Blogs For Victory

I give President Obama kudos for ordering the special forces operation that freed Captain Phillips. Negotiating with these terrorists of the seas would have no doubt resulted in more and more unabated attacks on our interests.

But now that this episode is over, what is the Administration’s next step? Will he take the way of administrations prior to Bush, and treat each act of piracy as a ‘criminal matter?’ Or will President Obama rightly label any act of piracy against an American ship as an act of war and act accordingly?

President Obama would do wonders for his credibility and resolve in defense matters should he choose the latter.

There is a line in Will and Ariel Durant’s The Story of Civilization: “piracy returned to the seas, rejoicing in the suicide of States”, or words to that effect. Meaning, of course, that when the defenders of law and order either can not or will not do their duty, the lawless will grow ever bolder. The Somali pirates, small in and of themselves, are a harbinger of our future – Mark Steyn takes a look at the issue:

…Once upon a time we killed and captured pirates. Today, it’s all more complicated. The attorney general, Eric Holder, has declined to say whether the kidnappers of the American captain will be “brought to justice” by the U.S. “I’m not sure exactly what would happen next,” declares the chief law-enforcement official of the world’s superpower. But some things we can say for certain. Obviously, if the United States Navy hanged some eyepatched peglegged blackguard from the yardarm or made him walk the plank, pious senators would rise to denounce an America that no longer lived up to its highest ideals, and the network talking-heads would argue that Plankgate was recruiting more and more young men to the pirates’ cause, and judges would rule that pirates were entitled to the protections of the U.S. constitution and that their peglegs had to be replaced by high-tech prosthetic limbs at taxpayer expense.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, which over the centuries did more than anyone to rid the civilized world of the menace of piracy, now declines even to risk capturing their Somali successors, having been advised by Her Majesty’s Government that, under the European Human Rights Act, any pirate taken into custody would be entitled to claim refugee status in the United Kingdom and live on welfare for the rest of his life. I doubt Pirates of the Caribbean would have cleaned up at the box office if the big finale had shown Geoffrey Rush and his crew of scurvy sea dogs settling down in council flats in Manchester and going down to the pub for a couple of jiggers of rum washed down to cries of “Aaaaargh, shiver me benefits check, lad.” From “Avast, me hearties!” to a vast welfare scam is not progress…

…As my colleague Andrew McCarthy wrote, “Civilization is not an evolution of mankind but the imposition of human good on human evil. It is not a historical inevitability. It is a battle that has to be fought every day, because evil doesn’t recede willingly before the wheels of progress.” Very true. Somalia, Iran, and North Korea are all less “civilized” than they were a couple of generations ago. And yet in one sense they have made undeniable progress: They have globalized their pathologies. Somali pirates seize vessels the size of aircraft carriers flying the ensigns of the great powers. Iranian proxies run Gaza and much of Lebanon. North Korea’s impoverished prison state provides nuclear technology to Damascus and Tehran. Unlovely as it is, Pyongyang nevertheless has friends on the Security Council. Powerful states protect one-man psycho states. One-man psycho states provide delivery systems to apocalyptic ideological states. Apocalyptic ideological states fund non-state actors around the world. And in Somalia and elsewhere non-state actors are constrained only by their ever increasing capabilities.

Word is now out that Captain Phillips has been rescued, and that is a good thing – but while the apparent US military action of freeing Phillips is an excellent lesson to the pirates, it will be worse than useless if not followed up.

If one was looking for a one-word description of what being uncivilized was about, the word “piracy” would fit the bill. Pirates are people who simply latch on to good, productive people and extort a living from them – a feudal baron was a grand improvement because at least he pledged to defend those he lives off of…the pirates just take, and then take some more…and often throw in a bit of rape and murder, when it suits them. The reason why, in order to have a pirate movie, one has to set it back in the 18th century is because for the past two centuries, piracy has been a rarity. And its not rare because pirates went to sensitivity training and learned to respect the lives and property of others. No – they were destroyed, mostly by the Royal Navy, but with some help from the US Navy (and Marines – “to the shores of Tripoli”, and all that). We can either be civilized, or we can allow piracy to continue. Pick one; there are no alternate choices.

The barbarians at the gate must be converted to civilization, or destroyed. And to do this we cannot become fixated on one aspect of barbarism – useful as it would be to take down the pirates, unless we restore a sense of civilization being overwhelmingly superior to barbarism, barbarism will just continue to flourish. What kind of a world do we wish to live in: a world where we talk to barbarians and hope they don’t do anything savage, or a world where we attack and destroy barbarism whenever and where ever we can?

Will, I think, end up exceeding two trillion dollars for FY 2009:

The US budget deficit accelerated in March to hit a record nearly one trillion dollars just halfway through the current fiscal year, as the government moved to bail out troubled institutions, government data has shown.

The deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year which began on October 1 was 956.80 billion dollars, according to the Treasury’s monthly statement of receipts and outlays…

… The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecast last month the budget deficit could hit 1.845 trillion dollars for the whole year based on Obama’s 3.5-trillion-dollar budget plan approved by Congress early this month.

The CBO said its budget deficit estimate for fiscal 2009, which ends on September 30, would be four times the 2008 record shortfall and amount to 13.1 percent of the country’s total economic output.

The Obama budget forecasts a 1.750 trillion dollar deficit in fiscal 2009, but foresees that figure falling to 1.171 trillion dollars in 2010.

Which prediction by Obama is, as far as I can see, utter nonsense. There is no end to the spending and no indication that the economy is set to turn around at all, let alone grow fast enough to provide a major reduction in the FY 2010 deficit. All in all, Obama’s first two years in office might see us adding more than $3 trillion in actual debt (must keep in mind that you can’t figure Obama’s debt load by adding up the annual deficit – old debt is constantly being paid off, and thus gets subtracted from the amount Obama piles up). This, as I’ve said before, is not sustainable – we can’t tax that kind of money out of a shrinking economy, we can’t borrow that much money from our cash-strapped trading partners…only printing would provide such sums, and printing that much would lead to a catastrophic round of hyper-inflation.

The solution remains as it was – balance the budget at all costs, even if it requires tax increases after we’ve eliminated every department and program not dedicated to the immediate safety and health of the American people. We have to retrench and start to pay off the debt we’ve foolishly wracked up over the past 75 years. Its not nice and it won’t be easy, but our only way out of the hole is to stop spending more than we make. And don’t think I’m just for cutting welfare – no, boys and girls, the military will have to make do with what it has plus re-supply for the next five years or so…no new ships, planes, tanks and other equipment (and if we order them to maintain 100% combat effectiveness, our superb troops will do it…especially if its all part of a general national sacrifice for the good of the nation).

We must keep our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines on duty; we must maintain our federal law enforcement agencies; we must keep the social security checks coming; we must provide for the basic health care needs of Americans who cannot afford health care on their own; we must ensure that no one goes without basic food, clothing and housing; we must ensure that our infrastructure is maintained in good, working order. Other than that, everything has to go – Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of Education, Department of Labor; shutter them. All expenditures for research; suspend them (other than NASA, which has a strong national security component even in civil space exploration). All expenditures for art; suspend them. Any project with a completion date more than 1 year from today; suspend it. Wage increases for government employees; are you nuts? Once we’ve done that, if we’re still in deficit then we’ll have to raise taxes – but everyone who works or has wealth has to pony up. I don’t care if the tax being paid by Joe Poor Guy is only 10 cents a year, everyone has to kick in – no exceptions. We got ourselves in this together, and we’ll only get out of it if we do it together.

Will we do this? Not a chance. It would require telling the American people the truth and it wouldn’t allow liberals to play at politics with the people as so many blocks of wood for them to use as toys in a grand social experiment. And so, we are going to step beyond national bankruptcy and see if we can crush the entire world economy under a mountain of US debt and/or massive US inflation. Just remember, liberals, if it all goes to pieces (and it will), then you were warned – there were voices saying that only hard work and sacrifice would get us out of this mess even if you plugged your ears and pretended not to hear.

Christ is risen:

Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag’dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Then the disciples returned home. But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been.

And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her. – John 20:1-18

Especially on this Easter, when two members of my family have recently gone to be with the Lord, I hold myself to this – that there is an empty tomb, and the life of the world to come.

Ok, so Rasmussen does a poll for Easter about belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the resurrection – with 79% of those polled stating they believe Jesus rose from the dead. Which is fine. Now, here’s the weird part of the poll:

Eighty-five percent (85%) of Catholics believe Jesus rose from the dead along with 86% of Protestants and 97% of Evangelical Christians. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of Catholics also think Jesus was the son of God. That view is shared by 90% of Protestants and 97% of Evangelical Christians. Finally, 87% of Catholics, 95% of Protestants and all Evangelical Christians surveyed believe that Jesus Christ walked the earth.

Uh, guys, all of those numbers should be 100% – there’s no point in calling yourself a Christian if you don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of the Living God and rose from the dead. I do wonder where you find a Christian who says he doesn’t believe that Jesus rose from the dead and/or isn’t the Son of God…who the heck is such a person worshiping?

To me, this demonstrates the confusion of our times wrought by the amazing campaign of lies over the past century and a half about, well, just about everything to do with Christianity. That we’ve reached a day where self described Christians deny Christ shows that we’ve reached a nadir in human understanding.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3872525&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=cccccc&fullscreen=1
George W. Bush Presidential Center posted on Vimeo.

It is nice to know while most of us are dealing with the realities of the slow economy, Barack Obama is enjoying the perks of his new job to the extent that our tax dollars are being used to fly in a pizza chef so he can get he pizza he likes.

BARACK Obama liked a restaurant’s pizzas so much he has flown the chef 850 miles to make some at the White House.

The US President got a taste for Chris Sommers’ pizza while campaigning in St Louis, Missouri, last year.

After Mr Obama’s election win, Chris offered to deliver frozen pizzas to the White House but was told he couldn’t because of security concerns.

So he took 20lb of dough and three gallons of sauce to Washington. 

Because that is what it is all about everyone… Life, liberty, and the pursuit of pizza.

Interesting connection between the Stevens and Libby cases:

…In the Libby case, the press avoided what I thought was a critical bit (among many) of prosecutorial legerdemain: The last minute admission in court that respecting the first interview of the key witness, the late Tim Russert, the newscaster told the FBI agent Eckenrode (missing from the case by the time it was tried) that he may well have told Libby that Valerie Plame worked at the CIA at the very time Libby recalled Russert had.

The original copy of those notes was somehow missing from the prosecution’s files and could not, therefore, be given to the defense — who surely would have been able to make a great deal more of this had the agent and his notes been available at trial.

So, it was with great interest that I read that the Department of Justice attorney, Brenda Morris, already held in contempt by Judge Sullivan in the matter involving the wrongful prosecution of Senator Ted Stevens, and now under investigation by both the Department of Justice and the special prosecutor chosen by the Judge, was also a supervisor in the Libby case…

…I am dismayed to learn that so many people are under the impression that the Stevens case was dropped because of some mere technicality, and not because the case against him was riddled with perjured testimony and evidence of his innocence was unlawfully hidden by the prosecution team. I ask if you hear anyone say anything so foolish that you set them straight.

Stevens had an A- Frame house in Alaska for which he’d engaged a contractor (Veco) to do some renovation work. He asked for and received bills for this work for which he paid Veco in full in the sum of $150,000. The government claimed that the job was really worth $250,000 and that Stevens violated the law when he failed to disclose as a gift the additional $100,000 on his Senate ethics reporting form. The government never charged that VECO had sought any favors for this “gift” or that Stevens had done any for VECO. The crux of the case was only about whether or not he had paid fair value for the work.

The foreman on the job was a Mr. Allen. On April 15, 2008 , before Stevens was indicted ,the government interviewed Allen and he provided a great deal of evidence that established that Stevens’ defense was credible. For example, he valued the work done for Stevens at $80,000, about ½ of what Stevens had paid for it and about 1/3 of what the government said it was worth. The government had an obligation to turn this over to Stevens and never did. Had they done so, much of Allen’s testimony for the prosecution on the stand would surely have been discredited on cross examination. But there is more.

On Oct. 6, 2002, Stevens sent a handwritten note to Allen asking that it be “done right” making clear he wanted to pay in full for Veco’s services, adding

“You owe me a bill.” “Remember Torricelli, my friend. Friendship is one thing, compliance with the ethics rules entirely different.”

The author goes on to note that there has been a rule against bringing prosecutions against politicians right in front of elections – this being a means of preventing prosecutors from deciding the outcome of elections. The mere fact that Stevens was on trial right in front of the election should have raised some warning bells – and now that the case has completely fallen apart, what we have is a man who has been slandered and who lost an election due to a prosecutor not doing her job right.

Then we go back to the Libby case – the completely bogus notion that because Libby had a different memory of a conversation he was accused of perjuring himself in a case which centered on who told a name, with that name-teller not being Libby and such fact already known by the prosecutor. And there is that oddity where evidence exonerating Libby was not brought forward by the prosecution, even though are required by law to be diligent in providing exculpatory evidence to the defense. The conviction we know was done by a jury pulled from a very liberal demographic group who were essentially told they were trying President Bush for lying us into war – but how did the case even go to trial? Who allowed this crock of nonsense, and the Stevens crock of nonsense, to go forward?

We’ll probably never fully get to the bottom of it – while Morris clearly is hip deep in both cases, she’s not a free agent. Even if only lightly supervised, she was still supervised and someone other than her had to sign off on the cases. But finger pointing and obfuscatory statements will ensure that the tangled web being woven won’t be unraveled for some time to come. But these cases – as well as the bogus cases against the Duke lacrosse team, Rush Limbaugh and Tom DeLay indicate a need for a careful reform of the way cases are brought before a court.

What exact form such reform would take I haven’t thought all the way through at the moment, but I think that central to any such reform is to create some means where a prosecutor doesn’t have a free hand in bringing charges. This would probably require a modification of the Grand Jury system – providing more power, and more independent power, to the Grand Jury so that it may ride herd on the prosecutors. We can also ensure against such things as the Libby case by making it that when an appointed official of the Executive branch is brought to trial, he must be brought to trial in the jurisdiction he resided in prior to taking office…this will stymie most politically-motivated prosecutions of Republicans as the jury will no longer be made up of DC liberals, but of Texas conservatives, and such. It won’t have any effect on liberals as most who come to DC reside in liberal hotbeds and so its a matter of perfect indifference as to where they are tried.

The justice system belongs to the people, not to the prosecutors. Via our juries, we are to decide who is guilty of what – and so we must make it via our Grand Juries that the decision is made to bring charges against a man…but not the lapdog grand juries we have today, but genuinely independent bodies who can ask questions, query the accused, demand to see all the evidence, etc, etc, etc. It is said with great truth that a prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich – this is something which we must change – our liberty is too precious a thing to be placed at risk by prosecutors playing to the galley and hoping to strike it rich by dragging some poor soul through a trial.

There are some out there who don’t pant with lust at the mere thought of Obama being President of the United States of America:

President Barack Obama has recently completed the most successful foreign policy tour since Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. You name it, he blew it. What was his big deal economic programme that he was determined to drive through the G20 summit? Another massive stimulus package, globally funded and co-ordinated. Did he achieve it? Not so as you’d notice.

Barack is not the first New World ingenue to discover that European leaders will load him with praise, struggle sycophantically to be photographed with him and outdo him in Utopian rhetoric. But when it comes to the critical moment of opening their wallets – suddenly it is flag-day in Aberdeen…

…Then came the dramatic bit, the authentic West Wing script, with the President wakened in the middle of the night in Prague to be told that Kim Jong-il had just launched a Taepodong-2 missile. America had Aegis destroyers tracking the missile and could have shot it down. But Uncle Sam had a sterner reprisal in store for l’il ole Kim (as Dame Edna might call him): a multi-megaton strike of Obama hot air.

“Rules must be binding,” declared Obama, referring to the fact that Kim had just breached UN Resolutions 1695 and 1718. “Violations must be punished.” (Sounds ominous.) “Words must mean something.” (Why, Barack? They never did before, for you – as a cursory glance at your many speeches will show.)

President Pantywaist is hopping mad and he has a strategy to cut Kim down to size: he is going to slice $1.4bn off America’s missile defence programme, presumably on the calculation that Kim would feel it unsporting to hit a sitting duck, so that will spoil his fun.

Watch out, France and Co, there is a new surrender monkey on the block and, over the next four years, he will spectacularly sell out the interests of the West with every kind of liberal-delusionist initiative on nuclear disarmament and sitting down to negotiate with any power freak who wants to buy time to get a good ICBM fix on San Francisco, or wherever.

One would hope that now he’s been shafted by the G20, screwed over by NATO and otherwise humiliated from start to finish during this foreign tour that Obama would become a bit more wise…but it does seem that the fawning media and the start-struck crowds have made a larger impression on Obama than reality. North Korea flashes its dong at us, and Obama and Co don’t just flub that, but then find themselves held at bay by a few ragged pirates in a lifeboat. Its going to be a long four years in foreign and defense policy, boys and girls.

Iowahawk strikes again.

How many times have you said to yourself, “if only GM offered a pink flaked, green flamed pickup with an 8 duece blown Hemi, refridgerated full keg with console mounted beer tap, rifle rack with matching pink machine gun, and angel fur cab full of Playboy models”?