jeffreymark

APPLAUDING OBAMA'S SURGE PLAN, BUT...

Obama appears to embody the idealistic liberal man. He seeks to advance the notion of personal and public rights for everyone born under God. "When in, Rome do as the Romans do," goes his credo. Stand before the cadets at West Point and quote Eisenhower when making vital military decisions. Not a bad idea. 

And, the call for a surge certainly seems like the most practical answer to a critical growing concern. Hat's off to our liberal man for a good and noble decision, however impassionately it may have been delivered. But, our soldiers remember the apologies on foreign soil and the subservient gestures made to foreign leaders. Indeed Obama wants have his cake and eat it to. 

Yet, most Americans continue their quest for discovering Obama's core. What sort of principles does he embrace that make him predictable?  We need an ideological pattern that says, "Here's what Obama will do." Right now we know that his moral pattern suggests he lives by liberalism's vicious circular openness to everything except transcendence. Does he believe in an authority above his own? Has he ever considered reason, tradition, and experience as a way of embracing some sort of transcendent absolutes? 

To be sure, I applaud Obama's surge plan. I do, however, continue to wager on the notion that he will go on living as the prototypical liberal man, handing out his faux freedom candy to everyone he encounters while subtly and perhaps unknowingly destroying his idealism with the very relativism that shuts out life protecting absolutes.  

NETANYAHU VS OBAMA

President Obama's foreign relations continues to tank. The Washington Times pens a brief synopsis of his embarrassing  foreign policy failures. Which, in my opinion, arise from a lack of moral clarity.  When dealing with rogue nations Obama appears obsequious. The Times then offers this glimpse at his only display of supremacy:

Actions in Mr. Obama's world are consequence-free. The only country the Obama team has tried to strong-arm is Honduras, which is desperately trying to stave off a socialist takeover by an anti-American autocrat whom the State Department has concluded is worthy of full U.S. support. This has delighted Cuban dictators Raul and Fidel Castro and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, who are very willing to let the United States carry their water. Venezuela, meanwhile, has signed a major arms deal with Russia, continues to build the anti-Gringo "Bolivarian" bloc, bullies U.S. ally Colombia and plans to launch its own nuclear program. 

In contrast to Obama's miserable cowardice Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displays moral courage in foreign affairs. Consider the fact that he gives the UN a good old bitch slappin' by asking the preeminent question, "Have you no shame; have you no decency," in reference to the UN allowing Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a seat and a place at the podium. 

Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries. 

But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency? 

A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state.

What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations! Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong. 

History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others. (via PowerLIne)

Shame and decency indeed infer moral discernment. Historically moral people, those who share ancient traditional values, protect their freedom and turf with zeal. Furthermore, they acknowledge the existence of evil ands its implications. Immoral people, because of their desire for wanton pleasure find it difficult to selflessly stand up and fight. Plus, they fail to recognize their propensity to do evil themselves therefore, denying its universal existence. Our founding Fathers not only acknowledged evil's reality, they trembled at its perniciousness; thus offering us the ingenious checks and balances.  Perhaps the ever courageous Netanyahu might desire for us to hear these words from the prophet Moses:

15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you. (Deuteronomy 28:15;25-29 NIV)

Those are harsh words whose implications I believe are playing out before our very eyes in America. They make unwise people laugh. But, they laughed at Moses years later when the prophets used his words as a clarion call to the Hebrew Kings. Indeed, materialism and moral bankruptcy make us soft and naive when dealing with the reality of evil. The Israelis, targets of one of the most demonic regime's in history, cannot deny the existence of evil. It's stamped on their arms, and carved into their nightmarish souls. Hat's off to what looks like the only world leader with moral clarity.

Read and hear Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to the UN here. 

BLOW-HARD MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD

I disagree with Godfather blogger Don (Hugh) Hewitt on this one. He suggests Iran's president chastised our President for recent comments because Ahmadinejad perceives weakness in the West. I think Mr. Mahmoud is a blow-hard who fills the airwaves with idle threats and would descend to such lows no matter who occupied the White House. Instead of second guessing President Obama's character in relation to Iran conservatives should continue to hold him accountable for timely responses in support of protesters.  

NORTH KOREA'S BULLYISM

This is precisely why failing to bring a nation to its knees as was the case with the US during the Korean War, makes for bad foreign relations. The Korean War generation, God bless their heroism, ended the war passing the problem on to another generation who may now sacrifice their sons and daughters in order to finish the job. The Drudge Report posts this warning:

The tensions emanating from Pyongyang are beginning to hit nascent business ties with the South: a Seoul-based fur manufacturer became the first South Korean company to announce Monday it was pulling out of an industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong.
The complex, which opened in 2004, is a key symbol of rapprochement between the two Koreas but the goodwill is evaporating quickly in the wake of North Korea's nuclear test on May 25 and subsequent missile tests.
Pyongyang raised tensions a notch by reviving its rhetoric in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper today.
"Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means...as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country's dignity and sovereignty even a bit," said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE ?

I know one thing Ms. Clinton, you cannot believe anything terrorist Iranian leadership tells you. Besides we pay you to find out the facts:

"We don't know what to believe about the Iranian program. We've heard many different assessments and claims over a number of years," said Clinton of Iran's latest claims.
Clinton reiterated that Iran must abide by international obligations over its nuclear program, which the West suspects is cover for building an atomic bomb and Tehran argues is for peaceful purposes to generate electricity.
"It would benefit the Iranians in our view if they cooperated with the international community, if they abided by a set of obligations and expectations that affect them and by which we believe they are bound. We are going to continue to insist on that," said Clinton.

(Via Drudge Report)

OBAMA'S BUSHSPEAK GETS PRESS DROOLING...AGAIN

Every freakin' time Obama stays the course of President Bush the driveling, snot-nosed media, falls into an orgasmic mood as though they are hearing a new and profound policy. Hot Air reports:

Expect Barack Obama to get a lot of flack for this statement, but I won’t be one of the critics.  Instead, I’ll focus my criticism on the media that treats it as some sort of sea change for American statesmanship.  We’ll start with Tom Raum of the AP:

Barack Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president, declared Monday the United States “is not and will never be at war with Islam.”

Calling for a greater partnership with the Islamic world in an address to the Turkish parliament, Obama called the country an important U.S. ally in many areas, including the fight against terrorism. He devoted much of his speech to urging a greater bond between Americans and Muslims, portraying terrorist groups such as al Qaida as extremists who did not represent the vast majority of Muslims.

“Let me say this as clearly as I can,” Obama said. “The United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical … in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject.”

Here’s the objectionable part:

The U.S. president is trying to mend fences with a Muslim world that felt it had been blamed by America for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Yes, because George Bush spent the last seven years blaming the entire Muslim world for the 9/11 attacks, right?  Right?  Er, no, as this collection of Bush quotes regarding Islam makes excruciatingly clear.  In fact, Bush emphasized friendship with Muslims from the very start of the war:

• “I’ve made it clear, Madam President, that the war against terrorism is not a war against Muslims, nor is it a war against Arabs. It’s a war against evil people who conduct crimes against innocent people.” — Remarks by President George W. Bush and President Megawati of Indonesia The Oval Office, Washington, D.C. September 19, 2001
• “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.”  — Remarks by the President at Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. September 17, 2001
• “All of us here today understand this: We do not fight Islam, we fight against evil.” — Remarks by President George W. Bush to the Warsaw Conference on Combating Terrorism November 6, 2001
• “I have assured His Majesty that our war is against evil, not against Islam. There are thousands of Muslims who proudly call themselves Americans, and they know what I know — that the Muslim faith is based upon peace and love and compassion. The exact opposite of the teachings of the al Qaeda organization, which is based upon evil and hate and destruction.” — Remarks by President George W. Bush and His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan The Oval Office, Washington, D.C. September 28, 2001
• “Islam is a vibrant faith. Millions of our fellow citizens are Muslim. We respect the faith. We honor its traditions. Our enemy does not. Our enemy doesn’t follow the great traditions of Islam. They’ve hijacked a great religion.” –  Remarks by President George W. Bush on U.S. Humanitarian Aid to Afghanistan Presidential Hall, Dwight David Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C. October 11, 2002

And so on; there are plenty of examples to make the point.  Obama spoke in the tradition established by Bush over the last seven-plus years of emphasizing that America did not declare war on Islam.  That’s been obvious through our partnership with Islamic nations, such as Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, just to name a few.  And he’s right; the last thing we would want to do would be to declare war on a billion people just on the basis of their religion.  The more we can keep the Muslims on the sidelines, the better off we are in fighting against the radicals.

However, the AP wants to pretend that this is some new effort by the US to assure Muslims of our intentions.  It decidedly is not, and perhaps a mention that Bush tried making these same assurances for almost his entire presidency would be in order here.

The liberal mindset has always been an enigma to me. I mean, I can't figure out what makes them tick. I think they get so passionate about what they believe, they fail to retain any sense of rationality when dealing with those who may oppose their view. They want a thing such as hatred of George Bush to be true so bad that they actually fall into a sort of delusional existence where their fairytale world becomes reality.

OBAMA NEEDS A NEW CABINET LEVEL POSITION

That's right. According to one pundit he needs a Secretary of Gifts:

With his track record in office so far, I’m thinking that President Obama needs to create a new Cabinet-level position: Secretary of Gifts. He desperately needs someone out there shopping for appropriate presents for foreign dignitaries, especially our allies. First it was the chintzy set of Hollywood movies on DVD he gave British Prime Minister Gordon Brown—DVDs that won’t play on British DVD players. And yesterday, the president gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod preloaded with photos from his inauguration and audio of his inauguration address.
Apparently the queen already has an iPod–who knew?—but she graciously accepted the gift with class. As Jeffrey Jena at Big Hollywood points out, at least “she didn’t toss in down on a chair and say in that sarcastic British way, ‘Another iPod, brilliant!’”

WHY NEGOTIATING WITH BAD GUYS IS NOT AN OPTION

President Obama, a part of that liberal ideology that wants to lower the level of our global playing field, declared his intent to negotiate with Iranian leaders. Besides empowering those embattled leaders to continue their stronghold over their skeptical citizens, Obama's intent may lead our nation into a horrific scenario. Newt Gingrich explains:

On Feb. 3, Iran launched a “communications satellite” into orbit. At this very moment, North Korea is threatening to do the same. The ability to launch an alleged communications satellite belies a far more frightening truth. A rocket that can carry a satellite into orbit also can drop a nuclear warhead over any location on the planet in less than 45 minutes.
Far too many timid or uninformed sources maintain that a single launch of a missile poses no true threat to the United States, given our retaliatory power.
A reality check is in order and must be discussed in response to such an absurd claim: In fact, one small nuclear weapon, delivered by an ICBM can destroy the United States by maximizing the effect of the resultant electromagnetic pulse upon detonation.
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a byproduct of detonating an atomic bomb above the Earth’s atmosphere. When a nuclear weapon is detonated in space, the gamma rays emitted trigger a massive electrical disturbance in the upper atmosphere. Moving at the speed of light, this overload will short out all electrical equipment, power grids and delicate electronics on the Earth’s surface. In fact, it would take only one to three weapons exploding above the continental United States to wipe out our entire grid and transportation network. It might take years to recover from, if ever.
This is not science fiction. If you doubt this, spend a short amount of time skimming the Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack from April 2008. You will come away sobered.

Continue reading Gingrich's sobering analysis here.

PRESIDENT OBAMA CHAMPION OF THE CHILDREN'S PARTY

From time to time American political parties give themselves a title indicative of their self perceived character. We have the "working man's" party or the "big industry" party. Let the reader fill in the blanks. I suggest today we see a new title emerging among the Democrat's.  I call them the "Awesome" party. Awesome is the new emotional buzzword teenagers use today when describing something that like totally impresses them. In fact awesome replaced cool and far out several years. We 70's guys, taking a cue from Cheech and Chong, often used the phrase "far out" to describe the indescribable (that's because we were usually too stoned on pot to remember any other descriptive adjectives our teachers taught us in English 101) President Obama symbolically stamped his seal of leadership on the party when he met with English Prime Minister Gordon Brown the other day. When introduced to Prime Minister Brown, the star struck Obama dropped his jaw and hypnotically proclaimed, "This is truly awesome!" As a diplomatic gesture Obama offered Brown a DVD of the Wizard of Oz.  What an awesome thing for our great Harvard educated President to do. The Brits, however, failed to grasp the awesomeness of President Obama's sacrificial gift. The UK's Iain Martin explains via Matt Drudge:

President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain this week. His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling. First Brown wasn't granted a press conference with flags, then one was hastily arranged in the Oval office after the Brits had to beg. Obama looked like he would rather have been anywhere else than welcoming the British leader to his office and topped it all with his choice of present (*) for the PM. A box of 25 DVDS including ET, the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars? Oh, give me strength. We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic. Even Gordon Brown will have seen those films too often already.
This was coupled with Michelle Obama's casual choice of gifts for the Brown sons - matching models of the helicopter which ferry her husband around. While Sarah Brown had spent time choosing gifts for the Obama girls, Michelle had clearly sent an aide to the White House gift shop at the last moment.
All in all, he doesn't think much of us, as I explained in my post here earlier this week.
But what's this? Something, suddenly, seems to have made the Obama White House perk up and start to take an interest in the Brits. The Queen has invited the President to tea when he's here for the G20 in April. And he's in through the front door of Buckingham Palace faster than a Harley Davidson roaring along Route 66.
Note how the coolness of Team Obama disappears when a bit of regal glamour is introduced into the equation. He might not like the Brits, but he can recognise a global superstar when he encounters one. He wants to be associated with her. He's shameless.
(*) If Obama, or someone in his inner circle, had spent two minutes thinking about what present to get Brown then they could easily have come up with something appropriate. He likes books. He loves American history. Get him a signed first edition of a good Robert Dallek book such as the brilliant Flawed Giant  on LBJ. Come to think of it, Obama should read it too, if he hasn't yet, as it reveals a great deal about how a Presidency can go so wrong.

In all reality, the Obamas' gifts reminded me of my grandparents who got so out of touch with children that at Christmas time they gave us gifts meant for someone half our age. My grandmother finally realized her plight, gave my mother her Christmas money, and asked her to buy the gifts. Obama may need a wise mother to do his shopping for him.

AFGHAN FOREIGN MINISTER REBUFFS CLINTON'S REMARK

She could have said it it a little more tactfully.

U.S. Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton's use of the term "narco state" to describe Afghanistan in a recent Senate testimony has caught the attention of her Afghan counterpart.
Foreign Ministry Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Saturday that it is "absolutely wrong" to classify Afghanistan as such, though the minister readily admitted that Afghanistan is a major producer of drugs.
Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, the main ingredient in heroin.
"Madame Clinton is a good friend of Afghanistan, a close friend of ours," Spanta told The Associated Press in an interview arranged to rebut Clinton's classification of Afghanistan.
"But if somebody believes that our government, the government of President (Hamid) Karzai is involved as a government entity in the production of drugs, this is absolutely wrong."

Replace the word "Clinton" with "Bush" and the press would adamantly demand impeachment.