Cyber Wars on America: Now the North Korean’s are Launching Successful Attacks on the USA

 

 

 

North Korea may have been responsible for a very successful cyber-attack on the USA and on South Korea over the 4^th of July Holiday weekend.   In World War II the big surprise was the improvements and coordination of tanks and air superiority combined in a blinding fast attack that the Germans called “Blitzkrieg”. (Lightning war)  We know that the most ambitious nation on earth, China, is pioneering cyber warfare and that the Russians and Europe are in the mix as well and the target is invariably the United States.  We better hope that Cyber Warfare is not the “Blitzkrieg” innovation of World War III because if that’s the case we’re far behind the power curve.  If World War II took five years to settle it’s likely that World War III, given the weapons of mass destruction we’re talking about, may be settled in a day or two.  We began World War II with the Pearl Harbor Disaster but we had the time to recover and come back to defeat the enemy.  In World War III the idea of a Pearl Harbor becomes untenable because the technology has become so horrific that the timeframe for staggering destruction and capitulation has shrunk to hours instead of years.

America is spending money like a drunken sailor on everything but the nation’s defenses and if there’s any government program that I would advocate spending more money on its Defense in general and Cyber, Space, and Missile Defense warfare.  The world’s cyber warriors are sharpening their skills on our nation’s computer infrastructure, with impunity, while we sit and debate how we’re going to pay for healthcare with a bankrupt nation, a broken political process, and a divided population.  In the information age the nation who controls the information frontiers of computer science and the high frontier of space will dominate the planet and enjoy unparalleled national security. As we make crazy deals with the Russians on the radical reduction of our nuclear deterrent that we’re trusting Putin to mirror we’re ignoring an effective cyber-defense in addition to acquiring a potent cyberwarfare capability ourselves.

The primary reason for the existence of government is to keep us safe and free; it’s not to give us bankrupt health care, tax our energy recourses, and redistribute wealth according to a weird social addenda, or to make sure every poor person has a mortgage they can’t possibly pay.  The Primary mission of government, national defense, is being neglected by the crazed social engineers of the Obama era in a headlong rush to destroy America and erect a Neo-socialist, Neo-Fascist state in its place.

It’s largely irrelevant whose doing the latest cyber attack because we seem to keep falling prey to such things and we have got to have a government that’s committed and effective in stopping these attacks.  The probability that these attacks were done by the crazy North Koreans just underlines our vulnerability and foolhardiness for not taking this threat as seriously as we should.

Consider this report from the AP:

North Korea May Be Behind Wave of Cyberattacks

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

•  

SEOUL, South Korea —  South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S. government Web sites, aides to two lawmakers said Wednesday.

The sites of 11 South Korean organizations, including the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry, went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, according to the state-run Korea Information Security Agency. Agency spokeswoman Ahn Jeong-eun said 11 U.S. sites suffered similar problems.

She said the agency is investigating the case with police and prosecutors.

In the U.S., the Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the July 4 holiday weekend and into this week, according to American officials inside and outside the government.

Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

The Korea Information Security Agency also attributed the attacks to denial of service.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, said he doubts whether the impoverished North has the capability to knock down the Web sites.

But Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank, said the attack could have been done by either North Korea or China, saying he “heard North Korea has been working hard to hack into” South Korean networks.

On Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service told a group of South Korean lawmakers it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers “were behind” the attacks, according to an aide to one of lawmakers who was briefed on the information.

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An aide to another lawmaker who was briefed also said the NIS suspects North Korea or its followers were responsible.

The aides spoke on condition of anonymity and refused to allow the names of the lawmakers they work for to be published, citing the classified nature of the information.

Both aides said the information was delivered in writing to lawmakers who serve on the National Assembly’s intelligence committee.

The National Intelligence Service — South Korea’s main spy agency — declined to confirm the information.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said military intelligence officers were looking at the possibility that the attack may have been committed by North Korean hackers and pro-North Korea forces in South Korea. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report.

Earlier Wednesday, the NIS said in a statement that 12,000 computers in South Korea and 8,000 computers overseas had been infected and used for the cyber attack.

The agency said it believed the attack was “thoroughly” prepared and committed by hackers “at the level of a certain organization or state.” It said it was cooperating with the American investigators to examine the case.

South Korean media reported in May that North Korea was running a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service.

An initial investigation in South Korea found that many personal computers were infected with a virus program ordering them to visit major official Web sites in South Korea and the U.S. at the same time, Korean information agency official Shin Hwa-su said. There has been no immediate reports of similar cyber attack in other Asian countries.

Yonhap said that prosecutors have found some of the cyber attacks on the South Korean sites were accessed from overseas. Yonhap, citing an unnamed prosecution official, said the cyber attack used a method common to Chinese hackers.

Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.

Shin, the Information Security Agency official, said the initial probe had not yet uncovered evidence about where the cyber outages originated. Police also said they had not discovered where the outages originated. Police officer Jeong Seok-hwa said that could take several days.

Some of the South Korean sites remained unstable or inaccessible Wednesday. The site of the presidential Blue House could be accessed, but those for the Defense Ministry, the ruling Grand National Party and the National Assembly could not.

Ahn said there were no immediate reports of financial damage or leaking of confidential national information. The alleged attacks appeared aimed only at paralyzing Web sites, she said.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry and Blue House said that there has been no leak of any documents.

A Second Stimulus: PT Barnum Was Right Because a Sucker is Born Every Minute

 

 

 

How much snake oil can the Government pour down our meek and un-protesting throats before their economic cure kills the United States of America?  Only 10% of the first stimulus has been spent and the interest on that giant stimulus is about a hundred million dollars a year: and that was supposed to keep America working.  As we had inexorably toward a double digit unemployment rate the powers that be are saying that the first $800 billion package of stimulus wasn’t big enough and that’s why unemployment is still going up.  It’s not that the stimulus was a disaster and didn’t work because government screws up everything it touches it’s that it wasn’t big enough! 

Next week I’m sure the Neo-Socialist Democrats will try to sell us a bridge in Brooklyn if we continue to buy into the looting of tax dollars that Obama calls a “stimulus”.  It begs the question: will the congress take the time to read the second stimulus this time or just rush it through unread because it takes too long to read the list of payouts to ACORN, Goldman Sax, the NEA, All Unions, and all the various groups that make up the client groups of the Neo-Socialist-Democrats.  Perhaps there’s an OSHA rule prohibiting congress from reading the sheer volume of stupidity contained in the last years worth of legislation because the sheer volume of it could dangerously lower the IQ of congress.  (Can it go any lower?)

Consider the article below from Bloomberg as the Obama Government goes evermore off the rails:

Obama Adviser Says U.S. Should Mull Second Stimulus (Update2)

By Shamim Adam

July 7 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too small,” said Laura Tyson, an adviser to President Barack Obama.

The current plan “will have a positive effect, but the real economy is a sicker patient,” Tyson said in a speech in Singapore today. The package will have a more pronounced impact in the third and fourth quarters, she added, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not the administration.

Tyson’s comments contrast with remarks made two days ago by Vice President Joe Biden and fellow Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee, who said it was premature to discuss crafting another stimulus because the current measures have yet to fully take effect. The government is facing criticism that the first package was rolled out too slowly and failed to stop unemployment from soaring to the highest in almost 26 years.

Obama said last month that a second package isn’t needed yet, though he expects the jobless rate will exceed 10 percent this year. When Obama signed the first stimulus bill in February, his chief economic advisers forecast it would help hold the rate below 8 percent.

Unemployment increased to 9.5 percent in June, the highest since August 1983. The world’s largest economy has lost about 6.5 million jobs since December 2007.

Worse Than Forecast

“The economy is worse than we forecast on which the stimulus program was based,” Tyson, who is a member of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory board, told the Nomura Equity Forum. “We probably have already 2.5 million more job losses than anticipated.”

Republicans, including House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, seized on the latest labor numbers to attack the Obama administration’s handling of the economy.

Even Democrats have bemoaned the pace of the package’s implementation. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said on “Fox News Sunday” June 5 that congressional Democrats are “disappointed” stimulus funds weren’t distributed faster.

“The money is just really starting to come out in more significant amounts now,” Tyson said. “The stimulus is performing close to expectations but not in timing.”

Package Affordable

Tyson, 62, later told reporters that the U.S. can afford to pay for a second package, even as the fiscal deficit soars. She said the budget shortfall is “likely to be worse” than the equivalent of 12 percent of gross domestic product that the administration forecast for 2009 and the 8 percent to 9 percent it projected for next year.

The professor at the University of California’s Walter A. Haas School of Business downplayed worries from China and other countries with dollar reserves that the U.S. will let inflation soar as the deficit expands.

“The concern is that the U.S. will have to inflate away its debt. I do not think that is a valid concern,” she said. “The Federal Reserve is not going to let the U.S. government inflate away its debt.”

The U.S. needs to communicate its determination to reduce the annual shortfall once the economy recovers, she said.

While unemployment is worsening, other data have shown the economy is improving. U.S. manufacturing shrank last month at the slowest rate since August, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index, and a measure of pending home sales advanced in May for a fourth month.

Tyson said the U.S. should shift away from its dependence on consumption to grow, and promote expansion through investment and exports. The dollar will need to weaken in the longer term to promote export-led growth, she said.

Sophistry: The Senate Runs Interference for Their Federal Reserve Masters

 

 

 

 

 

Who has the power to make the President and the Congress bow and fetch, while showing the utmost deference, and not so much as ask a single question, in a financial emergency, other than to do, without reflection or hesitation: exactly what they’re told to do?  Who has the sole power to print our money, charge us interest for doing so, while carefully managing inflation so as to loot the value out of our currency via inflation much as a storied vampire turns its victim into the undead?  Who has the power to cut deals with the money masters of foreign nations, many of whom are a de facto shadow government, with far more power than the official government?  What institution on Earth has absolutely no oversight while holding the planetary economy in its unregulated, secretive, dictatorial hands? Is it the Church?  Is it God?  No.

It’s the Nefarious Federal Reserve System. 

They run the show and congress and the president do not question them but spring to obey whenever Benjamin Bernanke issues a terse instruction in hushed but sonorous tones.  Gentle Ben is the chairman of the greatest criminal enterprise in history, his words make stocks rise and fall and his veiled threat to crash the economy if the Congress questions the “autonomy” of the Fed causes US Senators to quail in fear.  We the people have no right to question, in any way, the actions of these gangsters; indeed we must not even think we have the right to know their secrets because they rule the world and we are but hapless drones in their enlightened eyes.  No one is permitted to know the goings on of the money changers in the high temple of the Federal Reserve and no mere man may stand in the way of the descendants of the socially Darwinist Robber Barons of old: the worlds Rothschild’s, Rockefellers et. Al.  The machinations of these High Priests of Money can lift a country from squalor to untold heights and it can fell the last real superpower with a few economic bubbles and deft manipulation of interest rates.  The Central Bankers of the world represent the most insidious transnational powerbase imaginable with a true capability to dominate the world’s governments, in Toto, by their mysterious ways and transnational policies. 

One brave soul in the House of Representatives dared ask the Lordly Federal Reserve to cast aside its secrecy and as the House members warmed to the idea of asking this mighty power for a peak at the books: the Senate has quashed the whole idea in a fit of corruption and cowardice. There is no way the current crop of politicians will say “boo” to the real rulers of this country: the Federal Reserve.  No mere government is to know the true secrets of money and even the thought of questioning this criminal consortium of, mostly foreign bankers, who make up the Fed, must not be long tolerated.  Heaven forbid the people should wake up and call these bunko artists to account for their actions throughout history!

Consider this article from World Net Daily:

Senate torpedoes Fed Reserve audit
But House plan already has majority support

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Posted: July 06, 2009
8:54 pm Eastern

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Members of the U.S. Senate today rejected a proposal for an audit of the Federal Reserve, the private institution that virtually controls U.S. interest rates, money supply and other economic influences.

The Senate vote against the plan from Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was among a series of voice votes on a number of amendments to a spending bill that provides money for Congress’ own budget.

According to Roll Call, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had wanted the spending bill approved last month, but DeMint had resisted having the spending approved by unanimous consent.

The DeMint plan was to add an amendment to the spending bill that would have provided for an audit of the Fed to include information about its funding facilities, market operations and any agreements with foreign banks and governments, DeMint told senators, according to Reuters.

(Story continues below) 

“The Federal Reserve will create and disburse trillions of dollars in response to our current financial crisis,” DeMint said. “Americans across the nation, regardless of their opinion on the bailout, want to know where the money has gone.

“Allowing the Fed to operate our nation’s monetary system in almost complete secrecy leads to abuse, inflation and a lower quality of life,” he said, according to Retuers.

DeMint also has said he supports a bill that now is pending in the U.S. House that would call for such an audit.

WND has reported the plan, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, already has collected co-sponsorship from a majority of the members.

Paul has said shortly after his proposal reached that “crucial benchmark” that the bipartisan support is an indicator of how American is fed up with secrecy.

“I look forward to this issue receiving greater public exposure,” Paul said.

His bill has support from 245 members of the 435-member House already.

Paul long has opposed the power held by the Federal Reserve and its ability to manipulate the nation’s economy. He has launched multiple proposals to get rid of the private banking powerhouse, without significant support.

But in light of the current economic dowturn – the government takeover of the banking industry, the government’s demands for various auto industry bankruptcies, the government’s appointment of a “pay czar” – change apparently is coming.

“To understand how unwise it is to have the Federal Reserve, one must first understand the magnitude of the privileges they have,” Paul wrote in a recent Straight Talk commentary. “They have been given the power to create money, by the trillions, and to give it to their friends, under any terms they wish, with little or no meaningful oversight or accountability.”

He’s even said Congress should “reassert its constitutional authority over monetary policy.”

A companion bill to Paul’s also has been introduced in the Senate and was referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

The Constitution, Paul said, gives Congress, not the private Federal Reserve, “the authority to coin money and regulate the value of the currency.”

Stunning Fed fraud DVD just $4.95! ‘The Money Masters: How Banks Create the World’s Money’

Paul explained his advocacy for the H.R. 1207 audit in the U.S. House:

“Throughout its nearly 100-year history, the Federal Reserve has presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States dollar,” the Texas Republican said. “Since 1913 the dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy.

“How long will we as a Congress stand idly by while hard-working Americans see their savings eaten away by inflation? Only big-spending politicians and politically favored bankers benefit from inflation,” he said.

Paul called oversight of the Fed “long overdue.”

You’ve never needed to understand money like you need to understand it now! “Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free” unravels the deception of the Federal Reserve and presents a crystal clear picture of the financial abyss towards which we are heading.

“Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has always operated in the shadows, without sufficient scrutiny or oversight of its operations,” he continued.

“The Federal Reserve can enter into agreements with foreign central banks and foreign governments, and the GAO is prohibited from auditing or even seeing these agreements. Why should a government-established agency, whose police force has federal law enforcement powers, and whose notes have legal tender status in this country, be allowed to enter into agreements with foreign powers and foreign banking institutions with no oversight?”

Paul’s bill would also make the Federal Reserve’s funding facilities, including the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Term Securities Lending Facility, and Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility subject to congressional oversight.

 

Unprecedented Saudi Support for Israel: Moderate Arab States and Israel Dealing with Iran while Obama Chases Fantasy Diplomacy

 

 

 

 

First the Egyptians let an Israeli Dolphin Class Sub traverse the Suez Canal so that this nuclear capable submarine can take up a station in range of Iran; and now the Saudi’s may have given Israel permission to use their air space to attack Iran.  Ever since our new President threw the moderate Arabs and Israeli’s under the bus, to demonstrate his cultural sensitivity to the raving dictator Ahmadinejad; our betrayed allies have been cooperating with each other—- without Obama!  No sane nation in the region, regardless of other differences, want Iran to be a nuclear power and the abdication of leadership and trust by the United States, has forced former enemies to truly work together.  Even the naiveté of Obama may have the unintended consequences of forging a stronger relationship between the sane powers of the Middle East.

 

Consider this article from the Times Online:

From The Sunday Times

July 5, 2009

Saudis give nod to Israeli raid on Iran

Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv and Sarah Baxter

The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad’s director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.

The Israeli press has already carried unconfirmed reports that high-ranking officials, including Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, held meetings with Saudi colleagues. The reports were denied by Saudi officials.

“The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a diplomatic source said last week.

Although the countries have no formal diplomatic relations, an Israeli defence source confirmed that Mossad maintained “working relations” with the Saudis.

John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations who recently visited the Gulf, said it was “entirely logical” for the Israelis to use Saudi airspace.

Bolton, who has talked to several Arab leaders, added: “None of them would say anything about it publicly but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn’t trumpet it as a big success.”

Arab states would condemn a raid when they spoke at the UN but would be privately relieved to see the threat of an Iranian bomb removed, he said.

Referring to the Israeli attack on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility in 2007, Bolton added: “To this day, the Israelis haven’t admitted the specifics but there’s one less nuclear facility in Syria . . .”

Recent developments have underscored concerns among moderate Sunni Arab states about the stability of the repressive Shi’ite regime in Tehran and have increased fears that it may emerge as a belligerent nuclear power.

“The Saudis are very concerned about an Iranian nuclear bomb, even more than the Israelis,” said a former head of research in Israeli intelligence.

The Israeli air force has been training for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear site at Natanz in the centre of the country and other locations for four years.

The Clock is Running Out for Iran: Israel is getting into Position for War

 

 

 

 

 

Some people in the media like to pretend that Israel can’t effectively negate the Iranian Nuclear Program by military action.  Well, a nuclear strike on certain hardened underground facilities just might change the equation: and little known Israeli subs could well deliver such a knockout punch.  Interesting how this article in the Debka file mentions a low key traversing of the Suez Canal by an Israeli sub that can deliver nuclear armed cruise missile.  It seems to underline the growing friendship between Israel and moderate Arab states like Egypt and the Saudis with a low key display of cooperation. (About as subtle as a heart attack!)  It also manages to give Mr. Obama pause in thinking that he’s going to be the odd man out when the shooting starts because he’s clearly over his head in determining an effective Middle East Policy.

The allies that Obama foolishly threw under the bus will deal with this matter without worrying about the “culturally sensitive” potentate inhabiting the White House. 

Mr. Ahmadinejad would do well to consider giving up the game now before his country is taken into a fully preventable holocaust that must ensue if Iran will not give up its nuclear program.  The Program is vulnerable to Israeli attack but the cost in collateral damage with be huge due to the types of weapons necessary to do the mission.  Israel will pay that price because it knows it has no choice. 

Consider this article from Debkafile.com

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Israeli sub said armed with nuclear-capable torpedoes navigates Suez Canal

DEBKAfile Special Report

July 3, 2009, 7:26 PM (GMT+02:00)

 

Dophin-class submarine

The Dolphin-class attack submarine is reported to be the first Israeli naval vessel to transit the Suez Canal in four years on its way from Haifa to Eilat last month. According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, the move indicates a strengthening of the informal Israel-Egyptian-Saudi pact forged in recent months against Iran and first revealed by our sources. The three Middle East nations have opted for an Iran policy which is separate from the track pursued by US president Barack Obama.

According to foreign military sources, the Israeli Dolphins are stationed in the Mediterranean, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean opposite Iran’s shores. They are said to be armed with torpedo tubes capable of launching nuclear-capable cruise missiles.

To transit the Suez Canal, the armed submarine would have required Egyptian permission at the highest level, possibly even President Hosni Mubarak. An official in Cairo told Reuters that its passage would not be problematic as Egypt and Israel are not at war.

This noncommittal response indicates that Egypt has no objection to Israeli military craft passing through the canal on their way to the Red Sea and on to the Persian Gulf in case of a decision to strike Iran. The alternative would be a voyage of weeks around the Horn of Africa.

Our military sources report that since the Israel Navy lost the Dakar submarine near Greece in 1968, all Israeli subs are armed when they move out of harbor. Disclosure of the Israeli sub’s passage through the Suez Canal last month is rated by our sources as of high regional significance, over and above the Middle East diplomatic moves afoot.

Sara We Hardly Knew You: Hopes and Fears About Sara Palin’s Future

 

 

 

 

 

I tend to take Sara Palin at her word but I think she was drummed out of politics by the professional political class of both parties and the media for being a normal person who was not beholding to the corrupt government structures we presently have.  The fact of the matter is that the war hero, John S. McCain, was floundering as a candidate and the only reason he got half the votes he did was because of Sara Palin.  She was fresh, and a true maverick, that could have taken up the Reagan mantel and declared war against the big government professional politicians, the ever more corrupt political system, and the entrenched money interests who may well own American Politics, and have a chance to win.  Sara was one of us but they beat her up every day in the media, every single day, especially the civil rights loving democrats whose support is not for women: but for Neo-Socialist Democrats.  Even after the campaign, the filth continued to fly from these paragons of liberalism as her family was mocked and smeared and frivolous law suits were used to destroy her financial future.  Legal Thugs, Corrupt Journalists, Liberal Fanatics, Entertainment Figures, Corrupt Feminist Organizations, and the silence of the Republican Old Boy’s Party combined to put Sara in a no win situation.  The Enemies of Sara Palin personify what’s wrong with this nation and who is to blame for its demise.

My fear is that the Palin’s will hit the lecture circuit to get their money back from the Democrats use of the legal system to bankrupt her and then fade from the scene in order to protect her family.  Can you imagine the media doing to Chelsea Clinton and the Obama girls what they did to the Palin Family?  Sara may well have made the decision that her children’s welfare is more important than a career in politics and if this is so her decision is not only understandable but admirable.  Its evidence that she’s exactly the type of person we need to break up the professional politicians of both parties who are destroying the country in their greed and corruption.  I fear that we can’t afford to let the media/Hollywood smear machine team up with the Democrat Defamation Machine and smear good candidates while advancing bad candidates like, for example, John McCain.  (An old boy if ever their was one.) 

My hope is that Sara will become the “voice in the Wilderness”, much as Ronald Regan was, and that she’ll take on the media and advance conservative principles on a national scale and demand the Republicans return to their principles. My fondest hope for Sara is to begin a new conservative Party that places principle and good government about being a big, politically correct tent.  I want Sara to communicate, she doesn’t need an office to do this; and the governorship may have been a hindrance for what we need her to say about our national predicament. 

She needs to spotlight the role of a corrupt media in selecting the candidates on both sides.  She needs to call Obama a Socialist to his face and ask America if we really want to be either socialists or fascists instead of free Americans.  She needs to champion and obtain term limits to break up the professional political class and allow us to elect candidates who want to make a difference rather than win perpetual re-election.  She needs to clean up the political front groups like ACORN and she needs to take on the lawyers in all strata of our society and pull their fangs by limiting damages in civil cases and in gang attacks on industries, like tobacco or firearms, to affect a political agenda.  Lawyers from ideological leftist reasons are erasing every symbol of Christianity by threatening small towns with no money to defend law suits to take down their Christmas displays or have their budget decimated by a law suit that, win or lose, will go on for decades and cost way too much.  The law is not a switchblade for gangster lawyers to intimidate people into abandoning principles.  (And Law Suites must not be used to attack political candidates in order to get them to leave the political arena as was done to Palin herself)  Sara has taken on entrenched corruption before and we need someone, like Sara, to do it on a national scale and speak the truth plainly to the American People.  Our country is imploding from the lack of honesty, sanity and morality in Washington D.C.

Sara Palin has honesty, sanity and real traditional values and is exactly the type we need to elect to all strata of government: but she’s fallen before an onslaught of corrupt lawyers using legal action like a criminal hood would use a switchblade.  The Corrupt media has become a pawn of liberals who defame decent women by day and read Saul Alinski at night; like honorable people might read the Bible. Sara has fought a good fight and if anyone knows where the political system is failing: it’s her; after all she’s been through! 

If Sara must withdraw for the sake of her family I can understand, and approve, but I hope that she will speak out as a private citizen and organize a new conservative movement, perhaps a new conservative party to address the corruption.  Such a task is monumental but it’s doable if Sara can help us just a little bit more.  We need normal people to be our term-limited politicians’; not elitist crazy people who think they must design a society for us, for our own good, and run our lives because they don’t think we can do it ourselves!

Consider this story from the AP on the Palin resignation:

Palin takes to Web for hints of political future

Jul 5, 7:27 AM (ET)

By MARK THIESSEN JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin didn’t wait long to give some hint of what her political life might look like after she leaves office at the end of the month.

After staying out of the public eye for most of Saturday, a day after abruptly announcing she would soon give up her job as governor, Palin indicated on a social networking site that she would take on a larger, national role, citing a “higher calling” to unite the country along conservative lines.

“I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint,” the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote in a posting on her Facebook page. Palin’s spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, confirmed Palin wrote the entry.

Palin shocked even her closest friends on Friday when she announced she would resign July 26, more than a year before her first term ends. But the controversial hockey mom has not revealed many details of bigger plans and national agenda.

Palin instead cast herself as a victim and blasted the media, calling the response to her announcement “predictable” and out of touch.

“How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country,” the statement said. “And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make.”

The abruptness of her announcement and the mystery surrounding her plans have fed widespread speculation. But Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein on Saturday warned legal action may be taken against bloggers and publications that reprint what he calls fraudulent claims.

“To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as ‘fact’ that Governor Palin resigned because she is ‘under federal investigation’ for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation,” Van Flein said in a statement. “This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law.”

He also told the Anchorage Daily News that Palin wasn’t in any criminal legal jeopardy.

“I can say definitively I am aware of no criminal investigation whatsoever involving Sarah Palin. Zero,” he said.

The FBI reiterated that claim Saturday, telling the Los Angeles Times for a story Sunday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was not investigating Palin’s activities as governor, a former mayor or in any other capacity.

“There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we’re investigating her or getting ready to indict her,” Special Agent Eric Gonzalez, the bureau’s Alaska spokesman, said.

Palin has kept a low profile since her sudden announcement Friday at a hastily called news conference at her home in suburban Wasilla, outside Anchorage. All of her public communication since then has been on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, or through statements released by her office.

At the same time, Palin informed her spokesman David Murrow early Saturday that someone using the name “exgovsarahpalin” on Twitter was spreading a false rumor that there was to be a party at her suburban home in Wasilla, outside Anchorage. Palin was afraid her home would be mobbed, and security was dispatched, Murrow said.

With only a few weeks before she steps down on July 26, and Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell takes her place, the governor spent the Fourth of July weekend in the state capital, Juneau, but was only spotted briefly on the sidelines of the city’s parade.

She had been invited to ride in a convertible, as she did last year, but never told organizers whether she would attend.

Juneau parade director Jean Sztuk said officials drew up banners in case Palin showed and was willing to take part.

As the last of the parade’s clowns and marching bands headed past her, Sztuk gave up on Palin. “What governor wants to be at the end of the parade?” she asked.

Her low-profile and vague Internet messages left mounting questions about her plans for the future shrouded in mystery. Will she lay the groundwork for a 2012 presidential bid? Will she find a high-profile place in the private sector, maybe on the speech circuit? Will she drop out of the limelight and focus on her five children?

Her constituents, for one, wanted to know, especially in Juneau, where she has struggled to win over residents.

“I think she owes it to Alaskans to tell us why,” said state Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau, the son of Alaska’s first governor, Bill Egan.

Egan, hosting a 50th anniversary statehood ceremony, said he was disappointed Palin decided not to finish out her term, which was scheduled to end in 2010.

“It’s sad she abandoned us at this critical time,” said Egan, who was appointed by Palin to an open seat on the last day of the legislative session in April, after a protracted battle with Senate Democrats.

Palin’s departure can’t come soon enough for Laurel Carlton, a waitress at the Capital Cafe in the Baranof Hotel, where the city’s political movers and shakers meet every morning before walking a few blocks to the Capitol.

“I think she has a game plan that’s not Alaska, and hasn’t been for awhile,” Carlton said.

She noted Palin has a book deal, and seems headed for the national stage.

“If you’re really not going to stay and do your job every day, you should leave anyway, and so the sooner the better so somebody can step in and actually do the job,” Carlton said.

And as far as Carlton is concerned, Palin doesn’t need to explain why she’s leaving.

“We don’t care. We just want her gone,” she said.

Palin, whose popularity in Alaska has waned amid ongoing ethics investigations, gave many reasons for stepping down: She didn’t want to be a lame-duck governor; she was tired of the tasteless jokes aimed at her five children, including her son Trig, who has Down syndrome; she felt she could do more in another, still-to-be-defined role.

Sen. John McCain didn’t rule out a return to politics for his former running mate, saying Saturday he believes “she will continue to play an important leadership role in the Republican Party and our nation.” He gave no other details.

Even Parnell, who plans to run for re-election after finishing out Palin’s term, said he was shocked at first when he learned of his boss’ decision.

“But then as she began to articulate her reasons, I began to understand better,” he said. “And nobody – unless they’ve been in her position and understood what she has gone through and dealt with and who she is as a person – really understands.”

The Peoples Republic of California Chronicles Episode 2: Big Banking Tells California to Drop Dead with their Worthless IOU’s

 

 

 

 

The Peoples Republic of California has long since spent itself into receivership.  Its latest scam to camouflage its bankrupt, corrupt and hideously bloated condition, has been to issue IOU’s in lieu of paying their bills. Heaven forbid that they should take an ax to spending and simply cut all the liberal social spending that destroyed this once prosperous state.  The money is gone and the goofy “warrants” they want to issue, mature, (Become due for payment in real money) in October.  Well the big mainline banks are looking at this plan, and the unilateral actions of the state to put off all payments until October, and are saying, in unison: We don’t think so California!  There are still small banks and credit unions that plan to continue enabling the spending addicts of Sacramento but with the big boys getting out this Friday one wonders if the small banks will continue to fork over a “fix”. The banks are letting it be known that they want their money and if California doesn’t pay up the banks won’t play ball!  The big spending liberals of California have finally run out of other people’s money (OPM) and the banks are cutting them off!

It’s about time!

California government has clearly failed.  They’ve had ample time to solve this budget disaster and the Legislature and Executive Branch has clearly failed to do their jobs and avoid a condition of massive default.  One can hope that this means the tacit control of the state budget would fall to a bankruptcy judge who will make the necessary cuts, since the banks are cutting them off from mainlining more “credit”, as cutting the budget becomes the last option open to the incompetent liberals. What should have been the first option, cutting spending, became the only option the California government would never, seriously, consider!  If the executive and legislative arms become unable to cut the budget: the courts must step in and make the cuts necessary to survive once the state is in true default.  Once again: the banks are saying no to “warrants” in lieu of cash and without the banks the state will shut down!

Consider this article from the Wall Street Journal now because as off Friday the Big Banks are cutting off the spending addicts of the Golden State:

 

JULY 7, 2009

Big Banks Don’t Want California’s IOUs

 

By RYAN KNUTSON

A group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California’s IOUs on Friday, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap.

Associated Press

Dorothy Cottrill of the state controller’s office inspects IOUs last week.

The development is the latest twist in California’s struggle to deal with the effects of the recession. After state leaders failed to agree on budget solutions last week, California began issuing IOUs — or “individual registered warrants” — to hundreds of thousands of creditors. State Controller John Chiang said that without IOUs, California would run out of cash by July’s end.

But now, if California continues to issue the IOUs, creditors will be forced to hold on to them until they mature on Oct. 2, or find other banks to honor them. When the IOUs mature, holders will be paid back directly by the state at an annual 3.75% interest rate. Some banks might also work with creditors to come up with an interim solution, such as extending them a line of credit, said Beth Mills, a California Bankers Association spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, on Monday morning, a budget meeting between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders failed to produce a result. Amid the budget deadlock, Fitch Ratings on Monday dropped California’s bond rating to BBB, down from A minus, the latest in a series of ratings downgrades for the state.

The group of banks included Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., among others. The banks had previously committed to accepting state IOUs as payment. California plans to issue more than $3 billion of IOUs in July.

Ms. Mills of the CBA said some banks were concerned that there aren’t processes in place to accept IOUs, and also worried about fraud issues. She noted that not all banks have set a July 10 deadline, and that dozens of credit unions in the state will keep accepting IOUs.

Wells Fargo’s head of community banking, Lisa Stevens, said: “We’re very disappointed, as are many Californians, that California has taken the unfortunate step of issuing IOUs in lieu of payments to some businesses and individuals.”

State officials said they were disappointed by the banks’ decision. Garin Casaleggio, a spokesman for Mr. Chiang, said: “We don’t want anybody to suffer who can’t redeem them when they need cash.”

India Joins the Dollar Bashing Club: Getting Out of the US Dollar a Growing Priority for the World.

 

 

 

It seems to be an unspoken reality, as one country after the other expresses its horror at US monetary and economic policy, that nations are trying to divest themselves of the US Dollar before it collapses entirely.  The dollar is being treated like salt water, as if it can be forever printed to cover our outrageous debt and crazed spending and magically we’ll suffer no consequences.  India has looked at the dollar and concluded that they need much fewer of them and that the world trading markets can’t be based on a US dollar because our national debt and spending policies  are clearly unsustainable and insane.  India is an important emerging economy representing a huge market, and labor force, but they’ve seen the light that the dollar is on its way out.  All the nations concerned about the stability of the dollar and who have made it a priority to get rid of the dollar holdings will, as their number and unease grows, eventually trigger a dollar selling spree that will destroy the dollar as a viable currency.

Now India has joined with Europe, Russia, China and various South American Governments that don’t like us very much to raise their voice in protest for our financial malfeasance and to demand, correctly, that a new reserve currency be established that’s not dependant on a single nation.  More straws on the camel’s back for us; and eventually it will be one straw too many, and the camel will break its back just as our dollar will be destroyed; unless we depart from the crazy government policies that are propelling us toward disaster.

Who’s next to join the public display of unease and announce their intentions to divest from our currency, in hushed tones, lest the market get spooked, before they can extract value from our dime-a-dozen dollars?  Japan?  The Arab and Gulf States?  Will the Saudi’s be far behind as they see everyone else getting out and they’re holding an empty bag and half their oil recourses gone?  So is the fact of India joining the dump-the-dollar choir really a big thing? 

You bet it is.  If many more nations take this course a run on the dollar will be inevitable and we’ll be generations trying to repair the damage, if, in fact, it can be repaired.

Consider this article from Bloomberg:

Russia, India Question Dollar Reliance Before Summit (Update2)

 

By Mark Deen and Simon Kennedy

July 6 (Bloomberg) — Russia and India said the world economy is too reliant on the U.S. dollar and called for changes in how $6.5 trillion in currency reserves are managed, as Group of Eight leaders prepare to meet this week.

“The dollar system or the system based on the dollar and euro have shown that they are flawed,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Corriere della Sera, repeating his proposal for a new international reserve currency.

Suresh Tendulkar, an economic adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said in a July 3 interview that he is urging his nation to diversify its foreign holdings away from the dollar.

The challenge to the dollar, a linchpin of world finance and trade since 1945, underlines the shift in relative economic power toward emerging markets and away from the developed nations that spawned the global crisis.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, speaking yesterday at a conference in Aix en Provence, France, said that “we must explore better coordination of exchange-rate policy.”

Questions need to be asked about “the balance of currencies and the role of currencies in a world that has changed because of the crisis and the growing role of emerging countries,” she told reporters.

Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer said at the same conference, “We really need to make sure there is a greater stability between the big currencies in the period to come.”

Dollar Share Grows

“People know that it won’t happen overnight, but the dollar will take the brunt of growing calls by such developing countries as China and Russia for a review of the single reserve currency system,” said Akira Takeuchi, a Tokyo-based currency dealer at Chuo Mitsui Trust & Banking Co., a unit of Japan’s seventh-largest banking group.

The dollar traded at $1.3974 per euro as of 10:12 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.3980 in New York on July 3. The U.S. currency declined to 95.72 yen from 96.04 yen. The euro fell to 133.75 yen from 134.26 yen.

For all the concerns about the dollar’s role, emerging markets such as China and India remain dependent on the currency. The International Monetary Fund said June 30 the share of dollars in allocated global foreign-exchange reserves increased to 65 percent, or $2.6 trillion, in the first three months of this year, the highest since 2007.

‘Years to Come’

The creation of a supranational reserve currency has been discussed in academic circles and isn’t the Chinese government’s position, Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei told reporters in Rome yesterday. China expects the U.S. dollar to maintain its role for “many years to come,” He said.

While Medvedev said he sees “no alternative” to the dollar or euro now, he repeated his proposal that “regional reserve currencies” be developed and again questioned the wisdom of relying on the dollar.

“In the long term, we must also think about a single unit of payment such as the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights,” a unit of an account linked to a basket of currencies, he told the Italian newspaper. “We cannot be hostages to the economic situation of a single country, as is happening today with the United States.”

Russia has support. India’s Tendulkar said he is advising Singh to diversify India’s $264.6 billion in foreign-exchange reserves and hold fewer dollars.

‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’

“The major part of Indian reserves are in dollars — that is something that’s a problem for us,” he said in Aix en Provence. He said big dollar holders face a “prisoner’s dilemma,” a reference to a problem in game theory in which a rational choice for an individual has negative consequences for a group.

The People’s Bank of China, that country’s central bank, said June 26 that the IMF should manage more of its members’ reserves. China said July 2 that it will allow companies to use the yuan to settle cross-border trade and let them keep their entitlement to export tax rebates, seeking to reduce the reliance of importers and exporters on the U.S. dollar.

The dollar’s role as a safe haven was highlighted last week when the currency advanced 0.5 percent against the euro, to $1.3894, on speculation the global economic recovery is faltering.

Emerging Countries

“Some emerging countries have decided to deal more in their respective currencies and trust each other,” Lagarde said in an interview yesterday. “That doesn’t stop other countries from seeing the dollar, and to a lesser extent the euro, as currencies of trading if not reserve currencies.”

Lagarde said that any discussion of currencies needs to encompass the dollar, the euro, the yuan and the yen and that the meetings of the Group of 20 are the right forum.

“The appropriate platform is the one in which all the major currencies are represented,” she said.

Asked in Aix en Provence about currencies, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said it is “extremely important” that U.S. officials remain committed to their policy of supporting a strong dollar.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Deen in Aix en Provence, France at markdeen@bloomberg.net; Francine Lacqua in Aix en Provence, France at flacqua@bloomberg.net

The Joe Biden Follies: Chronically Befuddled VP Green Lights Israel to Attack Iran

 

 

It should provide low level entertainment, in addition to some fascination by political junkies, to see how the Obama Administration reacts to the Befuddled Vice President’s remarks that seemed to give a green light to an Israeli attack on Iran.  Biden is notorious for foot-in-mouth disease, much to the reported consternation of Obama, who in latter days has tried, gamely, to keep Biden out of range of any microphones.

The White House maintains that nothing has changed in official US Policy and that Obama is still anxious to “talk nicely” to Iran and thus end their nuclear program. Lately, the Iranian government has cracked down, in brutal fashion, on its own people who took to the streets to protest an obviously stolen election. This made the Obama Charismatic I Respect Your Despotic-Freaky-Islamic-Terror-State policy look kind of silly if not naive. Having thrown Israel and moderate Arab states like Egypt under the bus, all to stroke Obama’s new best friend Iran, our American potentate has begun to look kinda stupid for abandoning our real allies for a fantasy about Obama’s own personal charisma. 

Ooooops! 

The only valid measure to measure Obama’s intentions, is his actions, because most of his words are meaningless, if not outright lies, chosen to mollify any given audience.  The Obama of the campaign trail and the Socialist-Fascist commissar his actions have proven him to be, since being sworn in, is ample evidence that the man is an unprincipled political opportunist for whom “the ends justify the means.”  Socialism-Fascism is clearly the ends that our Potentate Obama has in mind and he’s moved with blinding speed to achieve his ends with major nationalizations of the economy and by turning congress from a democratic deliberative body into a rubberstamp organization of fawning political sycophants that won’t bother to read legislation before passing it.  (So much for the checks and balances)

 A congress that falls down at the feet of the president with sickening adulation has forsaken its sacred obligation to function as a check on presidential power.  We depend on these checks and balances to keep a charismatic would-be-dictator from getting into office and proclaiming himself to be the new king or potentate. A congress this in awe of the president is even more dangerous than a press corps who has renounced its sacred obligation to report factual news instead of being the press office for some charismatic new president or potentate. 

So is the Administration Official, speaking for the president correct when he maintains our policy hasn’t changed?  Or is the Befuddled Vice President not actually speaking out of turn but simply providing cover by signaling a humiliating change of policy that Mr. Obama should have done himself? 

The weeks to come will tell the tale by the degree to which the Administration maintains that no change in policy has taken place.  Obama is now on record for having green lighted Israel and for insisting that we don’t want to interfere in Iranian Affairs.  It’s a lot like the campaign trail in that this man seems to have it both ways which given his opportunistic nature means that Obama is waiting to see which way the wind shifts in the days to come.  Personally I think the President should make it abundantly clear to all concerned where the USA stands on this critical issue if he wants his best chance to avoid war.  Unfortunately that would require our potentate, Obama, to stand on principle: which is about as likely as a Biden News conference that’s free of major gaffs.

Consider this story I found on Drudge written by the Associated Press National Security Writer:

Biden: Israel free to set own course on Iran

 

By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer Robert Burns, Ap National Security Writer – Sun Jul 5, 4:09 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden signaled that the Obama administration would not stand in the way if Israel chose to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, even as the top U.S. military officer said any attack on Iran would be destabilizing.

Biden’s remarks suggested a tougher U.S. stance against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Nonetheless, administration officials insisted his televised remarks Sunday reflected the U.S. view that Israel has a right to defend itself and make its own decisions on national security.

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Biden also said the U.S. offer to negotiate with Tehran on its nuclear program still stands. Some thought the administration’s approach might change in light of the Iranian government’s harsh crackdown on protesters after the June 12 presidential election. Opponents of the ruling authorities claimed the vote was rigged against them.

“If the Iranians respond to the offer of engagement, we will engage,” Biden said.

It was after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on May 18 that President Barack Obama said it should be clear by year’s end whether Iran was open to direct negotiations. Obama told The Associated Press last Thursday that persuading Iran to forego nuclear weapons has been made more difficult by the crackdown after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Biden was asked whether Netanyahu was taking the right approach by indicating that Israel would take matters into its own hands if Iran did not show a willingness to negotiate by the end of the year.

“Look, Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,” Biden replied. He added that this was the case, “whether we agree or not” with the Israeli view.

Biden was then asked more pointedly whether the U.S. would stand in the way if the Israelis, viewing the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state, decided to launch a military attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.

“Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do,” he said.

Pressed further on this point with a reminder that the U.S. could impede an Israeli strike on Iran by prohibiting it from using Iraqi air space, Biden said he was “not going to speculate” beyond saying that Israel, like the U.S., has a right to “determine what is in its interests.”

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that he has been concerned “for some time concerned about any strike on Iran.” He also said military action should not be ruled out and that a nuclear-armed Iran is a highly troubling prospect.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli government had no comment on Biden’s remarks.

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Biden was not signaling any change of approach on Iran or Israel.

“The vice president refused to engage hypotheticals, and he made clear that our policy has not changed,” Vietor said. “Our friends and allies, including Israel, know that the president believes that now is the time to explore direct diplomatic options.”

The Netanyahu government says it prefers to see Iran’s nuclear program stopped through diplomacy but has not ruled out a military strike. Israel, within easy range of an Iranian ballistic missile, has been skeptical of the administration’s aim of engaging in dialogue with Iran rather than threatening sanctions and military action.

The New York Times reported in January, shortly before Obama took office, that President George W. Bush had deflected an Israeli request in 2008 for specialized U.S. bombs that it would use for an airstrike on Iran’s main nuclear complex at Natanz. And it reported that Bush was persuaded by aides, including his defense chief, Robert Gates, that a U.S. strike on Iran would probably be ineffective.

Obama retained Gates as his defense secretary.

Iran insists that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

There are many reasons for Washington to oppose an Israeli attack on Iran now, including the presence in neighboring Iraq of about 130,000 American troops, who could become targets for Iranian retaliation. The security consequences could be much broader.

Mullen, who as Joint Chiefs chairman is the top military adviser to Obama and Gates, said he worries about unpredictable consequences of an attack on Iran.

“I worry about it being very destabilizing not just in and of itself but the unintended consequences of a strike like that,” he told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “At the same time, I’m one that thinks Iran should not have nuclear weapons. I think that’s very destabilizing.”

Mullen said he worries that, in the event Iran were to obtain a nuclear weapon, other countries in the Middle East would feel compelled to follow suit. That would open a door to a proliferation of nuclear technology that would be destabilizing, Mullen said, adding that this is a subject he discusses regularly with his Israeli counterpart.

The prospect of a regional nuclear arms race was raised by Obama in an AP interview Thursday.

“The biggest concern is not simply that Iran can threaten us or our allies like Israel or its neighbors in the region,” Obama said. “A very real concern is, is that Iran possessing a nuclear weapon triggers an arms race in the region and suddenly countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Turkey all feel obliged to get nuclear weapons. And if you’ve got the most volatile region in the world and everybody armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, you’ve got a recipe for potential disaster.”

Most experts believe that wiping out the Iranian nuclear program is beyond the ability of Israel’s military. In 1981 the Israeli air force destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in a lightning strike. But Iran’s facilities are scattered around the country, some of them underground.

The Peoples Republic of California Chronicles: The Hassett Commentary on Abject Stupidity

 

 

 

Here’s an opinion article run by Bloomberg.com that’s worth reading on the failure of the California Government to meet its financial responsibilities.  The moral of the story is to keep the government small because once you start using it like a magic wand to “solve” everyone’s problems: not only do the problems not get solved, they get perpetuated; and you become the servant to the government rather than its master.

California’s Nightmare Will Kill Obamanomics: Kevin Hassett

Commentary by Kevin Hassett

July 6 (Bloomberg) — Last week, we discovered that the state of California will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

With California mired in a budget crisis, largely the result of a political impasse that makes spending cuts and tax increases impossible, Controller John Chiang said the state planned to issue $3.3 billion in IOU’s in July alone. Instead of cash, those who do business with California will get slips of paper.

The California morass has Democrats in Washington trembling. The reason is simple. If Obama’s health-care plan passes, then we may well end up paying for it with federal slips of paper worth less than California’s. Obama has bet everything on passing health care this year. The publicity surrounding the California debt fiasco almost assures his resounding defeat.

It takes years and years to make a mess as terrible as the California debacle, but the recipe is simple. All that you need is two political parties that are always willing to offer easy government solutions for every need of the voters, but never willing to make the tough decisions necessary to finance the government largess that results. Voters will occasionally change their allegiance from one party to the other, but the bacchanal will continue regardless of the names on the office doors.

California has engaged in an orgy of spending, but, compared with our federal government, its legislators should feel chaste. The California deficit this year is now north of $26 billion. The U.S. federal deficit will be, according to the latest numbers, almost 70 times larger.

Bleak Picture

The federal picture is so bleak because the Obama administration is the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of the U.S. I would imagine that he would be the intergalactic champion as well, if we could gather the data on deficits on other worlds. Obama has taken George W. Bush’s inattention to deficits and elevated it to an art form.

The Obama administration has no shame, and is willing to abandon reason altogether to achieve its short-term political goals. Ronald Reagan ran up big deficits in part because he believed that his tax cuts would produce economic growth, and ultimately pay for themselves. He may well have been excessively optimistic about the merits of tax cuts, but at least he had a story.

Obama has no story. Nobody believes that his unprecedented expansion of the welfare state will lead to enough economic growth. Nobody believes that it will pay for itself. Everyone understands that higher spending today begets higher spending tomorrow. That means that his economic strategy simply doesn’t add up.

Character Deficit

Back in the 1980s, Reagan’s own economist, Martin Feldstein, spoke up when he felt that the Reagan administration was pushing the deficit too far. Where are the economists with such character today? Apparently, the job description for economists has transformed from recommending policies that are defensible to defending whatever policies that the political hacks in the West Wing dream up.

As bad as the California legislature has been over the years, it has never entered a fiscal crisis like the one that we face today and then doubled down with a massive spending increase. In the end, when times got tough, patriotic and sensible Californians of both parties stood up and began acting like adults.

Maybe the same thing is starting to happen in our nation’s capital. The key players in Washington are Senator Evan Bayh and 15 Senate Democrats who joined him this year in forming a coalition of moderates. One thing that has distinguished moderate Democrats from the garden variety of the species is heightened concern about fiscal responsibility.

Off a Cliff

With the price tag of Obama-care likely to exceed $1 trillion, moderate Democrats face a simple choice. They can jump off the cliff with the president, or they can stay true to the principles that they have espoused throughout their careers.

There are reassuring signs that principle is winning. One of the most expensive components of the Obama plan is the so- called public-insurance option, which opponents fear would result in massive government subsidies. Senator Mary Landrieu said that she is “not open” to a public option that will compete with private insurance.

Many other Democratic Senators, including Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and Tom Carper, also oppose the public option. As the cost estimates increase and support wanes, the Senate Finance Committee is even going as far as to pursue its own health-care plan, meaning that the health-care end game is now in sight.

Tax Bite

Moderates might support Obama’s health-care objectives if the bill also included tax increases to cover the spending increases. But those tax increases would likely be unpopular, making it almost impossible to pass a bill.

Given the increasing public concern about deficits that heightened significantly last week because of the California crisis, there are only two possibilities left. Either the Obama plan will come crashing down or Senate Democrats will concoct some bill that has health in the title but costs almost nothing and does even less. With Al Franken arriving in the Senate and providing Democrats with a crucial 60th vote, the latter seems most likely.

(Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, is a Bloomberg News columnist. He was an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential election. The opinions expressed are his own.)