A declaration of war is one of the first things I have read this dark morning. I’m sure there will be lots of important commentary on what happened to America yesterday, but here is a starter.
The President was right about one thing: The vote on Obamacare last night was a historic one.
The Democratic Party has in the course of the nine-month health care debate revealed itself to be an anti-democratic Party and an anti-liberty party. It is a party that has demonstrated its contempt for the Constitutional framework, for the democratic process, and for the expressed will of the American people. Its brazen contempt for the compact that holds the diverse factions of this country together has initiated a political war at home that will extend not only into the next elections but into the next generations that will be encumbered with the trillions in debt and oppressive government controls that the socialist majority in Congress has demonstrated that it is intent on inflicting on this country.
The people of this nation are still sovereign, and their voice will be heard. Last night’s vote was lost but it is not the end of the battle.
It is the beginning.
Visit the bookstore at David Horowitz’s Frontpage magazine and get your copies of the Art of Political War for Tea Parties, here.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the United socialist States of America! All you leftists out there, aren’t you just so damn giddy that your president and congress are “granting” you a “right” to healthcare? Not only are they undermining what the majority of the American people want, they are telling us what they think we need. Can you say Stalin? Mussolini? Hitler? Roosevelt? Wilson? FDR? I really hope you liberals are happy now, because I can guarantee you this won’t last. The American people will not put up with this nonsense.
These liberals in congress will not stop. The next ”right” they will ”grant” us is the “right” to become a legal resident after we come here illegally. Then we will have the “right” to green energy because we can’t afford our electric bill. Next comes our “right” to a job, after the government pays for our college, then excuses our debt if we take a position in public service. The fact is, the liberal/socialist agenda has no end in sight. There will never be enough. Their appetite is unsatiable. They are vampires. They feed off the blood and the greed of their egos. They could care less about their constituents, much less the will of the American people. Power is what they care about.
And power is precisely what We The People will strip them of this November. We will take them to war. Our battlefield will be our respective precincts and our polling places. Our weapon of choice will be our collective voices, rising up to the threat of tyranny, and our battle cry will be that which has been handed down throughout the ages of all free people: “FREEEEEEDOOOOOOMMM!!” To those of you who couldn’t hear that, I said freedom.
I have said it before and I will say it again, Congress is a rotten, stinking corpse. It is no wonder that it currently has the lowest approval rating of all time. This week more ridiculous legislation was introduced in that body that will only make our lives worst. The bipartisan bill that was introduced would punish any country that practices currency manipulation as an unfair trade subsidy. It would give President Obama the ability to impose retaliatory protectionist measures to level the playing field. Of course, the impetus for the legislation is China’s alleged undervaluing of its currency, the yuan, in order to support Chinese exports to other countries.
Now, it’s funny, how the legislation comes in an election year when there is a very strong anti-incumbent mood amongst the electorate. Many Americans who have lost their jobs in this depression are naturally fixated on statements from Washington dealing with job creation. So as not to disappoint, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer was quoted as saying, “”There is no bigger step that we can take to promote job creation here in the US than to confront Chinese currency manipulation.” This sounds logical on the surface, but upon closer analysis the senator as usual has it all wrong.
In the first place, to even threaten protectionist measures in such a fragile economic environment as we live in is dangerous. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was passed in 1930 and placed protective tariffs on thousands of imports coming into the United States from abroad. At the time, during the Great Depression, its purpose was to protect American jobs. Sound familiar? Instead, the tariff caused our trading partners to retaliate with tariffs of their own thereby exacerbating an already horrendous employment situation. What makes our politicians believe that China would not retaliate with protective measures of its own or worst yet cause the collapse of our currency by flooding the world markets with hundreds of billions of dollars it keeps in reserve?
But secondly, and much more importantly to our situation, we need inexpensive Chinese products otherwise our inflation rate would be through the roof and unemployment would be right there with it. Here is the vicious cycle of events that is American/Chinese trade relations. China’s products are cheaper because the cost of doing business there is less than in the U.S. Thus, we purchase Chinese goods with dollars and treasury notes. China holds these dollars and interest-bearing bonds in reserve and then prints yuan to pay off the Chinese suppliers of our purchases. When the smoke clears, we get cheap Chinese goods to buy, the Chinese manufacturer makes a profit, and the Chinese government acquires more units of the world’s reserve currency. Everybody wins, right?
If the Obama Administration ends this cycle by imposing protective tariffs on Chinese goods coming into the United States, not only will the Chinese government reciprocate with retaliatory measures of its own, the prices of goods in the U.S. will rise sharply. You see right now we export our inflation to China by way of treasury bonds and newly printed Federal Reserve notes. Without the ability to export our debt and a lot of the dollars the Federal Reserve has been printing, all of that liquidity will be spent in the U.S. instead on more expensive goods. As more money enters our economy prices in general will be bid up and will rise and given how much the Federal Reserve has inflated the money supply over the last few years prices will rise by a lot. At that point, Economics 101 tells us that high prices will squelch demand and huge increases in unemployment will result.
Since the 1970s, the politicians in Washington have placed us in this no win situation with regard to trading with China. They have destroyed our industrial base with unconstitutional mandates and regulations, and collective bargaining laws. They have spent us into oblivion by financing a welfare/warfare state unmatched in human history. If we impose protectionist measures against China we will incur inflation in the short run and high unemployment in the long run. If we continue to borrow from China to buy their inexpensive goods we put ourselves on an unsustainable course. At some point, if it isn’t happening already, China will stop financing our purchases and absorbing our inflation. They will sell their goods elsewhere and Americans will pay higher prices. Our standard of living will plummet and China will replace us as the world’s number one economic superpower.
But, Chuck Schumer and his colleagues on the Hill are oblivious to all of this. Of course, they also ignore the fact that the Federal Reserve is the biggest currency manipulator in the world. Ben Bernanke and his cabal of economic central planners better known as the Federal Open Market Committee fix interest rates and determine the supply of money. These actions directly determine the value of the dollar. Before Congress complains about China for not using market forces to value the yuan it should look in the mirror.
And that is really why I consider Congress a rotten, stinking corpse. Time and again its members grandstand for personal political gain and leave the American people with the mess. Its hypocrisy is appalling. Lastly, it seems like it is constantly coming up with cockamamie schemes to ruin our economy further. This latest scheme places the blame on China for our own financial incompetence.
Kenn Jacobine teaches internationally and maintains a summer residence in North Carolina.
Image: The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the current health reform bill “would cost $940 billion and reduce the deficit by $130 billion during the first ten years[, and] in the second 10 years, it would reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion.” It’s no surprise that Republicans are still criticizing the current health reform bill over costs, despite the fact that Republicans have voted for more expensive programs under the Bush II Administration.
Presiden Amerika Serikat dipastikan akan melakukan lawatannya ke Indonesia pada 23-25 Maret mendatang. Saat ini petugas Pengamanan Presiden Amerika Serikat (Secret Service), tengah melakukan koordinasi intensif dengan pihak keamanan Indonesia.
JAKARTA – Presiden Amerika Serikat dipastikan akan melakukan lawatannya ke Indonesia pada 23-25 Maret mendatang. Saat ini petugas Pengamanan Presiden Amerika Serikat (Secret Service), tengah melakukan koordinasi intensif dengan pihak keamanan Indonesia.
“Sekarang Secret Service mereka sudah berada di Indonesia dan sudah banyak mengadakan koordinasi dengan Paspampres, Polisi, juga dengan TNI,” ungkap Juru bicara Kepresidenan Dino Patti Djalal di Kantor Kepresidenan, Jakarta, Rabu (17/3/2010).
Dino tidak mau mengungkapkan mengenai pembagian pengamanan antara pihak Indonesia dengan Amerika Serikat. “Saya tidak berwenang untuk ngomong masalah keamanan silakan tanya kepada Paspampres,” tukasnya.
Mengenai, permintaan standar keamanan dari pihak Secret Service, secara diplomatis Dino mengatakan, bukan kali ini saja Indonesia menerima lawatan Presiden Amerika Serikat.
“Kita menjamin keamanan tentu, dan kita yakin ini bukan pertama kalinya mendapat kunjungan Presiden Amerika Serikat. Jadi kita yakin dapat menjaga keamanan selama kunjungan,” jawabnya diplomatis.
“Dari kita menyambut baik setiap kepala negara yang datang ke Indonesia. Dari negara manapun akan kita sambut dengan baik dan memberikan fasilitas protokoler yang sesuai dengan kunjungan tersebut,” tuturnya. (Source)
The bankruptcy of leadership in the Arab World should be more pressing for the US than to condemn Israel for building houses.
Joe Biden feels more comfortable in Ramallah than among Israeli leaders.
The current friction in U.S.-Israel relations has one source: the mishandling of those relations by the Obama administration. Poll data show that Israel is as popular as ever among Americans. Strategically we face the same enemies — such as terrorism and the Iranian regime — a fact that is not lost on Americans who know we have one single reliable, democratic ally in the Middle East.
The two problems that bedevil relations with Israel are Iran policy and Israeli settlements. On Iran, we say nuclear weapons would be “unacceptable” but want to rely solely on sanctions to stop them, and administration officials go out of their way to say any use of force would be catastrophic. Not surprisingly Israelis wonder if we’re serious — and if, as is likely, sanctions prove too weak to succeed, so will many Americans.
On settlements, the Obama administration demanded a 100 percent construction freeze, including in Jerusalem, something never required before even by the Palestinians as a precondition for negotiations. This stance cornered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who could demand no less, and led the U.S. administration last week to “condemn” the announcement of plans for Israeli construction that is years away. The verb “condemn” is customarily reserved by U.S. officials for acts of murder and terrorism — not acts of housing.
As this example shows, the Obama administration continues to drift away from traditional U.S. support for Israel. But time and elections will correct that problem; Israel has a higher approval rating these days than does President Obama.
Source: Washington Post
ELLIOTT ABRAMS
Senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
President Obama took office hoping that constructive diplomacy could yield progress on some of the thorniest foreign-policy challenges facing the United States. Among these was Burma, a Southeast Asian nation of 50 million people that has been misruled into poverty, decline and perpetual warfare by a benighted military dictatorship. Mr. Obama did not abandon economic sanctions against the regime, but he did hold out the prospect of warmer relations if Burma`s regime would show some sign of easing up on its people.
This week the regime delivered its answer: Get lost. The government promulgated rules that make clear that an election planned for this year will be worse than meaningless. The new rules make it official: Burma`s leading democratic party and its leader, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, will not be permitted to take part.
Mr. Obama was right to offer, cautiously, an open hand. It has been spat upon. Now is the time for something new.
The Washington Post
Read more: Editorials from around the country – Boulder Daily Camera http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14665454#ixzz0iEkTwNd4
Image: The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the current health reform bill “would cost $940 billion and reduce the deficit by $130 billion during the first ten years[, and] in the second 10 years, it would reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion.” It’s no surprise that Republicans are still criticizing the current health reform bill over costs, despite the fact that Republicans have voted for more expensive programs under the Bush II Administration.