Saturday, April 2, 2011
Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 2 & 3, 2011
Is it just me... or does the Age of Obama remind anyone else of the Age of LBJ with the worst parts of the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations thrown in?
And, folks... we were so much stronger as a nation back in the Ages of LBJ, Nixon, Ford, and yes... in terms of underlying strengths... even Carter.
Look how the mighty have fallen...
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* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576234601480205330.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
* YOU GUYS KNOW WHO BERNARD LEWIS IS, RIGHT? (IF NOT... GOOGLE HIS NAME... ADD IN "PROFESSOR" OR "DR."
Two months shy of his 95th birthday, Mr. Lewis has been writing history books since before World War II. By 1950, he was already a leading scholar of the Arab world, and after 9/11, the vice president and the Pentagon's top brass summoned him to Washington for his wisdom.
* I'M JUST GONNA HIGHLIGHT KEY POINTS FROM THE INTERVIEW. I SINCERELY BELIEVE EACH OF YOU SHOULD READ THE FULL PIECE FOR YOURSELVES. IF THE LINK DOESN'T WORK, JUST GOOGLE "BARNARD LEWIS WSJ" AND YOU'LL GET A CLEAN LINK TO "TYRANNIES ARE DOOMED".
Tunisia has real potential for democracy, largely because of the role of women there. "Tunisia, as far as I know, is the only Muslim country that has compulsory education for girls from the beginning right through. And in which women are to be found in all the professions," says Mr. Lewis.
Egypt is a more complicated case, Mr. Lewis says. Already the young, liberal protesters who led the revolution in Tahrir Square are being pushed aside by the military-Muslim Brotherhood complex. Hasty elections, which could come as soon as September, might sweep the Muslim Brotherhood into power. That would be "a very dangerous situation," he warns. "We should have no illusions about the Muslim Brotherhood, who they are and what they want."
And yet Western commentators seem determined to harbor such illusions. Take their treatment of Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi. The highly popular, charismatic cleric has said that Hitler "managed to put the Jews in their place" and that the Holocaust "was divine punishment for them."
Yet following a sermon Sheikh Qaradawi delivered to more than a million in Cairo following Mubarak's ouster, New York Times reporter David D. Kirkpatrick wrote that the cleric "struck themes of democracy and pluralism, long hallmarks of his writing and preaching." Mr. Kirkpatrick added: "Scholars who have studied his work say Sheik Qaradawi has long argued that Islamic law supports the idea of a pluralistic, multiparty, civil democracy."
(*SNORT*) FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... THERE'S A REASON I KEEP ON HARPING ABOUT THE MSM.
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
Professor Lewis has been here before. As the Iranian revolution was beginning in the late 1970s, the name of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was starting to appear in the Western press. "I was at Princeton and I must confess I never heard of Khomeini. Who had? So I did what one normally does in this world of mine: I went to the university library and looked up Khomeini and, sure enough, it was there."
'It" was a short book called "Islamic Government" - now known as Khomeini's Mein Kampf - available in Persian and Arabic. Mr. Lewis checked out both copies and began reading. "It became perfectly clear who he was and what his aims were. And that all of this talk at the time about [him] being a step forward and a move toward greater freedom was absolute nonsense," recalls Mr. Lewis.
"I tried to bring this to the attention of people here. The New York Times wouldn't touch it. They said 'We don't think this would interest our readers.' But we got the Washington Post to publish an article quoting this. And they were immediately summoned by the CIA," he says. "Eventually the message got through - thanks to Khomeini."
* FRIGG'N NYT AGAIN!
Another key variable in the regional dynamic is Turkey, Mr. Lewis's particular expertise. He was the first Westerner granted access to the Ottoman archives in Istanbul in 1950. Recent developments there alarm him. "In Turkey, the movement is getting more and more toward re-Islamization. The government has that as its intention - and it has been taking over, very skillfully, one part after another of Turkish society. The economy, the business community, the academic community, the media. And now they're taking over the judiciary, which in the past has been the stronghold of the republican regime." Ten years from now, Mr. Lewis thinks, Turkey and Iran could switch places.
* FOLKS... READ THE FULL PIECE. PLEASE.
* OH... AND FOLKS... LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, THE FACT IS THAT GLENN BECK HAS BEEN GIVING MORE STRAIGHT INFO ALONG THE LINES OF WHAT LEWIS NOTES THAN HAVE ALL THE REST OF THE MEDIA - INCLUDING FOX - HAVE PUT OUT TOGETHER IN TOTAL!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576236812830281754.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTThirdBucket
Under fire for rising gas prices, the Obama administration has been taking steps to promote a "pro-energy" policy.
(*FALLING OFF MY CHAIR BECAUSE I'M LAUGHING SO DAMNED HARD*)
President Obama gave a speech Wednesday on "energy security," while Interior Secretary Ken Salazar spent last week in Wyoming boasting about the administration's new interest in coal mining.
(*SMIRK*) (*ROLLING MY EYES*)
* O.K., HERE'S THE DEAL:
Interior let it be known that Mr. Salazar was planning a big visit to Wyoming, which had local newspapers anticipating Mr. Salazar's "major energy announcement."
On Wednesday of last week the Caspar Star-Tribune reported that "nearly 758 million tons of Wyoming coal will go up for sale in the coming months," according to an announcement Mr. Salazar had made in the state, flanked by Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead.
* ACCORDING TO AN ANNOUNCEMENT SALAZAR MADE... (*PAUSE*)... THAT THERE'S THE KEY! KEEP READING!
The paper also reported that Mr. Salazar bragged the four competitive lease sales in coming months would produce up to $21.3 billion in bonus bids and royalty payments - a little under half of which would go to the state.
* $21.3 BILLION... (*PAUSE*)... REMEMBER THAT NUMBER.
But by Friday, the Caspar Star-Tribune had a very different headline: "Salazar appears to have vastly overstated coal money in Wyoming."
* GUESS WHAT, FOLKS? (WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT...) TURNS OUT THAT... (*DRUM ROLL*)
Salazar had overstated the amounts by a factor of ten.
The proceeds from 758 million tons of coal would be closer to about $2 billion - a little less than half of which would go to the state.
* THAT'S OBAMA MATH FOR YA! $21.3 BILLION TRANSLATES TO.. er... AROUND $2 BILLION. (*SMIRK*)
By Saturday, the Interior Department was "clarifying" that the $21 billion estimate included some 1.6 billion tons of coal that Interior plans (maybe) to be sold at a future date.
(*SNORT*)
The leases for that coal are still under consideration and are no sure thing.
By Monday, the Caspar Star-Tribune was up with this headline: "Wyoming coal announcement seems to mark little change" - noting that the administration's broader policies, including regulations being pushed through the Environmental Protection Agency, appear to remain hostile to coal and fossil fuels.
(*SIGH*)
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/263571/syria-s-reformer-charles-krauthammer
Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer. [Thus spoke] Hillary Clinton on Bashar al-Assad, March 27.
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP.
Few things said by this administration in its two years can match this one for moral bankruptcy and strategic incomprehensibility.
(*NOD*)
First, it’s demonstrably false.
(*MORE VIGOROUS NOD*)
It was hoped that President Assad would be a reformer when he inherited his father’s dictatorship a decade ago. Being a London-educated eye doctor, he received the full Yuri Andropov treatment - the assumption that having been exposed to Western ways, he’d been Westernized.
Wrong.
Assad has run the same iron-fisted Alawite police state as did his father.
* AS ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS MID-EAST POLITICS KNOWS! (HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON... SECRETARY OF... STATE...) (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Bashar made promises of reform during the short-lived Arab Spring of 2005.
The promises were broken.
(*NOD*)
Sometimes you cover for a repressive ally because you need it for U.S. national security. Hence our muted words about Bahrain. Hence our slow response on Egypt. But there are rare times when strategic interest and moral imperative coincide completely. Syria is one such - a monstrous police state whose regime consistently works to thwart U.S. interests in the region.
(*NOD*)
During the worst days of the Iraq War, this regime funneled terrorists into Iraq to fight U.S. troops and Iraqi allies. It is dripping with Lebanese blood as well, being behind the murder of independent journalists and democrats, including former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Syria is a partner in nuclear proliferation with North Korea. It is Iran’s agent and closest Arab ally, granting it an outlet on the Mediterranean. Those two Iranian warships that went through the Suez Canal in February docked at the Syrian port of Latakia, a long-sought Iranian penetration of the Mediterranean.
Yet here was the secretary of state covering for the Syrian dictator against his own opposition.
* AGAIN, FOLKS, YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/263710/fun-unobligated-funds-andrew-stiles
A GOP aide familiar with the appropriations process tells National Review Online that appropriation committees are constantly looking for savings in unobligated funds...which refers to funding for programs allocated in past budgets that has yet to be spent or “obligated.”
In many cases, these funds are set to expire at the end of the fiscal year and thus would never be spent in the first place.
* WE'VE DISCUSSED THIS BEFORE HERE ON USUALLY RIGHT. POLITICIANS ARE SCUMBAGS.
Democrats are doing everything they can to ensure that any final [spending/budget] package is as fundamentally unserious as they are when it comes to promoting fiscal responsibility. One way Democrats are seeking to do this is by “cutting” a significant amount from...unobligated balances...
(*SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISGUST*)
The House-passed long-term spending resolution, H.R. 1, contained about $10 billion in such "savings," about half of that coming from unspent stimulus money (some of which has already been enacted in a couple a short-term spending resolutions).
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... WHEN IT COMES TO THE GOP... KEEP AN EYE ON THEM. THEY MAY BE (RELATIVELY SPEAKING) THE "GOOD GUYS" WHO RODE INTO TOWN WEARING THE WHITE HATS, BUT THEY'RE POLITICIANS AS WELL - PARTICULARY BOEHNER AND THE LEADERSHIP.
* JUST KEEP ON READING NEWSBITES AND I'LL KEEP ON TELLING YOU WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR!
* OH... AND BACK TO THE DEMS...
Democrats would like to broaden the [budget/spending] debate to include cuts to defense spending...
(*SINCERE SUSTAINED APPLAUSE*)
* AS WELL THEY SHOULD! GOOD FOR THEM!
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