Obama Reaches Out to Iran, Iran Calls Obama a Failure

Obama renews diplomatic dialogue

The new administration wasted no time in expressing its intent to engage the troublesome regime in Iran, in sending veteran negotiator George J. Mitchell on an eight-day mission to the violent Middle East and in speaking directly to the people of the Muslim world on one of its own satellite TV channels.

Iran’s retort?

Iran says Obama’s offer to talk shows US failure

US President Barack Obama’s offer to talk to Iran shows that America’s policy of “domination” has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday.
“This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,” Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

“Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change,” he added.

See also:
Iranian leader demands US apology

/with all the appeasement chum clouding the international waters, our enemies worldwide are smelling U.S. weakness and looking for any opportunity to set us up for an epic fail

Blair Reaches Out to Hamas, Hamas Calls Blair Foolish

Hamas must be brought into peace process, says Tony Blair

Hamas must somehow be brought into the Middle East peace process because the policy of isolating Gaza in the quest for a settlement will not work, Tony Blair has told The Times.

The former prime minister implicitly criticises the strategy followed by the Bush Administration and Israel of focusing all peace and reconstruction efforts on the West Bank. “It was half of what we needed,” he said.

In an interview with Ginny Dougary in the Saturday Magazine, Mr Blair says that the strategy of “pushing Gaza aside” and trying to create a Palestinian state on the West Bank “was never going to work and will never work”. He hints in references to how peace was eventually achieved in Northern Ireland that the time may be approaching to talk to Hamas … “My basic predisposition is that in a situation like this you talk to everybody.”

The Hamas retort?

Hamas: Blair comments ‘utterly foolish’

Mushir al-Masri, chairman of the Hamas faction in the Palestinian Authority parliament said “Tony Blair’s words prove that Europe and the world understand that all attempts to uproot Hamas and erase it from the Palestinian scene have failed, and that today we are the first and foremost power” representing Palestinians.

Echoing Blair, Masri said “the only gate into the Palestinian issue and its transformation into any agreement cannot occur unless through Hamas – a movement that cannot be ignored.”

However, in a published statement, Masri said Blair’s comments were “utterly foolish and useless.” He said the sentiment the Quartet’s envoy expressed to the Times was “a return to the same obstacles erected by the West, as an excuse to postpone Palestinian democracy, continue the siege of the Palestinian people, and grant the Zionist enemies the excuse to commit their crimes – the last of which was the Gaza war and the refusal to recognize the legitimate parliament and government of the Palestinians.”

Masri added that “raising this suggestion [to involve Hamas in the peace process] testifies to Blair’s stupidity and the stupidity of those who insist on this idiotic offer.”

Has Blair ever read the Hamas Charter? Here are just a few excerpts:

Article Thirteen

[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad: “Allah is the all-powerful, but most people are not aware.”

From time to time a clamoring is voiced, to hold an International Conference in search for a solution to the problem. Some accept the idea, others reject it, for one reason or another, demanding the implementation of this or that condition, as a prerequisite for agreeing to convene the Conference or for participating in it. But the Islamic Resistance Movement, which is aware of the [prospective] parties to this conference, and of their past and present positions towards the problems of the Muslims, does not believe that those conferences are capable of responding to demands, or of restoring rights or doing justice to the oppressed.

. . .

Article Fourteen

The problem of the liberation of Palestine relates to three circles: the Palestinian, the Arab and the Islamic. Each one of these circles has a role to play in the struggle against Zionism and it has duties to fulfill. It would be an enormous mistake and an abysmal act of ignorance to disregard anyone of these circles.

For Palestine is an Islamic land where the First Qibla and the third holiest site are located. That is also the place whence the Prophet, be Allah’s prayer and peace upon him, ascended to heavens.

. . .

In consequence of this state of affairs, the liberation of that land is an individual duty binding on all Muslims everywhere. This is the base on which all Muslims have to regard the problem; this has to be understood by all Muslims. When the problem is dealt with on this basis, where the full potential of the three circles is mobilized, then the current circumstances will change and the day of liberation will come closer.

. . .

Article Fifteen

When our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, Jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims. In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad. This would require the propagation of Islamic consciousness among the masses on all local, Arab and Islamic levels. We must spread the spirit of Jihad among the [Islamic] Umma, clash with the enemies and join the ranks of the Jihad fighters.

The ‘ulama as well as educators and teachers, publicity and media men as well as the masses of the educated, and especially the youth and the elders of the Islamic Movements, must participate in this raising of consciousness. There is no escape from introducing fundamental changes in educational curricula in order to cleanse them from all vestiges of the ideological invasion which has been brought about by orientalists and missionaries.

. . .

Article Twenty-Two

The enemies have been scheming for a long time, and they have consolidated their schemes, in order to achieve what they have achieved. They took advantage of key elements in unfolding events, and accumulated a huge and influential material wealth which they put to the service of implementing their dream. This wealth [permitted them to] take over control of the world media such as news agencies, the press, publication houses, broadcasting and the like. [They also used this] wealth to stir revolutions in various parts of the globe in order to fulfill their interests and pick the fruits. They stood behind the French and the Communist Revolutions and behind most of the revolutions we hear about here and there. They also used the money to establish clandestine organizations which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests. Such organizations are: the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B’nai B’rith and the like. All of them are destructive spying organizations. They also used the money to take over control of the Imperialist states and made them colonize many countries in order to exploit the wealth of those countries and spread their corruption therein.

. . .

Article Twenty-Eight

The Zionist invasion is a mischievous one. It does not hesitate to take any road, or to pursue all despicable and repulsive means to fulfill its desires. It relies to a great extent, for its meddling and spying activities, on the clandestine organizations which it has established, such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions, and other spying associations. All those secret organizations, some which are overt, act for the interests of Zionism and under its directions, strive to demolish societies, to destroy values, to wreck answerableness, to totter virtues and to wipe out Islam. It stands behind the diffusion of drugs and toxics of all kinds in order to facilitate its control and expansion.

. . .

Article Thirty-Two

World Zionism and Imperialist forces have been attempting, with smart moves and considered planning, to push the Arab countries, one after another, out of the circle of conflict with Zionism, in order, ultimately, to isolate the Palestinian People.

Egypt has already been cast out of the conflict, to a very great extent through the treacherous Camp David Accords, and she has been trying to drag other countries into similar agreements in order to push them out of the circle of conflict.

Hamas is calling upon the Arab and Islamic peoples to act seriously and tirelessly in order to frustrate that dreadful scheme and to make the masses aware of the danger of coping out of the circle of struggle with Zionism. Today it is Palestine and tomorrow it may be another country or other countries. For Zionist scheming has no end, and after Palestine they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates. Only when they have completed digesting the area on which they will have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion, etc. Their scheme has been laid out in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and their present [conduct] is the best proof of what is said there.

Leaving the circle of conflict with Israel is a major act of treason and it will bring curse on its perpetrators.

. . .

It’s also important to note that when Hamas refers to “Palestine”, that doesn’t include the existence of Israel. They mean ‘From the River to the Sea’ .

/still think you can “negotiate” with Hamas Tony?

Life During Wartime, Obama Style

Defense Official: Obama Calling for Defense Budget Cuts

The Obama administration has asked the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to cut the Pentagon’s budget request for the fiscal year 2010 by more than 10 percent — about $55 billion — a senior U.S. defense official tells FOX News.

Last year’s defense budget was $512 billion. Service chiefs and planners will be spending the weekend “burning the midnight oil” looking at ways to cut the budget — looking especially at weapons programs, the defense official said.

See also:
Obama seems unlikely to widen war in Afghanistan

/good thinking, cut the defense budget with troops deployed all over the world

Same as it Ever Was

Kassam rocket hits Ashkelon region

Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip fired a Kassam rocket at Israel on Saturday morning, the third since both Israel and Hamas declared cease-fires on January 18.

There were no reports of casualties or damage in the attack

/how do you make peace with those vowed to destroy you?

Sunshine on the “Stimulus”

As the bright sunlight mercilessly beats down on the “stimulus” bill, it’s becoming exposed for what it really is, the rotting, stinking carcass of a bloated pig. Stick a fork in the pork!

Harvard prof slams stimulus plan

Harvard University professor Martin Feldstein may not be the Democrats’ favorite conservative economist for much longer.

Feldstein, a former economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan, surprised many last year by embracing the Keynesian concept that more government action – in the form of massive spending increases and tax cuts – was needed to confront the economic crisis facing the nation.

Ever since, liberal Democrats have cited Feldstein’s views when pushing President Barack Obama’s massive $800 billion-plus economic-stimulus package.

But Feldstein yesterday took aim at the Democrats’ general plan – a version of which passed the House earlier this week – saying it’s a “mistake” and needs to be “thoroughly revised.”

“We need a stimulus plan, but we cannot afford a badly designed plan,” Feldstein said in an e-mail exchange yesterday with the Herald. “The Senate should build in incentives for consumer buying and eliminate waste in the government spending.”

See also:
An $800 Billion Mistake
By Martin Feldstein
Pork Galore: Obama’s Stimulus Bill Does Little to Stimulate the Economy

The pressure is mounting, Senate Republicans may indeed be growing a pair . . .

Senate Republicans May Use Filibuster to Block Stimulus

Republican senators who oppose the $819 billion economic stimulus plan passed in the House Wednesday declined to say whether they personally would lead a filibuster to try to stop the legislation in the Senate. But they said a filibuster is an option and they are developing a strategy to stop the bill.

Even the Senate Democrats are going wobbly . . .

Influential Senate Dem Questions Party Support for Stimulus Bill

An influential Senate Democrat said Friday that it’s unclear whether President Obama’s $819 economic stimulus bill will win enough support to pass in the Senate.

“I don’t even know how many Democrats will vote for it, as it stands today,” Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., told FOX News.

Nelson, a moderate Democrat, is famous for gathering lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in a so-called “Gang of 14” to avert a shutdown of the Senate over judicial nominations. He is seeking a similar bipartisan effort to improve the stimulus bill.

Lawmakers are unhappy that the bill, passed by the House on Wednesday, contains billions of dollars for programs that arguably won’t spark much job growth.

“What I’m hoping to do is bring together a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats and offer changes that will attract others and improve the bill,” he told FOX News. “People want this to succeed.”

Asked how many Republicans he can get to vote for the bill, Nelson said he didn’t even know how many Democrats would vote for it.

The public doesn’t like it either. . .

Public Support for Stimulus Plan Falls, Poll Finds

The more the public learns about the stimulus plan working its way through Congress, the less it likes it, according to a new poll.

Only 42 percent of Americans now think the bill is a good idea, according to Rasmussen Reports, which had found 45 percent approval last week. Opponents have increased from 34 percent to 39 percent.

What we need for real stimulus is less pet project spending, that does little or nothing to create jobs and stimulate the economy, and more tax cuts which go directly in people’s pockets and help business create jobs.

/so, keep the pressure on, call your Congresscritters and tell them to stick a fork in the pork!

Putting ACORN’S Gravy Train on a Diet

Voter ID Was a Success in November

Remember the storm that arose on the political left after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Indiana’s voter ID law last April? According to the left, voter ID was a dastardly Republican plot to prevent Democrats from winning elections by suppressing the votes of minorities, particularly African-Americans.

Since the election of Barack Obama, we haven’t heard a word about such claims. On Jan. 14, the federal appeals court in Atlanta upheld Georgia’s voter ID law.

The reasons for the silence about alleged voter suppression is plain. In the first place, numerous academic studies show that voter ID had no effect on the turnout of voters in prior elections. The plaintiffs in every unsuccessful lawsuit filed against such state requirements could not produce a single individual who didn’t either already have an ID or couldn’t easily get one.

Second are the figures emerging from the November election. If what liberals claimed was true, Democratic voters in states with strict photo ID requirements would presumably have had a much more difficult time voting, and their turnout dampened in comparison to other states. Well, that myth can finally be laid to rest.

You mean having to prove who you are to vote isn’t an undue burden? I’m shocked! But what will ACORN, the Democrat’s favorite fraudulent vote manufacturing machine, do now? If voters have to show ID, how can ACORN work to fraudulently influence elections by registering the same people dozens of times or registering the Dallas Cowboys offense?

VOTE-FRAUD-A-GO-GO

Let every vote count, is the Democratic Party’s mantra these days. That slogan might better be: Let every vote count as often as we need to win.

Such, at any rate, are the tactics of ACORN, Barack Obama’s favorite “community organizers,” and its Project Vote – of which, the Democratic presidential candidate has boasted, “I started working as the director . . . here in Chicago.”

ACORN has been implicated in voter-fraud schemes in 15 states – including Ohio, from where The Post’s Jeane MacIntosh reports today that a Board of Elections investigation has unearthed evidence of widespread voter fraud.

/you need an ID to drive, buy liquor, notarize a document, etc., you should damn well be required to show an ID to vote

Please Don’t Disturb the Jihadis While They’re Praying

Pakistan’s Partial Crackdown Lets Imams Preach Jihad

A dozen Pakistani policemen stood watch last week outside a Lahore mosque known to be a stronghold of the Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla group — while the imam inside preached jihad to thousands of worshippers.

The squad’s presence was part of Pakistan’s vow to curb Lashkar, which India blames for the Nov. 26-29 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 164 people, and it showed how limited that effort has been. As the officers heard Saifullah Khalid’s sermon blaring over loudspeakers, he demanded more attacks on India.

“Muslims under the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat ud-Dawa will conquer all South Asia!” Khalid roared. “Nobody can stop us from fighting India!”

Pakistan’s offensive, in response to international pressure to suppress Lashkar and its civilian ally, Jamaat, is halting and partial at best, says Ahmed Rashid, a Lahore-based analyst and author of books on Pakistan and Islamic militancy. Fewer Jamaat leaders have been arrested, and fewer of its schools closed, than the national government claims, according to provincial-level figures.

Because the country’s politically dominant army has cultivated Lashkar and Jamaat to help confront India over the disputed territory of Kashmir, “there is not going to be any sudden U-turn in policy,” Rashid said. “I don’t expect a proper crackdown.”

/never fear, Obama’s sent Richard Holbrooke here!

Another Idiot Goes to Bring Peace to the Middle East

Mitchell: Open Gaza crossings with PA

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Thursday said that the Gaza crossings must be opened in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority.

In a press conference Mitchell held with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Mitchell told reporters that “to be successful in preventing the illicit traffic of arms into Gaza there must be a mechanism to allow the flow of legal goods, and that should be with the participation of the Palestinian Authority.”

For starters, the Palestinian Authority (Fatah) are mortal enemies of Hamas and Hamas controls Gaza. Second, even if Israel did open up the border crossings, that still wouldn’t stop Hamas from illegally smuggling weapons through Egypt.

Finally, neither Fatah nor Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist

/gee George, think recognizing Israel’s right to exist might be the primary roadblock that needs to be cleared before anyone starts demanding that border crossings be opened?

Ich Bein Ein Gaffer

Biden to make ‘major’ US foreign-policy speech in Munich

Vice President Joe Biden is to make a ‘major’ speech about the new US administration’s defence and foreign policy at the end of next week in Munich, the organizer of a German conference said Thursday.

Wolfgang Ischinger said the address at the annual Munich security conference would set out the position of the administration of President Barack Obama.

/how much fun might this be?

This Could Get Interesting

Military Judge Refuses to Halt Trial of USS Cole Bombing Suspect

A military judge has refused the Obama administration’s request to delay the arraignment of Abu al-Nashiri, the accused planner of the 2000 USS Cole attack in Yemen, FOX News learned Thursday.

Judge James Pohl’s ruling throws a wrench in President Obama’s plans to suspend the military tribunal process for 120 days while the administration reviews how to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within the year.

Pohl’s decision is striking because two other military judges in a Sept. 11 conspiracy case and in the case of Canadian Al Qaeda operative Omar Khadr agreed to suspend proceedings in accordance with Obama’s recent executive order, which put a hold on all military tribunals.

Unlike civilian courts that are part of the Judicial branch of the government, these military tribunals fall under the military chain of command all the way up to CINC Obama, part of the Executive branch of government. I’m a civilian lawyer, not a JAG, but I’m wondering if this judge might not be found to be disobeying a direct order?

/whatever happens, I’m rooting for Judge Pohl, suspending and/or altering the legal rules and/or venue of these terrorist trials, that are already under way, opens up a big can of worms in terms of legal issues, not the least of which being double jeopardy, the ACLU lawyers are constantly looking for any legal hole they can drive through

UPDATE:

Judge refuses to suspend Guantanamo trial

A military judge at Guantanamo Bay Thursday rejected President Barack Obama’s request to suspend the trial of a Saudi accused in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, the Pentagon said.

“Judge James Pohl denied the motion” put forward by the prosecution at the request of Obama to suspend the trial for 120 days, said Defense Department spokesman J.D. Gordon, confirming a report by The Washington Post.

All he did was deny a motion, he wasn’t ordered to do anything.

/if the Government wants to stop the proceedings, they’ll have to order the prosecutor to drop the charges, without prejudice