From Real Clear Politics

Less than a year into the job, President Obama seems ambivalent about America’s role as the world’s one great superpower. Nor is he enamored of the majestic idea — advanced by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and others — that the United States is the world’s one “indispensable nation.”

-Snip-

“‘President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite,” Sarkozy said, referring to Iran and North Korea.

You know the world is upside down when the French president sounds so much stronger than the American one.

Here’s the confusing part. Obama knows how to fight. During last year’s campaign, Obama would say: “We don’t throw the first punch, but we’ll throw the last.” Indeed, when Obama slugged it out with political opponents, he would take a blow and hit back twice as hard.

That kind of machismo might come in handy when dealing with the likes of Ahmadinejad. Obama still believes U.N. sanctions will pressure this tyrant into abandoning Iran’s nuclear weapons program. But, as Sarkozy points out, Iran has ignored five U.N. resolutions on that issue since 2005.

Here’s Obama Talking tough about Afghanistan and admonishing Bush and McCain for not sending in enough troops. H/T Gateway Pundit

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama says President Bush’s announcement that he’ll send more forces into Afghanistan is too slow and insufficient. (Sept. 9, 2008)

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) says US generals may resign over Obama’s poor leadership.
Breitbart reported on this interview today:

“The President does deserve time to think this through, but not, I think, a lot of time, only because right now we have a strategy that’s not working. Our generals are telling us that, that puts our soldiers at risk. So we have people over there who are at risk because they’re not being guided by a good strategy that keeps them safe, that gets this thing turned around. And if the president chooses just to not do that, but stay there, then I think you’ll see that kind of a thing happen, then you’ll see those kinds of

This took place at the UN last Thursday during the Security Council’s special session. French President Nicolas Sarkozy calling out the President. We support you but what good has talking done.

President Barack Obama comments in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 25, 2009, on the importance of the passing of the energy bill. (AP)

“It is my deeply held belief,” Barack Obama told the United Nations General Assembly, that “in the year 2009 — more than at any point in human history — the interests of nations and peoples are shared.” That is of course the year Obama became president, and he wasn’t shy about referring in his second paragraph to “the expectations that accompany my presidency around the world,” though he assured us they “are not about me.”

Before Obama’s speech, I wrote that he seems “stuck in a time warp in which the United States is the bad guy.” Not any more, he seemed to say in his U.N. speech. He has ordered the closing of Guantanamo. He has prohibited the use of torture. He is “responsibly ending” the war in Iraq (no triumphalist talk of victory). He is promising substantial reductions in U.S. nuclear weapons. He has invested $80 billion in clean energy. The United States has joined the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.

All of which is a way of saying that nasty George W. Bush is no longer around with all his self-righteous swagger, and that with (as Obama did not fail to note) the first African-American installed in the White House, America is now on the same page with the rest of the world.

Is the real coup in the Americas being engineered by the Secretary of State against a 3am challenged White House?

Three weeks ago Hillary Clinton spent 72 hours to finally convince the Non-Meddler in Chief to denounce the Islamist Junta in Iran for the violent repression of hundreds of thousands of voters protesting an obviously fixed Presidential “election.”

In the immediate aftermath of the election, President Barack Obama had rushed to make clear to Iran’s “Supreme Leader” that he was still anxious to deal with the tyrants no matter how they treated their own citizens.

Then two weeks ago, the President, newly liberated from meddlesome meddling bans abroad, rushed to echo Venezuela’s previously elected dictator, Hugo Chavez in denouncing the removal of the Honduran President from office by its Supreme Court and Attorney General as a “coup.” The military had carried out the order to stop the former President from wreaking havoc in the streets leading a mob in an illegal referendum to allow him to serve for life.

Now, it appears the grown-up former First Lady has rescued the boy president admirer of despots and American values once again:

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said today that Costa Rican president Oscar Arias will serve as international mediator in the Honduran political crisis.

Clinton made the announcement at the US state department after meeting privately with Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, who was forced into exile on 28 June. She said Zelaya as well as the politician who took over as Honduran leader, Roberto Micheletti, agreed to the Arias role as mediator. She said Arias would work on the problem from Costa Rica, not in Honduras.

Clinton noted that Arias won the Nobel peace prize in 1987 for helping broker an end to central America’s civil wars. She said she spoke to him earlier today.

“He is the natural person to assume this role,” she told reporters, adding that while the Obama administration continues to support the efforts of the Organization of American States (OAS) to resolve the crisis, she felt it was necessary to also name a specific mediator.

Clinton also called on all parties to refrain from further violence in an effort to resolve the political crisis.

She said her meeting with Zelaya was productive. “I reiterated to him that the United States supports the restoration of the democratic, constitutional order in Honduras,” she said.

Presidents Obama, Chavez and Castro had called for the restoration of Zelaya to the Presidency and for onerous OAS sanctions. But as the details of the affair came out, it has become clear that no military coup has occurred and that nearly the whole of the Honduran people would not abide the return to office of the real coup leader.

It appears to this observer that Secretary of State Clinton has produced a device for her President to save face via a mediation that merely supports the restoration of democracy, which is already effected given the return to civilian rule within minutes.

I would expect that the mediation will restore the former President’s cherished photos of Chavez and spare pajamas and urge the OAS not to punish the Banana industry for rejecting dictators for life.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.

Coup? Obama takes GM. Honduras? Rule of Law.

What if, on January 21, 2001 instead of accompanying Vice President-Elect Dick Cheney to the Inauguration, Vice President Al Gore had led a large, angry mob in a march on Florida’s State Capitol building in Tallahassee to hand out Presidential survey election ballots ruled illegal by the Supreme Court? What if either of our impeached Presidents, Andrew Johnson or Bill Clinton, had lost their respective removal trials in the U.S. Senate but refused to vacate the White House and relinquish power?

Would police action to remove either Gore, Johnson or Clinton from office, pursuant to orders of the Supreme Court and at the direction of the Attorney General, whether or not carried out by U.S. Marshals, Florida State Troopers, the FBI, Secret Service or the U.S. Army, immediately after which the person next in the line of succession under the Constitution assumes the office of Chief Executive, be considered a coup?

Merriam-Webster defines a coup d’etat as:

a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics ; especially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group

President of the United States, Barack Obama aka Leader of the Free World and famed non-meddler in the affairs of Iran, whose small group of ruling Mullahs came to power via a sudden, decisive exercise of political force that overthrew the existing government while violently seizing American hostages, has joined Marxist Dictator Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) and Communist Dictators Fidel Castro (Cuba) and Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua) in denouncing the removal of Honduran President Manual Zelaya as an “illegal coup”.

Is this the lowest day in the history of the United States’ presidency? Obama’s un-clenched hand remains extended to the freshly bloodied fists of Iran’s Ayatolla Khameini and President Ahmedinijad. I say freshly since well before the mullahs shot down unarmed innocents in the streets of Tehran of late, their hands have been encrusted for decades with the blood of Americans and others via terrorist attacks in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Khobar Towers. Obama remains willing to “deal” with those murderers.

Yet, the recent events in Honduras have brought about Obama’s conversion to the Church of Meddlesomeness to the point of isolating a small, poor Democracy? What great injustice has drawn the stare of our President’s evil eye?

Let us look at the series of events our converted Meddler-in-Chief denounces as a “coup”, in light of its actual definition (Noah Webster, pictured above) and the Rule of Law:

Constitution limits Presidential terms

Mel Zelaya is, or was, the President of Honduras. He and Hugo Chaves were tight. So tight, it seems, that Zelaya wanted to emulate Hugo by changing the Honduran constitution to allow him to run for office until he durned well gets tired of it.

President plays no role in enactment of Constitutional Amendments

To change the constitution in Honduras you have to convene a constituent assembly. The president cannot do that. The Honduran congress must approve a national referendum calling for the constituent assembly to consider changes to the constitution. Zelaya didn’t like the part about the constitution requiring approval of the congress before a national referendum could be called. So … he decided to call one on his own.

President acts outside his Constitutional Authority

OK .. so here we have President Zelaya calling for a national referendum when he doesn’t have the power to do so. The next problem is obtaining ballots! Since the Honduran congress had not called for the referendum, as required by the constitution, the government certainly wasn’t going to print the ballots! After all, how smart would it be to print ballots for an illegal referendum? So … Zelaya had to get the ballots printed elsewhere. Here’s an idea! Get his pall Hugo Chavez to print them! Yes! That will work!

Supreme Court declares President’s actions unconstitutional

So Chaves prints Zelaya’s ballots and they’re shipped to Honduras. Enter the Honduran Supreme Court. The court considers Zelaya’s election in light of the requirements of the Honduran constitution, and rules the referendum illegal and unconstitutional. The court then issues an order to the Honduran military telling them not to do the logistical work associated with Zelaya’s phony referendum. Remember, now … all of this has one primary goal. To get rid of the term limits limiting Zelaya’s rule in Honduras.

President defies Court Order

After the supreme court’s decision, General Romeo Velasquez tells President Zelaya that he is subject to a proper order from the Supreme Court and will not be able to carry out Zelaya’s referendum. So … Zelaya fires him. The Supreme Court orders Zelaya to reinstate Velasquez, and Zelaya refuses to do so.

Military detains President as he leads an illegal mob intent on its own coup d’etat

At this point Zelaya’s ego is getting the better of him. If the military won’t run his illegal referendum, he’ll just do it himself. He gins up a mob and leads them to the military compound where Hugo’s ballots are stored and then has his supporters begin distributing the ballots to the masses.

President arrested for criminal acts but is mercifully allowed exile rather than prosecution

Based on the Supreme Court’s ruling the Honduran attorney general said that the proposed referendum was illegal and said that he would arrest anyone attempting to carry out the election. Zelaya was arrested by the military and was escorted out of the country.

Not a coup

Messy situation, but not a coup, given that the military never seized control of the government as the Speaker of the House assumed the Presidency on an interim basis pending the already scheduled November election.

Not a few suggest that it would have been better to have detained Zelaya in country and removed him via impeachment, but his actions were wreaking havoc on civil order. It should also be noted that all major institutions in the country, including his own political party, supported his removal from office.

Compare to Obama’s actions in the USA

Shall we return to the definition of coup d’etats as we analyze how Obama became CEO of Chrysler, General Motors and large segments if the banking industry?

TARP was passed by Congress in 2008 for the purpose of Protecting the financial industry by Relieving banks of Troubled Assets, hence the acronym.

To date, no bank has been relieved from the first troubled asset. Instead, hundreds of billions have been used to buy government ownership in banks, and to takeover GM and Chrysler, all with no constitutionally mandated just compensation paid to creditors or shareholders whose property interests were taken.

Rather, taxpayer money has been funneled thru under duress bankrupticies for political payoffs to labor unions with taxpayers on the hook for future products liability, debts and losses by the auto companies and banks.

In effect, a small group (Obama/Geithner/Bernanke) overthrew and/or altered existing corporate governance under the Rule of Law via the sudden and decisive force of the Executive Branch of the Government of the United States.

Would that President Obama would eschew constructive coups in the America; denounce them among the Axis of Evil; and quit imagining them where they haven’t occurred in Central America.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.

Cause let’s face it, the man has never done an honest days work in his life…and all he’s good for is talking…

People die in the streets of Iran for liberty.

Sure Barack can talk about what America does wrong. But can he talk about what America has done right in regards to democracy and liberty…even in the midst of tragedy and injustice?

Anywho…watch this powerful message by ZSOverman… and since I’m unable to embed video in my posts the link is below for you to click.

Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna

With a H/T to Erick Erickson from RedState

After weeks of criticism from both Republicans and Democrats that Barack Obama had taken many varied positions on Iran, the White House sought to admit the criticism was true.

From the actual White House website with no alterations whatsoever:

Real world clarity educates all but Obama, as Axis shows its evil; Stimulus fails to stimulate and ABC becomes WHBC

Generally, much like radio talk show host Dennis Prager, I much prefer clarity to agreement, and especially so in politics. Most bi-partisan “solutions” neither solve the problem nor educate voters on which of the partisan positions would more likely have been the solution.

Hence, an America prosperous and free due to conservative Republican solutions to foreign and domestic problems, but afflicted by the recent Elephant-memory killing bipartisan past that Left No Child Behind in accumulating debt and a Republican candidate made famous as a maverick at kissing Jack Asses, chose to elect as President of the United States (POTUS) the most liberal candidate any major party ever nominated.

As a result though, clarity has returned to Washington, D.C. The most egregious taxing, spending and social policy bills passed by the ObamaDem Congress have garnered hardly any GOP votes and the President has received harsh criticism from most Republicans for his foreign apology tours.

So, come Election Day 2010, We the People will have no problem rendering a verdict on the ObamaDems, beyond any reasonable doubt.

The bad news is that the educational reality mugging by failed liberal policies usually necessary to convert liberals into conservatives will be especially harsh this time around, especially by an electorate so populated by spoiled yutes too young to remember the last one from 1979-1982.

Axis of Evil remains so in the Age of Obama

Last week, President Obama, no longer in de-Nile about his assumption of the Office of Citizen of the World (COTW), traveled to that river in Egypt to prove the effectiveness of his “words matter” campaign mantra, especially when delivered by an American largely disgusted with American policies before his Inauguration.

The Drive-by media universally praised the homily, er..speech and, Obama was right. Words do matter. Iran’s mullahs (pictured with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khatami in middle) heard the COTW/POTUS’s Chamberlainesque Peace in our Time declaration as he excused Iran’s terrorism directed against his World and American citizens for the last 30 years. They heard his acquiescence to Iran as an equal nuclear power partner while forbidding Israel from building any more screened in porch add-ons on the West Bank.

So, Iran’s totalitarians fixed this week’s election to retain as President the megalomanical Anti-Semite that Obama surrendered to and continue to mow down (see Kill, seven and counting at this publication) down non-violent protesters.

Not to worry though. Seventy-two hours after the fix, Obama is “troubled” by “the violence” (No mention of whose violence, much like he was troubling violence of Georgian bodies striking Russian bullets in Ossetia, but I digress…) but is even more troubled by the worry of offending the re-elected MembersOnlyJacket-ijad by seeming to “interfere” in an equal nation’s affairs with a statement supporting the freedom seekers.

Clarity on Iran should have arrived earlier than this week given their sponsorship of Hizbollah, with whom they killed more Americans than any other terrorist group before 911, and given their Quds forces that killed Americans in Iraq. The Drive-bys were too busy bashing Bush to make those facts clear.

Keynesian economics still doesn’t stimulate anything but government growth

The same Joe Biden that was elected Vice-President while warning that his youthful running mate would face a serious international test within six months, admitted this week that the Administration’s efforts to revive the economy had failed.

Clarity on that subject almost arrived earlier this month with the Labor Department’s release of the report that unemployment rose to its highest level in 27 years, but the Drive-bys dutifully ran interference by reporting that 9.4% was a good sign that the stimulus was working since the rate of job losses had slowed.

Rumors have it that the last act of the American Broadcasting Company, before the relocation of its headquarters and name change, was to send its employees out armed with spray paint to vandalized gasoline station pump prices and Bank mortgage rate windows.

1984 plus 25 equals White House Broadcasting Company’s (WHBC) voluntary merger with Big Brother

Charlie Gibson will anchor the first broadcast of the network made famous by Howard K. Smith, Howard Cosell and Jim McKay as WHBC from its new headquarters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when COTW/POTUS Obama, as new network President, issues his Health Care reform directives later this month.

The media famous for drive-by character assassination hits will merge with an Administration whose Justice Department recently dropped voter intimidation charges against Philadelphia BlackPanthers.

No word yet on when the Democratic National Committee aka ACORN will join their corporate partners in public housing.

Given the above relationships, it is not surprising that Americans became so ignorant about the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the Democratic party and the results of their failed liberal policies. But now, we don’t have to guess if Obama’s ears prove he is Barbara Walters’ son. Arrogance has shoved shameless First Amendment incest into the fore to bring clarity.

And we we thought gay marriage was only a “slippery slope?

The Slope Done Slipped

Incumbent republicans must needs no longer fear the Citizen of the World and the Democrats that aid and abet his clarity. Citizens of the World like Iran’s mullahs and Kim Jong Il don’t get to vote in our mid-terms. American citizens out of work, unable to afford gasoline to visit grandma or Myrtle Beach, and/or still keeping investment dollars on strike do get to vote, and clarity dictates a favorable GOP result.

Meanwhile, a number of Democrats and liberals are finding the new clarity requires revising their verdict on none other that George W. Bush aka Satan (translates Great Satan in Mullah-Persian). Thomas Friedman of the New York Times saw fit to print the news that Bush deserves credit for the now obvious success of the democracy project in Iraq and the Lebanese electoral defeat of the Hezbos. Christopher Hitchens reports that Hamas would lose a second election in Gaza.

I am reminded of a Hezbo supporter in Southern Lebanon who lost his house and a barber in Gaza who lost his barber shop, both lost to Israeli bombs retaliating against rocket launchers in their respective neighborhoods who blamed the terrorists and vowed never to support them again. They wanted their boys to play soccer, sans rubble.

Clarity sometimes takes time.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.

Will Obama passover the plague of terrorism in Egypt?

Apologies for the tortured paraphrase of Rameses II oft repeated defiant commands in between plagues The God of Moses visited upon Egypt until Pharaoh let his people go in The Ten Commandments.

But wouldn’t it be appropriate to recount the benevolence of America toward Egypt and much of the Muslim world in combating the plague of Islamist terrorism?

Wouldn’t it be apropos if President Barack Obama visited the grave of the man that made peace with Israel and, in his much anticipated first American Presidential address to the Muslim World, said:

I have just come from honoring your late, great leader Anwar Sadat to demonstrate, on your soil, America’s solidarity with that great Muslim leader and the like-minded of Islam who seek peace and to make clear our shared contempt his assailants and for all enemies of peace, no matter their professed faith.

For this reason, we have never been stingy in American dollars for Egypt’s military defense, nor in American blood to defeat those that seek the murder and even genocide against Americans, Muslims and peace seeking peoples across the globe, whether it be in Bosnia and Kosovo, Kuwait and Iraq, and Afghanistan. Whether it be in The Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, or Europe.

That those terrorizing the peace loving claimed to be Christians, Muslims or atheists, mattered not a whit.

Today, in Pakistan, we stand with the Muslim government against al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists.

And we stand with all Muslims in Egypt and all people of all faiths or no faith across the world that seek peace and against all those that seek terror and totalitarianism.

We thank God for all those Muslims that are alive today due to the joint sacrifices of the armed forces of the United States and our allies, including the great sacrifices made at our side by Iraqis, Kuwaitis, Afghans, and Egyptians and all Muslims, Christians and Jews from around the world.

Saddam Hussein slaughters hundreds of thousands and starts wars killing millions no more. Osama bin Laden issues dated black market tapes rather than blowing Muslims to bits in Arabia and Africa. Mullah Omar no longer controls a nation-state to harbour mass murderers.

Thank God Muslims are so much more safe today.

On Memorial Day in America last week, I laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier where many Americans are buried that died defending the lives of Muslims so that they did not have the same fate as your beloved Sadat.

Praise be to God.

But, to more closely quote Yul Brenner (pictured above as Pharaoh Rameses II):

So, shall it be written? So ,shall it be done?

I suspect a plague of frogs is more likely, this time from the Celebrated Surrender Frog of Cook County!

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.

As for the North Koreans, they laugh at The US Paper-Tigers and their flimsy memorandum. They issued a predictably stupid and obnoxious statement that made old Cold War Watchers yearn for the days when the Soviet Union issued these statements using well-written prose instead.

“Our army and people are fully ready for battle . . . against any reckless U.S. attempt for a pre-emptive attack,” the reclusive country’s state-run news agency said.

Imagine the Dear Leader’s chagrin when his Aide-Du-Poobah informed him that all the Americans did was issue another lame cease and desist letter. The quote “4.7 on the Frikkin’ Richter Scale, and all they can come up with is that?! Leonid Breshnev used to get front page headlines!” was not really attributed to the Dyspeptic Despot of Pyongyang, that’s just me being snarky.

Of course the recent missile test didn’t come without a long list of precursors. The Washinton Post does a good job of describing the list of provocative actions taken by North Korea this Spring.

North-South relations on the Korean Peninsula have deteriorated dramatically this spring. The North has launched a long-range missile, detained a South Korean national, kicked out U.N. nuclear inspectors, restarted a plutonium factory and halted six-nation negotiations on its nuclear program. It has also voided contracts with South Korean companies at the Kaesong industrial park, a jointly run operation just across the border from South Korea.

And yet Barack Obama thinks we should all get together and talk. Talking with our enemies always makes us stronger – provided that we actually have a gravaman for discussions. With North Korea, that gravaman does not exist. Ipso facto, President Obama’s preferred policy will not succeed in this situation.

North korea believes they are the legitimate government of all Korean people, and that they hold title to Seoul and all points South. They believe the government in Seoul consists of usurpers and that the US supports them illegitimately. In their eyes we are criminals. They have no more desire to discuss with Barack Obama than I would to twitter Chucky Manson.

Thus, the US has three valid options. We can drop a Cleveland Steamer on Kim Il Jung and take over. We can continue a slow bleed strategy of supporting a status quo arrangement, where North Koreans don’t eat three meals a day too often. The third option involves our withdrawal of the 2nd Army Division to Scofield Barracks. Call it the Acheson Perimeter.

If you read that paragraph closely, you’ll notice conversation with our enemies does not appear anywhere on the menu of available options. Neither did George W. Bush’s Six Party Talks. A successful conversation requires more than one interested listener.

So if George W. Bush and Barack Obama both followed a similarly impotent set of guidelines towards dealing with Nannutjob of The North, why then does Barack Obama get the worse end of the stick in terms of hostile conduct from North Korea? It has to do with how each man is perceived in Pyongyang. Kim Il Jung believed Gearge W. Bush had both the nerve and the nasty intent to pull the trigger. He doesn’t think Barack Obama would feel comfortable weilding a paint-pellet gun.

The long list of smaller provocations by the North Koreans were preperatory steps. They wanted to determine whether the United States was still engaged as an interested party, and whether the United States was still willing to deal with North Korea without blinking.

As a Pilot Test, these provocations told Kim Il Jung that the US no longer wanted to expend the capital of empire in his neck of the woods. This allowed him to feel safe in utterly flaunting the recent treaties he had signed with the Six Party talks under durress; instead of good will. Finally, it allowed him to feel cocky enough to express what he always has and always will feel towards Barack Obama, and all other Americans. He expressed his complete and unmitigated contempt.