Hillary the lying little messenger girl...

"A Clinton lying is like a dog chewing on a bone, its what they do."
Andrew - canada (06/06/2009 04:36)

from Joshua Pundit
Friday, June 05, 2009

Hillary Clinton: 'Israel, Bush administration had no agreement over settlements'

US Secretary of State Hillary confirmed something that's become all too obvious. While the Obama Administration is insisting that the current Israeli government keep its prior committments,even committments the Israeli cabinet never signed on to, it has no intention whatsoever of honoring its own to Israel.

When Israel first accepted the US Roadmap during the Bush Administration in 2003, Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Knesset accepted it conditionally, appending it with a letter to President Bush that outlined 14 additional reservations and conditions.

President Bush later acknowledged those reservations by promising in a letter written to Sharon on April 14th, 2004 that the US would recognize existing demographic realities and understood that Israel would retain the large blocs of Jewish communities near Jerusalem and in the Jordan Valley as part of any final settlement.This was supposed to be a quid pro quo to Sharon in exchange for pushing the Jews of Gaza out of their homes.

Even more telling, President Bush assured Sharon that the US would only support the Road Map and no other plan, since it was in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, not the Saudi 'peace' ultimatum Obama is so thrilled about. The US also guaranteed Sharon that they would see to it that Gaza did not become a security risk for Israel.

When Secretary Clinton says there was 'never any agreement', she's simply lying . As a matter of fact, Elliot Abrams, who actually was in the Bush Administration as deputy National Security Advisor confirmed that in the Washington Post.

Clinton, of course, is just passing on a message from her new boss. She has no power at State and has been reduced to being a messenger girl.

Based on this blatant dishonesty, the Israelis would be justified in pulling out of the Roadmap entirely, but they're apparently keeping their powder dry for now.

However, this should put them on notice that any agreements they make with Obama are subject to hope n' change without notice. And not worth a damn.
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Germany is the latest under the Obama Bus

from Don Surber
June 5, 2009

President Obama continues to praise tyrranical enemies, while scorning the democratically elected leaders of our longtime allies.

I am really beginning to wonder about this guy. He seems to hate everything this nation has stood for 233 years.

In embracing the theocracies of Arabia — Cairo was on a lockdown for his sppech on Thusday — President Obama has to lie and gloss over the decades of anti-Semitism and anti-democratic and anti-liberty actions of his new friends.

It is incredible that this man who stands up for the “rights” of terrorists in Gitmo is a silent abettor of the negation of rights for the law-abiding peaceful citizens of Egypt and all those other sand lands.

Our allies notice.

“A rift has quietly opened up between Germany and the United States, marked by official statements of harmony and private grumbling. It is not an outright crisis in relations, but there are underlying tensions and disagreements on matters ranging from the global economic crisis to the future of inmates held at Guantánamo Bay,” the New York Times reported.

Obviously if the Official State Newspaper is reporting this, the rift is deeper.

John Kornblum, a former United States ambassador to Germany, told the Times, “They’re not angry, they’re not anti-Obama or anti-American. But they’re confused by the wave of criticism which has been sent at them by the administration and people close to the administration. It’s not that they don’t like him. They just feel like things aren’t working, like the levers of government are not being engaged to make issues run smoothly.”

Obama is a likeable guy. He is just anti-Western.

Germans get it.

He should have run for president of Kenya.

The New York Times story is here.

Click to read this and other great articles and comments at Don Surber

The Obama's decline dinner with the Sarkozys

from The Times Online
by Charles Bremner in Paris
June 5, 2009

The Obamas turn up in Paris this evening, but have declined a dinner invitation from the couple next door: the Sarkozys.

President Obama’s reluctance to spend more than minimum time with the French leader on his visit for the D-Day anniversary has come as an embarrassment to the Elysée Palace.

America’s First Family will not be dining with President Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, even though they are staying at the residence of the US Ambassador, yards from the Elysée apartments where the Sarkozys spend their weekends.

Mr Sarkozy’s staff were trying yesterday to arrange another private moment between the couples. Mr Obama is due to fly back to Washington tomorrow night or on Sunday.

Mr Sarkozy’s dream date would be dinner somewhere spectacular such as the Jules Verne, an Alain Ducasse restaurant on the Eiffel Tower. The Obamas were reported on French celebrity websites to be planning a meal there.

A glamorous joint outing might be compared with the ones that President de Gaulle undertook with John and Jackie Kennedy in 1961. On that trip, Mrs Kennedy was such a hit that JFK presented himself as “the man who accompanied Jackie Kennedy to Paris”.

Failure to socialise with the Obamas will add to mockery that has greeted Mr Sarkozy’s attempts to stage the 65th anniversary of D-Day as a “Barack and Sarko show”. The media and Opposition have mocked Mr Sarkozy over Mr Obama’s coolness towards him, which is only partly due to his handling of the Normandy commemoration.

Mr Sarkozy has been pilloried in France for his failure to invite the Queen to the events. “The palace is fearing a snub,” Le Parisien newspaper said yesterday after the news emerged of the Obamas’ plans to keep themselves to themselves.

Yesterday the popular comedian Nicolas Canteloup did an impression of Mr Sarkozy worrying that he had “only two days to become tall, handsome and elegant”. The French leader is 5½ inches shorter than Michelle Obama.

The French were also piqued after the White House said that it was working on an invitation to Normandy for the Royal Family. Face was saved when the Prince of Wales agreed to attend with Gordon Brown. “Sarkozy has pulled off a double hit: insulting Queen Elizabeth and exasperating Obama,” the weekly Canard Enchaîné said on Wednesday.

French worries about being snubbed were matched in Germany, where media and politicians are convinced that the brevity of Mr Obama’s trip there and a decision to avoid Berlin demonstrated his disapproval of Angela Merkel, the Chancellor. Mr Obama was due in Germany last night for a visit to Dresden and the Buchenwald death camp.

Mr Obama’s irritation with his French counterpart began when Mr Sarkozy tried to grab the limelight at the G20 summit in London in April and talked condescendingly of the US President in private. Mr Sarkozy told colleagues that he found Mr Obama to be inexperienced and unbriefed, especially on climate change. Mr Obama hit back last month, telling a visiting French minister: “Please tell Nicolas that I shall do my homework, and in two months I’ll know all about climate change.”

The leaders will have lunch in Caen tomorrow while their wives meet near by. They will then all attend the ceremony at the US cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, above Omaha Beach.

Philippe Duron, the Mayor of Caen, has minted a slogan for his town in honour of Mr Obama: “Yes we Caen!”
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Obama to Apologize for American "War Crimes" During WWII

If Obama actually goes through with this it will be disgraceful. We have nothing to apologize for. War is hell and sometimes many innocents are killed. The blame should fall squarely on the country that started the war, which was Germany. The same applies to Japan.
Rees

DRESDEN, GERMANY
Derek Seizer
Deutsche Welle
21/5/2009

In a move aimed at healing the rifts of American foreign policy decisions, President Obama will make a trip to Europe next month, including a trip to Dresden, Germany. The trip will consist of several stops and the President will meet with the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany. Also slated are several policy speeches.

Perhaps the most controversial is a planned speech in which President Obama will formally apologize for American 'war crimes' during the Second World War. This would be particularly comforting to Europeans, who have long condemned American foreign policy actions, especially regarding civilians.

This speech will also be welcome in Germany, who had over 12,000,000 of its citizens killed during the war. Mayor Johann Krupp of Augensburg in Saxony stated to DW that the speech will "help my great-uncle's soul rest. He burned to death during the Dresden bombings."

Along with the Dresden fire-bombings, which German historians calculate killed 300,000 civilians, Obama will discuss other American actions. These include mistreatment of French civilians during the June 1944 invasion, including the killing of over 3,000 Milice members. In February 1945, the bridge over the Rhine River was bombed by an American B-29, killing over 300 fleeing refugees.

What is not clear is broader American 'war crimes' will be spoken of. These include accusations of anti-German sentiment during the war and placing Japanese-Americans into 'concentration camps', in which UC Berkeley professor Harold Beffer, PhD, estimated that 30,000 died.

Obama's speech will take place on June 6, the 65th anniversary of American, British, and Canadian landings in Normandy, France. He will speak briefly in Berlin before making his keynote address in Dresden.
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Now Kill Them!

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted Monday, April 13, 2009

Piracy: The Navy's spectacular rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips left three of his captors at the bottom of the sea. But this wasn't a clear enough message to the Somali pirates, who now vow to kill Americans..

The full majesty of the U.S. military was laid before the ragtag sea thieves holding an American captain hostage. Spearheaded by the Navy's highly trained SEALs, the coordinated U.S. response not only rescued Phillips, but blew away three pirates, demonstrating the stunning array of training, experience, leadership, split-second thinking and superior firepower unknown anywhere else. It was a magnificent end to a terrifying five-day ordeal.

But unfortunately this isn't the end of the story. Pirate confederates onshore vow revenge on the U.S. and France, which rescued its own nationals from pirates this weekend, too.

"France and the U.S. will encounter unforgettable lessons," Mohamed Hashi Yasin, a self-declared pirate spokesman, told Bloomberg News by mobile phone from the port of Eyl.

"We will take quick revenge on American ships if we don't receive apologies," said another. "We will not only target ships and crew in the sea, but also American agencies' staff in Somalia." [are they looking for Obama European Tour Type apoligies? - my comment]

It's easy to laugh at the rage of these pathetic sea thugs. But their threats must be taken seriously.

Lawless forces fired on a U.S. congressman leaving Somalia Monday, and the congressman believes this may only be the start. He may be right, because pirates are essentially an organized crime gang, and this Somali syndicate has metastasized in a failed state.

Somali pirates drew $150 million in ship ransoms from some 200 of the 20,000 ships that pass through the Gulf of Aden in the last year. They have networks of informants in ports throughout the world advising of ships approaching. They have much of what passes for the Somali government on their payroll, forking over 30% of their ransom take to corrupt officials. They have links to the 64,000 Somali-born refugees in the U.S. Most disturbingly they could make common cause with terror groups like al-Shabab.

The revenge threats signal that Somali piracy is now about more than "getting paid." It's about the next logical move from crime: war, with the aim of ruling the global sea trade on pirate terms.

That requires a stronger response than what's now seen from the world community, and there's a need to move fast.

President Obama has stated a global response is necessary, and that means the U.S. and its allies will have to show the will to take the war to the pirates onshore.

Ports that accept pirated ships must be destroyed, just as the Barbary pirate lairs once were. Coastal pirate villas must be bombed. Overseas, financing avenues will have to be broken, and collaborators in the civilized world must be busted.Just as the rescue was coordinated, so must this second stage be.

Right now for Somalia, whose coast abuts 11% of global trade, including 7% of the world's seaborne oil, there's no coordinated response, just every country looking out for its own nationals, using the best options it can. The U.S. is the only nation with the experience and organization to lead.

Years ago, the U.S. recognized the dangers of the criminal-to-state dynamic in Colombia, when the Medellin cartel's four billionaire drug lords amassed enough cash and paid off enough officials to challenge the state's very existence.

As described in Mark Bowden's "Killing Pablo," the U.S. brought a bigger war to these criminals and the terrorists they made common cause with, culminating in the success of Plan Colombia.

Somalia's pirates are no different. If the pirates want to make war on the U.S. in a bid to convert their criminal spoils to terror and power, the only response is to give it to them.
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Hostage, 2 pirates killed in French rescue operation

CNN) -- A French hostage and two pirates died Friday in a rescue operation off Somalia, the French president's office in Paris said Friday.

Four hostages, including a child, were freed from the hijacked yacht after almost a week of captivity, Nicolas Sarkozy's office said.

The four adults and a child had been held aboard their yacht, the Tanit, since it was seized in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, the president's statement said.

The military made its move after the pirates refused their offers, including one to swap an officer for the mother and child held aboard, and threatened to execute the hostages one-by-one -- and because the Tanit was drifting closer to the Somalian coast, the defense ministry said.

The possibility that the pirates could take their hostages ashore was a red line that prompted the mission. The same red line triggered two successful rescue missions by the French military last year, the ministry said.

According to French media reports, a special forces unit attacked the hijacked vessel from different directions in two motor-powered rubber boats. The pirates opened fire and the special forces team fired back.

Two of the five pirates were killed, along with Florent Lemacon, the owner of the Tanit, French media said. The military rescued Lemacon's wife and 3-year-old child along with two friends of the Lemacons.

The Lemacons and their friends left Brittany last summer in the Tanit on a round-the-world trip, according to a blog they were keeping about the trip. The blog's last post on March 20 -- when the Tanit was in the Gulf of Aden -- said the French military had twice contacted them in the previous few days to warn them of pirates.

The French military brought back 12 pirates to stand trial in the previous two rescue missions, the Defense Ministry said.

There has been a series of high-profile and increasingly sophisticated pirate attacks in recent months.
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NATO selects Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as Secretary General

NATO praises Obama, but pledges FEW Afghan troops.

It was not immediately clear how the selection of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as Secretary General would affect the war effort.

Rasmussen upset many Muslims when he refused to apologize for the 12 drawings of the Prophet Muhammad - including one of which showed the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb (shown here)

Apr 4, 2009
from Breitbart.com
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer

STRASBOURG, France (AP) - European leaders enthusiastically praised President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy at a NATO summit Saturday but held their ground on a central disagreement and offered only military trainers and extra security forces for upcoming elections.

Violent anti-war protests that marred the alliance's 60th anniversary celebrations were a stark reminder that much of Europe has no appetite for the other, costlier half of Obama's Afghan equation: more combat troops.

"I am pleased that our NATO allies pledged their strong and unanimous support for our new strategy," Obama said. "We'll need more resources and a sustained effort to achieve our ultimate goals."

As protesters battled police outside, NATO risked angering Muslims around the world by giving the post of secretary-general to the prime minister of Denmark, who fueled anger three years ago by backing a Danish newspaper's right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The 28 leaders at the summit also approved measures to repair ties with Russia—virtually frozen since the Russo-Georgian war in August.

Afghanistan is seen as a crucial test of the power and relevance of the alliance, which was founded at the height of the Cold War to counterbalance the Soviet Union and now is struggling against a rising insurgency far beyond its borders.

The escalating war has highlighted doubts in Europe about the ability of NATO's 58,000 troops to stem the Taliban insurgency. Worries about casualties and costs have contributed to opposition to a conflict many Europeans see as an unnecessary distraction during economic crisis.

Despite a security crackdown on both sides of the Franco-German border, thousands of anti-war protesters fought running street battles with police, setting ablaze a hotel and a customs post and forcing the leaders' spouses to cancel a visit to a nearby cancer hospital.

During the summit, jointly co-hosted by France and Germany as a symbol of European unity, Obama briefed NATO leaders about his new strategy aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan while rooting out Taliban and al-Qaida hard-liners in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

After the meeting, Obama heralded what he called "concrete commitments" from NATO allies on Afghanistan, saying their agreement to send up to 5,000 more trainers and police was "a strong down payment" toward securing the country.

Obama's new strategy has him adding 21,000 U.S. troops to an American force of 38,000.
The White House said NATO countries agreed to send 3,000 personnel on short-term deployments, to help stabilize Afghanistan before elections in August. An additional 1,400 to 2,000 will provide training for Afghanistan's national army.

NATO's outgoing Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance would set up a trust fund for the Afghan National Army, and provide monitoring and liaison teams that would work with Afghanistan's fledgling security forces.

The alliance must ensure "no more terrorist danger emanates from Afghanistan," German Chancellor Angela Merle said.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown echoed Obama's argument that Afghanistan was key to Europe's security.

Now we are working to build a successful, democratic Afghanistan and that will be that our streets will be safer in Britain," he said. "With important presidential elections to come in the next few months we must not allow the Taliban to disrupt the democratic process."

It was not immediately clear how the selection of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen would effect the war effort. Fogh Rasmussen's candidacy for NATO's top civilian post was initially opposed by Turkey, whose leaders pointed out that the choice would antagonize predominantly Muslim Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Fogh Rasmussen appeared arrogant to many Muslims, when he refused to apologize for the 12 drawings of the Prophet Muhammad—including one of which showed the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb—that sparked angry protests in 2006 throughout the Middle East and South Asia.

NATO said it had agreed to address various Turkish "concerns." Turkey said its requests had included the closure of a Kurdish satellite television broadcaster based in Denmark; the establishment of contacts between NATO and Islamic countries; appointment of a Turk as an aide to Fogh Rasmussen, and senior NATO command positions for Turkish generals.

Fogh Rasmussen denied making undue concessions to the Turks, and pledged to improve relations between NATO and the Muslim world.

"I will make a very clear outreach to the Muslim world and do my utmost to ensure a positive cooperation and intensified dialogue with Muslim countries," he told a news conference after the summit.

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No To at NATO - Obama's Failure to secure combat troop support from our NATO allies

from Cheat-Seeking Missiles

April 4th 2009
Obama’s NATO Failure
Posted by: Laer

Oh, they love him and think he’s just great, but Prez-O’s going away gift from NATO was just a crummy T-shirt emblazoned with, “I went to France and all I got was 5,000 non-combatant troops.” Charm or no charm, Obama is no more successful than his much reviled predecessor when it comes to moving Europe.

But he’s much better at lying about it:

“I am pleased that our NATO allies pledged their strong and unanimous support for our new strategy. We’ll need more resources and a sustained effort to achieve our ultimate goals.”

Sorry; if you need more resources and sustained effort to achieve our goals, why are you pleased with NATO’s laughably puny decision, and why do you call it “strong?” Is that like calling the debt-hole-digging budget “A New Era of Responsiblity?” It’s more like the same old era of Europe counting on us to defend it, and criticising us when we do.

The 27 other NATO countries agreed to send 3,000 personnel on short-term deployments leading up to Afghanistan’s August elections, so they’ll be there for four months max. Another 1,400 to 2,000 will provide training for Afghanistan’s army. That’s it - but Angela Merle assures us that it’s enough to ensure that “no more terrorist danger emanates from Afghanistan.”

Wanna bet?

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No We Can't - Obama Fails to Secure Additional Troops for Afghanistan

From The Times
April 4, 2009
by Michael Evans and David Charter in Strasbourg

Barack Obama made an impassioned plea to America’s allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, warning that failure to do so would leave Europe vulnerable to more terrorist atrocities.

But though he continued to dazzle Europeans on his debut international tour, the Continent’s leaders turned their backs on the US President.

Gordon Brown was the only one to offer substantial help. He offered to send several hundred extra British soldiers to provide security during the August election, but even that fell short of the thousands of combat troops that the US was hoping to prise from the Prime Minister.

Just two other allies made firm offers of troops. Belgium offered to send 35 military trainers and Spain offered 12. Mr Obama’s host, Nicolas Sarkozy, refused his request.

The derisory response threatened to tarnish Mr Obama’s European tour, which yesterday included a spellbinding performance in Strasbourg in which he offered the world a vision of a future free of nuclear weapons.

Mr Obama – who has pledged 21,000 more troops to combat the growing insurgency and is under pressure from generals to supply up to 10,000 more – used the eve of Nato’s 60th anniversary summit to declare bluntly that it was time for allies to do their share. “Europe should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone,” he said. “This is a joint problem it requires a joint effort.”

He said that failing to support the US surge would leave Europe open to a fresh terrorist offensive. “It is probably more likely that al-Qaeda would be able to launch a serious terrorist attack on Europe than on the United States because of proximity,” he said.

The presidential charm offensive failed to move fellow Nato countries. President Sarkozy told Mr Obama that France would not be sending reinforcements to bolster its existing force northeast of Kabul.

Germany, Italy, Poland, Canada and Denmark said that they were considering their positions. After a meeting with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, Mr Obama tried to apply further moral pressure. “I am sure that Germany, as one of the most important leaders in Europe, will be stepping up to the plate and helping us to get the job done.”

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato Secretary-General, warned that new laws proposed by President Karzai in Afghanistan sanctioning child marriage and marital rape had made it harder to raise more soldiers.

“We are there to defend universal values and when I see, at the moment, a law threatening to come into effect which fundamentally violates women’s rights and human rights, that worries me,” he said.

“I have a problem to explain to a critical public audience in Europe, be it the UK or elsewhere, why I’m sending the guys to the Hindu Kush.”

The temporary British deployment falls short of the 2,000 soldiers that the Army had planned to deploy long-term to Afghanistan and appeared to catch defence chiefs by surprise.

Mr Brown announced the commitment as he flew into Strasbourg for the two-day summit, but hopes that it would spur other allies to follow suit were soon dashed. British officials said that the extra troops, expected to number between 500 and 700 – increasing Britain’s military strength there to about 9,000 – would be dispatched to southern Afghanistan for a four-month period leading up to and beyond the election, due to take place on August 20.

The plan is to withdraw them once the election is over. Mr Brown said that the extra troops were only supposed to provide a “temporary uplift”.

Military contingency plans remain on the table to send up to 2,000 more troops long-term, taking the total to 10,000, but that will depend on the political will to approve the deployment.

Although the Prime Minister discussed Afghanistan with President Obama when they held bilateral talks before the G20 summit in London, it is understood that no formal offer of extra troops was made.
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Shun The One? Say It Ain't So...

The Ultimate put-down "A Handshake instead of a Kiss!"

Ouch! Will the 'One' be psychologically scarred from this! Isn't this blasphemy? A hate crime? Please forgive her for she knows not what she has done, or in this case, not done.
Rees

from Don Surber
April 3, 2009

My head is spinning from all these protocol problems in President Obama’s European vacation.

Yesterday’s news was that the Queen put her arm around Michelle Obama, who then put her arm around the Queen. Apparently the rule is no touching the Queen.

Today the controversy, as reported by the London Sun, is Carla Bruni refusing to kiss The Won.

The Sun: “French first lady broke with protocol today as she held out a frosty hand to welcome Barack Obama.”

Reading this, one would think Franco-American relations have not been this frosty since DeGaulle ordered the NATO military out of Paris, ruining a nice overseas tour.

And check out Mrs. Obama’s reaction to the smooch by L’Americain.

Can this marriage between France and America be saved?

Maybe Obama should write President Chirac…
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Police, protesters clash before NATO summit

STRASBOURG, France – Riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to beat back a crowd of several hundred anti-NATO protesters in Strasbourg on Thursday as the city in eastern France, host of the alliance's 60th anniversary summit, readied for the arrival of world leaders.

Police lobbed hundreds of tear gas canisters during clashes between about 40 riot police and some 200 masked protesters in the neighborhood of Neuhoff, in the southern part of the city near the German border.

The masked protesters had been among a crowd of about 800 demonstrators when they broke away and repeatedly pelted officers with rocks and bottles. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Police said a dozen protesters were arrested. At one point, protesters set fire in the middle of a street to building materials they had scooped up from a nearby construction site.
By late Thursday, calm had returned to Strasbourg, but two more full days of planned protests lie ahead.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have descended on Strasbourg and two southwest German towns to protest the cross-border summit of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, which begins Friday. In Strasbourg, many shops and small businesses have shut down during the summit.

Twenty-eight world leaders will attend the two-day summit, including President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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G20 - A Group too diverse to succeed?

Group of 20 too diverse to succeed

Wednesday, April 1, 2009
By KEVIN RAFFERTY
Special to The Japan Times

HONG KONG — Amid great fanfare, pestered by a rainbow alliance of protesters, and protected by almost blanket security costing $30 million for a mere seven hours of meetings and making London a virtual no-go area, the leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) countries meet this week, promising to restore hope and prosperity to a world battered and bruised by financial and economic crises.

Unfortunately, there are too many doctors already squabbling over the diagnosis and which medicines to take, vitamins or antibiotics, starvation or a rich diet, energy boosters or that new but expensive wonder drug that might have damaging side effects; moreover, the doctors are going to have to take some of their own medicine, and they don't like that at all.

There are many good reasons for the world's top economic powers to come together, not least because the global economy has fallen off the proverbial cliff edge. In October, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was more pessimistic than his own economists, but all scorned the idea that the world as a whole would fall into recession. Indeed, the economists expected positive growth of 3 percent, thanks to rapidly growing developing countries like China and India.

There has been a rude awakening. Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank predicted, that global growth this year will be minus 2 percent, the first time since the end of World War II that there has been negative global growth.

The IMF is slightly less pessimistic, expecting only minus 0.5 percent. But there are plenty of ominously gloomy signs. World trade, the main engine of growth, has spluttered and fallen by 9 percent. Protectionism is growing from the United States and Russia, to China and India. The U.S., France, Germany and Japan are looking for ways to protect their carmakers.

Jobs are being lost in the thousands, adding up globally to tens of millions. The U.S. and China are being noticed most because of the large numbers involved, but every country is suffering except perhaps North Korea (the harder-hit victim of its own isolation). The idea that rapidly growing developing countries had their own momentum and would be immune to global trends has been found wanting: The poorest countries are faring relatively worst, with children being taken out of school to try to earn pennies for their families.

One problem for the summit is where to start. The extensive agenda includes too many key issues, including: How much extra stimulus governments should pump to revive their own and the global economy and get sustainable growth going again; what new rules and regulations should be put in place to stop future financial excesses and restore confidence; how to stimulate trade and prevent the resurgence of protectionism; what special measure should be taken to help the poorest countries; what new powers and funds should be given to the IMF and World Bank; what part the two should play in a reformed international financial system.

On its Web site, the G20 boasts that its members account for 85 percent of global output. In striving for inclusiveness it has become unwieldy. Ideas of giving emerging economic mega-powers China and India a greater voice have been lost in the profusion of voices at the top table, though critically Bangladesh, Pakistan and the oil-rich Gulf, apart from Saudi Arabia, are missing.

The G20 has become the G-22 with the unaccountable admission of the Netherlands and Spain. Places also have been found for the Czech Republic, as chair of the EU, plus the president of the EU commission — how the Europeans love double and triple dipping — the heads of the IMF and World Bank, the U.N. secretary general and chairs of the African Union, ASEAN and other regional bodies, making it a "G30something" circus of more than 1,000 summiteers.

Mutual bitching has already started. A small taste greeted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week in Brazil where he went trying to find common cause to set the world to rights. On the same platform as the British leader, President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva launched a stinging attack on the "white and blue-eyed" people "who appeared to be gods of wisdom" who started the crisis that has engulfed the world.

President Barack Obama is not blue-eyed, but there are plenty of leaders who are gunning for the U.S. and American-style capitalism. There is a great gulf between the U.S. and Europe, and the leaking in Der Spiegel of a draft final communique containing plans for a $2 trillion global spending boost has been seen as a German ploy to defeat such spending.

There is a real danger that infighting among the old G7 members preoccupied by domestic politics may prevent China, India or the emerging countries being heard. Canada has already said specifically that helping the world's poorest countries is "secondary" to the need to restore global growth.
Kevin Rafferty, editor in chief of PlainWords Media, was managing editor at the World Bank.
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Tax Problems for HHS nominee Kathleen Sebelius

from Michelle Malkin.com
by Michelle Malkin
March 31, 2009

Knock me over with a feather. Another Obama nominee made “unintentional” errors, meaningless goofs, nothingburger mistakes on her tax returns.

It’s HHS nominee Kathleen Sebelius. Via Brian Montopoli of CBSNews:

Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s nominee to become Health and Human Services secretary, said in a letter obtained by the Associated Press that she made "unintentional errors” on her taxes and has corrected her returns from three different years.

In the letter, which was sent to senators and dated today, Sebelius wrote that she had made changes related to charitable contributions, business expenses and the sale of a home, according to the AP.

The wire service reports that she and her husband paid just over $7,000 in back taxes, along with $878 in interest, for the years 2005-2007.

Hey, where’s that stamp? Oh, yeah. There it is.

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The Politically Correct Airplane Crash - Oops!

March 28th 2009

From Cheat-Seeking Missiles
Posted by: Laer

Observe the Airbus 340-600, the largest airliner ever built, luxurious, double-decker large and very, very expensive - $200 million apiece.

My friend Rick sent me an email about an incident that occurred with one of these fantastic planes in November 2007 that was so astonishing that I had to confirm it was true before I wrote about it here. What follows is, in fact, a recounting of an actual event.

This new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger airplane ever built, sits just outside its hangar in Toulouse, France without a single hour of airtime.

Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine run-ups prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi.

The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Then they took all four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having Read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600 Really is. [that's unverified]

The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because they had All 4 engines at full power. The aircraft computers thought they were trying to take off, but it had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc..)

Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm. This fools the aircraft into thinking it is in the air. The computers automatically released all the Brakes and set the aircraft rocketing forward. The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety feature so that pilots can’t land with the brakes on.

Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was smart enough to throttle back the engines from their max power setting [also unverified], so the $200 million brand-new Aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling it.

Click to Go to Cheat-Seeking Missiles to view the crash picture

If you put “airbus 340-600 crash dubai” into Google, you get a measly 1,160 hits. Why should such a sensational story be so obscure?

There’s just one reason: You can’t report this story without being at least a wee bit derogatory towards Arabs, which is verboten, especially in France. Indeed, one of the few mainstream Euro news reports I could find mentioned only that those on board were “employees of the Abu Dhabi-based carrier” and said that the crash occurred “for reasons yet unknown.”

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