. OR ELSE!

Once again, Republicans are standing up for freedom and self reliance and Democrats are standing up for more big government, big brother and the IRS!

Don’t tell me there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats!

also:

Peace through Weakness

In wake of the disclosure that Iran’s been secretly developing (at least one) secret underground uranium enrichment facility (sounds like spies were caught) or face more harsh words and stern warnings from the “outraged” international community, Iran offers the following response:

Iran said it successfully test-fired short-range missiles during military drills Sunday by the elite Revolutionary Guard, a show of force days after the U.S. warned Tehran over a newly revealed underground nuclear facility it was secretly constructing.

Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said Iran also tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time. The official English-language Press TV showed pictures of at least two missiles being fired simultaneously and said they were from Sunday’s drill in a central Iran desert. In the clip, men could be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” as the missiles were launched.

“We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner and it doesn’t make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression,” state media quoted Salami as saying. He said the missiles successfully hit their targets.

President Obama’s biggest weakness is the perception (and the reality?) that he is “no George W. Bush”; that military action as a means of kumbaya diplomacy is off the tables and not an option. In short, President Obama is not feared.

Ahmadinejad praises Obama. Castro praises Obama. Chavez praises Obama. Now why do you suppose this is?

George W. Bush was feared (at least in his first term, up until he became damaged politically).

Gee, I wonder what NK’s been up to in the shadow of the media spotlight on Iran.

Barack H. Obama is loved. Is America any safer?

Finally:

French President Tells Obama “We Live In The Real World”

You know its bad when the French are tougher then the United States….what a change:

Sarkozy: “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.”

“President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.

“Iran since 2005 has flouted five security council resolutions. North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993.

“I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,” he continued, referring to Israel.

The sharp-tongued French leader even implied that Mr Obama’s resolution 1887 had used up valuable diplomatic energy.

“If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce our own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons,” he said.

Mr Sarkozy has previously called the US president’s disarmament crusade “naive.”

Ouch.

This on top of The Telegraph calling him President Pantywaist last week in response to his roll back of the missile shield: (more…)

By Brujo Blanco

Honduras is in trouble and I do not like saying this but our country the good old USA is involved in this trouble.

The Constitution for the democratic country of Honduras does not permit a president to run for re-election. One cannot serve consecutive terms as president. This is their primary law. This leftist (communist) Zelaya was that former president. He attempted to fix an election with the assistance of the Honduran army. The Honduran constitution calls for any president that attempts such a thing to be deposed. This is what happened.

Now the people that came to Zelaya’s rescue were Daniel Ortega, Raul Castro, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Barack Obama. All of these so-called leaders are demanding that Zelaya be permitted to serve out his term as president. This situation did not call for any type of intervention. When Zelaya was deposed no one was getting killed, beaten, or having their property taken. This was totally a Honduran matter and was none of anyone’s business. But Obama and his commie buddies had to stick up for their communist associate Zelaya.

Zelaya was exiled from Honduras and many of us have no real concept of this. In our country we would never send an American citizen who was born in this country packing to another country. However, in other countries this is common and legal. Remember not every country is the USA and they each have their own laws.

Is Obama making a mistake or is he showing his true colors?

What is our involvement in this situation? We have terminated aid to this impoverished country. We have terminated legal immigration from this country. We have jumped in bed with countries with leaders that are well known for killing and violating their own national laws.

This guy Zelaya is aspiring to be another Hugo Chavez. If he is put back into power there may be serious problems. He is likely going to want to get his venganza (vengeance) and we may see arrests and perhaps even death squads.
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From Flopping Aces

Remember all that talk from Obama that Afghanistan was the war that needed to be won. The fight against the Taliban and Osama was the one that needed to be reinforced.

Well, now it’s time to see if these tough words were only words:

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict “will likely result in failure,” according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal says emphatically: “Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) — while Afghan security capacity matures — risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible.”

His assessment was sent to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Aug. 30 and is now being reviewed by President Obama and his national security team.

McChrystal concludes the document’s five-page Commander’s Summary on a note of muted optimism: “While the situation is serious, success is still achievable.”

But he repeatedly warns that without more forces and the rapid implementation of a genuine counterinsurgency strategy, defeat is likely. McChrystal describes an Afghan government riddled with corruption and an international force undermined by tactics that alienate civilians.

He provides extensive new details about the Taliban insurgency, which he calls a muscular and sophisticated enemy that uses modern propaganda and systematically reaches into Afghanistan’s prisons to recruit members and even plan operations.

McChrystal recommends fixing the huge corruption problem inside the Afghan government and, big shocker here, not to focus on killing the enemy. Rather we should focus on not hurting civilians. Now thats the way to win a war eh? Who cares about actually taking the fight to the enemy in war….

Sigh…

“Further, a perception that our resolve is uncertain makes Afghans reluctant to align with us against the insurgents.”

McChrystal is equally critical of the command he has led since June 15. The key weakness of ISAF, he says, is that it is not aggressively defending the Afghan population. “Pre-occupied with protection of our own forces, we have operated in a manner that distances us — physically and psychologically — from the people we seek to protect. . . . The insurgents cannot defeat us militarily; but we can defeat ourselves.”

McChrystal continues: “Afghan social, political, economic, and cultural affairs are complex and poorly understood. ISAF does not sufficiently appreciate the dynamics in local communities, nor how the insurgency, corruption, incompetent officials, power-brokers, and criminality all combine to affect the Afghan population.”

Coalition intelligence-gathering has focused on how to attack insurgents, hindering “ISAF’s comprehension of the critical aspects of Afghan society.”

Focused on attacking insurgents? Omg….what were they thinking? This is a war, they shouldn’t be focused on winning, they should be focused on how to be buddy buddy with the locals.

He also says that coalition forces will change their operational culture, in part by spending “as little time as possible in armored vehicles or behind the walls of forward operating bases.” Strengthening Afghans’ sense of security will require troops to take greater risks, but the coalition “cannot succeed if it is unwilling to share risk, at least equally, with the people.”

McChrystal warns that in the short run, it “is realistic to expect that Afghan and coalition casualties will increase.”

And then we will see how the tide turns. Obama said he would take the fight to Afghanistan during the election, but as he has proven over and over and over again since, these were only words. He has flip-flopped on virtually every promise. This one will be no different. His lefty baggage handlers want him out of Afghanistan….once the casualties go up up and up that will be his cue. He will do what the Democrat Congress did to Vietnam.

The last part of the article from Woodward lays out the three main enemy groups in Afghanistan which is quite interesting so read it all.

Overall what the report seems to say is that we need more troops in theater. We need to become more like Mister Rogers.

Becoming more like Mister Rogers isn’t all bad. We did a good job of that in Iraq but the overall objective of finding, capturing, and killing the enemy never wavered…it is now. And I’m taking bets on how long it will take Obama to cut and run.

also:

A Sneak and Peak Look at the JUSTICE Act

3 Provisions of the PATRIOT Act (“Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”) are set to expire at the end of the year.

NYTimes:

WASHINGTON — As Congress prepares to consider extending crucial provisions of the USA Patriot Act, civil liberties groups and some Democratic lawmakers are gearing up to press for sweeping changes to surveillance laws.

Both the House and the Senate are set to hold their first committee hearings this week on whether to reauthorize three sections of the Patriot Act that expire at the end of this year. The provisions expanded the power of the F.B.I. to seize records and to eavesdrop on phone calls in the course of a counterterrorism investigation.

Is this really an “expansion” of power? Or a matter of updating existing powers in order for the F.B.I. to effectively do its job of protecting American lives in wake of 21st century technological advancements?

(more…)

According to Noticias 24 reports that deposed president Mel Zelaya is back in Honduras, staying at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

CNN reports that State Department spokesman Ian Kelly confirmed the news,

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly confirmed Zelaya was in Honduras, but could provide no further information.

“We have confirmed that he is in Honduras,” Kelly told journalists, adding the State Department was trying to find out more details of Zelaya’s whereabouts.

Enrique Reina, the Honduran ambassador to the United States, told CNN en Español that he could not divulge exactly where Zelaya was for security reasons.

Rodolfo Pastor, the charge d’affairs of the Honduran Embassy in Washington, said Zelaya was at the United Nations offices in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

But Rebeca Arias, coordinator for the United Nations in Tegucigalpa, denied the leader was in the building.

“He’s not here,” she said, adding that Zelaya had called her late Monday morning and told her that he was in the country and would inform her within a few hours where he was.

As you can read in the Noticias 24 report, however, the Brazilian Embassy has confirmed that he is there.

Honduras’s Zelaya Says He’s Returned to Tegucigalpa

“I’m here in the Honduran capital, in the first place carrying out the people’s will, which has insisted on my restoration,” Zelaya said in a separate broadcast on Venezuela’s government-owned Telesur network. “I’m here to initiate a dialogue.”
(more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Check out the featured video on the home page for a great rebuttal to a viral Youtube video going around called “Why We Need Government-Run Universal Socialized Health Insurance”….watch the rebuttal and send it to friends and family.

In the meantime here’s another reminder of the real world from those who live in a Socialized medicine world:

also:

Lockerbie Bomber Was Released For Oil

Imagine how the families of those 240 dead feel now?

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release.

The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.

Releasing this POS for oil…..wonderful.

also:

Democrats: Never Let a Funeral Service go to Waste

Unbelievable.

I watched it three times and still cannot believe what I saw and heard.

Roll the tape:

You would think that after the Paul Wellstone memorial went so far off the tracks that they would have learned. Seems that isn’t so. Rush said last week that the services for Uncle Teddy would be a spectacle to behold because the Democrats cannot help themselves.

Once again, Rush was right.

As Allah at Hot Air said:

Enter this poor little boy, charged with politicizing a prayer because the gutless pols around him didn’t have the guts to do it themselves.

Exit question: Anyone have any young’uns at home they’d be willing to volunteer to lead prayers at the next big GOP funeral? We might as well make use of the camera time while we have it. “Dear god, please grant us the strength to privatize social security and construct a robust missile defense shield. We pray to the Lord.”

Here’s a news flash for the Democrats: The cold, dead corpse of a Democrat Senator doesn’t transform a bad idea into a good one.

In light of all of the things that have been said and done over the course of the last few days, I’m beginning to have second thoughts about something. Perhaps the Democrats should rename their health care proposal after the newly deceased Senator Kennedy. I’m beginning to think that is a great idea after all.

They should rename it after Senator Kennedy.

Then they can do the same thing he did with Mary Jo Kopechne….do nothing and watch it die.

Finally:

Obama “kisses off Eastern Europe” – killing missile defense plans

RUMOR MILL (as of yet unconfirmed since the report has not been made public yet): Per Investor’s Business Daily Friday, there’s a report going around that the O’admin has decided to renege on building a missile defense system in Europe to protect Poland and the Czech Republic. If it’s true, Obama has… once more… indicated to our allies that Obama’s “remade America” is there not to protect them, but to betray them.

The U.S. has abandoned plans to install a missile defense system in Europe, according to a report. If true, this is a major strategic error that will have serious consequences for our allies in Europe and for us.

Quoting a U.S. source, the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza says the Obama administration has decided against building a missile shield to protect Poland and the Czech Republic. The reason? Russian opposition.

Now, if we want to build a defense system for friends in Europe, we’ll have to place it in the Balkans, Israel or somewhere else. That is, if Russia approves.

This is a stark reversal of past policy and reneges on promises made by the current administration. Worse, it shows weakness. We got into a staredown with the Russian bear and we blinked.

Ironically, it was the very same day I did a little noticed post about Obama’s growing impotence with our western allies, and the battle against global jihad by citing three incidents:

(more…)

By Dick Morris

Was it only a week ago this past Sunday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the North Koreans “unruly children” on Meet the Press and said all they wanted was attention and that “we shouldn’t give it to them?”

Yes, that was her, the wife of the very same Bill Clinton who gave Kim Jung Il ten years’ worth of free good publicity by traveling to North Korea and shining the global spotlight on the “Dear Leader’s” generosity in releasing two journalists he had illegally seized in the first place. North Korea’s last good press was before 1949, but now they shine in the glow of worldwide approval thanks to Bill (and Hillary) Clinton.

Those two nuclear explosions? Hey, so what? Those rockets that can go 4500 miles and someday hit Hawaii? Lots of countries have them and haven’t the North Koreans proven that they are just plain folks?

History is curiously repeating itself. In 1993, President Clinton was working up the gumption to impose sanctions against North Korea after they were caught enriching uranium, but his momentum – always difficult to sustain at best – was derailed when former President Jimmy Carter traveled to Pyongyang to announce a deal with North Korea to stop them from going nuclear. The deal turned out to be nothing more than a green light, but no sanctions were imposed.

Now former President Clinton has upended the world’s efforts to isolate and punish North Korea by letting it in from the cold.

Why did he do it? He and Hillary saw a chance for positive publicity. She, newly consigned to the inside pages of the newspaper and he, entirely absent from them, chaffed at their irrelevance and jumped at the chance to get back into the limelight. (more…)

By Atlas Shrugs

Yesterday’s TIA Daily mentioned the possibility of another showdown in the conflict in Iran today, and that’s what we got. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani—a powerful regime insider who has quietly backed the protests against Iran’s rigged elections—gave the sermon for the Friday prayers at Tehran University. This is a major platform—the sermon is broadcast nationwide on the radio—and the question was what use Rafsanjani would make of it.

According to reports on the sermon, Rafsanjani partly tried to have it both ways, calling for greater freedom while also wanting to preserve the “Islamic republic.” He told his audience: “We believe in the Islamic Republic” but that “they have to stand together.” By “they,” he means the two parts of the phrase “Islamic republic”: “If ‘Islamic’ doesn’t exist, we will go astray. And if ‘republic’ is not there, [our goals] won’t be achieved. Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic.”

But of course, it is too late for this. Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have already demonstrated that Islamic theocracy and a republic—which have nominally co-existed for the past thirty years—are utterly incompatible. But in seeking to harmonize the two principles, Rafsanjani did make clear that the republican aspect takes precedence, and he advocated appeasement of the Iranian liberals who have been protesting in the streets: “Sympathy must be offered to those who suffered from the events that occurred and reconcile them with the ruling system. This is achievable. We need to placate them.”

The Associated Press report on the speech described the overall effect this way:

Rafsanjani couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran’s Islamic Republic. But his sermon was an unmistakable challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared Ahmadinejad’s victory valid and demanded an end to questioning of the results. Rafsanjani said the dispute has split clerics and warned of “crisis.” The sermon was Rafsanjani’s first since the election, ending his unusual silence over the turmoil. Worshippers interrupted him with chants of “azadi, azadi”—Persian for “freedom”—and Rafsanjani got tears in his eyes as he spoke of how Islam’s Prophet Muhammad “respected the rights” of his people. He criticized the postelection wave of arrests, saying the leadership should show sympathy for protesters and urging the release of those detained.

That part about Mohammed respecting rights is news to me. But isn’t it interesting that Rafsanjani feels he has to rewrite his religious traditions to reconcile them with liberty? And note that his main concrete demand—the release of political prisoners—would effectively mean an end to the crackdown on Iran’s demonstrators, bringing them back into the streets by the millions in triumph.

Inside and outside the hall where Rafsanjani spoke, the audience chanted “azadi, azadi”—”freedom, freedom”—and also “death to the dictator” and “coup-d’etat government, resign, resign.” The oddest detail: “Some in the sermon and afterward chanted ‘death to Russia’ and ‘death to China,’ referring to Ahmadinejad’s alliance with both countries. Ahmadinejad has come under criticism in Iran for not criticizing Beijing over Muslim deaths in China’s western Xinjiang province.” This will give you some idea of the global domino effect in favor of liberty that we can expect when Iran’s regime falls. (more…)

Stern (Germany), July 15, 2009

German Foreign Intelligence Service “Iran can set off a bomb within six months”

It is one of the central questions for Western governments dealing with Iran: How close is the regime to a nuclear bomb? According to stern magazine they have nearly reached their aim. Experts from the Bundesnachrichtendienst, the German Foreign Intelligence Service, claim that Iran will be able to set off an atomic bomb within a few months.

Iran will soon be able to produce atomic bombs and to perform underground nuclear testing, just as North Korea has done, experts in the German Foreign Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) have told the weekly, Hamburg-based news magazine stern. “If they want to, they will be able to set off a uranium bomb within six months,” a BND-expert is quoted in the latest edition of stern magazine to be published on Thursday.

Iran has by now mastered the entire nuclear enrichment technology and also possesses enough centrifuges to produce weapons-grade uranium, reports the BND according to stern. “Nobody would have thought this possible some years ago,” an expert said. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria, Iran has installed more than 7000 centrifuges at the nuclear power plant in Natanz. The 4290 of them in operation at the beginning of June had enriched at least 1.3 tons of uranium – enough for one to two nuclear bombs.

As reported by stern, Iran is focusing on building missiles capable of transporting nuclear bombs to targets as far as Europe. According to a senior BND official, these efforts are pursued “with massive intensity”. The German Foreign Intelligence Service has “no doubt” that the missile program in Iran is “exclusively” aimed at the production of atomic warheads. However, it is said be another three years before Teheran will be capable of producing suitable ballistic missiles.
(more…)

from the AP.

Several thousand protesters — some chanting “Where is my vote?” — clashed with riot police in Tehran on Sunday as Iran detained local employees of the British Embassy, escalating the regime’s standoff with the West and earning it a stinging rebuke from the European Union.

Witnesses said riot police used tear gas and clubs to break up a crowd of up to 3,000 protesters who had gathered near north Tehran’s Ghoba Mosque in the country’s first major post-election unrest in four days.

Some described scenes of brutality, telling The Associated Press that some protesters suffered broken bones and alleging that police beat an elderly woman, prompting a screaming match with young demonstrators who then fought back.

The reports could not be independently verified because of tight restrictions imposed on journalists in Iran.

North Tehran is a base of support for opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has alleged massive fraud in Iran’s disputed June 12 presidential election and insists he — not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — is the rightful winner.

Sunday’s clashes erupted at a rally that had been planned to coincide with a memorial held each year for Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, who came to be considered a martyr in the Islamic Republic after he was killed in a major anti-regime bombing in 1981.
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