A Dreadful Horseman

It should come as no surprise to anyone that one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse has been loose in North Korea.  Well at this point I think even Famine should be retching his guts out on the ground.  The starving, oppressed, enslaved people of North Korea have been reduced to cannibals.  To find sustenance they have resorted to eating their children.  Yep even eating the corpses of their children.

Now I have a question all you world leaders and beautiful people who are always screaming about some calamity across the globe.  What are you going to do with North Korea?

Actually that is a rhetorical question.  They will do nothing because to do something truly constructive requires real effort. 

For the world leaders, they would have to admit how badly they have fumbled North Korea all these years.  For Beijing to allow its useful toy to be deposed.  Jimmy Carter to admit fault.  Madeline Albright to take her basketball and go home.  Things that will never happen because that would mean admitting they are not perfect.

For the pretty people its even worse.  To work on something besides keeping fit, eating their organically grown vegan overpriced food, wearing fabulous clothes, ride in limos, and go on talk shows.  Something selfless instead of selfish.

What a horrible brutish world exists in North Korea.  And the ones who clamor for Syrian intervention won't say the same thing about North Korea.  Pox upon them and their works.

Obama vs Carter

Michael Ledeen at Pajama Media has an excellent article up comparing how the Obama administration's foreign policy is just as hazardous to the United States interests as James Carter's disasterous presidency was. What got my attention was his adaption of something Jeane Kirkpatrick had written in 1979. With the change of one word, substitute Obama for Carter, and it eerily still rings true.

Inconsistencies are a familiar part of politics in most societies. Usually, however, governments behave hypocritically when their principles conflict with the national interest. What makes the inconsistencies of the Obama administration noteworthy are, first, the administration’s moralism, which renders it especially vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy; and, second, the administration’s predilection for policies that violate the strategic and economic interests of the United States. The administration’s conception of national interest borders on doublethink: it finds friendly powers to be guilty representatives of the status quo and views the triumph of unfriendly groups as beneficial to America’s “true interests.”

Something to think upon as this country still drifts towards impending global conflicts while Obama vacations and points fingers at everyone but the man in the mirror.

Economic Monkeywrench

Democratic candidate Obama promised energy prices would rise when he stumped to become president. It seems he is delivering on that promise, one campaign promise kept.

Since Obama has entered office, the price of a gallon of gas has risen by more than $1. The explosion last year of the British Petroleum rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 seems to have presented the President and his advisors an opportunity. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has imposed a moratorium on oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, even though a federal judge has ruled Salazar overstepped himself. As a result of all this tug of war generated uncertainty, the number of operating rigs has dropped with devestating economic consequences to states already reeling from the BP oil spill. When Sen. Vitter[R-LA] requested how many leases have been issued, he received two different answers. The Department of Justice, in another display of dishonesty - Fast&Furious, quoted a high number of leases but when Sen. Vitter got Salazar before him in sworn testimony the number was far lower.

Far to the north, our Canadian friends and ally in Afghanistan is offering to sell us oil. Yes it is oil developed from tar sands and needs to be processed, but its oil that does not need to be shipped from repressive countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Help our neighbor to the north seems to make more sense than funding Chavez's quest to conquer South America or the House of Saud keeping women repressed. But it seems some in the US do not want this oil because, get this, the process to extract oil releases more carbon dioxide. It seems the New York Times would prefer Canada to sell that oil to the Peoples Republic of China, those paragons of air pollution and political oppression, instead of allowing it in the United States. All because of extra carbon dioxide that I am sure the forests of Canada would love to turn into oxygen while growing bigger. The second reason the New York Times trots out, fear of oil spills, is equally ludicrous since the Trans-Alaska pipeline in its decades of production has suffered few spills and one of those due to a hunter shooting the pipeline. In fact the oil pipeline has become a microclime that is warmer than surrounding areas and hence wildlife has flourished.

I never thought I would say this, but bring back Jimmy Carter. At least he was for making the United States energy independent when he was President. That included developing the abundant supply of oil shale found in Ken Salazar's old stomping grounds of Colorado. Though Salazar and environmentalists are trying to prevent oil shale from being commercially viable. Do I want to know what they think a fair royalty rate is? Probably so high it renders oil shale non-viable even after adjsuting for inflation. Imagine that.

Ineptitude, Courage, and Libya

Only the United States under President Obama would formulate strategic US foreign policy guided by fears of hurting feelings. At least that is the impression Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Tuesday in testimony before Congress when she said - "We feel we that we did this in a prudent and effective manner, and we did it in a way that did not raise the alarm bells around the region and the world that we were about to invade for oil... But the last thing we wanted was to start off with military assets, when we effectively got our people out. Yeah, the seas were high. The seas were high for the other evacuators as well."

This follows questions many have had in regards to President Obama's very hands off approach to Libya in comparison to US ally Egypt. If we are to believe Clinton's remarks, its more of the 'We are not Bush' foreign policy playbook. In this case the old No Blood For Oil meme. If this is true, then Hosni Mubarak could have stayed in power by claiming to find oil. Words like simplistic, stupid, and suicidal pop to mind.

And it is a slightly different excuse than the previous one trotted out by the Obama administration. That the soft policy with Libya was due to concerns for the safety of American citizens in Libya. Which upon closer examination falls apart since there were far more American citizens, including tourists, in Egypt yet Obama did all he could to actively kick Mubarak out while the Egyptian populace rioted. It could be argued from these statements that Obama would let Libya hold Americans hostage, something not seen since Desert Shield/Desert Storm when Saddam Hussein took many foreign nationals hostage and placed them at critical locations to ward off coalition air strikes. Or perhaps Obama does truly want to replace James Earl Carter in the annals of ineptitude and start another 444 days of shame? I do not think Obama really wants that, but his weak actions are leading to it.

Meanwhile in the deserts of Libya, brave men are doing the hard thing. British Special Air Service, who got their start in WWII in the Libyan desert battling Rommel's Afrika Corps, have managed to evacuate more than 150 civilians to Malta aboard two Hercules transports. And Germany says it has evacuated 132 civilians via military airlift from the Libyan desert. Where are the American Wings of Eagles? Being clipped by a Democratic administration that seeks to curry favor instead of commanding respect it seems.

Alternative Energy

If we could harness the spin being generated by Obama supporters as electricity, why the US dependence on foreign oil would drop tremendously.

As the official unemployment rate streaks past 9.7%, what do we hear? Why more hosannas about discouraged workers returning to look for work which means the recession is over. There are more holes in that logic than when Rosie Odonnel claimed steel does not melt from fire. I could pick on the Vice President saying the stimulus bill is working, but that is akin to shooting fish in a barrel.

Now about that health care debacle, about fell out of my chair when watching O'Reilly last night. They had this Democrat strategist on. As she was being asked about the President's plummeting poll numbers, this woman started talking of something else. She proceeded to say that President Obama's health care reform is a success because of all the people this has brought to the debate table. I think someone has a prime piece of real estate on the river DeNile here.

Should I even mention the federal mismanagement of the Cash for Clunkers program? Car dealerships are still awaiting payments from the government. Or that the United States Postal Service is now rationing the stamps their clerks have ready for the paying customers?

With this kind of track record coming from an administration that paints itself as bright and smart, well I think we got sold a bill of goods. Welcome to Jimmy Carter Pt II and like many sequels its a far inferior product than the original.

Charlie Wilson's War

This is supposed to be released this December, which means it could be nominated for an Oscar. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts star in this movie about a boozing Congressman from Texas who launches his own jihad against the entrenched bureaucracy of the CIA to help the mujaheddin of Afghanistan resist the Soviet invasion of their country.



Vlad has some axes to grind with his own country but he projects them onto the book Charlie Wilson's War that the movie is based on in his review posted on Amazon.

"The direction of one sided, pro-government "journalism" which serves as one of the tools used to brainwash average American." I think that more accurately describes how TASS and other such official Soviet news organs presented the invasion and ten years of hell inflicted upon Afghanistan.
Did the United States really fund the 'freedom fighter' Taliban we now face as Vlad claims? No, after the Soviet withdrawal, the Taliban came out of Pashtun and with Saudi assistance quickly pushed back the United Islamic Front which was made up of parties that did receive funds from Charlie Wilson's end-around the CIA.
Was it all peaceful in Afghanistan before the flow of US funds and arms? Here Vlad is missing the mark because the USSR misread the whole mess in Afghanistan and saw it all through the lens of Marxism-Leninism and not the reality of how the country called Afghanistan really is.

• However, often our people, acting out of their best intentions, tried to transplant the approached we are accustomed to onto the Afghan soil, encouraged the Afghans to copy our ways. All this did not help our cause, it bred the feelings of dependency on the part of the Afghan leaders in regard to the Soviet Union both in the sphere of military operations and in the economic sphere.

In 1982 there was one report of Soviet forces killing a boy who protested the burning of the mosque's fuel. Or the mystery of some tribal leaders from Ghanzi being found dead and their bodies in advance state of decomposition though they had been in Soviet custody just a few days. Of course back in 1979 to 1981 there were reports that Secretary of State George Schultz stated were cases of the Soviets and their Afghan allies using chemical agents on anti-government forces.

When Gorbachev and the Soviet Union finally realized the futility of this mis-adventure, some 13,000 Soviet soldiers had paid the ultimate sacrifice while another 35,000 were wounded or disabled. Some in Russia still cling to the idea it was only due to the infusion of American supplied weapons and cash that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was thwarted. I would think Colonel Tsagalov, a veteran of the Red Army would disagree. In fact he did disagree and was sacked for his honesty.

Will this Tom Hanks movie be a decent recounting of what really happened, that remains to be seen. I might give this movie a whirl to find out.

News Round Up

Pinch Paisley at BlackFive posts the obituary of a real American hero: Brig. General Robin Olds has passed away.

Meanwhile the transformation of Gaza into Hamastan continues apace as they loot PLO terrorist leader Yasser Arafat's home and acquire even more weapons from Fatah/Palestinian Authority security posts.

In images replayed repeatedly on Palestinian television, a bloodied Samid al-Madhun is dragged by masked Hamas gunmen through the streets and kicked by a mob shouting “dog” before the Hamas men fire dozens of rounds into his body.

The two state solution is dead, as dead as Samid al-Madhun. Now we get to see who squashes Hamas, Israel or Egypt who both share borders with this murderous regime. Who know, they might flip a coin to see who does it. Just keep Jimmy 'I Love Hamas' Carter out unless he wants to be a human shield.

Non-state recognized irregular forces have violated once again the 1953 Hague Convention in regards to religious sites by blowing up yet another Sunni mosque in Basra Iraq. But since these are non-recognized irregular military forces, the Hague does not apply to them. So under the Geneva Conventions said forces will be subject to summary execution wherever they are found. I wish.

Also in Iraq, an F-16 Fighting Falcon, aka Viper, has crashed. All that is known is the pilot belongs to the 180th Fighter Wing OHANG based in Toledo, OH. Crank up the prayers.

Meanwhile Head Inquisitor Mike Nifong is braying and weeping about 'my community has suffered enough' as he prepares to resign. Too little too late Mikey. You lead a witch hunt that tarred three innocent men. You need to have your life destroyed and the thing is, it is your actions that will lead to this destruction - by denying three men justice in a rush to get a hot-button issue re-elect you as District Attorney of Durham County.

And finally way up in orbit. The new solar array has been deployed. Most of the crashed Russian computers have been rebooted. The tear in the TPS on one of the OMS' has been repaired. And NASA astronaut Williams now has the record for longest duration for a woman in space.

James Earl Carter

It takes some chutzpah to announce to the world that President Bush is something akin to the worst president ever and to accuse out-going Prime Minister Tony Blair of being Bush's lapdog.

For shame Jimmy Carter. The man who told people that all that is left is a downward spiral of malaise and to wear a sweater while the oil crisis deepened to say this? The man who negotiated away the Panama Canal so now we find the People's Republic of China, via a proxy, administering the canal. Who's idea of being forceful in the face of Soviet aggression in Afghanistan was to keep the US Olympic team home. The 'statesman' who talked the Shah of Iran to leave quietly so Ayatollah Khomeini could turn Iran into a radical Islamic state. The 'humanitarian' who allowed the now exiled Shah into the US for medical treatment that triggered the seizing of the American embassy in Tehran. The 'resolute' President who, after much dithering, ordered a downsized Pentagon to launch an audacious rescue mission of the hostages that failed because it was too complex and riven with intra-service rivalries.

I had thought the former president named Carter had reached his nadir with the comments virulently against Israel and his blind affirmation of Hugo Chavez seizing dictatorial power over the formerly democratic Venezuela. Alas I was wrong. With these words Carter has crossed the Rubicon and reached his Dixie Chick moment. He should heed General Douglas MacArthur's words of 'old soldiers never die, they just fade away,' instead of the narcissistic politician's mantra of 'any press coverage is good coverage.'