President Clinton to the Rescue!!!
First of all, I am exceedingly grateful for the release of our two American journalists who have been held by the North Korean authorities. There are two very happy Immigrant-American Families today and that is a joy worth celebrating.
But then there’s the politics:
This visit of a former President is a very dangerous display of legitimacy to the North Korean regime. Remember they are in desperate need of fresh propaganda at a time when they are flexing their nuclear muscles.
The timing couldn’t be worse: A few short months after a round of nuclear weapons tests by the North Koreans, America responds by apologizing (seems to be a trend) and begging for the release of prisoners. When did we become such pansies? When did we as a country decide that we owed anyone an apology for being the most generous and wealth-producing country the world has ever known? Now release those prisoners!!!
But all that is really of little consequence. North Korea has been playing these games for decades. They have their ups and downs, flex their muscles and get some desperately needed economic aid from a former President (remember Carter) who agrees to some shit we will never know about but which our children are on-the-hook for. The economic stimulus will shut them up temporarily while they plan their next big power play.
No, what bothers me the most is the double speak we get from the White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs. The efforts to downplay the significance of this event are astounding. Obama can’t afford to be seen as weak on foreign policy therefore he has avoided this issue for months. Biden is now no where to be seen or heard of except for the occasional gaff-truth. But alas, Obama has the political cover to deal with the situation without being personally involved. Mr. President you have received a gift, and it’s not even your Birthday!
Did he approve this trip and the preceding negotiations? I think so, and here is way. Obama can’t have direct talks with N. Korea for foreign policy reasons. Having the Secretary of State’s husband and Ex-President extend-an-olive-branch gives Obama significant political cover. If things get ugly he can always through the Clintons under-the-bus. Something he’s wanted to do since the early days of the campaign.
Ask yourself this, is there anyway that a former President went halfway around the world to meet with the leader of a rogue nation without the knowledge of our security forces? No.
Further, don’t you think the Sitting-President would be made aware of such a trip out of professional courtesy? I’m thinking yes. If not, he should be pissed!!! I would be…
Sticky Fingers ObaMarx Grabbing For More Economic Power – Even Internationally…
Obama wants his unprecedented historic power grab before he leaves office and the crisis window is closing soon. Obama’s plan Wednesday will officially call for the supervision of global financial firms through supervisory colleges.
The Obama administration this week will propose the most significant new regulation of the financial industry since the Great Depression, including a new watchdog agency to look out for consumers’ interests.
Under the plan, expected to be released Wednesday, the government would have new powers to seize key companies — such as insurance giant American International Group Inc. — whose failure jeopardizes the financial system. Currently, the government’s authority to seize companies is mostly limited to banks.
But critics say the easing of the financial crisis that gripped the country last year appears to have reduced the momentum for some of the most far-reaching proposals, such as merging several banking regulatory agencies.
The administration’s move to seize greater power over the financial industry is quite frankly… making me seize. This is so incredibly unconstitutional and will completely crush the economy. The banks are already too tight on lending and Obama wants to regulate them more – makes tons of sense!/sarc. Too many regulations on the free market make it completely dysfunctional – can we not let capitalism work? Why is it that difficult?
What’s worse? This new push for regulation will also give the Federal Reserve additional power and control. The Federal Reserve, as many of us already realize, has been behind many of the economic collapses/recessions in this country, since it’s creation in 1913.
The Federal Reserve, already arguably the most powerful agency in the U.S. government, will get sweeping new authority to regulate any company whose failure could endanger the U.S. economy and markets under the Obama administration’s regulatory overhaul plan.
Just what we need, an entity accountable to no one, not even an auditing agency…
To understand Obama’s intentions we could also take a look back at his G20 plan from a couple months prior:
The Financial Stability Board then has the international authority to set policies in these corporations, including compensation packages the private boards of directors in the examined companies decide to pay top executives and senior managers.
Morris charged that the Obama administration, by agreeing to create the Financial Stability Board, has gone beyond nationalizing U.S. corporations, to “internationalize” U.S.-based corporations under the control of this new global regulator.
While the G20 focused on regulating risks in hedge funds and derivatives, the authority of the Financial Stability Board extends to any banking, brokerage or business practice by a major U.S. corporation that the Financial Stability Board on its own authority determines is unduly risky.
Under the premise that the IMF and the Financial Stability Board would have the ability to make loans to important U.S. corporations, the IMF and the Financial Stability Board become the effective global regulators over the corporate world, superseding all U.S. governmental authorities, including the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and a host of corporate regulators, including the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Labor.
So Obama says no meddling in Iran but, we can meddle in Capitalism around the globe…? Huh?
Biden, The Joint Chiefs of Gaffe, Speaks Out on Iran Before Obama
Biden, although a bit dimwitted and always good for a laugh, actually tends to tell the truth from time to time, which is not always a good thing.
I was taught that honesty is the best policy, and in most circumstances, that is the case. However, politics is an entirely different situation, especially when dealing with a foreign country. Politicians have to be more cognizant of not only what they say but when they say it.
So, although Biden was correct in his assessment of Iran’s election results, his candid statement today regarding the validity of the election was probably not the smartest thing to say. I’m sure Obama is not that happy about this:
Vice President Joe Biden, going further than any other high-ranking American official to date in questioning the validity of last Friday’s election, said Sunday that “there’s some real doubt” that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was legitimately re-elected as president of Iran.
It’s also interesting that on the same day as Biden’s statement, the European Union exclaims the following:
The Presidency of the Council of the EU closely followed the course of the Presidential elections held on 12 June 2009 and notices Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected for the second term as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Presidency is concerned about alledged irregularities during the election process and post-electional violence that broke out immediately after the release of the official election results on 13 June 2009.
The Presidency hopes that outcome of the Presidential elections will bring the opportunity to resume the dialogue on nuclear issue and clear up Iranian position in this regard. The Presidency expects the new Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take its responsibility towards international community and respect its international obligations.
The EU, in essence, is recognizing the legitimacy of the Iranian elections and the new administration of Ahmadinejad. However, it calls the protests irregular, not Ahmadinejad’s win. This is one of the reasons I don’t ever want America compared to Europe – we are much better.
Biden may not have been politically correct and may have upset his boss, but I happen to personally agree with him on this one. This is technically a gaffe, because Obama has not come out in support of Biden’s statement or opinion on this issue. Obama, being the Commander in Chief is Joe Biden’s boss and should speak out on Iran’s election first. A politician has to always watch what he or she says… something that Biden has long forgotten how to do. If we find that yet again this administration contradicts itself by saying two different things, it certainly looks bad and shows a real lack of knowledge and/or leadership on how to manage a country.
The individual that we should be most concerned about is Obama – when will he say anything definitive about Iran?
Ahmadinejad Is Declared Winner – Arrests Rival Mousavi; UPDATE: Protests Still Ongoing in Iran (50-100 People Dead)
No surprise at all – Ahmadinejad (Immajihad) has been declared the winner of this year’s election in Iran. ACORN and the black panthers made their way to Iran to extend polling hours so dead people, non-citizens, Disney characters, and others could vote more than once. As much as Iran likes to tout the fact that it has a democratic election, it is more like North Korea’s election process where Kim Jong Il receives 150% of the vote.
The most alarming aspect of this win however, is today’s report that Mousavi, Ahmadinejad’s opponent, has been arrested. Obama and Ahmadinejad seems to have something in common; they both don’t like dissent.
Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was reportedly arrested Saturday following the reformist’s defeat at the polls by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Supporters of Mousavi, the main challenger to Ahmadinejad, responded to the election with the most serious unrest in Tehran in a decade and charged that the result was the work of a dictatorship.
Mousavi’s arrest was reported by an unofficial source, according to whom the presidential hopeful was arrested en route to the home of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Nevertheless, there were a number of contradictory reports from Iran on Saturday, in large part due to the heavy restrictions imposed on the media in the Islamic Republic, in particular on foreign reporters.
This is one of the reasons Iran must be watched closely. We cannot continue to pander to volatile regimes or their dictators. Nobody knows if Mousavi would have been a better choice, and Obama cannot claim victory with his Cairo speech either. I hope that this pseudo election curtails some of the naivete of the current administration, but I fear that would just be wishful thinking.
UPDATE:
The protests are still continuing after the arrest of Mousavi and it has been estimated that somewhere between 50-100 people are dead so far.
