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POPSWhy did Obama get the Nobel Peace Prize? It's because Europeans love him. Not "Europeans" because people in Eastern Europeans and Russians do not love him. The Brits are not so sure. But Western Europeans do love him. Friedman explains why:
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POPSMexican Power Union Power Struggle
Calderón has attacked one of Mexico's most powerful unions. In Mexico, unions are powerful because of the power they enjoy to disrupt daily life for ordinary people, who just want to get to work and home again and be safe. Governments have been too pusillanimous to intervene to stop their illegal blockage of public spaces. See the six-month sit-in in 2006 that paralyzed Mexico City and took billions of pesos from people as work dried up for the poorest who lost their "job" washing and parking cars in Mexico City's chaotic downtown. Etc Etc. Calderón effectively lost a battle with the mega teacher's union"the largest in Latin America. The "teachers" blocked highways and city centers throughout the nation and Calderón's "reforms" were immasculated (not that they would have done any good anyway). Now he's taken on the electricians' union and with it the cultural icon of the government power company. Mexicans are taught to believe that their nationalized power company is a "right
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POPSWhy are feminists like Azar Nafisi called "right wing" "neo cons?" The quotes in the clip are welcome antidotes to the attitude our Beloved Leader is flacking towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. But the article itself leads into the story of <p>"a vibrant and beautiful young girl, Neda Agha-Soltan, and not the men who rule over Iran has become a symbol of Iranian people's fight for democracy and pluralism. Her murder, like those of Politkovskaya and Estermirova, gives the lie to the claims of those who vainly tried to silence them, and reminds the rest of us that we neither should or can evade the truth and its consequences."</p> The article is about a journalism award in honor of the Russian journalist, Ana Politkovskaya. She says that it was Politkovskaya's <p>"single-minded commitment to truth, and her demand for justice, that made her so dangerous to the tyrants in her country and inconvenient to leaders of western democracies.</p> More than this, Nafisi takes us on a world historical tour of feminists and feminism.
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POPSMichael Barone again Barone has the ability to cut to the bone with very little wasted space. He's like a surgical strike on Obamoid smartough diplomacy:
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POPSTo document our pessimism Max Boot is member of the infamous neo con cabal. Still, he knows a thing or two about warfare and national security policy. His opinion here is not good news.
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POPSPissed off at another failure of smartough diplomacy The Obama Olympics debacle has pushed Jay Cost over the edge. He says, Sooner or later, the American people are going to say, "Enough is enough" with this constant, incessant politicking that is inevitably built around the specialness of Barack Obama. That time may be approaching faster than anyone thinks.
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POPSBreakthrough for Smartough Diplomacy! More talking! Iran has agreed to allow inspections of its uranium enrichment factory! But... this is already covered under its treaty obligations. So why would it be such a breakthrough for them to agree to something they already signed, sealed, and delivered? The answer's obvious: it's a breakthrough because we want to believe that Obama's smartough diplomacy is the answer for all our foreign policy ills. There's really nothing new here. Like Stratfor says: Bottom line: If the Iranians indicate that they will not cooperate and the Russians do not budge on their opposition to imposing sanctions, then war could come suddenly " and from the United States. All the pieces for that war are already in place. It is just a question of nerve " for all parties.
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POPSAnother useless exercise in smartough diplomacy There were, of course, two illicit nuclear projects stopped during that period, though the U.N. had nothing to do with it. One was Libya's clandestine nuclear kit, which al-Qaddafi--spooked by the fate of Saddam--agreed to hand over to the U.S. in late 2003. The other was Syria's North Korea-abetted secret reactor. That was destroyed in 2007, not by a U.N. resolution, but by an Israeli air strike.
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POPSTwenty-seven dead in drug rehab massacres This article gives a unique Mexican twist to a pair of horrendous massacres. Government-run drug rehab clinics are used as distribution centers by the narco and as infiltration points by police. This fact makes the week's massacres at least intelligible to non Mexicans.
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POPSJustice begins at home The main thing to keep in mind here is that Goldstone is not lying. Everything he says is true. It should be obvious to anyone who has followed this situation that the IDF's so-called "serious violations" of the laws of war are truly nothing of the kind. Even if one hasn't been following the situation, simple rhetorical analysis will show then the utter fallacy that underlies Goldstone's sentence: notwithstanding his pro forma nods to Hamas violations, he's obviously telling only one side of the story, Hamas's side. His version implies that the IDF was indiscriminately bombarding hospitals, schools and other typical civilian sites to sow terror as part of a campaign to subdue the Resistance. This is just a fairy tale. For example, ask yourself why Israel attacked the civilian structures. It was because they couldn't fairly be considered civilian if they were being used as firebases by Hamas. But the essential point is this: there would have been no IDF attacks whatsoever,
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POPSThis doesn't look too good for smartough diplomacy If this turns out to be true, then it just fits the same sad-sack pattern of all of Obama's diplomacy so far: "engagement" and appeasement as a tradeoff for rebuffs and humiliation. Maybe world powers don't want to negotiate and engage. Maybe they want to get as much power and wealth as they can, while they can. Maybe negotiation and engagement are just playing into their hands, then. Stratfor Intelligence Guidance for today says, Ballistic missile defense (BMD) as a military system had no significance for either Poland or the Czech Republic. It was not designed to defend them. Rather, its presence was a symbol to both countries that the United States was prepared to defend them, because it has a vital strategic asset in their countries. The shock in Poland and Czech Republic is about a symbolic shift from their point of viewAnd furthermore, The timing of the decision is clearly intended to induce Russian cooperation with the United States over Iran. The question is whether the
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POPSSmarttough diplomacy at work? I certainly hope so. For the US to get Russian concessions on its support of Iran would practically mean that missile BMD would be superfluous. I don't think we're abandoning allies like the Czechs and Poles either. We don't need BMD to be loyal to them. At least, this is what I hope US authorities are assuring them today. It's not too much to expect that at least this much common sense is on display. It's past time to push Iran into a corner. It's the key insurgency in the region. The Islamic movement had its first success there and it must end there for it to end at all. If this is what it takes, then I say my hat's off to Obama. I'm changing my opinion 180 degrees. Bush would never have dared such a move.
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POPSThe Chávez/Iran Nexus breaks into the MSM Finally! One mad genocidal dictator in alliance with another mad genocidal dictator... what else is new? Well…for most people it is news. But now I hope not for long. You can ask, if the WaPo editorial is true, then why are we harping on Israeli settlements as the key to world peace? Why are we obsessed with reforming the health care system? And so on. Is there a contradiction here? I don't think so: Obama is in the midst of an unprecedented expansion of the state and little issues like Iran's nuclear capabilities and genocidal intent against Israel are not helpful, according to his thinking. He's wrong: the state has expanded historically on the wings of war. He can't expand the state while at the same time promoting a pacifist agenda, as much as this will satisfy his legions of followers.
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POPSNobel prize winner covering up for Iran Once again, the indispensable DebkaFile tells all. Although it's not as though we never suspected that UN officials were in the pockets of the world's dictators. The rest of the report is as follows: One official told DEBKAfile that passing the new information to the IAEA director had compromised its sources anyway so there was no point in holding it back any longer. The seven governments concerned will decide very soon which parts of this unpublished information to air. According to our sources, it will not be attributed directly to any government but to "Iranian exiles" who will present it as coming from inside Iran. This tactic was employed in 2004, when the opposition Mojaheddin al-Khalq leaders first broke the news of Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz at press conferences in Washington and Paris. The Israeli foreign ministry denounced the ElBaradei report, released ahead of the nuclear watchdog's regular annual meeting in Vienna on Sept. 7, for omitting "to detail I
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POPSCold War mythology made new by hope n'change Oleg Atbashian is some kind of genius. Born in the ex USSR, he's impossible to fool with leftist propaganda. His sense of humor leaves one defenseless. Read the whole series. This article concludes, Evidently, if President Obama didn’t share these received views, he wouldn’t have felt the need to apologize before the world for America’s alleged wrongdoings " a gesture that could only reinforce such stereotypes. If his policies weren’t driven by these tenets, he wouldn’t be using the powers of the U.S. president to prop up the forces that oppose America’s founding principles of liberty while denying support to those who want to live by such principles. The reason many Americans haven’t realized it yet is that most media coverage is also born of the same old yellowed clichés. And yet no media bias can obfuscate the fact, clearly demonstrated by events in Iran and Honduras, that even in the absence of U.S.-led conspiracies, anti-American tyrants are still not welco
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POPSWhat happened to "no meddling?" According to most accounts, the overthrow of Zelaya was "cemocratic, constitutional." At least, there is a good argument to be made that it was, even if other people disagree. Now we have our government extorting the government of Honduras to reinstate Zelaya, which may be a reinstatement-for-life if he has his way. What's going on here? I'd like to see half the pressure we've put on Honduras applies to the Palestinian Authority, for example. Or on Iran.
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POPSNew facts and new troubles for Mexico The estimated million plus Mexicans returning to Mexico plus the many more who choose to stay home, when earlier they would have gone to the other side, means more pressure on the nation's development. In this situation the country's GDP shrunk nine percent in the first quarter and a bit over ten percent in the second one. Whatever fiscal and economic reforms the government has planned are still being planned. The president insists on using his power to fight a useless losing drug war and effectively sabotaged the economy by locking the nation down for a month so that we wouldn't get the flu. The country cannot provide opportunities to vast swaths of the population. Now there is another swath to add to the others: returning illegal immigrants and others. Vast numbers of young unemployed kids whose skills are mainly in how to break the law and profit by it somehow are swelling the populace of Mexico's provincial backwaters (where most illegal immigrants come from) quite outside the a
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POPSThis is what happens when you have "Education Ministries" They become control systems for the future. The conclusion:young students who will be given Danilov’s history textbook on Tuesday will be taught not to pose unnecessary, uncomfortable questions to their leaders. Let the wise politicians and bureaucrats continue to rule the country and pilfer the oil and gas wealth. This is precisely how they will build a strong and wealthy Russia " at least for themselves and their families. Any similarity with the Obamoid "independent experts" who will run the US health-care system is quite accurate.
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POPSSimple insight into Latin American culture—institutionalized revenge It's amusing that an academic/pundit can have these insights and yet they do not interfere with his policy proposals, which completely contradict the insights themselves. Author reviews several cases pending against former rulers for corruption. He says, Few Latin American countries are exempt from these judicial vendettas. The victor attempts to liquidate the vanquished. In those nations, the law is not an instrument to regulate civilized coexistence but a mace to crush the adversary's head. , which is quite true. Benito Juárez (Mexico's first Indian president, mid-19th century) put it best, after the ten-year civil war and insurgency against conservatives and monarchists: "For my friends, clemency; for my enemies, the law." The author's suggestion for a remedy is to revisit a Spanish colonial practice, called "judgments of residence." Instead of a remedy, however, they would become just another example of the evil that the author describes: the law as a club with which to be
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POPSAnti drug war protest march Argentina: three thousand marchers in the Peace March in Bariloche, Argentina, where tomorrow the South American Union of Nations will be in session to debate US military bases in Columbia. NGOs, unions, political parties. Big placard: "Peace and down with US military bases in Latin America." Other placards demanded: "US out of Columbia" and "the defense of the glaciers." These fools in Bariloche have their hearts in the right places, bless their hearts. But "NGOs, unions, and political parties" follow a bogus thirdworldist party line that makes them look like clowns to most people.
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POPSTypical rebuttal to Cheney/CIA documents Peter Bergan, of the left-wing New America Foundation provides the main talking points behind the continued criticism of Bush/Cheney's authorization of so-called torture. This is effectively countered by the WSJ editorial today: Some will argue that these details could have been elicited without enhanced techniques. We'll never know. The question is whether Attorney General Eric Holder and his new special counsel intend to second-guess the decisions of CIA officials who were operating in the shadow of 9/11 and who, we now know, successfully unraveled terror plots and saved lives... These plots were "just talk." Nothing to worry about, then. Let them talk. They're Muslim fanatics and that's what they do. Why worry? Be happy! Left-wingers, like Bergan, will seize upon this argument to salve their own consciences as to the coming witch-hunt against the CIA by Obama. It seems convincing today but it's obviously an argument by hindsight"the worst kind of historical fallacy. If we'
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POPSObama, singing a song to himself To document our pessimism about the Obamoid government, Michael Barone introduces a new slant on analyzing ideologies in the US"lyrical leftism. Leftists of the past were able to mobilize people in the expansion of the state through war"Wilson and Roosevelt used their wars to take control of wide swaths of the economy. Leftists today are "lyrical" when they repudiate the state's use of force and celebrate diversity. It's just singing in the wind. This is the "basic contradiction in what the party and the liberal movement stand for," according to Barone.
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POPSPresident Mom Via Navegaciones: Calderón pide no resaltar más la violencia; hablen de las cosas buenas que tiene el país Calderón tells us not to emphasize the violence: "talk about the good things that the nation has." México avanzará en la medida en que se destaquen las ventajas que ofrece, asegura Mexico will progress when its advantages are emphasized, he maintains. El presidente Felipe Calderón criticó a quienes difunden una imagen negativa de México, de un país donde prevalece el caos y la inseguridad. Hablar mal del país es, para muchos, no sólo un esfuerzo cotidiano, hasta de eso viven, puntualizó. President Felipe Calderón criticized those who spread a negative image of Mexico, as a nation where chaos and violence prevail. "Talking trash about the country is, for a lot of people, not only a daily task, but they make a living out of it," he said. Queremos hacer de México un país competitivo, con infraestructura de primera clase que, precisamente, permita compe
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POPSMariguana sets Argentina on fire From now on, we're free! In twenty years, twenty percent of the population will be walking schizophrenics. The Supreme Court has ruled that possession of mariguana for personal use will no longer be criminalized in Argentina. The high court ruled that possession of small quantites of cannabis, which are for personal use and do not pose risks to anyone else, will no longer be characterized as a crime. The ruling has generated controversy, as one can see in the BBC World Video.
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POPSThe hard core of Obamoidism Fouad Ajami, once again, puts his finger on the main point. An elite yuppie so-called constitutional scholar who thinks the constitution can be changed by force of his own yuppiness.
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POPSFurther refutation of the Obamoid "settlement freeze" formula Michael Oren is Israel's ambassador to the US. He is also an IDF veteran and a historian of some note. His book, Power, Faith, and Fantasy covers the two-hundred-years US history of relations with Arab/Muslim nations. His article here of course is in support of Netanyahu's policy towards the West Bank. That's to be expected since Oren is Netanyayhu's ambassador. But the point is that Oren/Netanyahu have some facts on their side while the Obamoids only have Power, Faith, and Fantasy
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POPSThe irrationality of realpolitick Is it ironic that the latest proponents of realpolitick--the Obamoid masses--are so irrational as to expect rationality from a fanatic religious regime?
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POPSMore people pile on against Obama's settlement freeze This time it's by a Palestinian and US advocate for the Palestinian cause. Strangely, both sides seem to agree that Palestinian rejection of the state of Israel is the root of the conflict. How can Obama et al then show that that the settlements are the key to resolving the conflict? They can't. The "settlement freeze" is only supposed to be a "first step," which Israel has to take, since the Arabs/Palestinians won't. Something like that.
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POPSMichael Barone Michael Barone is more a scholar than a pundit/commentator. It's impossible to argue with him since he has all in the info at his fingertips. Here, he points out the benefits of US-style free enterprise in medicine. He also shows how other nations free-ride on US creativity and investment even as they call us right-wing morons.
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POPSHave a nice atomic 6 August It's the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. It's another chance for people to call the US a terror state and Truman a war criminal. Or it's another chance for a lot of people to realize that they're alive today because of the A-bomb"not just the millions of US troops who were slated to invade the Japanese home islands, either. There are their descendants as well. Then there are the millions of Japanese who survived because of the A-bomb, and their descendants. And"as this article makes clear"there are many more millions of Chinese and other Asians who survived once the Japanese surrendered"and their descendants. But…who really cares about so many Asians anyway if the point is to blame the US? As for the Japanese themselves, they have always blamed the correct person for the A-bomb: the emperor. His policies brought this destruction down on their heads, nothing else. Then again, the bomb also saved lived in Europe since it prevented Stalin from taking over nations in Western
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POPSFouad Ajami strikes again Ajami is one of the "truth-tellers," as he calls the authors of the UNDP Arab Human Development Reports. He pulls no punches. Must read if you're interested in US policy i the Arab world.
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POPSEuropean anti Semite gets Presidential Medal of Freedom Mary was in charge of the infamous Durban I so-called anti racism conference, which turned into an anti Semitic festival. When she was replaced as UNHRC, Richard Holbrooke (today one of Obama's most senior diplomats) commented, "I think Sergio is much better than Mary Robinson. I think she overly politicized the job." But wait. There's more: The trouble starts with Robinson's tenure as president of Ireland. During the last four years of Robinson's tenure, the European Union donated large sums of money to the Palestinian Authority. Ireland even held the presidency of the European Union for the second half of 1996. During this time, Arafat siphoned large amounts of European aid money away to pay for terror. Robinson can plead ignorance, but documents seized during the recent Israeli incursion into the West Bank revealed that the Palestinian Authority spent approximately $9 million of European Union aid money
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