Posts Tagged ‘obama administration’

Without intervention Gaddafi wins

Posted: March 5, 2011 by datechguy in middle east, opinion/news, war
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During today’s show in the 2nd hour we talked about Libya and the prospect of Gaddafi. Unlike last week when the question was: “Will Gaddafi still be there next week?” This weeks question was: “At the end of the month where are we, civil war still on, rebels win or Gaddafi wins?

The general consensus was that the war continues. I however maintain that unless the international community acts by the end of the month Gaddafi will have won the war. In a two-hour show with other topics to deal with its harder to explain in detail, but here are my reasons:

1. There are dictators and there are dictators:

A lot of people made the mistake seeing that because Egypt fell without excessive bloodshed Libya would as well. They made the mistake of confusing an American Ally with troops trained by Americans and supplied by Americans with a lone wolf who is opposed to America. Mubarek was in fact a dictator but because of American training and American influence there were lines that he and his troops would not cross. Gaddafi is a wholly independent dictator. The only influence we had was his fear of George Bush which removed his WMD’s from the picture years ago. Anyone who thought Gaddafi was unwilling to kill his own people hasn’t followed Gaddafi.

2. Money talks:

Libya has been awash in petro dollars for decades and Gaddafi has invested it wisely, in terms of staying in power. Weapons, ammo and mercenaries are bought and paid. Additionally thanks to the use of millions of dollars spread around the international and academic community, professors who found it easy to critique the US found it even easier to make excuses for Gaddafi.

3. Realpolitik:

The international community has known for decades what Gaddafi is and what he does, why then the sudden desire to have him removed and the condemnation that have been ringing out? Well reason #1 is they believed he was on the way out and wanted to be sure to be on the winning side (they didn’t pay attention to item #1) but now that the winning side is not clear-cut you are hearing an awful lot of talk but very little action this is right out of Yes Minister

Part of the exchange ties down exactly what I think is going to happen:

Bernard: “What are we going to do to help them?”

Dick: “Nothing,”

Bernard: “But what if St. Georges appeals to us?”

Dick: “Then we give them every support, short of help.”

and this earlier part of the exchange explains why:

Sir Humphrey: “…facts complicate things, all that the press, the people and their elected leaders want to know is who are the goodies and who are the baddies”

Dick: “The problem is the interests of Britain nearly always involve doing deals with people the public think are the baddies…”

Sir Humphrey: “and not helping the goodies occasionally when it doesn’t help us.”

As it has become apparent that the rebels will not win an easy victory we can count on the international community to stall until they figure out who will win, then take that side.

4. The apology tour redux:

One of the side effects of the American apology tour is the determination that the US is going to stay out of the way. This more than anything else was the basis of the Nobel Peace Price for President Obama. President Bush’s push for democracy put an awful lot of people in a spot where they had to take positions on things they would rather not. The prize for President Obama was for not putting people in that awkward spot. Combine this with the president Obama’s political background (his allies are charter members of the blame America first school that considers any American military intervention as a sign of imperialism) and any kind of intervention becomes awkward. We will undoubtedly hear the “right” words from the president but it is unlikely that it will be more than that. The only possible exception is if he starts paying an excessive political price for inaction. The person here to watch is Sarah Palin. If she makes pronouncements concerning the rights and the protection of the Libyan people and they catch on, watch the White House react so the president doesn’t appear to be less of a leader than the former governor who is supposed to be not a serious political threat.

5. If you come for one of us, you come for all of us:

As the US has moved into the background, China and other nations have moved forward. China has already taken steps to make sure the Jasmine Revolution doesn’t take off of the ground. Hugo Chavez is backing Gaddafi and Iran is making noises about interference. All of these nations are dictatorships and either produce oil, control access to oil or have huge economic clout. It is in their interest for any kind of revolutionary spirit to be stopped. When it was Egypt they let it go, after all it was an American ally, but with revolts and the idea of democracy spreading the danger becomes to great to them, so presto, their oil and economic clout is used to stall or prevent intervention by the international community. (see #3).

6. Preparing for the worst:

This article from Der Spiegel online shows that Gaddafi has carefully planned ahead for just such an eventuality as this one:

Libya’s air force is made up of roughly 18,000 men and women, most of whom are staunch supporters of the regime. The elite military branch recruited from followers who were 100 percent loyal to the regime, and members of Gadhafi’s Gadhadfa tribe and its closely allied Magariha tribe were given preference during the selection process for recruits. They have shown a blind obedience to their commander in chief. Only a handful of pilots and officers have switched sides to join the opposition.

As for the rebels:

For now, it is also unclear just how many of the 45,000 ground troops have defected to the opposition. The fact that entire regiments have apparently deserted in eastern Libya appears to have been something that Gadhafi correctly anticipated. Gadhafi has never trusted his army, because it was primarily made up of conscripts, many of whom belonged to tribes opposed to his own. “Gadhafi has retained significant elements of the army and lost the elements he was always afraid he could lose, those affiliated with tribes he had targeted,” George Joffé, an expert on North Africa at Cambridge University, told the New York Times.

Bottom line, unless the west is able to resist the pressure or unless he is taken out personally I don’t see how Gaddafi loses this fight, declarations of republics not withstanding.

Update: In case it’s not clear, this is not what I want to happen, this is what I think will happen.

The White House figures out which way the wind is blowing

Posted: February 21, 2011 by datechguy in economy, elections, opinion/news, politics
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Four days ago Politico highlighted the involvement of the DNC was and OFA in Wisconsin:

The Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America arm — the remnant of the 2008 Obama campaign — is playing an active role in organizing protests against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to strip most public employees of collective bargaining rights.

OfA, as the campaign group is known, has been criticized at times for staying out of local issues like same-sex marriage, but it’s riding to the aide of the public sector unions who hoping to persuade some Republican legislators to oppose Walker’s plan. And while Obama may have his difference with teachers unions, OfA’s engagement with the fight — and Obama’s own clear stance against Walker — mean that he’s remaining loyal to key Democratic Party allies at what is, for them, a very dangerous moment.

OfA Wisconsin’s field efforts include filling buses and building turnout for the rallies this week in Madison, organizing 15 rapid response phone banks urging supporters to call their state legislators, and working on planning and producing rallies, a Democratic Party official in Washington said.

The @OFA_WI twitter account has published 54 tweets promoting the rallies, which the group has also plugged on its blog.

During my interview with Andrew Breitbart on Sunday morning he commented on their presence saying the following:

I’ve sensed that any time when Obama’s Organizing for America gets involved they are up to no good. So when I see them go up against the people I try to be there.

Now in the surest sign that the White House has figured out where this is going to end up, there is some serious backtracking going on:

Administration officials said Sunday that the White House had done nothing to encourage the demonstrations in Wisconsin — nor was it doing so in Ohio, Florida and other states where new Republican governors are trying to make deep cuts to balance their budgets.

And, officials and union leaders said, reports of the involvement of the Democratic National Committee — specifically Organizing for America, the grass-roots network born of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign — were overblown to start with and were being inflated by Republicans sensing political advantage.

Because we all know how Politico is really a house organ of the Republican Party, that’s why they are always being quoted on MSNBC

I think the White House has seen these polls and is getting cold feet BIGTIME:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters agree more with the Republican governor in his dispute with union workers. Thirty-eight percent (38%) agree more with the unionized public employees, while 14% are undecided.

And as Captain Ed Morrissey at Hotair reports the details are even more damning:

No one will be shocked to find Democrats opposed to Walker’s plan, 21/68, although the opposition seems a little weak, under the circumstances. Also, no one will be surprised to see almost the mirror image among Republicans, 68/15. Independents across the nation give a strong endorsement to Walker, 56/31. Among income demographics, only those earning under $20K per year support the unions (30/54), while Walker gains a plurality or majority in every other income demographic, including a 62/27 among the $60-75K demo. Interestingly, unions only barely edge Walker among government employees, 44/46. (bolding mine)

I put this down to Bill Daily. He is a man of the left and a big supporter of these same unions but he knows politics and sees where this is going. His job is to minimize the damage to the white house. He also understands that if Democrats shut down Wisconsin with the White House behind them it will be harder to blame republicans for a shutdown here.

The Jimmy Carter is strong in this one 

Posted: February 11, 2011 by datechguy in arthur vs carter, middle east, opinion/news
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Way to go Mr. President not only are you fumbling the ball but you actually have managed to make Mubarek a “hero” for staying.

Nothing raises the profile of an Arab leader more than poking an US president in the eye.

Of course James Clapper actually saying that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular” was nonsense too but at least that was simple stupidity in testimony, saying stuff like the publicly just makes us look like dopes.

Now if the administration’s goal was to make sure Mubarek stays without making it known that it was the goal then it was brilliant but my God it’s the late 70’s all over again. It’s also interesting to note that if you check out Memeorandum not a single headline hits the White House for making dopes of themselves, but its moves like this that validate Trumps statements on the administration.

Abortion is the linchpin to the left’s worldview

Posted: February 4, 2011 by datechguy in abortion, culture, opinion/news
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When you look at the planned parenthood and the Kermit Gosnell stories you might wonder why the left is so determined to counter them.

With New Jersey poised to investigate the Planned parenthood location that advised underage girls on abortion, and multiple locations in Virginia now revealed one would think the left would back away from such defenses, particularly with the details of Kermit Gosnell’s house of horrors case still in play (although if you look at the national media you would think it was a blip on the screen.)

Yet here is President Obama’s administration withholding abortion statistics for the first time in 40 years and Soros and company holding conference calls to find a united line concerning the Planned Parenthood revelations:

Instead of focusing on the fact that there is an organization who turned a blind eye to child sex-trafficking, an organization that receives forced federal funding, the group of senior fellows ostensibly chose the route which affords zero defense of women, born or unborn, thereby saving them from compromising their female-hostile ideologies: attack Lila Rose. These outlets don’t see the insanity in feigning disgust that the racket was exposed, not that it occurred at all.

The majority of the call was spent discussing ways to discredit Rose because of her funding. They surmise that some group which donates to her pro-life magazine is a group donated to by a group given money by the Koch Brothers. So says people who just cashed a $1 million-dollar check from George Soros.

Since what was done on the tapes clearly stepped over the line, why not just express outrage, and urge Planned Parenthood to be more careful in the future in such cases?

Because you can’t undermine western civilization without undermining life.

As science continues to make the case that the unborn child is not just a mass of tissue and makes viability earlier and earlier it becomes imperative for the left to counter the culture of life.

Judeao-Christian culture is built on the value and the rights of the individual, unless that is undermined you can’t go anywhere else.

Once you manage to get a society to decide that its weakest members are not worthy of life as a matter of narcissistic convenience then all the rest becomes easy.

You can deny care to the elderly , even euthanize them in order to save money. You can arbitrarily decide if a life is “worth living” or not based on a standard not held by the person who decides.

You can reward narcissism and strip people of their self-respect and dignity, maintaining that they should be wards of the state rather than the makers of their own destiny, and once they are subject to the state, if they are no longer serving it, are disposable.

Whole neighborhoods can be abandoned to crime and lawlessness that those same elites would reject for themselves, after all why waste the states valuable resources on mere vassals?

Life is the key, once you devalue human life, once you have an excuse not to care, the second excuse becomes extremely easy.

This is why the far left will always defend abortion in general and Planned Parenthood to the hilt, for without the culture of death the left’s worldview crumbles to dust.

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