CIA’s Hayden: Romney Right On Iran
[Newsmax.com]
By Jim Meyers and John Bachman
October 23, 2012
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden tells Newsmax that Mitt Romney was right — and President Obama wrong — when the GOP candidate said during the Monday debate that a nuclear Iran and not a terrorist attack was the biggest threat to America’s national security.
The retired 4-star Air Force General also says he is “not very hopeful” that negotiations with the Iranians will dissuade them from developing nuclear weapons. And he predicts that a President Romney would “review” Obama’s exemption of some of Iran’s major trading partners from imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
La Boca Grande [The Big Mouth]
American [Spectator.org]
Political Hay
By George Neumayr on 10.23.12 @ 6:10AM
Obama talks big [boca/mouth] in the final debate in Florida.
Barack Obama came to the last presidential debate ready for a fight. But he didn’t get one. Romney seemed more interested in talking to moderator Bob Schieffer than engaging Obama in a scuffle.
That relaxed strategy didn’t hurt Romney very much. At worst, the debate was a draw, which will only serve to seal the tightness of the race.
Though Romney kept stepping back from his punches, Obama didn’t tire of throwing them. Apparently Romney not only kills his sacked employees’ wives he also takes glee in outsourcing jobs to China and (in a new line of attack from Obama) invests in an Iranian company. Obama was unloading all the opposition research that he couldn’t cram into the previous debates.
Romney to deliver foreign policy speech amid big questions on Libya, global economy
[FoxNews.com]
Published October 07, 2012
FILE: June 21, 2012: Mitt Romney campaigns in Orlando, Fla. (AP)
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is set to give a foreign policy speech Monday that will mark one of his final opportunities before Election Day to show his potential as a world leader — amid political turmoil in the Middle East and economic collapse in Europe.
Romney’s success on foreign policy has thus far have evolved towards good reviews. He has drawn widespread praise from conservatives and fellow Republicans for his full support of Israel’s quest to stop Iran from achieving nuclear capability.
Obama Skirts Another Executive Duty To Pander to ‘The View’
[Newsbusters.org]
{OBAMA: MIA}
By Matt Vespa
September 24, 2012
In the wake of a rather tragic and tumultuous events regarding American foreign policy in the Middle East, President Barack Obama plans to forego the opportunity for a one-on-one meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the UN this week. The reason is simple. It just could not wait. The president needed to have a sit down with Barbara Walters and the rest of gals at The View.
Guy Benson at Townhall reported today on this development and cited Thomson Reuters and The Associated Press, no right-wing rags by any stretch, who are equally puzzled by this move by the president. From AP:
Tea Partying; Because Barack is a Socialist
[Secular Morality]
Posted by Ethan Hill
Posted CWN: May 5, 2012
Before I was aware that Obama, in fact, used his executive power to REDUCE taxes, I wrote a comparison between the Tea Party and the original Boston Tea Party for U.S. History. It is slightly embarrassing, but “I enjoy looking back at my roots” and showing my progress via my blog here at Secular Morality. Here it is:
“The Tea Party movement began in 2009 as a protest against the economic stimulus package. The main goal of this party is to decrease the government’s power in America by cutting taxes and spending. The majority of the Tea Party supporters are conservative, white, male, married, and over 45; they are wealthier and better-educated than the general public. Considering the movement began only 2 short years ago, the Tea Party has been successful in helping increase conservative views throughout the country.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Steps Down
FoxNews.com
Associated Press
Published February 11, 2011
AP2011 – Feb. 11: Egyptians celebrate the news of the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, who handed control of the country to the military, at night in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Egypt.
CAIRO — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has stepped down and handed control of the country to the military, Vice President Omar Suleiman said Friday in an address on state television.
The announcement touched off a wave of jubilation throughout Cairo’s Tehrir Square, where tens of thousands of anti-government protesters had gathered demanding Mubarak’s ouster hours after he failed to do so in an address on Thursday.
Obama Urges Hu to Pressure North Korea, Warns of Increased U.S. Military Presence
FoxNews.com
Published January 21, 2011
AP -Chinese President Hu Jintao speaks during a State Dinner hosted by President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama Jan. 19 at the White House.
President Obama has warned Chinese President Hu Jintao that the United States would be compelled to redeploy its military forces in Asia if China does not take a firmer stance against North Korea, a senior administration official confirmed to Fox News.
The president warned that, unless China steps in, the United States would need to increase its military presence to defend against a possible strike from the rogue North Korean regime. The New York Times first reported that Obama made the warning to Hu last month during a phone conversation and again on Tuesday during a White House dinner. This reportedly led China to apply the screws to its ally, opening up new defense talks between North and South Korea.
The Chinese president, after being the guest of honor at the state dinner Wednesday, is traveling Friday to Chicago. Hu’s visit has been met with both calls for increased economic cooperation and criticism of China’s human rights record and diplomatic dealings.
China Preparing for U.S. Ad Blitz During Hu Visit
FoxNews.com
Published January 15, 2011
In this undated photo released on Dec. 31, 2010, by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a New Year address in Beijing.
When Americans think about China, the Chinese government wants basketball star Yao Ming to come to mind — or some other friendly, famous face from the rising powerhouse of the East.
Not currency disputes, trade barriers or military build-ups.
At least that appears to be the intention as Beijing prepares to launch a rare ad campaign in the United States promoting itself next week. The blitz intentionally coincides with Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington.
Chinese media outlets report that the State Council Information Office is paying for two separate ads in the United States that will spotlight famous Chinese people. The official government website, China.org.cn, said the TV ads — a one-minute version and a 30-second version — will present “Chinese people from different walks of life,” including Yao Ming and Yang Liwei, the first Chinese astronaut sent into space.
EU Approves $89B Bailout for Ireland
FoxNews | Associated Press
Published November 28, 2010
Nov. 28: Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, right, waits for the start of a round table meeting of EU finance ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels. Finance ministers from the eurozone and the EU are met in Brussels Sunday to agree on a financial aid package for Ireland. (AP)
BRUSSELS — European Union nations agreed to give $89.4 billion in bailout loans to Ireland on Sunday to help the debt-struck country weather its banking crisis, and sketched out new rules for future emergencies in an effort to restore faith in the euro currency.
The rescue deal, approved by finance ministers at an emergency meeting in Brussels, means two of the eurozone’s 16 nations have now come to depend on foreign help and underscores Europe’s struggle to contain its spreading debt crisis. The fear is that with Greece and now Ireland shored up, speculative traders will target the bloc’s other weak fiscal links, particularly Portugal.
In Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said his country will take euro10 billion immediately to boost the capital reserves of its state-backed banks, whose massive bad loans were picked up by the Irish government but have become too much to handle. Another euro25 billion will remain in reserve, earmarked for the banks.
The rest of the loans will be used to cover Ireland’s deficits for the coming four years. EU chiefs also gave Ireland an extra year, until 2015, to reduce its annual deficits to 3 percent of GDP, the eurozone limit. The deficit now stands at a modern European record of 32 percent because of the runaway costs of its bank-bailout program.
Cowen said the accord — reached after two weeks of tense negotiations in Brussels and Dublin to fathom the true depth of the country’s cash crisis — “provides Ireland with vital time and space to successfully and conclusively address the unprecedented problems that we’ve been dealing with since this global economic crisis began.”
Bob Dylan’s Great Travel Song
PajamasMedia.com
In the Bob Dylan lexicon, I think it’s fair to say that “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” a song originally performed by The Band and which first appeared in Dylan’s own voice on 1971’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, is not generally regarded as his “masterpiece.” It may not even be regarded as a masterpiece, which is as it should be given its title, although I beg to differ. It is a masterpiece in the genre of what you could call the “travel song,” or perhaps the “time-travel song,” depending on how you view it. However you look at it, it is a great summer vacation song — particularly if you’re heading to Europe, as right about now, a lot of Americans are.
Clocking in at 3 minutes and 22 seconds, “When I Paint My Masterpiece” comes crammed with a traveler’s itinerary. There are names of much-visited cities (Rome, Brussels, Venice), popular tourist sites (the Spanish Steps, the Coliseum), transportation (planes, trains, gondolas), travelers’ bugaboos (crowds, bumpy flights, muscle-strains), as well as the usual standbys (hotel rooms, cameras, sex). And all in three verses plus a two-line bridge! Dylan even sounds as if he has a cold (more than he usually does, that is), another problem that tends to afflict travelers.
Obama Surrenders U.S. Sovereignty: His INTERPOL Executive Order
PajamasMedia.com
Quietly, Obama just made it much easier for the International Criminal Court to go after American “war criminals.”
At ThreatsWatch.org, Steve Schippert and Clyde Middleton have dug up the bizarre and unsettling issuance of an executive order recently signed by President Barack Obama. Executive Order — Amending Executive Order 12425, signed December 16 and released a day later, grants the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) rights on American soil that place it beyond the reach of our own law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Schippert and Middleton note that Obama’s order removes protections placed upon INTERPOL by President Reagan in 1983. Obama’s order gives the group the authority to avoid Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — which means this foreign law enforcement organization can operate free of an important safeguard against governmental abuse. “Property and assets,” including the organization’s records, cannot be searched or seized. Their physical locations and records are now immune from U.S. legal or investigative authorities.
If the president of the United States has an aboveboard reason for making a foreign law enforcement agency exempt from American laws on American soil, it wasn’t shared by the White House.
Andy McCarthy, former assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, notes at National Review that the limitations that Obama removed are “what prevents law-enforcement and its controlling government authority from becoming tyrannical.”
A paragraph later, McCarthy describes Obama’s actions in the starkest of terms:
This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.
Some bloggers covering this story are noting that the law enforcement agency to which Obama has extended such extraordinary powers to has had a dismal past.
INTERPOL’s senior leadership was flush with Nazis from the late 1930s all the way into the 1970s. That fact allowed, going Godwin isn’t necessarily relevant to today’s organization. Khoo Boon Hui of Singapore is the current president of the organization, and the current secretary general is American Ronald Noble. Noble is perhaps best known in America for overseeing the Treasury Department’s review of the disastrous 1993 raid and siege of a Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, that left nearly 80 people dead. Noble had cautioned against the initial raid plan as being too dangerous, but the lack of any significant ramifications for federal officials that approved of the raid and allegations of a cover-up have inspired conspiracy theorists to derisively dub Noble “the Enforcer.”
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