Foreign Policy

Statement by McCain, Lieberman on Iranian Assault on the Iraqi Kurdistan Region

August 11, 2011 By Press Release 7 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 11, 2011

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) today issued the following statement on the Iranian government’s ongoing bombardment of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region:

“We are deeply concerned by the Iranian government’s ongoing bombardment of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, which has killed and wounded innocent civilians and displaced dozens of families. The Iranian government should immediately cease its shelling of Iraqi territory and respect Iraq’s sovereignty, as Iraqi leaders in Baghdad and Erbil have repeatedly demanded.

“The shelling along the border region of northern Iraq fits a broader pattern of behavior by the Iranian government, which has sought to exercise malign and destabilizing influence over Iraq’s internal affairs. To this day, the Iranian government continues to train, fund, arm, and direct violent extremist groups that threaten the ability of the Iraqi state to control its own territory. These same groups are also attacking and killing U.S. troops and civilians in Iraq. In 2009, Iranian military units even crossed the Iraqi border and briefly seized an oil field on sovereign Iraqi territory. We urge the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Administration in Washington to speak out in defense of Iraq’s sovereignty, to condemn the shelling of Iraqi territory, and to work with Iraqi authorities to help strengthen Iraq’s capabilities to defend its country.

“It is time to put Iranian leaders on notice that, if they continue on their current path—destabilizing Iraq, murdering Americans, pursuing nuclear weapons, and fostering terrorism, including a secret deal with al Qaeda—they will face increasingly severe consequences. In the past, authoritarian regimes and extremist groups have underestimated America’s resolve and determination. Iran’s leaders would be wise not to repeat this mistake.”

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Filed Under: Elected Officials, Foreign Policy, Media, National Security, Press Release Tagged With: Iran, Iraq, Joe Lieberman, John McCain

Educational Seminar on U.S. Foreign Relations

July 11, 2011 By Arizona Mainstream Project Leave a Comment

Arizona Mainstream Project

Presents

U.S. Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: Challenges in U.S. Policy

Foreign policy in the 21st Century has been driven by forces like technological changes between, within and among nations, non-nation independent actors, power shift challenges from West to East, globalization, the changing nature of war and even statecraft. In addition, structural changes for nations posed by Islamic “theology” that are legal, social, political and religious will affect our near and long term future. These changes are happening at an even quicker pace than might ordinarily be expected. This seminar will explore the changing nature and subsequent foreign policy challenges for the U.S. in the 21st Century.

Speaker: Professor Gene Aldridge, foreign policy expert

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Time: 6:30-8:30 PM
Location: Via Linda Senior Center
Address: 10440 E. Via Linda, Scottsdale (map)

Refreshments served

Cost: $10 per person

RSVP

For addtional information and questions send email to: info@arizonamainstreamproject.org or call 480-659-4232

Filed Under: Advertising, Conservatives, Economics, Education, Foreign Policy Tagged With: Arizona Mainstream Project, Arizona Tea Party, Gene Aldridge

Congressman Flake: U.S. Mission in Libya is Unclear

June 24, 2011 By Press Release 9 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 24, 2011
CONTACT: Genevieve Frye Rozansky

National Security Objectives Must be Defined

Washington, D.C. – Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona’s Sixth District, today voted against two legislative measures regarding U.S. military involvement in Libya. The first (H.J. Res. 68) would authorize the limited use of the United States Armed Forces in support of the NATO mission in Libya. The second (H.R. 2278) would limit the use of funds appropriated to the Department of Defense for United States Armed Forces in support of NATO Operation Unified Protector with respect to Libya.

“The President still has not made clear what national security objectives are being met by U.S. participation in the NATO mission or how we can justify spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fund our efforts there,” said Flake. “The time for debate over whether to authorize U.S. armed forces to engage in Libya was months ago, before the U.S. entered into the NATO operation.”

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Filed Under: Elected Officials, Federal Budget, Federal Government, Foreign Policy, Legislation, Military, National Security, Press Release Tagged With: CD-6, Jeff Flake

Former CIA Bin Laden Section Chief Takes Obama CNN Cheerleaders to School on Libya

April 5, 2011 By MadArizonan Leave a Comment

Alternate Title: How to get onesself honorably and permanently uninvited from CNN as an expert guest

Watch as the “news” “journalists” become visibly flustered as this man with the facts takes them to school on this live CNN broadcast.

Toward the end as their script is utterly obliterated, watch as they become shrill, attack their guest and go abruptly to commercial break.

Filed Under: Foreign Policy, Media, National Security, Political Correctness

Hu’s Your Daddy?

January 20, 2011 By Shane 1 Comment

Meanwhile over at the White House…

Here’s a “great” photo of an exchange that took place at the White House within the last 24 hours. One can only wonder what was on President Obama’s mind.

Now it’s your turn to provide a caption.

Filed Under: Foreign Policy

Isolationism & Earmarks

November 17, 2010 By Shane 9 Comments

Yesterday on my Facebook page, I asked for a definition of an “earmark” and whether or not designating money toward border security or a fire station was considered an earmark. This became an campaign issue during the Arizona GOP Senate primary as John McCain appeared to label any congressionally designated spending as an “earmark.” JD Hayworth on the other hand, publicly professed his support to spend money on border security in order to boost national security.

Today, The Cable has an interesting report in which a schism appears to be re-opening between “establishment” Republicans and TEA Party Republicans. McCain takes aim at newly-elected Senator Rand Paul who appears to have adopted his father’s approach to foreign policy when it comes to defense spending. Oklahoma Senator, Tom Coburn, who appeared with John McCain in early August to crusade against earmarks and the stimulus package, came to Paul’s defense by rejecting McCain’s labeling of TEA Party members as isolationist extremists.

Here is the report:

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) Tuesday rejected the assertion by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that calls for cuts in defense spending represent the rise of “protectionism and isolationism” within the Republican party.

At a conference Monday at the Foreign Policy Initiative, a conservative think tank, McCain said that he was worried about divisions within the Republican Party on the issue of defense spending.

“I worry a lot,” McCain said. “Because throughout the history of the Republican Party in modern times, there’s been, obviously, as we know, two wings: The isolationist wing, manifested before World War II and at other times; and the internationalist side. And so I think there are going to be some tensions within our party.”

McCain then singled out Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-KY) as an example of the party’s isolationist wing. While McCain said he “respects” Paul, he criticized him for openly calling for trimming the defense budget. “Already he has talked about withdrawals from, or cuts in defense, et cetera. And a number of others are… So I worry a lot about the rise of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican Party.”

The Cable couldn’t reach Paul today so we caught up with Coburn, one of the only GOP senators to openly call for cuts in defense spending. Coburn said McCain was flat wrong in saying that cutting defense is an indication of isolationism.

“It’s not hard to cut the defense budget and keep our defense exactly where it is,” Coburn told The Cable. “That’s how much waste is over there. Nothing is sacrosanct, it can’t be. As a matter of fact, the way the Defense Department is run now, we’re actually getting less bang for the buck. If we trim it down, we’ll get more bang for the buck.”

Paul told ABC’s This Week on Nov. 7 that he would “absolutely” vote for cuts in military spending if such a vote was put before him. “You need … compromise on where the spending cuts come from,” Paul told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour. “Republicans traditionally say, oh, we’ll cut domestic spending, but we won’t touch the military. The liberals — the ones who are good — will say, oh, we’ll cut the military, but we won’t cut domestic spending… Bottom line is, you have to look at everything across the board.”

Filed Under: Foreign Policy, Spending

A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY: OBAMA SLIMES ARIZONA TO THE U.N., ARIZONA’S ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES SILENT

August 29, 2010 By Caafaan-u-ma 29 Comments

Note to : Senator McCain (R) and Senator Kyl (R) and ALL AZ Congressional Representatives (R) and (D) to Congress:

“Arizona Governor Jan Brewer angrily demanded yesterday that the White House withdraw their report to the UN Human Rights Council that singled out Arizona’s law as a cause for concern about the American track record on human rights. Calling such a reference “downright offensive” in her letter to Hillary Clinton, Brewer also called the entire report “internationalism run amuck.”

(Ed Morrissey: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/08/28/brewer-blasts-obama-over-submission-to-un-specifying-az-immigration-law/)

Every single citizen of Arizona has been smeared as racist, human rights abusers to the United Nations HRC by our current President, Barack Obama (D), through his appointee, Hillary Clinton (D) as Secretary of State. One cannot recall a single instance when a sovereign government has EVER issued a condemnation of its OWN people to the United Nations. The Obama Administration initiated the international smear by instructing the State Department through Hillary Clinton and her deputy to introduce Arizona as a human rights abuser to the Chinese a few months ago, “Brought it up early and often.” Not a peep from our elected representatives then, now Obama jacks this cynical campaign against Arizona to the United Nations.

This also follows a recent obnoxious scene when Nancy Pelosi (D) as Speaker of the House provided Congress as the venue for a pulpit and a tacit stamp of approval for Mexico’s President to spew falsehoods and outrageous complaints against lawful Arizona state governing , and Arizona’s people. Before the entire nation, the Democratic Party literally applauded the whines of a foreigner against American citizens. Before the entire nation, Arizona’s elected representatives have been mute.

Arizona apparently has no representation in the Senate or in the House of Representatives. The silence is inexcusable. Our elected representatives should be in 100% in unison regardless of political party in public, and in unrelenting condemnation, and in demanding accountability on the Senate and House floors to protest the complete abuse of our national governance against the state of Arizona and the American citizens of Arizona they were elected to represent.

It goes far beyond Republican or Democrat, to the national integrity of our country, yet the elected officials Arizona has sent to represent this state in Congress are silent. There is no Congressional mobilization of the Constitutional checks and balances to control this executive branch abuse, thanks to the abandonment by our legislators of their sworn duties to the PEOPLE.

Governor Jan Brewer is a Republican. Where are her fellow Republican elected officials standing with her as she rightly objects to this unheard of act of the government in Washington DC going to an international body to pressure a U.S. State to accept a radical, corrosive and extra-legal domestic political agenda? Senator McCain, where are you? Senator Kyl where are you? Are you (R) busy defending the PEOPLE or (R)INO busy enabling the Democrats by co-drafting amnesty for favored status of foreigners who’ve broken our laws, over lawful citizens?

This is not only a national disgrace, a complete travesty, but a terrible abrogation of national sovereignty. We sure don’t hear any murmurs of concern about this coordinated Democratic Party disgusting action against a fellow Republican elected official who currently represents this state.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has been considered a travesty of its own, usually stocked with the world’s worst human rights offenders on the planet: Cuba, with journalists starving to death in squalid Cuban jails, China which harvests organs from prisoners, Saudi Arabia which beheads religious apostates, amputates people’s hands for crimes like theft, and shelters slavery within its kingdom’s borders, all of which have prisoners who would literally give their right arms to be taken care of by Sheriff Joe Arpaio instead.

It’s been a bad joke and just got worse. The committee members know very well Arizona is paradise compared to what they and scores of other countries routinely dish out to their citizens. Not a single other country would tolerate for a nanosecond ANY illegals entering their own nations, but many are happy to play along with the Obama Administration’s little political maneuvering stunt and condemn Arizona anyway, so this takes bad theatre down to a lower level of basement decrepitude.

What happens next? Will Arizonans be subject to arrest while innocently traveling abroad? Not likely? How preposterous is the fact that the “”problem of Arizona” is now on the UNHRC’s agenda? It’s ridiculous, but there it is, thanks to Obama. By forcing this issue into the United Nations, all sorts of consequences are now possible. Will the ultimate cynical ploy be realized by a gloating and gleeful White House? Governor Jan Brewer indicted as Sudan’s Bashir was for “crimes against humanity”? President Bashir presided over Darfur atrocities, Brewer presides over … SB1070, which the Obama Administration evidently is arguing is on some sort of bizarro par with Bashir’s Darfur policies. Our POTUS is destroying the protections ALL American citizens are entitled to as stated in the Constitution. Yet, our representatives are AWOL. Instead of standing up for us all, they are hiding from us.

Filed Under: Foreign Policy, Government, Guest Opinion, Illegal Immigration, Public Relations, State Government

An “International Offensive of Hypocrisy”

June 4, 2010 By Caafaan-u-ma 11 Comments

Identify which state THIS quote is referring to:

“In other words, the activists were like the civil rights demonstrators who sat down at segregated lunch counters throughout the South and refused to leave until they were served. Their goal was not really to get breakfast. It was to end segregation.”1

How about THIS state?’

We’re being very methodical, “We’re asking to have this assessed. The fact is, if we chose to ignore what happened in the South in the 60s, we’d still have the kind of discriminatory laws that were being proposed back then. 2

The first quote was aimed at the state of ISRAEL , the second at the state of ARIZONA.

Dishonest Hysterical Projection:

BOSTON (AP) – They gather on statehouse steps with signs and bullhorns, risking arrest. They attend workshops on civil disobedience and personal storytelling, and they hold sit-ins and walk out of class in protest. They’re being warned that they could even lose their lives.
Students fighting laws that target illegal immigrants are taking a page from the civil rights era, adopting tactics and gathering praise and momentum from the demonstrators who marched in the streets and sat at segregated lunch counters as they sought to turn the public tide against racial segregation. “Their struggle then is ours now,” said Deivid Ribeiro, 21, an illegal immigrant from Brazil and an aspiring physicist. “Like it was for them, this is about survival for us. We have no choice.”

To paraphrase Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, “With hysterical reporting like that, that’s why the Boston Globe and the Associated Press (AP) are losing all credibility.”

“You can add this to the list of very bad things the new Arizona Immigration Law is being compared to: Terrorism. Jesse Jackon appeared on MSNBC today and told Contessa Brewer that the new law, allowing police to require proof of citizenship from anyone they “suspect” of being an illegal immigrant, is the equivalent of ‘terrorism for the innocent…”

Can Arizonians find any worldly equivalent to that toxic combo of sympathetic press and rabblerousing claims? How about: “Palestinian Genocide – Apartheid Israel starving, killing Asian infants – UK-US-backed Racist Zionist Apartheid Israel kills 7 Palestinian infants DAILY.”

How hard is it to refute that claim? The “Occupied Palestinian Territories” of which Gaza is a big part, “have an estimated 4% population growth rate today, well beyond the United States, far beyond European growth rates, surpassing Israel’s population growth rate. “Even in the absence of such migration, the population in the occupied territories will grow nearly 4 per cent. The occupied territories have one of the highest rates of natural increase in the world, a consequence of a low crude death rate (around 6 deaths per 1,000 persons) and a very high birth rate of about 45 births per 1,000 persons. http://www.un.org/popin/regional/escwa/popbull/bull43/chapter2.htm

The current world experts on genocide are the surviving Jews and Rwandans, having been at the receiving end of the real thing. The U.N., it’s mandate written to “stop genocide,” spent quite a bit of effort twisting itself into pretzels to avoid using the mandate trigger of “genocide” to mobilize UN resources against the Hutu extremists, as 800,000 Tutsi Rwandans were massacred – a noticeably abrupt DECLINE in a population, yet makes no objection to the use of the same mandate trigger term to mobilize the UN against Israel, based on the human tragedy of … a robustly growing population of healthy, well-fed people for proof of … “genocide.”

To again paraphrase Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, “With hysterical comments like these, that’s why the U.N. is losing all credibility.”

Boycott Fevah: We’re going to select some things we think we can do to hurt them, but hold on to what we need from them so our comfort levels aren’t affected. The ‘match and the thermometer’ sort of ’fever’.

“TURKEY said on Friday it was considering scaling back its relations with ISRAEL to a minimum… Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc also said Turkey was assessing economic and defense deals with Israel in the clearest sign yet it may significantly reduce its ties with once close ally Israel. “We may plan to reduce our relations with Israel to a minimum, but to assume everything involving another country is stopped in an instant, to say we have crossed you out of our address book, is not the custom of our state …We are serious on this issue. New cooperation will not start and relations with Israel will be reduced,” said Arinc. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3899043,00.html

“LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL called for the city to “refrain from conducting business with the state of ARIZONA including participating in any conventions or other business that requires city resources, unless SB 1070 is repealed.” The resolution was introduced by council members Reyes and Hahn. LA’s top policy analyst… identified $56 million in Arizona-related investments … recommended that the council suspend travel to Arizona, refrain from entering new contracts and review current contracts.
The city must now decide which of those contracts can be broken without risking a lawsuit.
The city’s proprietary departments — namely, the Water and Power and Harbor departments and Los Angeles World Airports — have another $51.8 million in affected contracts. The city does not have the authority to direct its proprietary departments to terminate those contracts; it can merely request that they do so. “We asked our city to officials to find out what contracts we have right now that we could actually terminate and have a bit of a financial impact,” Hahn said. “It is about $7 million or $8 million. We’re asking them to terminate those contracts, where possible and feasible.”
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local-beat/LA-Council-Considers-Arizona-Boycott-93575949.html

How the White House Projects its Annoyance to the entire World:

Arizona Governor Gets Few Results From Meeting With Obama …
Citing scheduling issues, Obama initially declined to meet with Brewer this week while she is in Washington for a Council of Governors meeting. But as criticism grew over Obama’s seeming snub, he made time on his calendar. While Obama is pushing for a multi-layered approach to immigration, Brewer is advocating for a policy that will secure the border first.
On Thursday, neither side backed down from their approach. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/03/arizona-governor-gets-results-meeting-obama/

President Obama snubs Prime Minister Netanyahu …
President Obama snubbed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in several ways during his visit to Washington this week. The Obama administration is miffed by what it sees as Israeli intransigence … The White House denied Netanyahu the red carpet treatment generally afforded to visiting heads of state. The Israeli prime minister and Obama didn’t pose for photos together, and Netanyahu was excluded from dinner with the president Tuesday night.

When Netanyahu wouldn’t agree to concessions, Obama left a meeting with him, though he invited Netanyahu to stay at the White House, talk to Obama advisers and “let me know if there is anything new,” a U.S. congressman who spoke to Netanyahu, told The Times of London. “It was awful,” the congressman said.
One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages,” conducted in such an adversarial environment that the Israeli delegation eventually left…”

http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/Obama-Snubs-Netanyahu-White-House/2010/03/26/id/353950

While Governor Jan Brewer and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sit on the White House curb, they could commiserate. It seems Arizona isn’t the only state in the world that has illegal immigration problems. Evidently, these two horrid racist states are actually pretty good places to get good paying jobs, even if one is illegal:

“Some 80,000 foreign workers, most of them illegal aliens, live in Tel Aviv, making up about a quarter of the city’s population, the immigration police said yesterday.”
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/foreign-workers-make-up-a-quarter-of-tel-aviv-s-population-1.90760

The attacks on Israel are cut from the same cloth as those against Arizona. The battle is being waged in the court of public opinion, not in actual courts, where a fair and impartial deliberative process would conclude that Arizona is acting lawfully under federal law, just as Israel acted lawfully under standard international Maritime law. The purpose of the process right now as Arizona and Israel are being pilloried in the national and international media is to influence public opinion, to “sway the jury,” to literally prejudice as much of the public as possible against duly elected state governments upholding laws, while studiously avoiding actual courts with impartial judges.

When, not if, these issues finally go to court, and only AFTER a campaign of hardening public opinion, and a search for “sympathetic courts,” the public will be then be encouraged to pressure the judges, the advocates, the jury if they do not deliver a “correct conclusion.”

The media deliberately selects terms to lead a report, and by that to coach readers. The continued standard media reporting on Arizona’s SB1070 can’t go two sentences without the obligatory “racist” worked in there somewhere. The continued usage of the words, “Israeli commandos assault” rather than the correct terminology of “Israeli naval boarding party” influences the reader to a negative assumption of Israeli aggression, especially when coupled with “humanitarian aid” and “peace activists” instead of the dead give-away: ‘Al Qaeda.’ This reporting also depends on a general audience level of ignorance of maritime life, rules and international protocols.

A Coast Guard or Naval officer or seaman of any country with a navy recognizes the Israeli protocols awere perfectly normal procedure when dealing with a vessel that refuses to cooperate. If anything, our Coast Guard and Navy would fault the Israelis for having been under-armed, naively arriving with paintball riot control gadgets instead of standard boarding armaments. Our Coast Guard absolutely does not board with such ineffectual arms ANY vessel that is not cooperating when told to heave-to. They take NO risks like that or assume anything. Violent pirates, terrorists and vicious drug runners can be packed into the most innocuous sailing, fishing trawler, or top–of the line yacht, as the Israelis just discovered, the hard way - as Arizona ranchers have found, also the hard way, packed into apparently helpless stragglers at their own watering troughs.

The “humanitarian flotilla,” stuffed with picked out of the trash expired medicines as props, Leftist ‘activists’ and Al Qaeda terrorists hot to get a piece, literally, of any Israeli, was a trap.

What law enforcement officer in Arizona isn’t thinking right now about the promises of civil rights challenges and calls for “civil disobedience” to the very first arrest under SB1070 made that reveals an illegal alien, and of what possible pre-meditated entrapments of officers by colluding legals to provide material for lawsuits to undermine the law, actions meant to harass Arizona police and their ability to do their lawfully appointed jobs? They haven’t done anything wrong, yet they’ve been already labeled as ‘racists’ and ‘fascists,’ smeared from not only coast to coast but all the way to China by our very own State Department.

Out of state supporters of ‘doing nothing about illegal immigration,’ muster in Phoenix, throwing bottles at police, screaming and yelling, justifying vandalism and defacement for their “cause.” Governor Jan Brewer, like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is depicted on placards as a Hitler, a holocaust-promoter … one of the world’s most cynically cruel twisting of reality, of decency, ever.

Arizona calls for a wall and border troops and is vilified just for the TALK of it. Israel builds a wall to stop suicide bombers and is heaped with scorn and criticism. Meanwhile, next-door Egypt, which is never criticized for building a wall between it and Gaza, is having its own Gaza problems: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8665674.stm

This week though, as a public gesture of solidarity for the “peaceful humanitarians,” ‘a boat-load of Ghandi … with clubs and brass knuckles” as Jonah Goldebrg noticed, who broke international maritime law by failing to heave-to at a weapons blockade, after days of ignoring Israeli orders to halt, and beat the tar out of a lawful boarding party with a on–record pre-meditated warlike intent to lynch the Israelis, Egypt opened its closed border fence with Gaza … and got what for it immediately in exchange? Gaza Palestinians shot and killed an Egyptian border guard. http://article.wn.com/view/2010/06/03/EGYPTOPT_Gazans_take_advantage_of_open_Egypt_border/

Where’s the international outrage about the violent comportment of the “Gazans?” Anyone going to sit with the grieving Egyptian family over their loss? Anyone able to explain why an Egyptian soldier is dead?

Israel is one of a number of countries, like India, Cyprus, Morocco, South Korea and critically, Egypt, which have even more aggressively extensive border fences or walls designed to totally control unauthorized human incursions. But only Israel is condemned for containing Gaza, not fellow-container Egypt. Only Arizona is condemned, not California, a state which erected a border fence to control Mexican incursions that forced the majority of the illegal migration away from California and thru Arizona in the first place.

Why does Turkey suddenly care? It’s a weapons blockade, the only reason Turkey would need to run that would be to run arms into Gaza; they can get everything else in without encountering the blockade. So, Turkey’s meddling agenda is not in Israel’s interest at all. Iran has stated a public policy to wipe Israel off the map. Having Iran installed in Gaza, which it is through Hamas, was not prevented by Israel, all they have done so far is contained its spread out of Gaza. Even with a fence, Israel suffers with rocket attacks from Gaza, over 2,000 rockets shot over from Gaza into Israeli towns and cities like Sederot. Meanwhile, as Democrats in cities like San Francisco and Seattle are sheltered by distance from it, Arizona suffers from the drug crime, murders and kidnappings – uncontained Mexican drug cartel criminal activity which continues to move steadily into the state, which can land in any Arizonan’s home or property at any time of the day, any day of the week. Why are California lawmakers interfering with Arizona’s attempts to restore the peace in Arizona? What is their real agenda?

When Mexico’s President Calderon meddles in American affairs and demands Arizona keep its border open and that US National Guard troops are not to stop illegals, “just drug and gun runners,” he wants what benefits Mexico, not what benefits the United States or the state of Arizona. Calderon’s self-serving plan ignores America’s needs and priorities to keep out any criminal gangs and foreign terrorists who search for easy illegal entry into the USA, as they would be blocked trying to enter legally, worse, allows for further advancement of these terrible elements into the United States. Since when should the USA destroy its integrity as a sovereign nation to please another nation? Since when should Israel destroy its integrity to allow for further advancement of terrible elements into it?

In Arizona and across the country to protest Arizona, signs are waved that say, “I didn’t cross the border, it crossed me,” and “Reconquista!” What’s the difference in tone , historical accuracy and purpose between that and the claims that Israel has no right to the land it sits on, even though the prophet Nehemiah rebuked the Geshem the Arab, Tobiah the Jordanian and Sanballat the Gazan 2,500 years ago that “You have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.” (Nehemiah 2:20).

It’s not hard to image the screams of outrage if America publically insisted, say, France to allow Libya to dictate how France patrols its border, or if America told Mexico that Guatemala should dictate Mexican border policing protocols or that Mexico should cede land to El Salvador “for peace.” That would be declared patent nonsense, but the same is dumped on Israel daily and ominously has become part of the standard rhetoric against Arizona.

Arizona and Israel share another commonality: The Obama Administration.

While Obama intones “I am the president,” and doesn’t “do” boycotts, feigning neutrality, he is found in venue after venue complaining about Arizona’s law, “believing” it to be “flawed.” While he tasks his Attorney General to announce intents of legal challenges, before even reading SB1070, Obama uses media time to praise sports teams for taking a political stand against the law, and he is deliberately silent on his political party’s destabilizing implementation of boycotts which are designed to encourage broader boycotting, and purposely inflict measurable economic harm on a fellow state in the Union.

President Barack Obama has instructed the Justice Department to examine the Arizona law that he said last week threatens to “undermine basic notions of fairness.” He also is pressing anew for national immigration legislation, saying, “If we continue to fail to act at a federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/27/eric-holder-federal-gover_n_553978.html

“Misguided” and “undermines basic notions of fairness”? Arizona used Federal law. But then on close inspection, Obama isn’t saying it’s “unconstitutional,” is he? Eric Holder’s comment was “ahh .. ahhh, ” but he expects to challenge SB1070 in court. So, while Obama murmurs general platitudes out of one side of his mouth, his subordinates and his political party in lockstep slam it from all directions, as he then praises all public posturing against it out of the other side of his mouth.

Since Obama is ignoring his Constitutional duty to “preserve domestic tranquility” between the fifty American states, why would anyone believe he is capable of or interested in preserving international tranquility between America and her traditional allies, such as Israel? He claims Israel is an American ally, but then broadcasts a different tone, which isn’t any solidarity.

As for Israel and the flotilla, Obama takes the, “will withhold comment while he’s waiting for the facts, but the Israelis acted stupidly.” That sure charmed the Cambridge Police Department; it’ll go over just as well with the bruised and battered Israelis, it’s just as ‘soothing’ to Arizona law enforcement officers like Sheriff Joe Arpaio who will have the entire force and weight of an Obama Administration bent on finding ‘racism’ on his head the hour SB1070 actually takes effect in July if any deputy or officer so much as sneezes wrong.

State Department ‘Travel Advisories’ : Israel and Arizona

The Obama and Democratic Party-administered U.S. State Department headed by Hillary Clinton doesn’t inspire much confidence in their sincerity of their support of Israel as an ally, with a former US Ambassador grandstanding as a flotilla participant, and Hillary Clinton herself having once schmoozy-kissed for the international media the wife of since deceased Yasser Arafat, the corrosive architect of the suicide bomber and the Intifada. A quick handshake from the US First Lady at the time would have been too cordial a greeting for a woman who was living high on donated millions, meant for “humanitarian aid” for Palestinians.

What sort of iron stomach does one need to be able to be in the same room as people who have killing Jews and Muslims as their resume ? Before Bill Clinton pulled him out of obscurity, resurrecting Arafat’s rancid career against Israel, Arafat had already made himself an unwanted violent government-undermining threat in Jordan, “chased out” and then in Tunisia, but who criticizes those nations? Only Israel received condemnation and exhortations and immense pressure to accept Arafat as a credible “peace partner” when nothing in his past substantiated any trace of “peaceful” attributes in the man.

Now, Hillary is Secretary of State, and on the news criticizing Israel:
“In an extraordinary interference with the sovereignty of a democratic society and its right of self-defense, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said Wednesday that the United States wants “a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation. … We are open to different ways of assuring a credible investigation, including international participation … ” (Anne Bayesky, FORBES).

Hillary’s brand of international diplomacy applied to ARIZONA:
“In an extraordinary interference with the sovereignty of a democratic society and its right of self-defense” …

State Dept. Spokesman P.J. Crowley … disputed the notion that Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner was apologizing to China … But he echoed other top Obama administration officials in describing the law as a gateway to “racial profiling”… Posner told … that the U.S. delegation brought up the Arizona law “early and often,” as an example of a trouble spot Americans need to work on. “It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination…” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/18/state-department-defends-official-expressed-regret-chinese-arizona-law/

While Chinese officials were picking their dropped jaws off the floor, Mexico issued a media grandstanding “Travel Advisory” to Mexicans who had any reckless thoughts of entering the Grand Canyon State to ominously warn Mexican citizens about the “heightened risk of being asked for your ID or passport in Arizona,” while Americans traveling to Mexico face robbery, carjacking, kidnapping and murder. Separate out the Mexican drug cartel-generated crime stats like “kidnapping” from Arizona, and one discovers it’s one of the safest, calmest places to be in the world, illegal or legal. Where was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defending Arizonans by telling the Mexican government to “stuff the phony posturing”?

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have so much in common right now, Phoenix and Tel Aviv should be declared sister cities, Prescott and Jerusalem should swap keys as the historical capitals, and declare Arizona and Israel solidarity as fellow “pariah states” in this “International Conspiracy of Hypocrisy.” 3

1: http://www.foundingbloggers.com/wordpress/2010/06/media-matters-equates-isreal-with-old-school-racist-democrats-from-the-segregated-south/
2: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local-beat/LA-Council-Considers-Arizona-Boycott-93575949.html

3 “International Conspiracy of Hypocrisy,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Filed Under: Constitutional Law, Debates, Foreign Policy, Government, Guest Opinion, Illegal Immigration, National Security, Public Relations, State Government

Israel, Mexico and all those “Peace Processes”

March 18, 2010 By Caafaan-u-ma 8 Comments

This past week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as the official representative to foreign nations of the current U.S. Administration in Washington, DC, “warned” the Israelis to get on the “peace process.” Vice President Joe Biden and his wife spent the week in an official diplomatic visit to Israel and growled to their hosts they weren’t doing enough for “peace.” Palestinians, seeing the scolding of the Israeli government by the very apogee of the current American administration, promptly began the stone throwing and lit the Molotov cocktails. When pressed that this seemed to be a disturbingly undermining way to support an ally, President Obama stated to clarify this awkward situation in his interview with Fox’s Bret Baier that ,“Israel is an ally … but we can have disagreements.”

DRUDGE report posed the ominous question: “US Administration seeks regime change in Israel?” What are we to think, considering Obama’s stated position in the Iranian election People’s rebellion, while Iranian citizens were bleeding in the streets, that it wasn’t for the USA to “meddle,” yet his administration engaged in heavy-handed American meddling in Honduras’s political business to try to force the Hondurans to reinstall a president they’d determined by their own laws to have been acting illegally. Hillary Clinton was the face of the USA to Hondurans, jetting in to tell them how to read their own Constitution, and Hillary Clinton about two weeks ago, was the face of the USA telling astounded and then disgusted ally Britain that they should “settle” the Falklands issue with Argentina.

How about we see some of these United States government officials prominently addressing the “peace process” that has been lacking in the growing Mexican Drug War disaster? Can not the same as laid on Israel that “Mexico is an ally … but we can have disagreements?”

How can Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pound the podium, suddenly “tough” about demanding Israel get “serious” about the “peace process” while US State Department Consular staff are targeted, ambushed and shot in Mexico?
She’s was those people’s boss, until they were murdered.

Where’s the Secretary of State’s strong rhetoric to the Mexican government to get “serious about a peace process” with the drug lords? Where’s her rebuke to the Mexican government to take “concrete steps” about the lawlessness? Where’s the demand to account for the money and equipment the United States has provided the Mexican government expressly for enhancing their capability to fight the drug insurgency?

America, and especially border states like Arizona are continuing to be sucked deeper into this increasingly dangerous situation with absorbing fleeing people, unwilling host to well-organized drug gangs which continue to increase their establishment of their destabilizing mayhem into Arizona cities, including the state capital itself, Phoenix, while US Embassy and private American citizens become casualties on Mexican streets. But the US Secretary of State, representing the priorities of the current Obama Administration isn’t at any of our southern border states or pounding the podium in Mexico City. Our Vice President Biden and his wife are not visiting the burning neighborhoods of Mexico to demand something be done. Our Head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, isn’t seriously addressing the integrity of the international boundary between our two nations, despite one of the nations teetering on chaos due to illegal and vicious violence. It is a fact of chaotic regional strife, from the Congo to the Golden Triangle that disorganized and ineffective government control is always exploited for cover by other opportunitistic criminals and terrorists.

Arizona is one of several states which would form literally the front line of a war zone if this deteriorating situation isn’t confronted with credibility and multi-level strategic competency in international diplomatic efforts, national security, regional and local policing and confronting the enabling corruption that degrades Mexican and American institutions. Institutions meant to maintain societal and national integrity for the purpose of maintaining genuine peace.

The commentator graduated from Thunderbird School of International Management and prior to returning to Arizona, worked in humanitarian aid and emergency aid in nations in West Africa and East Africa, directly in or in conjunction with Peace Corps, USAID and the United Nations, including disaster relief in circumstances of ethnic cleansing, refugees, and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Filed Under: Foreign Policy, Guest Opinion, National Security, Public Safety

Nuclear Iran- Part II

February 18, 2010 By Caafaan-u-ma 24 Comments

“I am sure Ahmedinejad is thankful.”
Indeed he is. The Progressive Liberal Left is helping wage his war of breaking down of will to stand up against him, garbling debate and employing boilerplate stereotyping tactics to encourage people to ignore the warning signs and berate anyone who raises the alarm – at a time when a number of actions – not necessarily war – are still available to help counter this aggressive and brutal regime. All this running interference for free! Ahmedinejad is not just thankful, he’s delighted.

Ignore, ignore means the Iranian regime can carry on without disruption, and steadily increases the probability of total war, the worst case for everyone. We may be quite unperturbed and complacent here in Arizona, but have we checked the European press lately? They are very very very worried. The UN has three sets of sanctions on the books now which Iran is blatantly ignoring, and with the rising anxiety from the Iranian Regime’s announcement regarding achieving their benchmark objective to enrich uranium to levels required for weapons applications – not even a shock – there is heavy pressuring for more sanctions. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8522910.stm ). Europe will be in the target zone and they do not have a missile shield. Because of the expense and development required, they’ve been long banking on the USA to provide that – and Obama by his rebuffing of Poland, is sending out a clear message to our allies they cannot count on that, as long as the Democratic Party holds on to power.

Because of its size, even ONE nuclear warhead detonating anywhere in Israel would be far more devastating than two or three in a nation the size of Iran. They’re worried. What good does it do Israel to have “300 warheads” it can rain down on Iran when the one can’t be stopped? Iran will not launch one, they will launch multiple. Only one has to get through. Iran knows it, Israel knows it. It’s an intolerable situation. When Iran announced this week that Israel wanted war by this summer, Israel coolly replied, “No we don’t.” But the inclination of the press is to admonish Israel, not Iran for provocative nuclear talk.( http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100216/twl-israel-mulling-a-spring-or-summer-wa-3cd7efd.html )

Why focus on just Israel? Iran and Iraq are traditional enemies; Iranian Revolutionary Guards were infiltrating, training and heavily funding the insurgency in Iraq against US troops. Iran could easily choose to drop a nuke on Baghdad as payback for Saddam’s invasion of Iran and the resultant 9 year war during which over a million people were killed, and by that also eliminate an inconvenient democracy on their border. On Iran’s other border, a nuke to destroy Kabul and by that, the Afghan government there would make it easy for Iran to invade and conquer that nation in order to spread Iran’s form of radical Revolutionary Islam.

It doesn’t HAVE to go to war, but the way the Obama Administration is not handling this, aggravated by Obama reaching his hand out to the Anti-American Ahmedinejad, hugging the America-hating Hugo Chavez, in the room with American-murdering Ghaddafi, and nothing extended to the pro-freedom Iranian people has sent a terrible message across the globe. Allies and enemies alike are downgrading their traditional assumptions about America’s reliability for the worse, a weakness that our enemies will exploit, and greatly increasing other nations resorting to war to stop Iran before it can attack them.

America is not helpless. Citizens have every right to expect and insist that our elected leadership represent our national interests of security, which includes our allies. That’s their JOB. These representatives are supposed to be stewards of our military and our foreign policy, maintaining capacities; working at all levels of diplomacy and using all available established mechanisms to make every reasonable effort to keep the conditions that produce war from not developing.

But the United States Government today, controlled monopolistically by the Democratic Party, is presiding over not national security, but a massive political fete, featuring a pinata of American wealth, loading it up with taxpayer money, and tinsel goodies bought on debt – with entitlement groups swinging blindly to smash the bird while special interest groups fight over the “free money” sweets that spill to the ground.

That is NOT the role of good government. That is NOT the behavior of a responsible citizenry.

When the favors have run out, the money gone, the taxpayers broken, the hangover begins. The national wealth blown on an out of control binge fueled by greed; frivolous pursuits indulged while national security was neglected. Our irresponsible government will stagger off like the dissipated Belshazzar of Babylon who feasted and partied, squandering the wealth of the people instead of attending to his duty of guarding the city while the king was away, leading the army to defend the nation, drunkenly blinking incomprehensively at the words written before him on the wall that condemned him: Mene Mene Tekil Parsin.

“Because of your arrogant and irresponsible behavior, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.”

As we consider the many candidates who are lining up for 2010 and 2012, for a chance to be the ones chosen to represent our state, and our nation, as representatives, senators and president, those who understand this grave duty and can stand firm despite political attacks and pressure to capitulate should be the ones selected to move to state and national seats. Citizens have a responsibility to each other to chose wisely, to consider well the character, the experience and the abilities of each candidate. Shallow and uninformed decisions will reward representatives who are unequal to the task of representing and governing.

The Persian leadership is poised to test America as it has never been tested before; they are but one of our enemies, so we need to select men and women who will be able to provide informed and solid leadership, and who will always vote for the best interests of the American People and their rights as derived from the American Constitution.

Filed Under: Foreign Policy, Guest Opinion, National Security, Terrorism

Nuclear Iran

February 11, 2010 By Caafaan-u-ma 14 Comments

Iran announces today that they are a nuclear nation.

Total FAIL for the Obama Administration.

Obama spoke on numerous times during the campaign about his goal to REDUCE nuclear weapons. Evidently, he meant only evicerating America’s defenses while Iran is on full speed to OFFENSIVE weapons manufacturing.

Iran has long publicized its intention to wipe Israel off the map. It is now a critical step closer. It has already been launching missles and rockets to gain experience in developing a reliable nuclear weapon delivery system. We only know what they’ve told us, they are certainly NOT telling us everything, but what we know is suffiicent: they are poised to put it all together for the purpose of exporting mass destruction.

Iran is a well-educated, modern, and oil-prosperous society with a brutal and idealogically-driven regime that is staying in power solely by raw, lethal force against its own people. Today’s internet is full of videos of the Iranian people being beaten today for the crime of demanding freedom from tyranny. We don’t need even today’s raw footage of the clubbings in Tehran to know the character of the brutal men in charge of the radical Revolutionary Iranian Regime; during the Iraq-Iran War, the mullahs gave children a piece of Koranic scripture, promised them a place in heaven and pushed them across fields ahead of the troops … to clear the landmines. What worse can we expect if they treat their citizens that way, while they consider us, “The Great Satan?”

So, evidently it isn’t scattered global strikes today, but the achievement of a Revolutionary Iranian Regime military objective that guarantees total WAR, and soon.

Why war? And why soon? The threat of nuclear destruction is so serious that Iran’s neighbors cannot hold or they will be effectively held hostage or forced to capitulate the moment Iran can deliver a bomb to Cairo, Baghdad, Tel Aviv, Amman, Ankara, Kabul, New Delhi, Rome. Any American troops in Iraq would be in harm’s way. America could easily be blackmailed by a threat of nuclear strike to pull out all troops, leaving newly Democratic Iraq at the mercy of their neighbor and arch enemy, Iran.

But not to worry, the Democratic Party has assured us we are ‘post-war’ and no longer require a military capable of defending America, nor do we require a functioning missile shield. As Rep Kirkpatrick (D) said, representing the Democratic Majority Party Congress and the Democratic Party Controlled Administration’s policy:

“Our military will have to make due with less.”

As if the military’s purpose to provide national security was at the same strategic level of multimillionaire Nancy Pelosi’s U.S. Taxpayer funded jet, which she needs more than our troops need support, the U.S. government owning General Motors, which the White House needs more than reinforcing our troops, nationalizing student college loans which is more important than enhancing our intelligence capabilities – despite the debacle of the Christmas bombing attempt, TARP bailouts, massage parlors, schools buying iPODs with stimulus funds, all of which trump national security issues as recipients of taxpayer-derived funds.

So, after tripling national debt, into beyond the next generation, then raising the debt ceiling so they can keep spending on everything BUT our military, the Democratic Party in the White House and the Congress insists that Americans will have to make due with LESS SECURITY.

“Belt-tightening,” Obama intones weekly, “Everyone has to sacrifice.”

They need the money for Democratic Party national priorities like buying up $50 million beaches in the Virgin Islands.

Filed Under: Foreign Policy, Guest Opinion, Military, National Security, Terrorism

Why is Manmohan Singh in Washington?

November 25, 2009 By Caafaan-u-ma 3 Comments

The MSM reporting on this week’s heralded “President Obama’s First State Dinner” is heavy on arugula, sustainable magnolia and curry than political meat.

While YAHOO! News chatters about First Lady Michelle Obama’s “breaking with tradition dress,” Bloomberg reporters Kate Andersen Brower and Nicholas Johnston pen a detailed description:
“They will join a group of American and Indian executives, diplomats, public officials and celebrities who will be honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh under heated tents on the White House South Lawn.
Guests will dine on potato and eggplant salad with arugula from the White House garden; roasted potato dumplings with tomato chutney, chickpeas and okra, or an alternate choice of green curry prawns served with caramelized salsify, smoked collard greens and coconut aged basmati. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aQ_tY1EpS4FE

Between the coconut aged basmati rice and the chickpeas, what should Americans know that occupies the mind of the Indian Prime Minister? After all, it’s a long way to go for dinner, for Singh, it’s literally half way around the globe, so discussions must be involved.
Howard LaFranchi of the Christian Science Monitor relates, “Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives at the White House Tuesday wondering if his country remains the US priority under President Obama that it became under President Bush.
The Obama administration thought it had answered that question months ago when it announced that Mr. Singh’s day of meetings would constitute the first state visit of Mr. Obama’s presidency – a distinction meant to convey the importance of the occasion.
But Obama’s week-long trip to Asia that ended last Thursday has India questioning anew the value of a US partnership. In particular, the tenor of Obama’s three days in China was heard by Indians as American acquiescence to rising Chinese power across Asia.” http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1123/p02s01-usfp.html

Americans did not get much sense from the MSM that much transpired apart from Obama’s bowing gaffs, and zero sense that other nations watch every move a US president makes like hawks, and parse every word, and at least one major ally didn’t like what they heard. CNN’s 44th President webpage page, under POLITICS, has this astute political insight:
“The dinner, in a tent set up on the White House South Lawn with a view of the Washington Monument, featured round tables for 10 set in resplendent colors — apple green, ruby, gold — with floral arrangements of roses, hydrangeas and sweet peas in plum, purple and fuchsia. Place settings in fine china from three previous administrations — Eisenhower, Clinton and George W. Bush — were flanked by five pieces of silverware and crystal glasses. Place cards were in script — “The President” and “Mrs. Obama” read two.

A seasonal menu reflecting both American and Indian flavors started with a potato and eggplant salad made with White House-grown arugula and accompanied by an onion seed vinaigrette, according to the White House.”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/24/obama.state.dinner/index.html?section=cnn_latest

One is left wondering if the place cards for the Prime Minister and his wife were in Hindi script or the potentially insensitive, “English script.” Inquiring minds might want to know, if they were not more concerned about nations, conflicts, terror and war.

Mian Ridge writes about what’s on Indians’ minds in the Christian Science Monitor, “But while talks between Mr. Singh and Mr. Obama scheduled for Tuesday are likely to focus on such matters as Afghanistan, climate change, and cooperation on nuclear energy, pundits in India are more interested in the question of where the US’s new friendship with China, as well as its relationship with Pakistan, leaves India.
“We may aspire to a seat at the high table of world power but China is already sitting at the head of the table along with the United States,” wrote journalist Gautam Adhikari in the Times of India Monday. “It has enough IOUs in its pocket to stop anyone from pushing it around. We also are a billion-strong nation, a democracy to boot and growing economically at a still impressive rate given the global conditions. But, realistically speaking, we are a second or perhaps third tier force in the eyes of the United States.

A recent joint statement from Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, which included a line of support for better Indo-Pakistan relations, was regarded in New Delhi as an expression of unwanted interference in a sensitive matter. For some, it raises the worrying specter of Chinese involvement in South Asian diplomacy – and at a time when India’s long running border row with China is especially tense.” http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1123/p06s01-wosc.html

A bit testy. It gets even more interesting though with the Times of India:
“… Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday threw down the gauntlet to Washington, Islamabad and perhaps even Beijing and other world capitals that India would not be budged from pursuing its interests in Afghanistan — primarily of preventing the country from turning toxic under Pakistan’s malignant influence and American uncertainty.

“The road to peace on Afghanistan will be long and hard. But given the high stakes involved, the commitment of the international community must be sustained by firm resolve and unity of purpose.” Singh told Washington’s top policy wonks gathered to hear him at the Center for Foreign Relations, amid a continuing review by President Obama about U.S options in Afghanistan.

The remarks were clearly meant for the US President and his principals who have been bashing heads for several weeks now over next steps in Afghanistan amid charges of dithering on the crucial issue. Singh’s advice ahead of his meeting with Obama on Tuesday — Stay the course; we are going to be there.” http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Stay-the-course-in-Afghanistan-PM-Manmohan-Singh-urges-US/articleshow/5262957.cms

So, India, which has been invaded by neighbor Pakistan and neighbor China, at great losses of Indian lives and loss of Indian territory, is not comfortable with the Obama Administration’s “reaching-out” to China, and is extremely concerned that any U.S. abandonment of Afghanistan will have a dangerously negative impact on India’s security.

What does CNN’s political reporting reveal on this important diplomatic and geopolitical issue, which reflects an overdue and dragging Obama Administration decision on an Afghan military strategy?
“The event planned by first lady Michelle Obama emphasized eco-friendly themes such as White House-grown herbs and lettuce served to guests and sustainably harvested magnolia branches — from species native to both India and the United States — in arrangements adorning the tent where more than 300 guests wearing tuxedos and gowns were wined, dined and entertained.”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/24/obama.state.dinner/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Despite the arugula and traditional Thanksgiving pie and various organically grown vegetables from Michelle Obama’s White House Very Hardy November garden, the special sauces may not have been enough to stave off some serious indigestion that began developing just last week, as reported by the Christian Science Monitor:

“But what has set the Indians on edge now is the wording of a communiqué issued last week by Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao at the end of their Beijing talks. The two leaders said their countries “are ready to strengthen … cooperation in issues related to South Asia.” They specifically pledged to “support the improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan.”
That set off an uproar in New Delhi, where even members of Singh’s own party questioned whether a declining superpower was bowing to the “core interests” of another country. Indian officials repeated that India needs no outside involvement in its relationship with Pakistan.
US officials say that the communiqué was not intended to signal a recognition of a supposed Chinese sphere of influence. The State Department’s undersecretary of State for political affairs, William Burns, responded by saying there is “too much reading into statements.”
But Neena Shenai, an adjunct scholar for South Asian issues at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said the statement was “certainly not the way to roll out the red carpet for Prime Minister Singh.” http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1123/p02s01-usfp.html

But, how many Americans are aware of that? Has our media, which is meant to inform the U.S. public, been diligent in alerting Americans to the dismay and most importantly, the CONCERNS of our allies? Bloomberg’s reporters enlighten us:
“The menu is intended to reflect American cuisine with a taste of India and will include lettuce and herbs culled from the White House garden. The guest chef is Marcus Samuelsson of Manhattan’s Aquavit restaurant …First lady Michelle Obama told a group of girls from the White House Leadership and Mentoring Program at the White House today that state dinners “are critical to what we do internationally.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aQ_tY1EpS4FE

Really? “Critical to what we do internationally?” Dear Girls, state dinners are luxuries, and can be dispensed with, or can be much more modest for the taxpayer’s pockets than enormous heated tent mega-events with glitzy pop stars to croon along with the fifth course. American soldiers stand at the top of the world, facing the Afghan winter, a bleak, cold, ancient cross-roads of invading armies and rival civilizations, huddled over portable heaters, their rifles slung over their shoulders, stirring boiled water into the plastic pouches of their MREs to bring their desiccated beef stews to some consistency of normal, with one eye and ear always on the alert for the warning movements, cracks of gunfire or shriek of incoming mortar fire – soldiers waiting for reinforcements and a steeling of resolve from the wining and dining civilian leadership in Washington, DC - for these soldiers have seen the enemy up close and know what’s at stake. In the same number of weeks it took to present a sumptuous state dinner for 300 rich and connected guests, a complicatedly elaborate planning as one staffer remarked, critical resources could have been allocated to our soldiers, and much already have been sent on its way.

But despite thousands of words and plenty of video recorded devoted to this week’s state dinner, few syllables in the American media have been devoted to the issue that America waits on, that will have serious and profound implications for many nations, including for the fate of the nation of the man ostensibly honored at that dinner, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but who rated fewer mentions than the food, the entertainment, and the other guests. The American media, focused on “Eco-friendly,” “White House garden” and a Who’s Who list of Hollywood and Chicago politics, is more aflutter at astoundingly empty reporting of the excruciatingly nothing discovery that: “Place cards were in script — “The President” and “Mrs. Obama” read two.”

Time to repeat what had to be found in the Indian media at the Times of India newspaper, as the nation of India prepares to mourn her murdered people at a grim anniversary:
“On the eve of the first anniversary of the Mumbai carnage …“Singh offered similar advice in an earlier address to US and Indian business leaders that the international community needs to remain engaged in Afghanistan and any “premature talk of exit will only embolden the terrorists.”
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Stay-the-course-in-Afghanistan-PM-Manmohan-Singh-urges-US/articleshow/5262957.cms

Filed Under: Foreign Policy, Military, National Security, Terrorism

Why Afghanistan is Important

November 24, 2009 By Caafaan-u-ma 21 Comments

Afghanistan is a geographically and geopolitically strategic nation in central Asia. Six countries share its borders: Pakistan, China, Iran and three former Soviet Republics, now independent but heavily Russian-influenced Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. From Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, is only 235 miles away, via the famous Khyber Pass. The capital of Delhi, India is just 624 miles away, closer to Kabul, Afghanistan than Dallas, Texas is to New York City. Pakistan’s road network reaches from Islamabad, along the Indus River Valley, and connects with the ancient Silk Road. China is just a few hours away, bordering both Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Karakorum Mountain Range. Along many of these same roads however, Pakistan’s central government controls just the roadway itself, the areas to the right and left of the tarmac have never been controlled, they have and remain the domain of local Tribal governance.

Afghanistan’s recent history has been one of terrible war and strife. In 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan to prop up the crumbling Soviet puppet-government. American President Carter reacted by boycotting the Soviets through the Olympics and US grain contracts, but President Reagan armed the Afghans to drive the Soviets out. The Soviet Union withdrew, its economy collapsing under the last straw of an expensive and brutal war. The Afghan warlords, seeing a central government power vacuum began a bloody civil war in 1989 vying for dominance. One faction, Islamofascists called the Taliban, by 1992 began asserting dominance with the help of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden who’d been searching for a safe haven and base since being booted from his home country of Saudi Arabia and then from Sudan.

Secure in his new home and envisioning the rebirth of the Islamic Caliphate from Spain to China, Bin Laden perceived America as the most serious military threat to his vision, and gave material and planning support to terrorist attacks against America and Americans, such as the Khobar Towers and the USS Cole bombings before the 9/11 attacks. To Bin Laden’s eternal surprise and dismay, America arrived in Afghanistan to fortify the last remnants of the Afghan free resistance, the Northern Alliance, just weeks after 9/11 and Al-Qaeda’s September 9, 2001 brutal assassination of the Northern Resistance’s general, Ahmed Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panjshir, a killing meant to be the coup de grace against the Northern Alliance’s military capabilities. Backed by the US military, the revitalized Northern Alliance was able to break the Taliban front lines and sent the Taliban into a running retreat, and Afghanistan into a national celebration of victory from years of Taliban despotism.

Today, Afghanistan is sheltered under US military protection as it rebuilds its shattered and eviscerated nation. Deforestation, degraded agriculture, opium trade and a ruined infrastructure hold back a nation that didn’t have much freedom to develop its cities and towns or exploit any of its natural resources over the past forty years. Worse, the remnant Taliban continues to disrupt progress, to wage low level war against the Afghan people and the Afghan government, hoping to destabilize it, hoping to demoralize Americans into quitting. Because of this, no Afghan government for the near future has the means to protect Afghanistan from any foreign aggression.

If the United States leaves, Afghanistan will be completely vulnerable to any one of several dangerous scenarios of invasion: by the Islamofascist Taliban, or an expansionistic communist China, or a radicalized Pakistan or even Russia via the former Soviet states, for Afghanistan has strategic placement for oil pipelines originating in Iran.

But, Iran must be examined closer as the long-recognized source of destabilizing Islamic Revolutionary radicalism in the region. For the first time since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Iran was bottled up, with American troops in Iraq and American troops in Afghanistan; effectively keeping Iranian mischief-makers trapped at home. Iraq, with more modern and less degraded infrastructure, combined with a well-educated population with a tradition of engineering stretching back to ancient Babylon, is better equipped to take over much of its security, but Afghanistan has never achieved the development of Iraq ,so it gravely lacks in basic self-sufficiency, especially after decades of war and strife. With the presence of US combat troops, both Iraq and Afghanistan have been protected from Iranian invasion. If the US leaves Afghanistan, Iran could easily pour over the border and take control, positioning itself to overthrow the moderate and shaky Pakistan government for their Revolutionary brand of radical regime, which would be an enormously dangerous situation for India. Nuclear war would not be unthinkable if India perceives it is under threat.

The new Caliphate, as understood by wary Hindus in India, would stretch from Iran through Afghanistan, through Pakistan, through India’s northern Kashmir State, run eastwards along the Himalayan Mountain Range to the former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh –to the Muslim regions of China. Whoever holds Afghanistan holds the key to the entire region, to the east and to the west. To have that in hand only to throw it away, would waste years of hard-earned gains and would deprive the Afghans of any hope at a future of self-determination. Worse, it hands America’s enemies strategic positioning which can be used against America and her allies.

Filed Under: Foreign Policy, History, Military, National Security

Eurabia: Could Sweden become the 1st Islamic European Nation?

October 28, 2009 By Veritas Vincit 11 Comments

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134080

Take these two items together and consider how the individual in the White House views Israel. This is being posted so folks who wish to can consider how events like these may impact them. The White House is stalling on Afghanistan and the dollar is still in ICU. And, why on 9/11 there was no mention in the U.S. media of the words “Muslim”, “radical”, or “Islamic.”

Filed Under: Culture, Demographics, Foreign Policy, National Security, Political Correctness, Terrorism

The Third World – The World without Business

October 20, 2009 By Caafaan-u-ma 15 Comments

The Third World is impoverished. This poverty is not because of one country taking from another, taking too much of the “fixed pie,” as Left “Progressive” thinking asserts, but is a result of a hostile environment for the planting, germination and nurturing of new businesses and for the expansion and healthy maintenance of existing businesses. With lack of businesses, comes a lack of employment as the business sector offers a nearly unlimited flexibility and potential for more opportunities for employment and self-employment by the hour, by the day, by the week, by the month, by the year, providing individuals far more access to earning income starting with little or no experience and working one’s way up to higher levels of responsibility and productivity than any rigid governmental employment structure can ever provide.

Businesses are the manifestation of productivity in a society. Business is one outlet through which people express natural human creativity in creating and producing goods and services for the community. Businesses are the fruit of human imagination and problem-solving, and are borne of an awareness of the needs of the local society and how these needs can be met.

Businesses can be as small as a carpenter fashioning one table at a time, a gardener employing two people to care for fifty clients’ yards, a babysitter who provides services to two families. Many businesses are as simple as a chauffeur saving up his money to buy a two room lodging, one half to live in, the other half to rent out. He raises his family’s standard of living modestly, but measurably and enhances his children’s chances to higher achievement in the future. Instead of a renter himself, he is now an owner of a small, income-producing asset which he can sell later if he chooses. Another fellow makes his start by hawking drinks on the street. He saves enough money to pay for a kiosk so he doesn’t have to stand in the sun, wind and rain anymore, and sell more drinks, and he’s noticed people like a certain type of biscuit so he adds that to his inventory. In year of this, he has saved up enough money to build a small room, where he can stock fifty items, matches, tea, tomato paste, the staples he’s discovered the local community will buy. To make a sale, he’ll break sets, sell half-packages, whatever he perceives his clients can and will buy.

This natural identification of a need and a solution to addressing that need happens every day. It’s impossible to suppress and shouldn’t be suppressed. In the midst of a refugee camp of displaced people, 10,000 of them, chased and beaten out of their homes with hardly more than the clothes on their backs, within two days, while government and humanitarian aid agencies sat in meetings to discuss the emergency, hawkers had already figured out how to get small goods into the guarded camp and were wandering through selling items which people needed. People require goods and services to live and to function, and other people are willing to do the hustle to make those necessities or luxuries available. The two, consumer and provider, are brought together, they exchange payment for goods and they both depart satisfied.

In America, this free market tradition has brought the nation and the individual great comfort and wealth, yet many people in America do not perceive themselves as wealthy. But a comparison of the standard of living of an American carpenter versus an African, or South-Asian (Indian) carpenter dramatically displays the difference between an American carpenter’s comfort and a Third World carpenter’s comfort. An American carpenter, one of the trades, owns a car, owns a truck, owns a house. There is nothing noteworthy in America to see a Middle Class carpenter in a three bedroom house, with two full baths, a half bath and a garage, in fact it is expected and the norm, usually with much more. In the Third World, a carpenter is of the Middle Class, with a trade by which he can produce a regular income. His transportation is a bicycle. His family lives in a nine by twelve foot rented room, and shares a toilet with up to ten other families also renting rooms alongside his. A single room is his home – kitchen, salon, bedroom for the whole family in one. The major feature is a sturdy locked door to keep the thieves out at night. He’s admired. He has a nice little sofa, his wife has a decent set of cooking pots, a nice tea server for guests, and underneath the embroidered dust cloth is a second-hand TV, which can be used when the electricity is on. His wife fills their family jerry cans with water from the communal tap at the end of the building. She knows when to fill as the water is rationed through the city, on in her neighborhood for certain hours of the day only.

Both men have the same trade. They both are solidly representative of their respective nations’ Middle Classes, but the American carpenter has benefited from a business environment that his Third World counterpart does not have.

The Third World has several critical flaws that make it Third World, a World without Business.

The chauffeur mentioned earlier is real. He lives in the country of Guinea in West Africa. He is a professional driver who works for one of the international organizations, so he’s had a steady, decent-paying job, so with part of his earnings he built a small building. His family lived in one 9 by 12 foot rooms and he rented out the other 9 by 12 to a tenant. It took him years to be able to save up enough to shift out of renter to min-home-owner and mini-landlord. He began to enjoy a bit more income to send his kids to a better school. His home/rental was situated in a busy, growing neighborhood about three miles out of downtown Conakry and he was poised to expand to rent out a second room to add a little more again to his monthly income. But today, his income is only his salary and he must rent a place for his family. Why?

The chauffeur pointed out to us what happened, indicating a restricted construction area we were passing by one day. The government decided that the square mile community was in the exact location they absolutely needed to put up new governmental and international agency buildings. The entire neighborhood was razed to the ground, not a person of the thousands in it had any say in the matter and not a soul was compensated. After years of saving, plus the hard work of construction, the chauffeur was wrecked, his home and rental, destroyed. He’s older, and has fewer years of income ahead before mandatory retirement; his investment for his family and his old age is gone. Instead of having some buffer and cushion, he is back to the scramble of his early days, but with more mouths to feed. Every business and residence in that area, including scores and scores of small kiosks and shops and services, was literally wiped off the map. The investment of the wealthy, government-connected were enhanced by the government taking that land and handing it to contractors and politically-connected landowners who then had the guarantee of years of lucrative leasing to international organizations, but the investments of thousands of little guys was destroyed. A fraction of those micro-investors had the resources and drive left to start over, wary to invest in anything that could be taken away again.It wasn’t Big Corporation that hurt the little guy, it was Big Government, and what was destroyed was Business. The people moved on to more squalid living, and just make do, because they had no choice. But many of them have lost heart to start another business, to invest again because of the disappointment and discouragement of their loss of years of sacrifice. They are unable to raise their standard of living. They remain at hardly more than a subsistence level of economic activity. Every time they try to improve, their efforts are knocked down. First World “experts” tsk and shake their heads, decrying the local people’s woeful lack of initiative as the barrier to development, without a glimmer of understanding as to why a universal, natural in-born human trait was missing. Yet, immigrant Africans are amongst the fastest-rising immigrant achievers in America. If these people had no initiative because of their culture, how come they flourish in America? Initiative hadn’t been missing, it had been punished. Likewise, international corporations learn the same brutal lessons about the wisdom or futility of investment efforts when their companies are overrun, their employees threatened, and their assets are seized by national governments made up of political officials scheming to enrich themselves on other people’s work.

A survey of Third World businesses will reveal a pattern of cynical adaptability. With confiscation a real threat, businesses large and small are stripped to the bare bones. Warehouses and factories appear dilapidated, lest – by being neat and well-kept, and noticeably prosperous -they catch the eye of a covetous government official. Not a penny of investment which can be gone without goes into maintaining the infrastructure – just enough to keep it from falling on everyone’s heads, no more. No paint, no improvements, just mildewing plaster. Private businesspeople in the Third World have an emergency plan, which includes their passports in one hand at all times, so they can abandon the country within hours if they have to, to literally walk away from everything they own there, and everything they own was deliberately chosen to be expendable. One Third World writer complained a few years ago, “At least with the old days, the “corruptocrats” would invest their money locally. But with the Socialists, Communists and Dictators seizing property and banks, the rich folks don’t dare keep their money in country. They move it out immediately to foreign shelters, so local investment is practically dead.”

At the micro-level, it is the same. Third World streets are lined with rough, scrap-board tables so unattractive, they appear ready for the junk pile, but they are in service during the day holding the stock for sale of the small vender. When the police are sent out by the government-connected shop owners to remove the low-overhead competition, there’s not much to smash, and if it does get smashed, a few nails and another cross-support usually does the trick , and the goods are on display again after a discreet waiting period.

Business as a natural human endeavor needs certain basic conditions to survive and flourish. The lack of these five conditions produces the reality of the decrepit Third World economy:

1) Security. No one can run a business of any sort when rebels or armies or bandits rule the streets. Bullets, bombs and robberies are the results of two different failures of security: First, national security against all manifestations of foreign or domestic aggression which undermines and endangers normal societal functions; second, local security of a professional and competent police force. Effective local policing for a time in Lagos, Nigeria, abruptly and effectively brought a halt to massive robberies, where bandit gangs would start at one end of a street and rob every single house to the other end of it – dozens and dozens of frantic calls to the police unanswered, plus the alarming highway bridge robberies where in broad daylight, thieves would set up a roadblock at the two-mile long stretch of lagoon bridge, trapping hundreds of vehicles over the ocean waters so the thieves could rob each car, and everyone in them, one after the other. No police.

2) Property Rights. People of high and low classes will invest generously if they are guaranteed to be able to keep their investment. If their investment is not protected by law, subject to confiscation by government or by covetous competitors, people become discouraged and defeated in hopes of moving up the economic ladder. If ownership cannot be proven or protected, people are unable to buy or sell any asset with confidence.

3) Infrastructure. Expansion of business and increasing sophistication of business activity requires good roads and other transportation modes, plus reliable utilities like electricity and water, and communications. Commerce, and all business suffer greatly in Kenya due to the horrible state of the nation’s roads. Potholes, the infamous “Kenyan Massage” known here in Arizona as “washboard,” crumbling tarmac, and narrow routes cause accidents, loss of life, loss of property, vehicle damage, and delay, delay delay, with high transportation losses that hamper trade and reduce profits. Nigeria, an OPEC country, has fuel shortages as endemic as malaria thanks to government artificially setting low prices. Government officials commandeer cheap gasoline and diesel from the refineries and sell them in the neighboring countries for many times the Nigerian official price. Not much is left over for Nigerians. Cars queue for a week at the filling stations. The employee or boss cannot sit a week in a line at the gas station, so a driver must hold the place, sleeping in the vehicle, ready to move ahead the moment the tanker rumbles in to refill the station’s empty tanks. Nigerians, in order to maintain some semblance of continuity of working must horde gasoline and diesel. Explosions are common, thanks to poorly stored fuel. As the days without gas increase, so the number of cars on the roads decreases. People with enough money buy generators to provide electricity when the city power goes out, hours of a day, or two-three-four days in a row. This is a constant drain on productivity, and increases all costs on everything in the country.

4) Reasonable Taxation. Overtaxed people have no money to invest. Overtaxed businesses are a double tax ; first on the individual, then on the business. Businesses have to pass expenses on to the consumers in the calculations of the pricing for goods and services. There is point where more and more consumers cannot pay the increases, and the buy and sell activity slows or halts. Businesses cannot employ people if they can’t sell anything, and bribes to government officials to stay in business without harassment are simply another form of taxation.

5) Human Resource Development: Business can only expand as far as the ability to recruit competent people. Effective schooling to improve the productivity of people is key to an upwardly mobile population. Uneducated or poorly educated people are not effective in their ability to take on work or take on higher responsibility once employed.

Government doesn’t have to be the enemy of Business, but through human history the trend is that governments set themselves at every opportunity to shackle or destroy natural human business interaction and activity, through heavy taxation, confiscation, dereliction of security and disrespect for Rule of Law. America’s innovation was to clear the playing field, to recognize the importance of the merchant and the producer, to allow Human Business to flourish.

The Third World is right across the horizon. It can be reached in a day from any place on the planet. What excuse then is there to ignore or dismiss the reality of how these nations remain in poverty and human stagnation? What excuse is there is to claim that American Business has not served Americans well when the standard of living for the American Middle Class has exceeded the Middle Class of every other nation in every measure since American Independence, and the evidence is openly verifiable? Government is best when it provides a few key neutral functions which enable human beings to express their aspirations through their own hard work and initiative. It is at its worse when it covets all human productivity while being crushingly jealous of the human natural cooperative, social drive for business. Actions have consequences. America, indeed no country, is immune from becoming part of the “Third World,” a moribund and aspiration-crushing nation-state of being – The World without Business.

Filed Under: Economic Development, Foreign Policy, Government, Jobs/Labor, Political Science

Obama v. Merkel and the Power of Gold

June 5, 2009 By Rightwoman 2 Comments

by Gayle Plato

As Barack Obama woos the Germans with charm, Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is not amused ( see drudgereport.com linked http://tinyurl.com/p2nr69). Merkel is also quite skeptical of the financial machinations of the current U.S. Administration. There are stories in main stream media and blogs noting how Merkel is deeply concerned about pending inflation issues and the quantitative easing of the Federal Reserve pumping of money.

The Independent of the United Kingdom wrote of Merkel’s concerns and history: “Germany’s experience of the hyper-inflation of the Weimar Republic makes it highly suspicious of anything that smacks of printing money. Rigid adherence to the principles of sound money have served Germany well in the post-war period, with low inflation and a stable economy.” (http://tinyurl.com/ptfere)

Angela Merkel is openly chastising the FED actions of dollar injection, and of the Central Bank of England’s actions. Note too that Gordon Brown, current UK Prime Minister is fraught with scandals and may face a vote of no confidence this year. Some speculate his resignation is being pushed. All of Europe leans on one another like cards, ready to hold each other up or topple, taking the shaky economic structure with them. Is this a beginning of the Euro breaking and is there concern in Europe as to where the actual gold holdings are?

In April, I wrote of the gold COMEX obligations, and the Deutsche Bank linking to odd transfers of gold by the European Central Bank. Noted financial blogs speculated after much research that Germany was trying to get it’s actual gold back, and needs to prove it exists. The United States holds some of that actual gold too. Does Mrs. Merkel want it back maybe? Hmm.

The Gold market is relatively small and might be opened to manipulation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lots of gold and China has openly offered to buy some of that gold. China will be contributing, loaning, whatever- billions into the IMF and it’s happening as I write. There are traders and those that research and monitor every single commodity and stock. When they see any anomaly they jump on it. Cash gold is down 2.4% on the COMEX at this moment, so I do not see any sustained gold buying. If I do, I will be thinking about what is next. Beware the gold trader analysis too as it’s dripping with lots of conspiracy writers who give Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons a run for the money ( pun intended). Gold is as elusive as it wants to be; it also rests at the base of money and markets worldwide.

Once again, we see prices rise, unemployment rise, bond markets shakier than a no-doc loan holding cold chihuahua. A house of cards in Phoenix, with upside down mortgages second to none: the only green shoots- weeds in the front: we all await the butterfly effect. A President Obama and his Czar-o-cratic economic team moves a shell in Europe or Asia, and all might tip the deuce of diamonds yet, only to see the joker standing.

References:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/129128-did-the-ecb-save-comex-from-gold-default
http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/04/gold-prices-could-surge-on-sustained.html
http://www.ft.com/world
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/06/what-obama-told-germanys-merkel-about-mideast-peace.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/jeremy-warner/jeremy-warner-merkel-slams-banks-loose-money-stance-1695500.html

Filed Under: Economics, Federal Budget, Foreign Policy

The Republic of Arizona

May 6, 2009 By Shane 24 Comments

There is a discussion taking place among some Arizonans to depart dramatically from the agenda of the new socialist federal government. This should come as no surprise as other “red states” are also tossing variations on the idea around. Last month, Texas Governor Rick Perry did not condemn the idea and now we hear that Oklahomans are restless in their distrust, dismay and disgust with the federal government (“House bypasses governor’s veto to claim Oklahoma’s sovereignty“).

If Arizona were to in fact embark on a course of secession, fear not, the new republic would be able to stand on her own financially. An elimination of the income tax and dramatic reduction in the corporate tax would draw individuals and businesses to the new republic in droves. Tourism would also continue to thrive with our majestic Grand Canyon, Mogollon rim high country and Sonoran desert. But I would make one go-no-go suggestion. Approach the Governor of Sonora Mexico and request to extend the Arizona-Mexico border directly due west (at 31.332140, -111.074230) to extend to the Gulf of California. In doing so, this would provide Arizona with both a southern riviera and open access to the Pacific Ocean. Imagine the amount of wealth Arizona could create with the additional tourism and commerce obtained and developed by annexing the additional land.

Now before you completely dismiss the idea of a sovereign Republic of Arizona, how many of you would have ever expected the brash and blatant disregard of states’ rights by this federal government? How many of you expected the internationalization of the United States by this Administration? The country is more divided than ever as this federal government seeks to socialize industry, financial institutions, health care, energy, you name it. And if you think the idea of an Arizona seaport is a little wacky, consider that the public policy group, Imagine Arizona headed by John Munger, has also called on the same idea – “Port of Arizona” – minus the official border realignment.

I would argue that if the federal government continues to reshape this country in the image of an internationally-intwined, socialist nation state, we can expect the issue of a sovereign Arizona Republic to gain popularity with historically independent-minded Arizonans.

Finally, a disclaimer: This author and post categorically denies any association with any racist, confederate, militia or xenophobic organizations.

Filed Under: Border, Economic Development, Economics, Foreign Policy, Government, International Trade

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The Third World – The World without Business

Obama v. Merkel and the Power of Gold

The Republic of Arizona

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