Obama's Foreign Policy A Boon to Dictators

Obama’s latest foreign policy initiative exchanging high profile visits for the release of hostages in North Korea and Burma has endangered Americans abroad and weakened this nation’s moral standing.

It’s clear that the recent meetings between Bill Clinton and Kim Jong-il and Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Burma’s General Than Shwe were payment for the return of three American hostages. These meetings served to legitimize two brutal dictatorships that used these two powerful American representatives as proof of their power and importance.

Although neither Clinton nor Webb were acting as official representatives of the Obama Administration, both have the ear of the President and both visits were approved by the White House. It’s obvious that these visits would not have been allowed had they run counter to Obama’s foreign policy.

Understanding that the visits were an extension of Obama’s foreign policy, it’s necessary to recognize that the visits have been used by both dictatorships to shore up their rule at home. Each nation is ruled by an ailing dictator, whose poor health has weakened their grip on power at home. Demonstrating that they can command meetings with American officials is a reassertion of influence at home and abroad, a reassertion that the Obama Administration is complicit in.

By trading legitimacy for hostages, Obama has made every American abroad a target for dictatorships desperate for international recognition. All a fading despot has to do at this point is kidnap an American, sentence them to hard labor and wait for a visit from a high-ranking American official. The visit is videotaped, the American should utter some words of apology and images of the event are broadcast around the world demonstrating that no matter how many of your own people you murder, the United States would still be happy to talk to you.

Even worse than making bargaining chips of Americans is the fact that this new policy of engagement has lent American prestige to the aid of the world’s worst dictators. Our nation’s greatness is being used to prop these thugs up and legitimize their rule.

This is totally unacceptable and runs counter to international efforts to marginalize and eliminate the governments of Burma and North Korea. Indeed, just days before Webb’s visit, the European Union passed new sanctions against the Burmese Junta.

It is cowardly and shortsighted for the Obama Administration to send its unofficial ambassadors around the world to visit with dictators at a time when the rest of the world is attempting to marginalize them. Obama’s foreign policy of engagement has delivered photo-op after photo-op to despots like Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong-il and Than Shwe.

He has strengthened these men at home and abroad and signaled that the United States is unwilling to take moral stands against the conduct of these thugs.

Regrettably, Obama has displayed a humiliating cowardice in his interactions with totalitarian regimes at a time when American foreign policy should be designed to rebuild our moral standing on the world stage. 

First Pay Czar Deadline Reached

Seven firms that received extraordinary TARP funds are required to submit executive compensation plans to the Pay Czar, Kenneth Feinberg, today. Feinberg has the authority to modify these pay plans and his decisions cannot be appealed. Check out what I wrote about this troubling development at Conservative.fm.

House Goes Too Far With Jackson Resolution

I’m a little tired of all the Michael Jackson hype but when I read today that the House Foreign Relations Committed was considering a 1500 word resolution in his honor, I thought it warranted a blog post.

The resolution is a lengthy and repetitive list of his accomplishments as a “global humanitarian” submitted by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. The list includes meeting with terminally ill fans and donating turkey dinners in a laughable attempt to whitewash the character of a man who was at best a pop star with legal trouble and at worst a pedophile.

The resolution “celebrates Michael Jackson as an accomplished contributor to the worlds of arts and entertainment, scientific advances in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, and global food security.”

Really? A leader in “global food security?”

This is just one more attempt by Congressional Black Caucus members to take advantage of the media frenzy over Jackson’s death and it appears that the rest of the Democrats in the House are getting tired of it.

House Democrats told Politico that the resolution was not likely to pass and Rep. Peter King of New York is making it a lot less likely by demanding a roll call vote on the floor of the House.

If the Democratic leadership knows what’s best for their caucus, they’ll rein Jackson Lee and the Congressional Black Caucus in. Their excessive antics in eulogy of a pop singer are alienating sane Americans.

Embarrassing Month for American Media Culminates in Jackson Memorial

Today is a dark day for the American press. Weeks of covering Iran, health care and Honduras have now culminated in 24/7 coverage of the Michael Jackson Memorial.

Perhaps it’s for the best. Every major story the press has touched recently has been handled without objectivity or significant analysis.

First, the press covered the Iranian elections as a legitimate democratic exercise in a republican nation. CNN gave hours of coverage to the elections in the “Islamic Republic” and reported on “voter fraud.”

In reality, the Iranian elections are sham plebiscites with absolutely no effect on the Iranian government and the Ayatollah who controls the Persian theocratic dictatorship that the mainstream media has continuously insisted on calling the “Islamic Republic.”

In the midst of this sham coverage of a sham election, President Obama planted a question in a press conference and although Dana Milbank wrote at length about this outrage, the rest of the press basically took it lying down.

No outcry, no boycott of the press briefings and certainly no meaningful coverage of Obama’s blatant transgression against the freedom and independence of the press.

On the heels of this failure, the press entered into orgiastic coverage of Michael Jackson’s death on June 25th. The breaking news that went on for hours, the banal musings of Larry King and the absolutely self-serving live coverage from Neverland Ranch that defined the media’s treatment of Jackson’s death can only be described as shameful.

But it gets worse. Coverage of Jackson’s death was briefly overtaken by the American media’s coverage of the “coup” in Honduras on June 26^th. Knowing little about Manuel Zelaya and apparently unwilling to delve deep and learn more, the American media lambasted the Honduran military as having overthrown the legitimate democratic government of Honduras.

They barely mentioned though that this democratically elected president was going forward with an illegal plan to remove term limits and become a socialist dictator in the vein of Hugo Chavez.

So here we have a string of four failures on the part of the American press. They’ve editorialized inappropriately and without sufficient information on international events, refused to stand up to the Obama Administration when their independence was threatened and devoted almost 24/7 coverage to the death of a man who (Congressman Peter King pointed out) none of us would leave in a room alone with children.

It culminated today in constant coverage Jackson’s memorial including live footage of his family driving to lunch. I’m tired of this ridiculous coverage and I’m tired of the mainstream media’s sham priorities.

Honduran Liberty Preserved

The Obama Administration and their socialist allies in Central America attempted regime change yesterday when Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president of Honduras, boarded a Venezuelan plane in Washington and tried to land in his former country.

Thankfully, the interim government prevented Zelaya’s return and managed to protect their nation’s constitution for one more day from the designs of Latin autocrats and their Washington sycophants.

But as proud as I am of the actions taken by the Honduran military, I am daily filled with shame by the actions of Obama, a man I voted for. To allow a Venezuelan plane to take off from Washington and travel to Honduras to effect regime change is despicable.

Obama has consistently made himself and now our capital a tool of Chavez’s dictatorial foreign policy. The man who did nothing to topple the theocratic totalitarian government in Tehran is now doing his best to thwart the liberty of 7.5 million Hondurans.

Obama’s foreign policy and his specific handling of the Honduran crisis constitutes a radical departure from the founding ethos of this nation that America must serve as a beacon of liberty to the rest of the world.

Palin Leaves Alaska for National Politics

Sarah Palin will be stepping down as governor of Alaska at the end of this month to begin campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, The New York Times reported. Aides close to Palin told CNN that national media attention as well as her book deal was causing tension within the state.

The Republican Party needs to act in the best interest of its brand and nip her new national prominence in the bud.

Palin’s particular brand of vapid cultural conservatism has no place in the future of the Republican Party as this nation moves further toward accepting the equal rights of homosexuals and coming to terms with the existence of a woman’s right to choose.

Rather than a bible-thumping bimbo, the GOP requires a coolheaded, intelligent fiscal conservative to carry their standard throughout the legislative and policy debates of the next four years. Someone who can re-connect with the intellectual foundation of 20^th century conservatism that cared less about what people did in their own bedrooms and more about limiting the power and scope of the government.

In Defense of Honduras

The Honduran military should be congratulated on its recent action in deposing a want-to-be dictator and enforcing the will of the Honduran congress and Supreme Court. By expelling former president Manuel Zelaya from the country, the Honduran military acted in the interest of the citizenry’s liberty and the preservation of the nation’s constitution.

At the time of his expulsion, Zelaya, a close ally of Hugo Chavez, was moving forward with an illegal plebiscite to change the constitution and allow himself to serve another term. He had already disobeyed the ruling of the Supreme Court and fired the head of the military for refusing to enact his illegal orders.

For these reasons, the Supreme Court ordered his ouster.

But President Obama, who took so long to condemn the brutality of the Iranian dictatorship, swiftly spoke out against Zelaya’s ouster calling it an illegal coup and said, “We always want to stand with democracy.”

But President Obama has rarely stood with democracy in his short time in office. He has pressed for closer relations with Cuba, continued to refer to the Iranian theocratic dictatorship as a republic and now he is courageously supporting a close ally of Chavez’s in Honduras.

What’s worse is that Obama is not alone in his hypocrisy. The Organization of American States that most recently lifted a ban on Cuba’s participation in the organization is now supporting Zelaya.

They have condemned the Honduran military’s actions as antidemocratic and are threatening to suspend Honduras from the organization if they don’t reinstate Zelaya. Similarly, the United Nations General Assembly voted to deny recognition to any government but that of Zelaya.

Obama and the world community have revealed themselves as the morally bankrupt puppets of dictatorships and strongmen. Too afraid to stand up to Iran, Cuba or Venezuela, the international community and Obama have instead assaulted the legitimate Honduran government.

But while Obama and the world community condemn the Honduran military for taking part in a coup, I celebrate their actions as safeguarding the liberty of a nation on the brink of socialist dictatorship.