All the best in the New Year. I hope it will be a happy and helthy one and The Merriest of Christmases!!!!
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The next time someone talks about Israel and ethnic cleansing show them this
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Apparently Obama has concluded he must earn his misbegotten Nobel Peace Medal by kissing the behinds of world tyrants, shaking their hands and appeasing them.
Rather than making America loved, I dare say, he will bring about that which he professes he wants to avoid , more conflicts.
It also seems this psychologically crippled soul still seeks the love and respect of the father who rejected both him and his mother.This president's naivety could be putting the world in jeopardy.
Another great religious leader seems nearing death. Though Billy Graham's quest has been pursuing an unobtainable goal of peace he has done so in a dignified manner and at great personal sacrifice.
Furthermore, though he chose a path that excluded my belief I have nothing but great admiration for him and when his final day comes I believe the world will have lost a true soldier in pursuit of world tranquility.
The contrast between the two men could not be more opposite.
Family life and marriages For more details on this topic, see Family of Barack Obama.
Stanley Armour Dunham, Ann Dunham, Maya Soetoro and Barack Obama, mid-1970s (l to r)On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state to be admitted into the Union. Dunham's parents sought business opportunities in the new state, and after graduating from high school in 1960, Dunham and her family moved to Honolulu. Dunham soon enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. While attending a Russian language class, Dunham met Barack Obama, Sr., the school's first African student.[19][20] At the age of 23, Obama Sr. had come to Hawaii to pursue his education, leaving behind a pregnant wife and infant son in his home town of Nyang’oma Kogelo in Kenya. Dunham and Obama Sr. were married on the Hawaiian island of Maui on February 2, 1961, despite parental opposition from both families.[6][21] Dunham was three months pregnant.[6][16] Obama Sr. eventually informed Dunham about his first marriage in Kenya but claimed he was divorced. Years later, she would discover this was false.[20] Obama Sr.'s first wife, Kezia, later said she had granted her consent for him to marry a second wife, in keeping with Luo customs.[22]
On August 4, 1961, at the age of 18, Dunham gave birth to her first child, Barack Obama II.[23] Friends in Washington State recall her visiting with her month-old baby in 1961.[24][25][26][27][28] She took classes at the University of Washington from September 1961 to June 1962, and lived as a single mother in the Capitol Hillneighborhood of Seattle with her son while her husband continued his studies in Hawaii.[18][25][29][30][31]
It was at the East–West Center that Dunham met Lolo Soetoro,[34] a Javanese[4]
The family first lived at 16 Kyai Haji Ramli Tengah Street in a newly built neighborhood in the Menteng Dalam administrative village of the Tebet subdistrict in South Jakarta for two and a half years, with her son attending the nearby Indonesian-language Santo Fransiskus Asisi (St. Francis of Assisi) Catholic School for 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd grade, then in 1970 moved two miles north to 22 Taman Amir Hamzah Street in the Matraman Dalam neighborhood in the Pegangsaan administrative village of the Menteng subdistrict in Central Jakarta, with her son attending the Indonesian-language government-runBesuki School one and half miles east in the exclusive Menteng administrative village of the Menteng subdistrict for part of 3rd grade and for 4th grade.[37][38] On August 15, 1970, Soetoro and Dunham had a daughter, Maya Kassandra Soetoro.[13]
In Indonesia, Dunham enriched her son's education with correspondence courses in English, recordings of Mahalia Jackson, and speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. In 1971, she sent the young Obama back to Hawaii to attend Punahou School starting in 5th grade rather than having him stay in Asia with her.[35] Madelyn Dunham's job at the Bank of Hawaii, where she had worked her way up over a decade from clerk to becoming one of its first two female vice presidents in 1970, helped pay the steep tuition,[39] with some assistance from a scholarship.[40]
A year later, in August 1972, Dunham and her daughter moved back to Hawaii to rejoin her son and begin graduate study in anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dunham's graduate work was supported by an Asia Foundation grant from August 1972 to July 1973 and by an East–West Center Technology and Development Institute grant from August 1973 to December 1978.[41]
Dunham completed her coursework at the University of Hawaii for a M.A. in anthropology in December 1974,[4] and after having spent three years in Hawaii, Dunham, accompanied by her daughter Maya, returned to Indonesia in 1975 to do anthropological field work.[41][42] Her son chose not to go with them back to Indonesia, preferring to finish high school at Punahou School in Honolulu while living with his grandparents.[43] Lolo Soetoro and Dunham divorced on November 5, 1980; Lolo Soetoro married Erna Kustina in 1980 and had two children, a son, Yusuf Aji Soetoro (born 1981), and daughter, Rahayu Nurmaida Soetoro (born 1987). Lolo Soetoro died, age 52, on March 2, 1987, due to liver failure.[44] Dunham was not estranged from either ex-husband and encouraged her children to feel connected to their fathers.[45]
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Understanding the Shia and Sunnis. (See 1b below.)
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A letter to the paper a dear friend of mine wrote. He feels as I do: "To the Editor:
With OBAMASCARE dominating the news virtually NO attention has been paid to Obama's disregard for the real education of our children. Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education as a gift to the teacher's unions for their $'s and support that accelerated the crashing of our education system! America's schools have been on a downhill slide ever since. It's a problem that has been purposely been ignored by our so called leaders.
How can America compete much less survive?
I dare you go google “America's education system ranking” Read some of the results! America ranking among industrialized nations:
In math 26th
In reading 17th
In science 21st
An examination of the high school graduation rates among general ethnic groups is shocking. America is importing more engineers, scientists from foreign countries than one would expect. WHY? Our schools have been dumbed down to a level that we have not and will not be able to compete with most of the world! At 16 you can drive, at 18 you can vote, at 21 buy alcohol none of which requires a high school diploma!
So many are un and under -educated that by the time they enter into late “teenhood” they cannot qualify for a real job and their frequent only option, particularly in the cities, is CRIME. Just look at the stats.
Where are our politicians? Where are the parents? Where are our school officials?
Where is our president? His only use of his bully pulpit has been to promote the socialism of OBAMASCARE.
He' been sitting on his tush buying votes via handouts and ignoring his real responsibilities.
C------ D---
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Stella Awards Time. (See 2 below.)
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Saban is a liberal but, be that as it may, I am willing to publish items I believe are contrary to my thinking if they have merit. So here is one I urge you read and then you decide for yourself. (See 3 below.)
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The budget deal does not address our real fiscal problems but it does keep the government from being shut down, gives Republicans a better change in 2014 and then maybe some real issues could be addressed.
I understand the argument that the spending takes place now and the cuts occur over a long period and are likely not to be made but shutting down government again would become a self-imposed death wish which, politically speaking, must be avoided.
The other view. (See 4 below.)
Meanwhile, look at the garbage that our government pays for and yes, I love art and believe we need to assure the survival of our nation's culture but I also believe that should be left to the private sector because once you begin then this is where it goes and it never stops. (See 4a and 4b below.)
I just returned from Athens and a meeting of one of the major committees ( the accession and deaccession) of our state museum which I chair.
We take very seriously the gifts patrons and donors are willing and gracious enough to give and we consider the cost of their preservation, whether they fit in with our teaching mission etc. Our staff
works tirelessly seeking such gifts and once they are obtained cataloging them , displaying them, protecting them and making sure the requests of the donors are adhered to according to our own legal documents and all of this takes serious funding so it is nice to receive government funding. But the problem is that once we receive funding it makes it acceptable for just about anything under the sun and everyone's pet wish list to be funded.
The list below just touches the surface of program funding whose amoebic growth must be stopped,in my humble opinion, even though such might mean goring some of my own bullish desires.
===
DickStella Awards Time. (See 2 below.)
===
Saban is a liberal but, be that as it may, I am willing to publish items I believe are contrary to my thinking if they have merit. So here is one I urge you read and then you decide for yourself. (See 3 below.)
===
The budget deal does not address our real fiscal problems but it does keep the government from being shut down, gives Republicans a better change in 2014 and then maybe some real issues could be addressed.
I understand the argument that the spending takes place now and the cuts occur over a long period and are likely not to be made but shutting down government again would become a self-imposed death wish which, politically speaking, must be avoided.
The other view. (See 4 below.)
Meanwhile, look at the garbage that our government pays for and yes, I love art and believe we need to assure the survival of our nation's culture but I also believe that should be left to the private sector because once you begin then this is where it goes and it never stops. (See 4a and 4b below.)
I just returned from Athens and a meeting of one of the major committees ( the accession and deaccession) of our state museum which I chair.
We take very seriously the gifts patrons and donors are willing and gracious enough to give and we consider the cost of their preservation, whether they fit in with our teaching mission etc. Our staff
works tirelessly seeking such gifts and once they are obtained cataloging them , displaying them, protecting them and making sure the requests of the donors are adhered to according to our own legal documents and all of this takes serious funding so it is nice to receive government funding. But the problem is that once we receive funding it makes it acceptable for just about anything under the sun and everyone's pet wish list to be funded.
The list below just touches the surface of program funding whose amoebic growth must be stopped,in my humble opinion, even though such might mean goring some of my own bullish desires.
===
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1)Letter from Kurdistan
By Reva Bhalla
At the edge of empires lies Kurdistan, the land of the Kurds. The jagged landscape has long been the scene of imperial aggression. For centuries, Turks, Persians, Arabs, Russians and Europeans looked to the mountains to buffer their territorial prizes farther afield, depriving the local mountain dwellers a say in whose throne they would ultimately bow to.
The hot temperament of this borderland was evident in an exchange of letters between Ottoman Sultan Selim I and Safavid Shah Ismail I shortly before the rival Turkic and Persian empires came to blows at the 1514 Battle of Chaldiran in northern Kurdistan. The Ottoman sultan, brimming with confidence that his artillery-equipped janissaries would hold the technological advantage on the battlefield, elegantly denigrated his Persian foes:
Ask of the sun about the dazzle of my reign;
Inquire of Mars about the brilliance of my arms.
Although you wear a Sufi crown, I bear a trenchant sword,
And he who holds the sword will soon possess the crown.
Safavid Shah I, also writing in Turkish, poetically retorted:
Should one embrace the bride of worldly rule too close,
His lips will kiss those of the radiant sword ...
Bitter experience has taught that in this world of trial
, He who falls upon the house of 'Ali always falls.
The armies fought to the limits of their empires and, after a series of wars culminating in the Treaty of Zuhab of 1639, the Zagros Mountains came to define the borderland between the Ottomans and Persians, with the Kurds stuck in the middle.
A Rivalry Reborn
The Turkic-Persian competition is again being fought in Kurdistan, only this time, energy pipelines have taken the place of gilded cavalry. At a recent energy conference in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil, I listened as hundreds of energy executives murmured excitedly in the audience as Ashti Hawrami, the minister of natural resources for Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, declared in perfect, British-taught English that an oil pipeline connecting Kurdish oil fields to Turkey is complete, operational and will be pumping oil by the end of the year with or without Baghdad's consent. This, effectively, was as much a Kurdish declaration of independence as it was a Turkish-backed Kurdish declaration of war against Baghdad and its Persian sponsors.
Roughly 25 million Kurds occupy a region that stretches from the eastern Taurus Mountains in Turkey through the Jazira Plateau of northeastern Syria across the mountains and plateaus of southeastern Anatolia before dead-ending into the northern spine of the Zagros Mountains, which divide Iran and Iraq. This is a territory spread across four nations with bitter histories and a shared commitment to prevent Kurdish aspirations for independence from eroding their territorial integrity. For Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran, this restive buffer had to be preserved and contained, though it could also be exploited. The fratricidal tendencies of the Kurds, bred by their divisive mountainous home, gave the surrounding states a useful tool to undermine one another whenever the need arose.
As power changed from indigenous empires to colonial hands, from monarchs to Baathist tyrants, from hardcore secularists to Islamists, the Kurds remained too divided and weak to become masters of their own fate able to establish a sovereign Kurdish homeland. The Kurds themselves are divided and sequestered along geographical, tribal, linguistic, political and ideological lines across the four states they inhabit. But unique circumstances over the past decade enabled a politically coherent Iraqi Kurdistan to temporarily defy its own history and inch toward quasi-independence.
A String of Good Fortune
The chain of events began with the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein. His attempts to eradicate Iraq's Kurdish population through chemical attacks in the Anfal campaign of the late 1980s and other aggressions in the region eventually led to the creation of a U.S.-imposed no-fly zone in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War. With the threat in Baghdad effectively neutralized and U.S. troops covering Mesopotamia, Iraq's Kurdish leadership put aside their differences to form the Kurdistan Regional Government, further solidifying the boundaries of the northern autonomous zone.
Ultimately, the United States was a strong but unreliable protector for the Kurds. When U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, a nervous Kurdistan looked to energy firms as their next-best insurance policy. So long as Western energy firms were committed to making money in northern Iraq, their presence would give Arbil the leverage it needed to balance against a government in Baghdad, slowly re-strengthening under Shiite dominance and committed to keeping Kurdish oil revenues under its control.
But as tensions with Baghdad grew over the distribution of energy revenues, the Iraqi Kurds unexpectedly found a sponsor in Ankara. The moderate Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party had effectively neutered the military's political influence in Turkey and was ready to experiment with a new strategy toward its Kurdish population. Instead of suppressing Kurdish autonomy with an iron fist, Ankara went from regarding Kurds as confused "mountain Turks" to recognizing Kurdish language and cultural rights and launching its most ambitious peace negotiation to date with the Kurdistan Workers' Party. This policy of engagement extended to Iraqi Kurdistan, where the Turkish government was earnestly eyeing Kurdish oil and natural gas to fuel Turkey's expensive energy appetite and loosen Russia's energy grip over Ankara.
At this point, Iran was too preoccupied to effectively balance against Turkey's deepening involvement in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iranian regime was busy defending its allies in Syria and Lebanon while trying to manage a highly antagonistic relationship with the United States. Meanwhile, Baghdad had its hands full in trying to manage intra-Shiite rivalries and fending against a reinvigorated jihadist threat spurred by the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the Syrian civil war -- all while trying to prevent the Kurds from breaking out on their own.
A cooperative Ankara, a weak Damascus, a preoccupied Tehran, an overwhelmed Baghdad and a host of anxious investors formed the ingredients for an audacious pipeline project. It began furtively in 2012 as a natural gas pipeline designed to feed the domestic Kurdish market. When the pipeline quietly skirted past the power plant it was supposed to feed, underwent a conversion to transport oil and began heading northward to Turkey, the secret was out: Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government were working to circumvent Baghdad and independently export Kurdish energy.
As the pipeline construction progressed, Kurdish peshmerga forces continued spreading beyond formal Kurdistan Regional Government boundaries in disputed areas and held their ground against demoralized Iraqi army forces. And in the name of guarding against a real and persistent jihadist threat, Kurdish forces built deep, wide ditches around the city of Arbil and are now building one around the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, marking the outer bounds of a slowly expanding Kurdish sphere of influence.
A Complicated Future
We have now arrived at the question of when, and not if, Kurdish oil will flow to Turkey without Baghdad's consent. The completion of the tie-in of the pipeline at a newly constructed pumping and metering station at Fishkhabor near the Turkish border, bypassing the station controlled by Iraqi federal authorities, marks the boldest foreign policy move that Turkey has made in a very long time.
Turkey has put itself in a position where it can receive 250,000 to 300,000 barrels per day of crude from Iraqi Kurdistan (potentially including crude that could later be pumped from the disputed Kirkuk field through the Khurmala Dome complex in Kurdish territory) at the Turkish border. From Fishkhabor, the crude will reconnect to a 40-inch pipe that runs parallel to a 46-inch pipe traveling westward to the Ceyhan port terminal. While the 46-inch pipe of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in federal Iraqi territory is operating at just one-fifth of its capacity due to disrepair and frequent militant attacks, Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government are essentially appropriating the section of the 40-inch pipe lying in Turkish territory to complete their independent energy project.
Plans are quietly being discussed to build another parallel line on the Turkish side to Ceyhan to completely divorce the pipeline infrastructure from any claims by Baghdad. Even now, by Ankara and Arbil's design, Baghdad has no physical means of interrupting the oil flow through the new pipeline route. And while Baghdad can quietly try to facilitate, or at least turn a blind eye to, jihadist attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan in a bid to undermine investor confidence, Kurdish security and intelligence can still put up a formidable defense against threats from both jihadists and Iraqi national forces -- that is, at least until Baghdad develops its air force and regains the military bandwidth to refocus on the north.
The speed and cunning with which the pipeline was completed demand respect, even -- however reluctantly -- from an outraged Baghdad. At the same time, the geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting once again in this volatile region, promising to complicate the energy strategy engineered by Arbil and Ankara down the line.
Iran may have been too distracted to balance Turkey in Kurdish lands over the past decade, but the coming years will look different. Iran and the United States are both serious about reaching a strategic rapprochement in their long-hostile relationship. Though there will be obstacles along the way, the foundation for a U.S.-Iranian detente has been laid. Turkey is already starting to adapt to the shifting balance of power, struggling to reach an accommodation with Baghdad, Tehran and Washington over the thorny issue of how payments from this new export pipeline will be handled. For now, the United States is trying to avoid becoming entangled in this political morass, prioritizing its negotiation with Iran while publicly maintaining a "one Baghdad, one Iraq" policy. But with time, the United States will regain its ability to manage a balance of power between Shiite Iran and Sunni competitors such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The more U.S.-Iranian relations progress, the more time and attention Iran can give to strong-arming regional allies, like Baghdad, in the face of a deepening Turkish footprint in northern Iraq.
The age-old Turkic-Persian rivalry will reawaken in Kurdistan as Iran reinforces its Shiite allies in Baghdad to pressure the Kurds, using military operations in its own Kurdish region to justify cross-border interventions. Iran is also already starting to discuss energy exploration in the border region with Iraqi Kurdistan, asserting that if Arbil has a problem with such activities, it can take it up with Baghdad. But the sharpest tools Iran and its allies in Baghdad have to undermine Turkey's alliance with the Kurdistan Regional Government are the Kurds themselves.
The past decade of Kurdish unity between Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is highly anomalous and arguably temporary. Iraq's Kurdish region has effectively been split between the Barzani and Talabani fiefs politically, militarily and economically, with the Kurdistan Democratic Party ruling the northern provinces of Dohuk and Arbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan ruling Suleimaniyah to the south. Though the two parties have demonstrated the ability to suppress their rivalry in times of extreme stress or opportunity, the fault lines that intersect this fractious Kurdish landscape are still present. On the surface, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan have united their peshmerga forces into a single, unified ministry. In reality, the political lines dividing Peshmerga forces remain sharper than ever. Further complicating matters is the political rise of the Gorran movement, a faction that broke away from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan now that the latter is suffering from a leadership vacuum. Though the Gorran can only claim votes at this point, it is only a matter of time before it, too, develops its own peshmerga forces, creating an even wider imbalance of power among Iraq's main Kurdish parties.
The cracks in the Kurdish landscape will be exploited the more competition grows between Turkey and Iran. One does not even have to reach far back in history to get a sense of just how deep Kurdish rivalries can run. The Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan were engaged in an all-out civil war from 1994 to 1996 that arose from a property dispute. More willing to turn to their regional adversary than compromise with their ethnic kin, the Kurdistan Democratic Party reached out to Ankara for assistance, while the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan took help from Iran and even Saddam Hussein. Those fault lines have tempered since the fall of Hussein, but the influx of oil money into an already highly corrupt and competitive leadership, a growing imbalance of power among the main Kurdish parties and a developing rivalry between regional forces Turkey and Iran will apply enormous stress on the Kurds' brittle union.
Sober Reminders
For now, Kurdish and Turkish officials and energy executives alike will brush these inconvenient warnings aside; their eyes will remain set on the hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude and billions of cubic meters of natural gas lying beneath Kurdistan's rocky surface. From their point of view, how could Baghdad refuse the commercial benefits of another viable export line out of Iraq? It's only a matter of time, they say, until Baghdad comes to the negotiating table on Ankara's and Arbil's terms and a win-win solution is achieved.
But matters of territorial integrity, financial sovereignty and nationalism are not easily trifled with at the intersection of empires. This is easy to forget when watching heavy concrete blocks being lifted by cranes over Arbil, a bubble of a city where two five-star hotels are filled with expats and Versace-clad locals who look like they belong in a "coming soon" promotion on the oil riches about to be bestowed on Iraqi Kurdistan.
Just a few miles from that glitzy scene is a crowded, smoke-filled cafeteria filled with women in head scarves, screaming children and a mix of men wearing business suits and the traditional Shal-u-Shepik style of baggy trousers with thick bands around the waist. Carts filled with tea in tulip-shaped glasses, warm sheets of flatbread, Kurdish kabob, hummus, cucumbers and radishes rattle noisily through a maze of long tables. Across from me, a young Kurdish man with bright eyes and an American flag on his phone fidgets in his seat. After a long pause, he says, "you know … we have a saying here. Kurdistan is a tree. After a long time, we grow tall, we become full of green leaves and then the tree shrivels and becomes bare. Right now, our leaves are green. Give it enough time. This tree won't die, but our leaves will fall to the ground again."
Editor's Note: Writing in George Friedman's stead this week is Reva Bhalla, vice president of Global Analysis.-
1a)Russia Strengthens Ties With Vietnam
Read more: Russia Strengthens Ties With Vietnam | Stratfor
1a)Russia Strengthens Ties With Vietnam
Summary
Editor's Note: This is the first of a three-part series about Russia's intensifying focus on East Asia. Part 1 examines Russia's traditional interests in the region and its closer relationship with Vietnam.
Recent challenges in exporting energy to Europe have made an orientation toward Asia more desirable for Moscow. Russia's economy depends on hydrocarbon exports, and while Western Europe is attempting to become less dependent on Russia by seeking new energy sources, Asian markets have large and indiscriminate appetites for energy.
Although Russia's focus in Asia traditionally has been on China, Japan and South Korea, it also has ties to Southeast Asia, which remains a strategically significant -- though not absolutely essential -- area for Moscow's efforts to extend its influence and energy exports eastward. Notably, Moscow recently struck a spate of energy and defense deals with Hanoi in an effort to strengthen their relationship, open up new markets for Russian energy and balance against China's moves in Central Asia. Moscow's moves into Asia through Vietnam are proceeding piecemeal, paralleling Russian moves elsewhere in the region.
Analysis
More than 70 percent of Russian territory lies in Asia. Siberia and the Russian Far East -- sparsely populated regions holding significant mineral and hydrocarbon resources -- border China, North Korea, Mongolia and Kazakhstan and have a 4,500-kilometer (2,800-mile) Pacific coastline. Russia's Asian interests also lie to the south, in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. Russia remains influential within these states and, under Vladimir Putin's leadership as president and prime minister, has made efforts to secure its southeastern flank anchored by the Tien Shan mountains. However, Russia's influence in Central Asia faces challenges from China, which naturally looks westward to extend its influence.
Central Asia is not the only area where Russian and Chinese interests collide. The Asian giants' relationship has long been tense, with Sino-Soviet border disputes erupting into violence several times during the Cold War. Russia and China clearly defined their borders in 1991 but have remained in competition abroad. Russia also has a history of conflict with Japan. The countries have been longtime rivals in the northwestern Pacific, and Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area, and hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Russia's efforts in Asia have been limited by the country's more direct interests in its periphery and in Europe, but Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east.
Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies. This has forced Russia to look for new export markets. Because Asia is hungry for energy supplies and is less fearful than Western Europe of a reliance on Russia, Moscow is attempting to shift its energy exports eastward, first with oil and then with natural gas.
With Northeast Asian economies experiencing robust growth, Russia's push into Asia has concentrated on Japan and South Korea, with a strong interest in securing deals with China. But such markets make up only part of the potential Moscow sees in Asia. There are a number of growing energy consumers to the south as well.
Russia's Historical Ties to Vietnam
Vietnam is the pivot point of Southeast Asia, occupying a key position along the major corridors that connect the Strait of Malacca with the Northeast Asian economies, as well as those connecting the northeast to the smaller, dynamic economies to the south. The country is directly accessible by sea from ports in the Russian Far East.
Vietnam has long been Russia's closest partner in Southeast Asia, especially during periods in which both countries were seeking to balance against China. Historically, the country has been a major area of focus for China -- either as a potential client state extending the Chinese coastline south or as a potential thorn in Beijing's side. This is the essence of Russia's interest in Vietnam.
Russo-Vietnamese relations stretch back to Moscow's recognition of the Viet Minh government in 1950. Ho Chi Minh, the father of modern Vietnam, worked for the Comintern in Russia in 1923 before traveling to China to orchestrate his revolution at home. Many of the early regime's senior members were educated or trained in the Soviet Union, and members of Vietnam's current technocratic class were educated in Russian universities, which still accept large numbers of Vietnamese students. Energy cooperation between Russia and Vietnam began in 1959, when the Soviets conducted the first geological surveys of North Vietnam. This cooperation became stronger in 1981, when a joint venture, Vietsovpetro, became Vietnam's first oil company, extracting crude from the Bach Ho offshore fields starting in 1987.
Russian defense assistance to Vietnam also has a long history. The Soviet Union became North Vietnam's primary benefactor in 1965 amid Hanoi's widening split with Beijing, culminating in China's full withdrawal of assistance to Vietnam in 1968. In 1979, the Soviets established a naval base at Cam Ranh Bay in response to China's invasion of Vietnam and its proxy war in Cambodia.
Moscow's Renewed Interest
In 2001, Putin made his first visit to Vietnam, ending a post-Soviet lapse in Russo-Vietnamese relations. During the visit, the countries established a strategic partnership, and Putin's 2006 visit further strengthened the two countries' relationship. In 2012, the countries upgraded their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership, and Russia invited Vietnam to join its Customs Union. Most recently, on Nov. 12, Putin signed 27 bilateral agreements on energy and defense cooperation during another visit to Hanoi.
In addition to helping establish a Southeast Asian market for Russian energy exports, Moscow's recent moves will also strengthen Vietnam as a counter against China's growing influence to Russia's south. This is why Moscow's deals with Hanoi over the past several years have focused on energy and defense. In 2009, Russia sold Vietnam six Kilo-class submarines, with two to be delivered in 2012 and four more by 2016. In 2011, Russia delivered two Gepard-class frigates to Vietnam, which then ordered two more in September. During his recent visit, Putin suggested that Russia would begin manufacturing military technology in Vietnam and would sign an accord on training and weapons deals.
Meanwhile, Vietnam's appetite for energy is indeed increasing. The country's annual gross domestic product has grown by an average of 6.95 percent since 2000, while oil consumption grew from 176,000 barrels per day in 2000 to 388,000 barrels per day in 2012, with annual growth expected to continue at a rate exceeding 6 percent through 2020. Natural gas consumption is also outpacing gross domestic product growth and production levels. It is expected to reach 3 billion cubic meters per year by 2015, 6 bcm by 2020 and 15 bcm by 2025.
During Putin's visit and the flurry of business meetings beforehand, Russian and Vietnamese firms struck deals on liquefied natural gas, oil sales and energy exploration. Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom acquired a 49 percent stake in Vietnam's sole oil refinery at Dong Quat and contracted to expand its capacity by 50 percent to some 200,000 barrels per day by 2015. More important, Gazprom contracted to begin to supply oil to the refinery through Russia's Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline -- around 60,000 barrels per day initially, with the goal of ramping up to 120,000 barrels per day by 2018. Previously, all of Vietnam's crude imports had come from the Middle East.
Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft also became a strategic partner in Vietnam's Nhon Hoi mega-refinery project, which is set to produce an estimated 600,000 barrels per day, though it has been plagued with delays and questions about its viability. Rosneft also plans to acquire a minority stake in an offshore oil block and has expressed interested in another block in the disputed South China Sea. Meanwhile, PetroVietnam, Vietnam's state-owned petrochemical company, acquired the right to explore in Russia's Pechora Sea in Siberia. Gazprom -- which began exploring for natural gas in the South China Sea in 2009 and began pumping from two blocks in October -- plans to supply Vietnam with liquefied natural gas from its planned Vladivostok project. This could supply Vietnam's two planned regasification terminals at Thi Vai (which will have a capacity of 1.38 bcm by 2014) and Son My (4.14 bcm by 2018).
Vietnam's Appeal
Vietnamese energy growth could help Russia expand its export portfolio elsewhere in Asia. Incidentally, with more options in Southeast Asia, Russia will become more capable of leveraging its options to secure deals with major Northeast Asian consumers. At the moment, no single market rivals China, but a combination of countries -- including Japan, South Korea and those in Southeast Asia -- could provide a comparable alternative.
Vietnamese domestic energy demand is only part of the story. Russian assistance with energy and defense will also bolster Vietnam's ability to resist Chinese influence and protect vital sea routes. Russian defense assistance has come in the form of naval technology, and its energy assistance has pushed into blocks in the South China Sea, where Vietnam (along with the Philippines) has been arguing with China about sovereignty. Disputed hydrocarbon blocks in the Nam Con Son basin have been an issue in the disagreements. China National Petroleum Corp. attempted to auction these blocks in September 2012, but Gazprom's recent exploration and drilling operations, which Rosneft could join, have supported Vietnam's claims. The dispute presents an opportunity for Moscow, which could use its relationship with Vietnam as a negotiating tool to slow China's advance into Russia's periphery in Central Asia.
Read more: Russia Strengthens Ties With Vietnam | Stratfor
1b)The Complexity of the Sunni-Shia Divide
Sunni and Shia represent the two main sects of Islam. The sectarian divide has its origins dating back to the earliest days of Islam, following the death of Prophet Mohammed in 632.
At the time it was a political split on who should be the Prophet’s successor. The choice was between his closest lieutenant, Abu Bakr, and his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. Those who agreed on the latter went on to be known as Shia, and those who were in favor of the former became the Sunnis.
In essence, Sunnis believe in the caliph, who is decided upon by consensus of Muslims, while the Shiites believe in the imam, who is divinely ordained and has to be from the family of the Prophet.
Since then (and after the founding of Iran), Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran have been locked in a competition for the leadership in the Middle East. The struggle is not purely religious but also geopolitical, and in the middle is the United States trying to keep a balance in the region.
While Washington doesn’t favor one over the other, it has recently changed its strategy with its longtime rival, Iran, and in turn has upset its regional ally, Saudi Arabia. The United States wants to use Iran and its Shiite allies to keep Sunni radicalism in check, but it’s also cooperating with moderate Salafist-jihadists to prevent Iran from taking a preponderant role in the region.
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Sunni and Shia represent the two main sects of Islam. The sectarian divide has its origins dating back to the earliest days of Islam, following the death of Prophet Mohammed in 632.
At the time it was a political split on who should be the Prophet’s successor. The choice was between his closest lieutenant, Abu Bakr, and his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. Those who agreed on the latter went on to be known as Shia, and those who were in favor of the former became the Sunnis.
In essence, Sunnis believe in the caliph, who is decided upon by consensus of Muslims, while the Shiites believe in the imam, who is divinely ordained and has to be from the family of the Prophet.
Since then (and after the founding of Iran), Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran have been locked in a competition for the leadership in the Middle East. The struggle is not purely religious but also geopolitical, and in the middle is the United States trying to keep a balance in the region.
While Washington doesn’t favor one over the other, it has recently changed its strategy with its longtime rival, Iran, and in turn has upset its regional ally, Saudi Arabia. The United States wants to use Iran and its Shiite allies to keep Sunni radicalism in check, but it’s also cooperating with moderate Salafist-jihadists to prevent Iran from taking a preponderant role in the region.
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2)STELLA AWARDS:
It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'! For those
unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck
who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New
Mexico , where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the
coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever
think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards
for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds
of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.
unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck
who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New
Mexico , where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the
coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever
think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards
for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds
of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.
Here are the Stellas for year -- 2012:
* SEVENTH PLACE *
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a
jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was
running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably
surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son
running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably
surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son
Start scratching!
* SIXTH PLACE *
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus
medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord.
Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when
he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when
he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Scratch some more...
* FIFTH PLACE *
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania , who was leaving a
house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson,
the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage
door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door
connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced
to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a
large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming
undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay
Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish Keep
scratching. There are more...
the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage
door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door
connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced
to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a
large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming
undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay
Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish Keep
scratching. There are more...
Double hand scratching after this one..
* FOURTH PLACE *
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place
in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being
bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle
was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he
asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the
time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the
yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle
was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he
asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the
time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the
yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..
* THIRD PLACE *
Amber Carson of Lancaster , Pennsylvania because a jury
ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a
spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on
the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during
an argument.
ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a
spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on
the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during
an argument.
Only two more so ease up on the scratching...
*SECOND PLACE*
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night
club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor,
knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak
through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the
jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental
expenses. Go figure.
knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak
through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the
jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental
expenses. Go figure.
Ok. Here we go!!
Oh Brother, can you believe this?
* FIRST PLACE *
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs.
Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased new 32-foot
Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having
driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mphand calmly left
the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a
sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and
overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not
putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's
seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you
sitting down?
Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having
driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mphand calmly left
the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a
sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and
overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not
putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's
seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you
sitting down?
$1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed
their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any
relatives who might also buy a motor home.
their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any
relatives who might also buy a motor home.
COURT System, out of control?
Hell, this entire country, if not the world, is out of control!!
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3)John Kerry Is Israel's Best Friend
By Jeffrey Goldberg
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gave a passionately pro-Israel speech this past weekend at the Saban Forum in Washington. On matters concerning Israel’s security, its international legitimacy and its demographic future, he showed himself to be a true friend. There are people in Israel -- there were people at the Willard Hotel, where Kerry gave the speech, in fact -- who did not consider this speech pro-Israel, but they are deluding themselves.
Kerry proved a couple of things. First, while he is more than capable of loose-cannoning his way across the Middle East, and while he is on occasion alarmingly optimistic about a range of issues that don't warrant optimism, he is also committed, in a bone-deep way, to Israel’s well-being. He is an exemplar of a slowly vanishing type of Democratic Party leader, someone with great, and uncomplicated, affection for the promise of Zionism.
Second, while it may be true that Kerry is seeking a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on Israel-Palestine conciliation, he's also working for something that most Jews, in Israel and around the world, desperately want -- a secure Israel with internationally recognized borders that becomes an honored member of the family of nations, rather than a target of never-ending opprobrium.
The setting for this speech, the forum's keynote address, was extraordinary, and not only because President Barack Obama had appeared at the forum earlier in the day as a kind of inadvertent warm-up act. (In the interest of disclosure, I moderated a panel on the Iranian nuclear controversy, not for pay, but because I was looking to give myself a headache.) Five Israeli cabinet ministers were in Kerry’s audience -- including the foreign minister, the dyspeptic revanchist Avigdor Lieberman (who tried to win over the audience the previous night, without much success) -- along with many senior figures in the Israeli security establishment. Also in attendance were a number of Israel’s most prominent overseas supporters, first and foremost Haim Saban himself. Saban is the Israeli-American billionaire behind the Saban Center (which is part of the Brookings Institution), who has become perhaps the central figure trying to bridge the various divides between Israel and the U.S.
Much of Kerry’s speech was taken up with a by-now traditional, and not overly persuasive, defense of the Obama administration’s approach to Iran. I’ll deal with that later (not that I haven’t dealt with itover and over again). But I was struck by his remarks on the peace process. Kerry appeared confident about the chance for at least preliminary success in the ongoing talks. (Speculation at the conference was that he had some sort of agreement in his pocket already that he couldn’t share.) He also pulled back the curtain a bit on a brilliant jiu-jitsu move of his devising.
Right-wing Israeli politicians consistently argue that pulling out of the West Bank will endanger Israel’s security (just as pulling out of Gaza hurt its security in some important ways). Kerry is confronting this fear head on by overseeing an assessment led by retired Marine Corps General John Allen -- the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan -- of Israeli security requirements; the hope is to devise a system that will make the West Bank’s border with Jordan “as strong as any in the world.” If Kerry manages to neutralize the Israeli government’s arguments against a West Bank pullback by building, with Israel, an impregnable security system, he'll make real inroads with pro-compromise, but skeptical, Israelis.
Kerry was at his most emotional -- and yes, pro-Israel -- when he described the benefits of peace and when he warned of what would happen to Israel if it continued to settle land that needs to become part of the new state of Palestine for that state to be viable. “Just think of how much more secure Israel would be if it were integrated into a regional security architecture and surrounded by newfound partners,” Kerry said. “Think of an end to the unjust but also inexorable campaign to delegitimize Israel in the international community.”
The word “inexorable” is key. Much of the Saban meeting was off-the-record, so I am limited in what I can say, but many of the Israeli participants I spoke to seemed worried, in ways I hadn’t noticed before, about the international delegitimization campaign targeting their country -- economic boycotts in Europe, the beginnings of an academic boycott in the U.S. The leaders of the movement to delegitimize Israel are committed to the country’s destruction; no West Bank compromise will spur advocates of an anti-Israel boycott to stop hating the idea of a Jewish national home. But this anti-Israel movement gains strength and support by focusing not on its real complaint -- Israel’s existence itself -- but on Israel’s behavior on the West Bank. End the occupation, and the delegitimization movement loses much of its energy.
Kerry also spoke strongly about a related issue: The demographic challenge to Israel’s existence as a haven for the Jewish people and as a democracy if it holds onto the West Bank and its Palestinians indefinitely. This demographic dynamic, he said, “makes it impossible for Israel to preserve its future as a democratic, Jewish state without resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a two-state solution.”
Kerry went on, “Force cannot defeat or defuse the demographic time bomb. Israel’s current state of relative security and prosperity does not change the fact that today’s status quo will not be tomorrow’s or the future’s. The only way to secure Israel’s long-term future and security will be achieved through direct negotiations that separate Palestinians and Israelis, resolve the refugee situation, end all claims, and establish an independent, viable Palestinian state, and achieve recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.”
Kerry had appropriately tough words for Israeli politicians -- including those seated in the front row -- who argue that Palestinians can trust Israel, but Israel cannot trust the Palestinians. “President Abbas has made tough choices and he has stayed the course, despite people in his team saying, ‘You ought to get out of here, look at those settlements. They’re making a fool of you.’ Believe me, that battle’s been going on, because I deal with it every week.”
The conclusion that I drew from this, and other passages, is that Kerry is so anti-settlement precisely because he is so pro-Israel. I ran this conclusion, and others, by one of Israel’s most influential journalists, Ari Shavit (the author of the current best-seller, “My Promised Land”) who was also in the room for Kerry’s talk. “All my doubts have not melted away, but I was moved by the commitment, dedication and compassion the secretary presented,” Shavit said.
Kerry’s speech was neither overly cerebral nor cold, even in its moments of criticism. Some of his Middle East policy ideas may be flawed (I’ve avoided discussing Syria here, in case you haven't noticed), but he has an acute understanding of the existential challenges facing Israel, and he gave the speech of a man who would consider Israel’s disappearance a tragedy.
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4) David Stockman: Budget Agreement 'a Joke and Betrayal
Former White House budget director David Stockman has harsh criticism for the budget agreement reached by congressional Democrats and Republicans Tuesday, saying it does nothing to address our debt problem.
"It's a joke and betrayal," he told CNBC. "It's the final surrender of the House Republican leadership to beltway politics and to kicking the can and ignoring this budget monster that's hurtling down the road. They're busting the caps, and it's totally unnecessary."Stockman doesn't like the $63 billion of spending added for the next two years with an extension of a Medicare spending cut through 2022 and 2023 to offset the move.
"They're going to pretend to save it in '22 and '23, way, way down the road," Stockman argued. "They've not only kicked the can down the road, but kicked it into low-earth orbit."
Defense spending was set to total $600 billion under the automatic spending cuts (sequester), before the congressional agreement, he noted. "We can easily live with that. Prior to the Bush wars, we had $400 billion in defense spending in today's real dollars — 50 percent more, and they can't live with it?"
Domestic spending was slated for $580 billion before the congressional accord. "Bill Clinton left with $400 billion in today's dollars. . . . There's plenty of room, but they're unwilling to make the tough choices," Stockman added.
"I understand Democrats doing that. The only hope of getting our fiscal situation under control is if the House Republicans stand up, and they've totally capitulated."
The way the political calendar works, the debt burden won't see any major shrinkage before 2018 or 2019, he asserted.
Tuesday's budget agreement would run through Sept. 30, 2015. Then comes the presidential election. "There's not a chance anything will be done about the fiscal equation, which is festering, until 2017," Stockman said.
"And if you get around to addressing it, you can't have an impact until 2018 or 2019. Now, who thinks we can wait that long? We have $17 trillion of debt now. Just by the momentum built in, it will be $25 trillion after the next presidential election."
But many Republicans support the budget accord. "I believe it'll get a majority of the majority" of House Republicans and a hefty total of Democratic votes, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said after a Capitol Hill briefing, Bloomberg reported.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, took out after conservative groups that are fighting the deal. "They're using our members, and they're using the American people for their own goals, this is ridiculous," he said, according to Bloomberg. "If you're for more deficit reduction, you're for this agreement."
4a) PAUL RYAN'S PROPOSED BUDGET CUTS
A List of Republican Budget Cuts
Notice S.S. and the military are NOT on this list.
These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting. Read to the end.
* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.
* Save America 's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.
* International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.
* Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.
* Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.
* Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
* U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.
* Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.
* Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.
* John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.
* Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.
* Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.
* Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings
* Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.
* Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.
* Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.
* Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings..
* Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.
* Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.
* New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.
* Save America 's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.
* International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.
* Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.
* Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.
* Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
* U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.
* Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.
* Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.
* John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.
* Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.
* Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.
* Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings
* Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.
* Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.
* Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.
* Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings..
* Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.
* Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.
* New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.
* Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings
* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
* Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.
* Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings.
* Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.
* Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.
* Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.
* Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings..
* Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.
*Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.
* U.S.Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.
* General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.
* Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.
*Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.
* No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.
* End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
* Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.
* IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
*Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings. WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?
* Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
* Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.
*Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress. WHAT???
* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.
*Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savings.WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL
* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
* Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.
* Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings.
* Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.
* Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.
* Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.
* Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings..
* Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.
*Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.
* U.S.Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.
* General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.
* Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.
*Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.
* No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.
* End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
* Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.
* IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
*Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings. WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?
* Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
* Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.
*Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress. WHAT???
* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.
*Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savings.WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL
* Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.
* USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.
* Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.
* Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.
*Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.
* Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings..
* HUD Ph.D. Program.
* Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
*TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years
* USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.
* Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.
* Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.
*Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.
* Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings..
* HUD Ph.D. Program.
* Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
*TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years
My question is, what is all this doing in the budget in the first place?
- 4b)CORRUPTION, USA: CREEPING OBAMACARE AND
Our DANGEROUSLY UNCONTROLLED HOME-BASED PIANO
TEACHERS
By Stella Paul
Congratulations to New Zealand and Demark, which the 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index just ranked the least corrupt countries on earth. That distinction bodes well for their sheep-shearing, Lego-making citizens, who can expect stability and numerous opportunities for investment and growth.
Meanwhile, the U.S. also got some “good news,” namely that we rank as less corrupt than Qatar and Burkina Faso. On the other hand, the U.S. lags Iceland and Luxembourg, and merely tied with Uruguay for a mediocre 19th place. Come on, guys, is this really the best we can do? Shouldn’t the U.S.A. be number one, the least corrupt nation on earth?
Corruption kills fiscal growth and, right now, the American economic garden is wilting. Think of corruption like a kuzdu weed, strangling new growth with bribes, kickbacks and cronyism.
As history keeps reminding us, government corruption is the ultimate prosperity killer. Like kudzu on steroids, venal government uses coercion to smother economic seedlings and divert resources to its own, ever-spreading roots.
Here’s a vivid example: Obamacare. Will we ever know how much money the scandal-plagued Affordable Care Act has snatched from the private sector? The website alone has already cost taxpayers over $1 billion dollars, yet fails to provide even the most basic security for users. As Leeb’s Market Forecast previously reported, the Canada-based Obamacare website contractor CGI has a long record of expensive flops. Alas, it also reportedly has insider ties to Michelle Obama and White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett.
And the website is just the billion-dollar façade of Obamacare’s resource-grabbing operations. Did you know, Obamacare created 50 new state databases with the sole function of collecting contact information for Medicaid applicants and automatically sending them voter registration forms? If reports are correct, applicants need provide no real documentation to get a voter form; If so, why, it’s almost the same as if the Obamacare writers intended to open a vast window for wholesale voter deception.
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