Obama Administration to Challenge Popular Arizona Law

And why not? It's not like this administration cares what Americans actually think about issues like immigration.

Ed Morrissey points out that the White House announced this decision to people in Ecuador before Americans. Well, that's becoming par for the course. When you have such absolute contempt for what your fellow Americans think about a variety of issues (health care, the economy, jobs, national debt, the gulf oil crisis), should it be any wonder this guy discusses domestic policy with foreigners first?

Governor Jan Brewer blasted Obama and his administration for their handling of this policy direction. I agree, but perhaps she can take comfort in it. After all, an administration this inept is unlikely to successfully walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone challenge the validity of their new immigration-enforcement law. Meanwhile, Obama will continue to pursue a policy that is even less popular than his ObamaCare bill, just in time for the midterm referendum on his first two years in office.

I can't decide if the White House is honestly this ignorant or arrogant, but then voters are still evenly split about whether Obama deserves re-election or not. My guess is that Obama is going to continue to stick his finger in the eye of the public since he expects to lose control of Congress in November. After that, he'll try governing on charisma or something. In any case, this is more government by the elites for your own good, not for what you want.

Why Is This Oil Spill Cleanup Taking So Long

The short answer is: the feds.

Five weeks ago Escambia County officials requested permission from the Mobile Unified Command Center to use a sand skimmer, a device pulled behind a tractor that removes oil and tar from the top three feet of sand, to help clean up Pensacola’s beaches. County officials still haven’t heard anything back. Santa Rosa Island Authority Buck Lee told The Daily Caller why: “Escambia County sends a request to the Mobile, Ala., Unified Command Center. Then, it’s reviewed by BP, the federal government, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard. If they don’t like it, they don’t tell us anything.”

This isn't mentioning the foreign governments with expertise in oil spill cleanup who are being stiff-armed by the Obama administration. Is it any wonder that conspiracy theorists contend the White House wants the spill to cause greater pain and suffering?

It's starting to sound like a broken record, but inexperience leads to poor decisionmaking, and this president's lack of executive experience is having dire consequences for American citizens. It's not just the terrorist attempts on us (only stopped by the grace of God), the foreign policy missteps and the lack of coherent solutions. It's the lethargy with which this administration chooses to act in the face of crisis. I don't care if Barack Obama is "angry" about the spill or not. I expect him to either lead or get the hell out of the way and let the experts handle the mess.

UPDATE: From Newsbusters, the problem is that white people are skeered of an angry black man.

Turkey: No Friend to the West?

Read this post if you want to understand the growing problem the West--specifically the U.S.and Israel--have with Turkey.

Turkey is deliberately helping the Iranians to undermine U.S. policy in the Middle East, and by sending a flotilla to Gaza, in defiance of Israel's blockade, is tantamount to an act of war, it seems to me. There was nothing humanitarian about the trip, because as William Jacobson notes, humanitarian aid can come over land. That this group tried to get through the blockade speaks to more sinister aims to bring weapons into Gaza.

Our president's throwing our allies under the bus, including Israel. More here, including the fact that the group responsible for the flotilla supports--surprise!--radical Islam.

Obama Administration: Policing the Border Equals Forced Abortions

Just when I think the nuts in the Obama administration can't do worse, we get word that they are equating Arizona's immigration law with China's human rights abuses.

Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.

He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person's immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.

Because requiring people to legally enter the country is every bit as big a human rights violation as forced abortion, speech and religious suppression, gulags and possibly harvesting organs for money. I'm so glad the America haters are running the government. It's really gonna make China like us.

The Way of the Greeks

The welfare state's death spiral

Americans dislike the term "welfare state" and substitute the bland word "entitlements." Vocabulary doesn't alter the reality. Countries cannot overspend and overborrow forever. By delaying hard decisions about spending and taxes, governments maneuver themselves into a cul-de-sac. To be sure, Greece's plight is usually described as a European crisis -- especially for the euro, the common money used by 16 countries -- and this is true. But only to a point...

The welfare state's death spiral is this: Almost anything governments might do with their budgets threatens to make matters worse by slowing the economy or triggering a recession. By allowing deficits to balloon, they risk a financial crisis as investors one day -- no one knows when -- doubt governments' ability to service their debts and, as with Greece, refuse to lend except at exorbitant rates. Cutting welfare benefits or raising taxes all would, at least temporarily, weaken the economy. Perversely, that would make paying the remaining benefits harder.

We're headed the same way with entitlement spending increasing--including Obamacare--leading us over the cliff. But we know this already, even if liberals won't admit it.

From Protein Wisdom:

The selfish gamble implicit in the welfare state is that, though most people know on some level that spending in excess of revenue isn’t a very fiscally responsible long-term plan on which to build a stable society, many are willing to bet that resources won’t run out in the short term — which means these types of voters believe they will still get theirs so long as they continue to “vote in their own economic interests.”

Future generations? Not their problem.

Greece's Workers Don't Like Being Pulled Off the Public Teat

The Greek economy is in shambles and the government can't pay its bills, so its parliament has enacted some austerity measures that pissed off the Greeks so much they rioted, killing 3 people.

Under terms of the bailout deal, Greece's government has announced a €30 billion package of measures that will slash public-sector wages, cut pensions, freeze public- and private-sector pay and liberalize Greece's labor laws. In addition, Greece has pledged to raise taxes—including a two-percentage-point increase in Greece's top value-added tax rate, to 23%—and to increase excise taxes for fuel, tobacco and alcohol.

The proposals met with stiff resistance Wednesday. Protesters and police clashed in front of parliament and fought running street battles at various points around the city. Demonstrators set fire to a media van from a Turkish television crew and burned two private vehicles and a fire truck.

It's like the children have been running Greece for too long and now the grownups are having to take over and administer some nasty medicine. The only problem is, when your entire country is on the dole, it's hard to get them to accept the unpleasant fact that there's no endless supply of money and that somebody has to get off their ass and make some dough to pay for things.

Wednesday's 24-hour general strike hobbled government services across Greece, shutting ministries and public offices. State hospitals and public utilities were operating with skeleton staff. Shopkeepers joined the strike at midday local time, while journalists, bank workers, teachers, court workers, lawyers and doctors also walked off the job. All flights in and out of Greek airports were canceled, while rail and ferry operations nationwide have been suspended.

It's a good thing nobody needed to go anywhere today.

Unintended Consequences of China's One Child Policy

Liberals love abortion, embracing it as a woman's "choice" and a way for poor women to get out of poverty. And since they see abortion as a universal good, they tend to ignore what abortion has done in places like China, where girls are so despised that the sex imbalance will have devastating consequences in the 21st century. How do feminists justify their support of abortion in places such as this?

Falling Further Behind

Poll shows Obama, Dems losing ground

A majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than it was two years ago and think President Obama and other Democrats fall short of Republicans on the issue of national security, a new poll finds.

The Democracy Corps-Third Way survey released Monday finds that by a 10-point margin -- 51 percent to 41 percent -- Americans think the standing of the U.S. dropped during the first 13 months of Mr. Obama's presidency.

Remember when Barack Obama was going to make America more--not less--respected? World opinion isn't worth chasing.

Shocker! Iran Now Capable of Making Weapons Grade Uranium

Congratulations, Barack Obama and Democrats. This morning, Ahmadinejad announced Iran can make weapons grade uranium.

e said it had produced its first batch of 20 per cent enriched uranium - and had the capability to enrich to far higher levels at its Natanz plant.

But not to worry. The international community is really coming down on Mahmoud for the announcement.

The international community has warned Iran against further enrichment activities, threatening new UN sanctions.

That'll stop 'em!

Coming to a blubonnet Comment Near You...

Hugo Chavez Mouthpiece Says U.S. Hit Haiti With 'Earthquake Weapon'

The United States apparently possesses an "earthquake weapon" that set off the catastrophic quake in Haiti and killed 200,000 innocents. Don't believe it's true? Just ask Hugo Chavez.

Citing an alleged report from Russia's Northern Fleet, the Venezuelan strongman's state mouthpiece ViVe TV shot out a press release saying the 7.0 magnitude Haiti quake was caused by a U.S. test of an experimental shockwave system that can also create "weather anomalies to cause floods, droughts and hurricanes."

The station's Web site added that the U.S. government's HAARP program, an atmospheric research facility in Alaska (and frequent subject of conspiracy theories), was also to blame for a Jan. 9 quake in Eureka, Calif., and may have been behind the 7.8-magnitude quake in China that killed nearly 90,000 people in 2008.

What's more, the site says, the cataclysmic ruin in Haiti was only a test run for much bigger game: the coming showdown with Iran.

The crazies have to assume American malfeasance; the idea that generous Americans help out willingly after natural disasters (not out of guilt) is too much for them to bear.

In France, Shouting at Your Wife Could Make You a Criminal

Married couples in France could end up with criminal records for insulting each other during arguments.

People who love each other shouldn't shout, hurl epithets or threaten each other with violence. But some people--in fact, most people--do one or more of these things at some point in their relationships. In France, that could be called "psychological violence."

It would cover men who shout at their wives and women who hurl abuse at their husbands - although it was not clear last night if nagging would be viewed as breaking the law.

The law is expected to cover every kind of insult including repeated rude remarks about a partner's appearance, false allegations of infidelity and threats of physical violence.

To me, this creates a whole new can of worms for police officers to deal with in domestic violence situations. What if nagging is considered psychological violence? How many times asking your spouse to take out the garbage does it take to become psychological violence? If your spouse notes that your trousers are too tight, your belly too big, your breasts droopy, does that amount to psychological violence? Could saying truthful things like, "You've gotten a lot more gray hair in the last year or so" be considered psychological violence if the "victim" is sensitive about graying hair?

Moreover, this sort of idiotic law makes a mockery of real domestic violence, which is nothing to laugh at. It's hard to classify punching someone in the face with calling the same person a bitch. It's insulting to those who actually suffer domestic violence.

When New Zealanders Support and Harbor Al Qaeda, We'll Bomb Them, Too

New Zealander with severely limited understanding of America thinks it's racism, as opposed to terrorism, that makes Americans willing to kill Yemenis in the War on Terror (oops! I know that term is obsolete these days, but bear with me).

The US just murdered 49 Yemeni civilians - including women and children - trying to kill a Al Qaeda leader.

Now, I was thinking - "would they ever send cruise missiles into NZ?" Would places like Aotearoa, Australia, or Canada ever find 50 civilians murdered in an explosion as the US attempted to kill its enemies?

The answer is, of course, no. For some reason, predominately white, English speaking people would never have to fear the same violence the US feels entirely justified in visiting on Arab countries. I wonder why...?

This sort of post is just one reason I can't take PiTOR seriously. Is skin color really the only difference he sees between New Zealand and Yemen? Is kiwiland harboring Al Qaeda members planning to blow up Americans and we just haven't discovered it yet? I realize the Obama administration is completely incompetent, but it's difficult to believe that Barack Obama sits in the White House saying, "Let's bomb those sand n*****s back to the Stone Age! Yeah!"

This sort of idiotic argument played better when a white man occupied the White House.

Why would anyone be surprised that Barack Obama...

Obama gives Interpol free hand in U.S.

No presidential statement or White House press briefing was held on it. In fact, all that can be found about it on the official White House Web site is the Dec. 17 announcement and one-paragraph text of President Obama's Executive Order 12425, with this innocuous headline: "Amending Executive Order 12425 Designating Interpol as a public international organization entitled to enjoy certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities."In fact, this new directive from Obama may be the most destructive blow ever struck against American constitutional civil liberties. No wonder the White House said as little as possible about it.

There are multiple reasons why this Obama decision is so deeply disturbing. First, the Obama order reverses a 1983 Reagan administration decision in order to grant Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, two key privileges. First, Obama has granted Interpol the ability to operate within the territorial limits of the United States without being subject to the same constitutional restraints that apply to all domestic law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. Second, Obama has exempted Interpol's domestic facilities -- including its office within the U.S. Department of Justice -- from search and seizure by U.S. authorities and from disclosure of archived documents in response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by U.S. citizens. Think very carefully about what you just read: Obama has given an international law enforcement organization that is accountable to no other national authority the ability to operate as it pleases within our own borders, and he has freed it from the most basic measure of official transparency and accountability, the FOIA.

...believes in international organizations more than the U.S. Constitution?

That Obama Diplomacy Is Working So Well

Iran’s Foreign Minister Rejects Nuclear Deal

Today Iranian Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki publicly rejected the U.N.-backed proposal to send about 70 percent of Iran’s known supplies of enriched uranium out of the country. Mottaki suggested that instead Iran would exchange its low-enriched uranium for an equivalent amount of slightly higher enriched uranium, but only on its own territory. This clearly would be unacceptable since it would put Iran closer, rather than slightly farther away from, acquiring sufficient quantities of enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon, if the uranium were to be further enriched.

And this is only the beginning!

Why Should We Remember the Berlin Wall?

A young friend of mine snottily told me that she didn't consider the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall to be a big deal. As she put it:

I am sure this will irk some, but I have a problem with us being so sentimental about tearing down a wall in another country when we're so gung-ho about putting up a fence at our own.

Why should we remember? Maybe this is why:

Not Quite Death Panels, But the Results Are the Same

Daughter saves mother, 80, left by doctors to starve

AN 80-year-old grandmother who doctors identified as terminally ill and left to starve to death has recovered after her outraged daughter intervened.

Hazel Fenton, from East Sussex, is alive nine months after medics ruled she had only days to live, withdrew her antibiotics and denied her artificial feeding. The former school matron had been placed on a controversial care plan intended to ease the last days of dying patients.

Doctors say Fenton is an example of patients who have been condemned to death on the Liverpool care pathway plan. They argue that while it is suitable for patients who do have only days to live, it is being used more widely in the NHS, denying treatment to elderly patients who are not dying.

Emphasis mine.

They've lived long enough, right?

What Should Obama Say in Oslo?

Peggy Noonan has an excellent idea.

How about an unapologetic address, a speech, with the world's elites leaning forward and listening, about the meaning of America? A speech that shows a grounded and sophisticated love for his country and its great traditions and history. Not a nationalistic speech, not a prideful one, but a loving one.

For instance: The Peace Prize judges won't see it this way, but America has gone to Europe twice in the past century to fight for peace. This is an old concept, and has to do with killing killers so they can't kill anymore. It cost America a lot to do this, and we kept no territory, as they say, beyond the graves where our soldiers lie. America then taxed itself and gave its wealth not only to its allies but to its former adversaries, to help them rebuild. We didn't actually have to do this. We did it to make the world better. We did it to foster peace. (They should give us a prize.)

America hasn't just helped the world, it literally lit the world with its inventions, which are the product of its freedoms. The lights under which the Peace Prize judges read, and rejected, the worthy nominations? Why, those lights were invented by an American. The emails the committee members sent to each other, sharing their banal insights on leadership? They came through the Internet. Who invented the Internet? It was a Norwegian bureaucrat with a long face and hair on his nose and little plastic geometric eyeglasses? Oh wait, it was Americans. The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee are healthy because they have been inoculated against diseases such as polio. Who invented the polio vaccine, an enfeebled old leftist academic in Oslo? Nah, it was a man named Jonas Salk. He was an American.

Europe's elites experience Mr. Obama as a historical accident that needs and deserves their encouragement. Actually he was elected with 69.5 million votes, and you know, they were cast by Americans. Go figure.

Mr. Obama should get the spotlight off himself and put it on the great thing that yielded him up and made him possible.

President Obama gave a little of this in his speech on Friday, so I am not skeptical that he could do this. I'm not sure he'll have the political will to, however.

"The Gipper ended the Cold War and never got a Nobel nod"

Excellent post regarding why Teh One got the Nobel Prize. Short answer: they're all leftists.

Politico’s excited to find that three of the five Norwegians on the committee are hard leftists (one of them a bona fide socialist), but does it really matter? European “conservatives” are about as far right as Joe Lieberman; you could have stacked the panel with Norway’s equivalent of Reagan Republicans and still gotten the same unanimous vote for The One that you got this time. The Gipper ended the Cold War and never got a Nobel nod. This is an institutional issue, not a membership one.

Obama won the NPP because he represents the America that the Europeans like: bumbling, ineffective, emasculated but articulate when it apologizes for America's greatness.

How You Win the Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize Committee Jumps the Shark

In Surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy
For his first 10 days in office.

Even the MSM are stunned and skeptical. Me? I'm cynical.

What diplomatic efforts “so far”? He gave a speech in Cairo and … and … and … gave a few in Europe, too. That was the point of those questions from reporters; Obama has done little so far.

Barack Obama won the prize for not being George W. Bush. It's hard to have more contempt for this prize after this.

UPDATE: John Podhoretz gets it exactly right.

The Nobel Committee chose him wisely because he does, in fact, represent the organization’s highest ideals.

He is an American president queasy about the projection of American power. He is an American president who rejects the notion of American exceptionalism. He is an American president eagerly in pursuit of legitimacy to be granted him not by those who voted for him but by those who do not cast a vote and who chafe at American leadership. It is his devout wish that America become one of many nations, influencing the world indirectly or not influencing it at all, rather than “the indispensable nation,” as Madeleine Albright characterized it. He is the encapsulation, the representative, the wish fulfillment, the very embodiment, of the multilateralist impulse. He is, almost literally, a dream come true for the sorts of people who treasure and value the Nobel Peace Prize.