Chavez Says Obama is "Lost in Space"

While it's rarely worthwhile to listen to this Bolshevik gadfly's ceaseless drivel for anything more than entertainment value, Chavez' latest snark that Obama is "Lost in Space" on Latin American policy is noteworthy in that our all-knowing Dear Leader's "extended hand" has once again been spit-in by an enemy he attempted to appease. Chavez sees only weakness to be exploited when smiley plastic mannequin Barack puts his arm around him for the cameras- of that you can be sure.

When German Generals who opposed the offensive in 1940 -out of respect for/fear of the French and British- debated with Hitler, he was quoted as saying "I have already met my enemies at Munich... they were little worms". Thus one of the most famous chapters in the folly-of-appeasement was written- of course one still yet to be learned by the perpetually deluded Carters, Bidens, and Obamas of the world.

Reuters reports that Chavez stated:

"...we are asking that "the empire" get its hands off Honduras and get its claws out of Latin America..."

"President Obama is lost in the Andromeda Nebula, he has lost his bearings, he doesn't get it..."

Chavez added that Obama needs to withdraw U.S. forces from the Palmerola air base in Honduras (also known as Soto Cano) and from Guantanamo Bay which the U.S. Navy has used as a base in Cuba for over a century.

"Get with it, Obama -- get with it, brother"

Anybody still think that Obama's Pollyanna foreign policy is getting him any respect out there?

Because it's not-

WHERE is the Left on Iran?

Throughout the Cold War years, the self-appointed moral watchdogs of the American left preached to us ad-nauseum on the perils of supporting anti-communist dictators like The Shah, Samoza, and Pinochet. We only damaged our own credibility when backing those who did not uphold human rights above all- regardless of the complex security challenges and/or decidedly undemocratic opponents that confronted these allies. This according to the McGoverns and Carters of the world, anyway.

And the pragmatism that lay behind the defense and intelligence policies that they so heavily criticized -these were in actuality proxy struggles with the expansionist Soviet Union- was brushed aside by liberals as cynicism and a lame excuse for continued US "imperialism". But these views were decidedly in the minority in the United States- and the narrow appeal of such short-sighted thinking surely contributed to McGovern's drubbing in the 1972 election.

Later, pollyana do-gooder Jimmy Carter showed us all how it's done with his withdrawal of support of Samoza over human rights concerns- perhaps it never occurred to him that we'd get something 10x worse with the communist Sandinistas: armed and trained by Moscow, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia... and allied with Havana in a Kremlin-funded enterprise to export communist revolution throughout central and South America.

Now we have a President Obama that basically got elected trashing America's proud history and defense policy-as he continues to do- as well as proposing that we downgrade our position as leader of the free world. All in all, there's not much daylight between Obama's zeitgeist and the finger-wagging, simplistic moral assumptions of the Cold War left.

So with the president's astounding silence and even apparent disinterest in today's Iranian crisis, WHERE is the moral concern of the holier-than-thou left now? Shouldn't these hypocrites being asking a few questions now that Barack Obama has kissed-up to Ahmedinijad and the Iranian theocracy since before he was even elected? We're talking about a former kidnapper and Holocaust-denying president of what all can now see is a brutal police state; one racing towards constructing nuclear weapons with the oft stated aim of wiping Israel from the map; a regime that cozies up to most or all of America's enemies; who supplied a large amount of Iraq's instability; one that publicly stones adulterers and petty criminals after burrying them up to their necks... and today is shooting unarmed protesters in the street. (Gateway Pundit).

Obama has now gotten his 3am-crisis-call- and so far he's done little but pound the snooze button. The complete inaction and lack of leadership is stupifying. Of course, the irony is that while the Ayatollah Khamenei is now laying blame for his Iranian citizens' uprising on the "Americans" and "the Jews"- the United States under Obama is really not doing anything of substance to support the protesters and would be counter-revolutionaries. To add insult to injury for the freedom-seeking patriots of Iran- the Obama administration also has zeroed out funding for pro-democracy programs inside Iran from the State Department budget for fiscal 2010... just as protests in Iran are ramping up (Newsmax).

Khamenei is now hinting strongly of a much harder crackdown to come- he's already using Hamas thugs imported from Gaza, who are showing their appreciation for the funding, arming, and training of their Islamofacist terrorist organization by cracking heads in the street alongside Iran's own plainclothes security forces.

Compare this all to Ronald Reagan's brave and unwavering support for Solidarity in Poland in the early 80's: in collaboration with Pope John Paul and Polish anti-communists, Reagan helped those seeking freedom in any way possible- with money, training, equipment such as radios and stepped-up VoA broadcasting to help liberate those behind the Iron Curtain.

Obviously -although it’s the last thing Team Obama want to hear- Ronald Reagan’s support of Poland’s Solidarity in the dark days of the Soviet-ordered crackdown is the model- not the preposterous straw-man argument of “what are you going to do, invade?” disingenuously presented by the do-nothing, Obamapologist left/MSM.

Most importantly, Reagan brought the Poles moral support with consistent public statements that gave the revolutionaries hope. The Gipper did this not only because of his belief in the cause of freedom worldwide; he also recognized the larger geopolitical implications of peeling the Warsaw Pact away from a weakened USSR bit-by-bit (similar to the effect that a free Iraq and free Iran could have on the Middle East today). While most referred to European states behind the Iron Curtain as Soviet "satellites"- Reagan insisted on calling them "captive" nations. And not only was Reagan right, visionary, and victorious... but the Poles remember who was with them when it seemed all was lost... that's why Poland is one of America's strongest allies for over 20 years now.

Shamefully, it seems Obama's primary concern is to bide a little more time for the the Mullahs and Ahmedinijad to pull themselves up by their bootstraps... while they beat-down any hope of actual democracy. Barack's already bet all his chips on legitimizing this vile regime- a democratic revolution in Tehran could be downright embarassing at this point. Once the Mullahs put a lid on things over there, these boys can all get back to talking business... just like they do it back in Chicago.

A liberated Iran does little to help Obama politically... which is all that ever really interests him in the end. Besides the obvious embarassment that would result from a new Iranian revolution -or even a substantially more moderate regime in Tehran- Obama appears to lack a Plan B. And if Iran becomes a struggling young democracy, trying to create a better society while battling the country's darker forces (a development any normal US president would have welcomed) -like, say, Columbia- it looks like Obama might just turn on them, too- as he's far more interested in cozying-up to the Castros, the Chavezes, and other tin-pot bullies who hold America in contempt... while snubbing the allied nations that share traditional American values of freedom, democracy, and free-market enterprise.

In other news, Obama's poll numbers are headed south: Rasmussen's daily tracking has him at a weak +1% rating- only once before has it slipped lower -to zero- and that was last week. The more friendly Gallup has him at a job approval of 58%- still a new low for this administration- looks like the deprogramming of the delusional Obamamania cult has begun.

UPDATE 6.21.09: make that Rasmussen poll differential a negative two (-2%)... a new low, and the first time in negative territory for the Obama Administration.

America, Enjoy Your New Edsel

Americans that voted to bring us "Hope" and "Change" last November have now received the first shiny, new product from Obama-Pelosi-Reid & company... the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a so-called "economic stimulus" package consisting of approximately $800B in  profligate spending.  This amount represents a full 6% of US GDP, and is due to rise to well over $1.2 trillion with interest expense... because we're borrowing every cent of it.

It was rushed through  the House, bypassing most standard procedural steps, and with all previous promises of public disclosure abandonded.  A Rasmussen poll last week showed only 37% public support for the legislation in it's final form.  Not one House Republican supported it, and even a dozen Democrats chose not to have their fate chained to this lemon.  The Senate then passed their version of the package with a shameful display of expediency by three GOP Benedict Arnolds- Senators Snow, Collins, and Specter.  The final version was thus signed into law by Obama on Tuesday.

There are no effective economic multipliers for most of this untargeted spending... meaning little leveraged financial growth can be expected.  The Wall Street Journal stated that only 12% of this spendthrift binge could even remotely be considered an economic stimulus. And while Obama promoted it as necessary to address an urgent financial crisis, much of it will take years to work, if ever.  This bill is plainly an opportunistic move by Obama to cash-in on our economic concerns, as well as his own political capital... to trigger an huge increase in the size and scope of government in this country.

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste" said Rahm Emanuel in an unguarded moment- and "We're going to spread the wealth around" said Barack in Ohio last fall.   Indeed-

Besides the lack of proven, effective stimulative spending in the legislation, when it comes to the kind of morale-boosting leadership that could help show us the way out of  this crisis, Obama has already made it obvious that he's no Vince Lombardi.  For a guy who was basking in the triumph of "Hope Over Fear" just three weeks ago, his recent calculated and specious fear-mongering is irresponsible, unhelpful, and appalling.  The president employed this technique in scaring legislators and the public into supporting his spending package, proposing vast liberal programs in the name of "saving us all", and heaping as much blame as possible on  the Bush Administration... while simultaneously dampening expectations for his own results.

With Obama giving us doomsday forecasts on a daily basis, what little hope any of us had for the economy has been extinguished.  His analogies to The Great Depression are not only meant to deceive, they're also inherently reckless. Political brinkmanship consisting of incessant warnings about a pending economic implosion aren't likely to raise consumer or investor expectations any time soon.  This ill-advised tactic has almost certainly hurt consumer confidence, delaying any turnaround in spending habits.  And instead of the MSM calling Obama on his inaccuracies and/or ulterior motives, they continue to kiss his posterior.

Thus, due to the resulting lack of confidence in our near-term economic prospects, Americans will simply sit on any cash that comes their way from this spending program, either saving or paying off debt... regardless of the amount of money thrown at the problem. Note the almost total lack  of economic impact from the Bush "stimulus" passed last year.... while the personal savings rate in the last quarter of 2008 was the highest in six years.

One of the keys to Reagan's economic recovery in the 1980's -when he created 20M jobs and grew the Real GDP by more than 30%- was the sunny optimism he brought to the country with his confident leadership and upbeat, reassuring belief in America.  A most vital factor in our overall economic mood is what the president is saying- so if he badmouths the economy, it tanks.  And if he is bullish and confident, the markets listen... and are more willing to invest in the future.  While Obama is riding a high-tide of support, a little optimism might have done us all a great service... especially in an economic crisis that's rooted in lack of confidence and stability.

Instead, Obama's remarks accentuated the negative, and for political purposes.  Everytime dissappointing data was released, to Team Obama it was a sign of impending doom.  According to their disingenuous narrative, this economy is the worst since The Great Depression.  And without Obama's massive spending bill, we may fall into an abyss from which we will "never recover".  This alarmist propaganda may have been useful to Obama politically, but it's inaccurate historically... and betrays very poor leadership qualities.

Back in reality, our current economic challenges don't even come close to those of the 1930's. Even a comparison to the 1981-82 recession is inappropriate at this point.   Ronald Reagan was handed by the incompetent Carter Administration almost 11% unemployment, plus double-digit inflation and interest rates.  The most recent statistics put the US jobless rate at 7.6%... with low inflation and interest rates approximating zero.  And in The Great Depression, jobs were being lost at double or triple the rate of 2008-2009... hitting a peak unemployment figure of 25.2% in 1932.

Auto production in 2008 was dismal, to be sure... declining by 25%.  But how does that justify Obama's comparisons to 1932, when US production collapsed by 90%?  The failure of a couple dozen banks last year isn't anywhere near the 10,000+ failures of 1933... but you'd never know it from listening to President Obama, out there spreading gloom-and-doom daily to force the passage of his misguided socialist spending spree.  Anyone who expected him to act in the best interests of the country -rather than for his own political security and leftist agenda- must not have paid much attention to how he got this far in the first place.

In bad times, banks also hang-on to their money for fear of making bad loans, no matter how many bailouts come their way.  With consumers also paying-down debt and saving money, the country will be awash with dollars once the economy gets back on it's feet, stoking vicious inflation sure to bring another recession... as the Fed will have no choice but to hike interest rates dramatically to check it.  So Obama's "stimulus" package isn't likely to stimulate much except inflation, and that only once the economy is already improving in the course of the natural economic cycle.

The Democrats have initiated this monstrous spending they know the country cannot afford-  so eye-watering  taxation will surely be on the way... once the trillion-dollar deficits roll-in, inflation is stoked to double-digits, and the dollar is in the toilet.  Thus, forced-upon America will be the liberals' dream of sticking-it to "the rich", deploying a redistributionist agenda through the back door.  This legislation is clearly nothing but a socialist Trojan Horse-  while presented as a bill to help the economy, it's really just a Democratic Party wish-list of liberal social programs, with an extra-helping of pork for all at the table.  Never mind that the millions of Americans making over $150K/yr. that will be soaked to pay for Obama's Marxist-professor-mentors' dreams (plus interest) are largely the job-creating entrepreneurs and small business owners that Reagan famously said are "responsible for almost all the economic growth" in this country.

This legislation will do far more damage than good- and it will hurt recovery by crowding-out private borrowers and consumers as government borrows massive sums to cover the deficit.  It will effect a permanent expansion of government, while forcing the country to  employ massive tax hikes that no sane candidate would ever admit to planning.

Then there's the socialism-by-stealth scheme that was snuck into the bill, to avoid public outrage... if anyone was still wondering why it was not debated in committee, why legislators only had a day to read it prior to the vote, or why it was not published first online....as Obama had promised repeatedly.

  

In an under-the-radar move towards nationalized health care, the "stimulus" package includes $19B to modernize health-care information systems, leading to computerization of all medical records by 2014.  While that's a worthwhile endeavor, and will create quite a few jobs eventually, this centralization of records appears to be laying the groundwork for the establishment of socialized medicine in this country.  The bill also includes another $1.1B for "comparative effectiveness research"- basically studying which treatments work better than others.  This looks disturbingly like a first-step towards prioritizing and rationing treatments in a future one-payer system.  None of these provisions were subject to  any kind of congressional consideration... no committee mark up, no debate on the floor... and of course no public acknowledgement whatsoever.  Both were just buried into the bill, like an earmark.

For all the talk of Obama's first legislative "victory", it showed him lacking the political stature to control Pelosi and Reid... who hit the trough hard, while bickering like siblings.  And the paucity of GOP co-conspirators exposed the president politically... this legislation now looks to be a huge gamble. When all this pork and welfare fails to generate real economic gains, the Democrats could face a bloodbath in 2010.  This is likely to be his first and last chance to get the economy back on-track before the mid-term elections.  Team Obama has bet the farm that this legislation will bear fruit, and quickly-  while historical precedent suggests there's little chance that it will.

"Now, look, I won't lie to you," Obama told a crowd in Florida last week. "If it turns-out that a few years from now people don't feel like the economy's turned-around, that we're still having problems, that folks are still unemployed, that our health-care system's not more efficient, then, you know,  you guys won't applaud me the next time I come down here."  And Obama never avoided calling the "stimulus" package "my bill" while promoting it around the country.  With almost no GOP support for the measure, there is little political cover for Obama if it doesn't work.

The Democrats now seem nervous as their fiscal Frankenstein comes to life... moving in-haste to dampen expectations, while they cover their backsides. Note how the White House initially said the bill would create 3M jobs... then it was 3.5M... as the debate went on, and public  support sagged, it was bumped to 4M jobs.  Now that the legislation has passed, it's already dailed-back to 3.5M new and "saved" jobs (whatever those are)... and "patience" was urged before Obama had even signed it.

Barack's shmoozing of the GOP was supposed to bring "bipartisan" support on the Democrats' terms... but with the strict party-line voting, that part didn't go-to-plan.  Unfortunately for Obama, he now owns this clunker. This legislation likely presages the death-knell of the mindless Obamamania phenomenon... and it won't take us much more than a year or so to find out.

"Pat Buchanan Slams GOP"

Well, my BHO-infatuated associate couldn't wait to get that one in front of me.... I had already read it a couple hours earlier on election day... and I knew it was just a matter of time until it was in my e-mail inbox. And, as always, Pat Buchanan provides some thought-provoking arguments.

And so it is... I am an avid reader of Mr Buchanan's column, but not because I embrace all I hear from the controversial, pugnacious, rightist-nationalist. The primary reason is because the man is an original thinker; I have read him for years, plus a couple of his books- and perhaps agree with about 60-70% of what he has to say... yet always entertaining and thought-provoking,. especially 2001's Death of the West. In contrast, I might see eye-to-eye with Sean Hannity 95% of the time... but with so little original thought, why bother watching? I could make a comfortable living betting on what position he will take on any issue, but with Buchanan... I go into it with a curiosity of what I'll find lurking within his latest saturnine diatribe.

And I could tell that the annoyingly bubbly Obama supporter was certain I'd be shocked that Pat Buchanan was laying into the GOP with such vigor- but of course, if you've even seen the McLaughlin Group once over the last couple years... you'd know Mr Buchanan is not a happy GOP-camper these days. Actually, he has been harshly criticizing the party... and more specifically George W. Bush... for at least 5 years already. He certainly has some valid points, too, regarding deficit spending and his standard warnings of imperial overreach. He's basically an isolationist, who dislikes free trade and overseas engagements, always has been.

But, with high-profile Republicans such as Colin Powell jumping on the BHO bandwagon, Buchanan's column would look to some like yet another one throwing-in-the towel on John McCain... and this is exactly the spirit in which it was inflicted upon me- "Hey, have a look at this! Good grief, Pat Buchanan too?!!"

In reality, Buchanan all but endorsed McCain, enthusiastically supported the choice of Sarah Palin... and recently said of Obama: "if he's not a socialist, he does the best imitation of one that I've ever seen" And this begged the question; does this latest "slam" of the GOP, and a few opportunistic "conservative" defectors... plus a general widespread dissapointment with George W Bush... make Obama more qualified to be President than John McCain, somehow? Is that the logic? Seems to be a pretty common way of thinking this election year, IMO... somehow The One has all the answers the voters want to hear, and if not, they have an enduring confidence in his Midas touch... primarily because he is the most-opposite-of-W-choice available. Not a lot of logic in that, but that's how love is. And, does anyone actually think ol' Pat voted for Obama? Seriously?

How does all this cumulative dissapointment with the prior administration indicate that Obama's long-ago-discredited, redistributionist socialist nonsense is suddenly going to work just great this time? The only other one that might possibly buy-into that is Hugo Chavez- even Cuba's finally tip-toeing away from it. I sure hope Target is all stocked-up on red Che Geuvara T-shirts... should be the hot Christmas item among the stubbornly-ignorant fashionistas of the American electorate this year.

And regarding America's plentiful and daunting foreign-policy challenges of 2008-on, IMO the election of a pacifist former pot-head to the position of Commander-in-Chief because people are sick of hunting terrorists is extremely short-sighted... and foolish. This delivery of a victory to enemies of the United States by presenting a (dream-come-true) strategic and martial Bambi to the likes of Al Qaida, Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, Venezuala, and Russia is a good idea... because you're pissed at George Bush? And those who thought BHO sounded well-thought-out and convincingly reasssuring on defense issues during the campaign... well, just watch and learn; it doesn't take much scratching of the surface to see that Obama's ignorance of defense issues is shocking, to say the least (but in fairness, clearly above average compared to most other community organizers). Like most on the left, his view is based more upon how he'd like things to be... than the actual world that confronts us.... coupled to a misguided attempt to seek the moral high ground vs. his domestic political opponents.

The vodka is likely flowing freely in Moscow tonight, with Vladimir Putin laughing his New-Czarist ass off, believe it... and he could very-well have tanks in the Crimea by spring. Guess why... 52% of the American electorate just invited him to do it, because they are generically "sick of war". It was Trotsky who said "You may not be interested in war... but war is interested in you". I heard some say they "couldn't sleep at night" with the trigger-happy maverick McCain (and his allegedly short-fuse) with a finger on the button... well there's two sides to that; Vlad the Invader wouldn't have been sleeping so soundly either.

So Obamafiles, Obama-ites, Obamiacs, and Obama-mamas, et. al.... enjoy the party... while it lasts. It is pretty obvious to the less-infatuated that many both in the US, as well as abroad, harbor such lofty expectations for this most unqualified, disengenuous, and misguided man that massive dissapointment is all but waiting-around-the-corner... especially since he clearly lacks the stature to control Pelosi and Reid domestically (can you say "trillion dollar deficit?... then watch the dollar plunge to €0.30) -anyone who voted for Obama out of dissapointment with Bush's large deficits is surely in for a nasty shock. Once again, just because George W Bush happened to get it wrong... doesn't mean the political opposite is an improvement. And just wait for that "early test" we've been hearing so-much about... where Mr Obama will promptly receive a harsh introduction to strategic brinkmanship favored by so many of America's sworn enemies (as even hallucinating, crazy-aunt-in-the-attick Joe Biden seems to see coming).

Those deliriously celebrating this setback of everything pragmatically achieved (from the first Reagan administration, on through the 2nd moderate Clinton term) remind me of the words of French PM Edouard Daladier, upon seeing crowds cheering his return from the signing of the Munich Agreement (1938), with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini (and thinking France had now acheived a guarantee of peace in their time). While descending from the plane, he observed the many joyous French citizens greeting him at the airport... with disgust... and said "These people are crazy!". Even though he was the one who negotiated and signed this (shameful attempt at appeasement) as best he could... Msr. Daladier was still wise enough to know naive, wishful thinking when he saw it.