===
The basis of my concerns.
.jpg)
<.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
a
Famous Presidents and Their Lies:
LBJ:
We were attacked (in the Gulf of Tonkin)
Nixon
I am not a crook
Clinton:
I did not have sex with that woman... Miss Lewinski
Bush - 41:
Read my lips - No new taxes
Obama:
I will have the most transparent administration in history.
TARP is to fund shovel-ready jobs.
I am focused like a laser on creating jobs.
The IRS is not targeting anyone.
It was a spontaneous riot about a movie.
If I had a son.
I will put an end to the type of politics that "breeds division, conflict and cynicism".
You didn't build that!
I will restore trust in Government.
The Cambridge cops acted stupidly.
The public will have 5 days to look at every bill that lands on my desk
It's not my red line - it is the world's red line.
Whistle blowers will be protected in my administration.
We got back every dime we used to rescue the banks and auto companies, with interest.
I am not spying on American citizens.
ObamaCare will be good for America
You can keep your family doctor.
Premiums will be lowered by $2500.
If you like it, you can keep your current healthcare plan
It's just like shopping at Amazon
I knew nothing about "Fast and Furious" gunrunning to Mexican drug cartels
I knew nothing about IRS targeting conservative groups
I knew nothing about what happened in Benghazi
And the biggest one of all:
TARP is to fund shovel-ready jobs.
I am focused like a laser on creating jobs.
The IRS is not targeting anyone.
It was a spontaneous riot about a movie.
If I had a son.
I will put an end to the type of politics that "breeds division, conflict and cynicism".
You didn't build that!
I will restore trust in Government.
The Cambridge cops acted stupidly.
The public will have 5 days to look at every bill that lands on my desk
It's not my red line - it is the world's red line.
Whistle blowers will be protected in my administration.
We got back every dime we used to rescue the banks and auto companies, with interest.
I am not spying on American citizens.
ObamaCare will be good for America
You can keep your family doctor.
Premiums will be lowered by $2500.
If you like it, you can keep your current healthcare plan
It's just like shopping at Amazon
I knew nothing about "Fast and Furious" gunrunning to Mexican drug cartels
I knew nothing about IRS targeting conservative groups
I knew nothing about what happened in Benghazi
And the biggest one of all:
"I, Barrack Hussein Obama, pledge to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America."
===
In my last memo dated 12/12 I chose not to comment on a positive Perry posting because I wanted you to draw your own conclusions.What concerns me is that the radical left have a constant hard on for Israel and because of this Perry is suggesting that in order for Israel to redeem its rightful place among respected nations it must do more, take bigger risks, make great concessions to Palestinian demands.
Yet, in the case of Iran we basically extracted very little from this rogue nation, are allowing them to continue with their centrifuge routine for six months and then claim we will reimpose harsh sanctions if they do not bend.
When I remind myself of Obama's toughness all I see is a premature withdrawal from Iraq, cutting the ground out from Mubarak and appeasing The Muslim Brotherhood, taking a back seat in Libya and not even defending our own people in our own Embassy, red line drawing vis a vis Syria, a message to Putin to 'wait til I am re-elected so I can be more accommodating,' a do nothing attitude towards N Korea and when we leave Afghan no doubt, within a short period, the Taliban will be in control and that is just the most glaring examples of Obama foreign policy fecklessness.
So when Perry acts tough on Israel, stating he is doing so in its own behalf and for its own good he might be sincere but this type of behaviour follows a pattern I find disturbing at best.
Now draw your own conclusions and then we have the article by Norman Podhoretz who wrote "WW4," which I read, found compelling and reviewed several years ago.(See 1and 1a below.)
Israel and the rest of the world! It's a rap!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
===
This from a dear friend, a very smart and successful businessman who fled his former country and loves this country and the opportunity it gave him and his family. His comments do not fall in the category of sour grapes because he can buy and sell me ten times over. they are because of his genuine concern that the American Dream which he is living may not be there for others.
"Subj: Small businesses discuss the problems a rising minimum wage poses for their companies.
If you cannot raise prices, how long before you cannot open your doors? This is what this President and the democratic party are bringing to America. The collateral damage of Barack Obama to businesses and families and rubber stamped by the taken over liberal left wing democratic party will undermine the very core that built this nation. There is a slow but steady erosion of jobs, hope and despair growing. In our area a Sams Warehouse closed 4 years ago, has sat empty until 6 months ago, now Second Harvest Food Bank has taken it over and has 6 times the space it had and cannot get the food out and dispersed fast enough. That is Obama's legacy, that is Obama's America and just wait to see how work poor and work inexperienced the under 30 youth of America is soon. There are no jobs, there is not a work ethic developing and most businesses are maxed out and surviving barely on the lowest margins of all time. Click where it says WSJ.com and get a glimpse of the result of Obama's America. Detroit is not just an old now small town in Michigan that died, the disease has no immunity with this leadership in America.
Frankly, any vote for any democrat in 2014 is a vote of utter stupidity !" (See 2 below.)
===
Israel's Defense Minister warns America, Iran is building a terrorist force in South America.. (See 3 below.)
Wacko Washington? (See 3a below.)
Was Obama ever anything but a media myth? (Se 3b below.)
===
DickIsrael's Defense Minister warns America, Iran is building a terrorist force in South America.. (See 3 below.)
Wacko Washington? (See 3a below.)
Was Obama ever anything but a media myth? (Se 3b below.)
===
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1)Norman Podhoretz Urges Israel to Strike Iran
Conservative commentator Norman Podhoretz has urged Israel to make a pre-emptive strike against Iran.
In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Podhoretz claims that the result of a nuclear war between the two nations would be "far worse than any imaginable consequences of an Israeli conventional strike today."
Podhoretz said that by attacking now Israel has the opportunity "to put at least a temporary halt, and conceivably even a permanent one, to the relentless Iranian quest for the bomb."
Last month the U.S and five other world powers agreed on a temporary six-month deal to lift a limited number of economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for the country cutting back on its nuclear program by stopping uranium enrichment.
However, Podhoretz said, "The Obama administration tells us that the interim agreement puts Iran on a track that will lead to the abandonment of its quest for a nuclear arsenal. But the Iranians are jubilant because they know that the only abandonment going on is of our own effort to keep them from getting the bomb."
Ruled by fanatical Shiite mullahs, Iran has vowed to wipe its historical enemy Israel off the map while calling it a "cancer." Although Iran has repeatedly claimed that its enrichment facilities are not aimed at creating a nuclear weapon, Podhoretz maintains its leadership is "lying," and suggest that an Iran armed with atomic bombs is inevitable.
He said, "Adherents of the new consensus would have us believe that only two choices remain: a war to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons or containment of a nuclear Iran — with containment the only responsible option.
"I remain convinced that containment is impossible, from which it follows that the two choices before us are not war vs. containment but a conventional war now or a nuclear war later."
Podhoretz pointed out in his Wall Street Journal opinion piece that it is very unlikely that President Barack Obama "would ever take" military action against Iran even if they become a nuclear power.
He adds, "The only hope rests with Israel. If, then, Israel fails to strike now, Iran will get the bomb. And when it does, the Israelis will be forced to decide whether to wait for a nuclear attack and then to retaliate out of the rubble, or to pre-empt with a nuclear strike of their own.
"But the Iranians will be faced with the same dilemma. Under these unprecedentedly hair-trigger circumstances, it will take no time before one of them tries to beat the other to the punch."
1a)Why Isn't Kerry Listening to What the Radicals Are Saying?
By Khaled Abu Toameh
Kerry needs to listen to what Hamas and other groups are saying in Arabic.
Hamas is not the only Palestinian party that would reject any U.S.-sponsored agreement. Most of the Palestinian groups…have already expressed theiwww.qudspress.com/r opposition to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pursues his efforts to reach a peace agreement between the Palestinian Authority [PA] leadership and Israel, Hamas reaffirmed that it would not honor any deal that does not meet its goals.
The Hamas announcement serves as a reminder that any US-brokered deal between Israel and the PA will not mean the end of the conflict.
In fact, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is not in a position to sign any document that calls for an end to the conflict with Israel.
Abbas has no control over the Gaza Strip, which has been under the rule of Hamas since the summer of 2007. Any agreement he signs with Israel would only apply to those areas under the control of the PA, in the West Bank or territories handed over to him by Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sits with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan, on June 28, 2013. (Image source: U.S. State Department)
Hamas is not the only Palestinian party that would reject any U.S.-sponsored agreement. Most of the PLO groups, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have already expressed their opposition to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
This is in addition to other radical Palestinian groups that do not belong to the PLO, first and foremost Islamic Jihad.
“The Palestinians are not bound by any agreement that results from the current negotiations [between Israel and the PA] and which harm Palestinian rights,” said Hamas's top leader in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Zahar. “The Palestinian negotiators have no legitimacy and are not authorized to speak on behalf of the Palestinians.”
Zahar claimed that Abbas and his Fatah faction were negotiating with Israel only because of American pressure and to ensure continued Western funding for the Palestinian Authority.
Even senior Fatah officials seem to agree with Zahar's assessment. Over the past few months, some of these officials, such as Sufian Abu Zaida, Hussam Khader and Mohammed Dahlan, have not hesitated to come out in public against the peace talks and any future agreement with Israel.
Given Hamas' announcement that it would not honor or recognize any deal signed between the PA and Israel, Kerry needs to take into account that any peace agreement will not put an end to the conflict.
In the future, Hamas and the other rejectionist groups will say that Abbas did not have a mandate from his people to sign an agreement with Israel.
“The Palestinians have reached a level of awareness where they would not allow anyone to decide their fate,” Zahar explained, referring to the ongoing negotiations between the PA and Israel. “The talks are continuing and if we don't do anything now, we could end up with an Oslo Two Accord.”
Hamas and its Palestinian allies will in any case never accept Israel's right to exist. So even if Abbas today gets 100% of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem to establish a Palestinian state, Hamas, which represents a substantial part of the Palestinian population, will continue to fight to “liberate the rest of Palestine.”
As Zahar stated, “Our battle is not outside Palestine. Rather, it is inside Palestine. Our program is to liberate Palestine.”
Kerry needs to listen to these voices and take them into account as he continues to talk about a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. It is not enough to listen to what Abbas and chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat are telling him in English. Kerry needs to listen to what Hamas and other groups are saying in Arabic.
2)
| ||||||||
 Finally, some good news for Detroit…As longtime readers know, the city of Detroit is one of our favorite cautionary tales… It's an ongoing example of what happens when the government's efforts to redistribute wealth fail. Detroit, once one of the most prosperous cities in America, filed for bankruptcy protection on July 18. And in case you've missed it… this bastion of political scandal, socialism, and malinvestment got the OK to walk away from many of the obligations that have been weighing it down. We've been following the decline of the city for years – and how its collapse is a microcosm of what is happening to the U.S. It's some of the best, and most controversial, editorial we've produced.Porter's (Stansberry) original essay appeared in the October 28, 2009 Digest. And he wrote another essay following the news of Detroit's bankruptcy in the July 26, 2013 Digest. As Porter wrote in July…
And then… Porter described how 1960 changed everything for Detroit…
So what's the good news?On December 3, Judge Steven Rhodes ruled Detroit could shed billions of dollars of debt by reducing the amount the city owes to unions, pension funds, and retirees. "This once proud and prosperous city can't pay its debts. It's insolvent. It's eligible for bankruptcy," Rhodes said when announcing his decision. "At the same time, it also has an opportunity for a fresh start." Rhodes ruled that pensions can be cut… And he said a provision in the Michigan Constitution protecting pensions may not stand up in bankruptcy. He's upholding the contract.Detroit is $18 billion in the hole… And its pensions are underfunded by $3.5 billion. The ability to cut pensions is a potential fresh start for the city. Of course, the unions are aghast.Following the ruling, Sharon Levine, an attorney for the city's largest union (representing half the city's workers), said the labor organization would appeal the decision and that city officials got "absolutely everything." "It's a huge loss for the city of Detroit," Levine said. To the contrary…Creditors were vindicated for the sins of the General Motors bankruptcy. The government bailout of GM didn't bail out the company… It rescued the union – the United Auto Workers. GM went bankrupt primarily because it couldn't make a profit building cars… And the main reason it couldn't was because its labor costs were too high. The competition, whose labor costs were a fraction of GM's, crushed them. When GM entered bankruptcy, it owed $20 billion to the trust established to pay health care for its retired workers. And its pension program was underfunded by $30 billion. In short, the government gave GM a $50 billion bailout. Bondholders (who sit ahead of pensions in the credit structure) were nearly wiped out. Taxpayers lost $25 billion. Meanwhile, the unions recovered 93% of what was owed to them. It was a boondoggle. Judge Rhodes' ruling in the Detroit case could be a major milestone… Imagine, actually upholding a contract and honoring the original deal that was made with creditors in the case of a bankruptcy. We hope the precedent sticks. I asked Retirement Millionaire editor Dr. David "Doc" Eifrig, who is bullish on municipal bonds (those issued by state and local governments), what he thought of the ruling… and how it could influence municipal finance.
Doc said he believes the ruling will restore some confidence in the municipal-bond market… The fact that the judge upheld the seniority of bondholders' claims adds certainty.
|
By Joel Himelfarb -
Iran has developed a terrorist infrastructure in the Western Hemisphere to target local Jews and gain the capability of attacking the United States, according to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon.
Yaalon warned that Tehran, which works closely with the Lebanese Shiite jihadist group Hezbollah, uses diplomatic cover to conceal its efforts to foment terror in Latin America, the Times of Israel reported.
Yaalon warned that Tehran, which works closely with the Lebanese Shiite jihadist group Hezbollah, uses diplomatic cover to conceal its efforts to foment terror in Latin America, the Times of Israel reported.
“The Iranians use diplomatic mail [pouches] in order to transport bombs and weapons, and we know that there are states in South America, like Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, where the Iranians have terror bases, both in the embassies and among the local Shiite Muslim populations,” Yaalon said.
“They built this infrastructure for the eventuality that they will have to act against Jews, Israelis or Israeli interests, but it is important to them as an infrastructure that enables them to act within the United States,” he added during a meeting on Monday with visiting Guatemalan President Otto Fernando Perez Molina.
Yaalon pointed to the foiled Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington. In June, a federal judge sentenced Manssour Arbabsiar, 58, an Iranian American who pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme, to 25 years imprisonment, according to the Times of Israel.
Prosecutors said Arbabsiar tried to recruit someone he thought was a Mexican drug cartel operative to bomb a Washington restaurant frequented by Saudi Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir.
But the supposed cartel member was actually an undercover federal agent, and Arbabsiar was arrested in September 2011. He admitted to conspiring with members of the Iranian military in putting the assassination plot together, according to CNN.
In August, the Washington Post reported that U.S. and Latin American intelligence officials said that Tehran sought to recruit Latin Americans for espionage operations targeting U.S. computer systems.
In May, a report by an Argentinean prosecutor said Iran was using cultural and religious programs as a cover for gaining the ability to provide support for “terrorist attacks decided by the Islamic regime.”
The report highlighted the work of Mohsen Rabbani, an Iranian cleric and government official who runs programs for Latin American students in Iran, according to the Post.
Rabbani, who helped start Iran’s largest Spanish-language website, was accused by Argentina of aiding the July 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.
3a)Into The Fray: Wacko in Washington
By Martin Sherman -
I ask you to imagine what a two-state solution will mean for Israel, Palestine, Jordan and the region. Imagine what it would mean for trade and for tourism – what it would mean for developing technology and talent, and for future generations of Israeli and Palestinian children. Imagine Israel and its neighbors as an economic powerhouse in the region. – John Kerry, US secretary of state, Saban Forum, December 7.
Enough is enough. At some stage there must be a limit to the verbal garbage – I resist the strong temptation to employ a somewhat coarser epithet – that one can be subjected to before giving vent to pent-up exasperation and outrage.
A spade is still a spade.
Of late, this limit has been breached with increasing frequency – particularly when the matter of the “Palestinian issue” is broached.
As the clock runs out on the viability of the so-called “two-state-solution,” efforts to sustain it have become increasingly desperate, bizarre and disingenuous.
The annual Saban Forum held in Washington over the weekend provided ample examples of this near-hysteria, thinly veiled by the niceties of diplomatic decorum and dialect, masquerading as far-sighted diplomacy and inspired statesmanship.
No dogma, however disproven, no folly, however farcical, no notion, however nonsensical was discarded.
They were all bandied about, with great fanfare, as if they comprised a bold, yet-untried vision of a new future for peace, prosperity and regional understanding – rather than a proven recipe for calamity.
But smooth semantics cannot transform frenetic fantasy into sound substance. Merely because one describes a spade as a “manually operated device whose principal function is the creation of elevation differentials on the surface of the earth” does not mean that a spade is anything more lofty or exalted than a spade.
Similarly, shying away from more earthy and abrasive expressions will not transform utter absurdities into pearls of wisdom, no matter who is articulating them and no matter how glittering the setting in which they do so.
So no matter how prominent and preeminent the participants at the Saban Forum were, what took place in Washington was, well… wacko.
Resuscitating zombies?
Arguably, by far the wackiest performance at this upmarket theater of the absurd was that of Secretary of State John Kerry, who omitted no opportunity to harness any bit of hogwash, no matter how hackneyed, in an endeavor to convince his audience that they should learn nothing from previous events.
Impervious to past failures, unmindful of present realities, and unmoved by future probabilities, he sallied forth, seemingly oblivious to – or purposefully ignoring – the policy train-wrecks that litter the Mideastern political landscape, prescribing that the same wildly improbable ideas that proved disastrous before be adopted again – under even more improbable conditions.
Regurgitating moronic – indeed oxymoronic – mantras, he advocates the patently preposterous precept that the key to regional tranquility and development is Israeli withdrawal to indefensible borders which, in his mind, will somehow miraculously make Israel “more secure.”
Listening to Kerry, it is difficult to avoid the eerie sensation of someone trying to breathe life into what was presumed long-dead – in the macabre belief that resurrected zombies can accomplish what their living predecessors failed to do.
Bordering on delirium?
In an exhortation bordering on delirium, he urged his audience: “Just think of how much more secure Israel would be if it were integrated into a regional security architecture and surrounded by newfound partners.” A regional security architecture? Really?
Could it be that the US secretary of state has been trapped in an Oslo-era time-warp? Has he been too busy to catch up on the news in recent years as to regional realities?
With turmoil in Egypt, carnage in Syria, brewing instability in Jordan, burgeoning terror in Iraq (to name but a few of the centers of tumult in Israel’s neighborhood), one can only puzzle over what “region” Kerry had in mind when envisioning his “security architecture”; and what “newfound partners” he thinks Israel might surround itself with to comprise the building blocks of his imagined edifice.
In a futile attempt to bend recalcitrant reality to futile fancy, he exhorted his audience to adopt wishful thinking as grand strategy, appealing: “I believe that if you indeed care about Israel, and everybody here does, if you care about its security, if you care about its future… we need to believe that peace is possible.”
See what I mean by desperate?
More than two decades after Oslo – after all the assumptions on which that ill-conceived and ill-considered process was based have been dramatically and definitively disproven – what might have been excused as exuberant naiveté can only be explained by moronic myopia or malevolent intent.
The return of the 'New Middle East'?
When it comes to the Mideast, bad ideas never die, no matter how implausible, improbable or impractical.
So long as they are compliant with precepts of political correctness, they are resurrected time and time again, in the forlorn hope that what failed before will later succeed – see “Zombies” above.
This certainly seems the case with the failed notion of a “New Middle East,” originally posited by Shimon Peres in wake of the post-Oslowian euphoria.
In broad brush strokes, it envisaged that a peace pact with Palestinians would provide the impetus for the establishment of an EU-like reality across the Mideast and North Africa, from Casablanca to Kuwait. It of course was shattered on the rocky regional realities and for years was considered a risible casualty of history, consigned to well-deserved obscurity in dusty archives.
But judging from the introductory excerpt from Kerry’s Saban Forum address, it has taken on a new lease on life. If only Israel would expose its coastal metropolis, its only international airport, its major seaports, its vital infrastructures (power, water and land transport systems), 80 percent of its civilian population and 80% of its commercial activity to the very weapons being used against it today, from territory handed over to Palestinian control in the past, then, miraculously, peace, prosperity and progress would suddenly blossom.
As implausible as this idea was in the dizzying days of the ‘90s, when there was a semblance of regional stability and a sense of US credibility and influence, today in the tectonic post-“Arab Spring” upheavals and accelerating erosion of America’s standing, any such notion is so detached from reality as to be borderline deranged.
It is difficult to know what would be more disconcerting, that the secretary of state of the United States believes the tripe he is disseminating, or he doesn’t, and is disseminating it anyway.
Invoking the wrong models
I could, of course, continue to dwell on the myriad ludicrous flaws, and glaring non sequiturs that pervade Kerry’s address, but his was not the only example of the wildly implausible that surfaced during the weekend Washington deliberations. The ideas conveyed by his boss, Barack Obama, during his interview by Forum’s sponsor, Haim Saban, made no more sense.
In response to Saban’s eminently cogent question as to what the value of a settlement with Mahmoud Abbas would be if Gaza, in which Abbas exerts no control, is not included.
Obama’s response: “If there is a model… even if initially it’s restricted to the West Bank… where young Palestinians in Gaza are looking and seeing that in the West Bank Palestinians are able to live in dignity, with self-determination, and suddenly their economy is booming and trade is taking place because they have created an environment in which Israel is confident about its security and a lot of the old barriers to commerce and educational exchange and all that has begun to break down, that’s something that the young people of Gaza are going to want.”
There are of course many criticisms that could be leveled at this response, which disregards the sequence of events that led to the present situation and ignores the causal mechanisms that produced the current realities in the “West Bank” and Gaza, but I will limit myself to one.
There is already a model in place for the Palestinians to take note of – but, sadly, it is the opposite of that proposed by Obama.
It is not some future theoretical model that the “West Bank” might one day comprise for the young Palestinians in Gaza. Rather, it is a very real, existing model – that which Gaza represents for the young Palestinians in the “West Bank.” It is a model that vividly illustrates to them what their fate is liable to be if Israel accepts the Obama/Kerry prescription and withdraws its forces.
I bet it is a model that scares the bejeezus out of many of them. Except of course for those who feel that it is a model to be emulated.
Like tossing a coin
Perhaps the most troubling aspects of Obama’s interview was his reference to the Iranian nuclear issue and the agreement recently reached with Tehran, which has drawn sharp criticism from even his closest devotees.
Disingenuously, he remarked, “I want to be very clear there’s nothing in this agreement or document that grants Iran a right to enrich.” But the overwhelming international interpretation – including that of Russia and Iran – is that it does.
This underscores the problematic (read “pernicious”) ambiguity in the newly signed pact and is an ominous harbinger of the difficulties that will be encountered in interpreting whether future Iranian behavior constitutes compliance with, or contravention of, its terms. It is indicative of the hurdles that will have to be overcome in reconstituting a united international front against Tehran, should any suspicion – however well-founded in US eyes– arise that it is in violation of its commitments.
Obama waxed optimistic: “It is my strong belief that we can envision a[n] end-state that gives us an assurance that even if they have some modest enrichment capability, it is so constrained and the inspections are so intrusive that they, as a practical matter, do not have breakout capacity…” But he then admits: “If you asked me what is the likelihood that we’re able to arrive at the end-state that I was just describing earlier, I wouldn’t say that it’s more than 50/50.”
So there you have it. On arguably the most crucial foreign policy issue for his country – and undoubtedly one of existential importance for Israel – the US president is blithely prepared to embark on a course that has at least a 50% chance of failure. Like betting on the toss of a coin. Can Washington get any more wacko than that?
Blueprint for a horrific future
There is much that has been left unsaid about the disastrous direction in which US foreign policy is headed. But even from the abbreviated critique that has been laid out above, one thing clearly emerges.
The agenda being aggressively advanced by Obama and Kerry is founded on myth and/or malice.
It is prolonging the conflict by propagating and perpetuating pernicious fictions and falsehoods.
History will prove it to be a blueprint for a horrific future – for Jews and Muslims alike.
3b)
Obama the oblivious
By Charles Krauthammer
In explaining the disastrous rollout of Obamacare, President Obama told Chris Matthewshe had discovered that “we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated, some of which are not designed properly.”
An interesting discovery to make after having consigned the vast universe of American medicine, one-sixth of the U.S. economy, to the tender mercies of the agency bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Internal Revenue Service.
Most people become aware of the hopeless inefficiency of sclerotic government by, oh, age 17 at the department of motor vehicles. Obama’s late discovery is especially remarkable considering that he built his entire political philosophy on the rock of Big Government, on the fervent belief in the state as the very engine of collective action and the ultimate source of national greatness. (Indeed, of individual success as well, as in “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”)
This blinding revelation of the ponderous incompetence of bureaucratic government came just a few weeks after Obama confessed that “what we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy.” Another light bulb goes off, this one three years after passing a law designed to force millions of Americans to shop for new health plans via the maze of untried, untested, insecure, unreliable online “exchanges.”
This discovery joins a long list that includes Obama’s rueful admission that there really are no shovel-ready jobs. That one cameafter having passed his monstrous $830 billion stimulus on the argument that the weakened economy would be “jump-started” by a massive infusion of shovel-ready jobs. Now known to be fictional.
Barack Obama is not just late to discover the most elementary workings of government. With alarming regularity, he professes obliviousness to the workings of his own government. He claims, for example, to have known nothing about theIRS targeting scandal, the AP phone records scandal, the NSA tapping of Angela Merkel. And had not a clue that the centerpiece of his signature legislative achievement — the online Obamacare exchange, three years in the making — would fail catastrophically upon launch. Or that Obamacare would cause millions of Americans to lose their private health plans.
Hence the odd spectacle of a president expressing surprise and disappointment in the federal government — as if he’s not the one running it. Hence the repeated no-one-is-more-upset-than-me posture upon deploring the nonfunctioning Web site, the IRS outrage, the AP intrusions and any number of scandals from which Obama tries to create safe distance by posing as an observer. He gives the impression of a man on a West Wing tour trying out the desk in the Oval Office, only to be told that he is president of the United States.
The paradox of this presidency is that this most passive bystander president is at the same time the most ideologically ambitious in decades. The sweep and scope of his health-care legislation alone are unprecedented. He’s spent billions of tax money attempting to create, by fiat and ex nihilo, a new green economy. His (failed) cap-and-trade bill would have given him regulatory control of the energy economy. He wants universal preschool and has just announced his unwavering commitment to slaying the dragon of economic inequality, which, like the poor, has always been with us.
Obama’s discovery that government bureaucracies don’t do things very well creates a breathtaking disconnect between his transformative ambitions and his detachment from the job itself. How does his Olympian vision coexist with the lassitude of his actual governance, a passivity that verges on absenteeism?
What bridges that gap is rhetoric. Barack Obama is a master rhetorician. It’s allowed him to move crowds, rise inexorably and twice win the most glittering prize of all. Rhetoric has changed his reality. For Obama, it can change the country’s. Hope and change, after all, is a rhetorical device. Of the kind Obama has always imagined can move mountains.
That’s why his reaction to the Obamacare Web site’s crash-on-takeoff is so telling. His remedy? A cross-country campaign-style speaking tour. As if rhetoric could repeal thatreality.
Managing, governing, negotiating, cajoling, crafting legislation, forging compromise. For these — this stuff of governance — Obama has shown little aptitude and even less interest. Perhaps, as Valerie Jarrett has suggested, he is simply too easily bored to invest his greatness in such mundanity.
“I don’t write code,” said Obama in reaction to the Web site crash. Nor is he expected to. He is, however, expected to run an administration that can.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment