Monday, February 1, 2010
China Warns of Sanctions in Fallout Over Taiwan
Subject: txt 1st intl nsec china trade -
China threatened to impose sanctions on American arms contractors and cut cooperation with Washington unless it cancels a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, in an unprecedented move signaling Beijing’s growing global power. [Or America's perceived weakness.]
China on Saturday bitterly denounced the Obama administration’s announcement a day earlier that it wanted to sell the package of defensive weapons to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing views as an illegitimate breakaway state.
“The United States will shoulder responsibility for the serious repercussions if it does not immediately reverse the mistaken decision to sell weapons to Taiwan,”
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei told the United States ambassador to China Jon Huntsman in comments reported on the Foreign Ministry’s Web site.
“It will be unavoidable that cooperation between China and the United States over important international and regional issues will also be affected,”
the Chinese foreign ministry said, without specifying any of those issues.
The Obama administration told the . Congress on Friday of the proposed sales, which include Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot “Advanced Capability-3” anti-missile missiles and two refurbished Osprey-class mine-hunting ships. [all defensive]
READ MORE
[RECALL:]
Since 1979, US law regarding Taiwan has been guided by the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). The TRA was designed to provide protection for Taiwan by: (a) providing a legal framework for US commercial and cultural ties with Taiwan; (b) outlining the terms of Washington's 'unofficial' governmental relations with Taiwan; and (c) including provisions for Taiwan's defence.
Under the TRA, the US is obliged to help Taiwan build up its self-defense capability and, if attacked, defend it...
[TRA excerpt]:
January 1, 1979
TAIWAN RELATIONS ACT
Public Law 96-8 96th Congress
SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the "Taiwan Relations Act".
FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF POLICY
- to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means;
- to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States;
- to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character; and
- to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.
Nothing contained in this Act shall contravene the interest of the United States in human rights, especially with respect to the human rights of all the approximately eighteen million inhabitants of Taiwan. The preservation and enhancement of the human rights of all the people on Taiwan are hereby reaffirmed as objectives of the United States.
Source/TRA text: http://www.ait.org.tw/en/about_Ait/tra/
[Do we still stand for these things? Do we still mean what we say? {Or is this yet more 'discretionary' law} China obviously thinks otherwise. I wonder where they got such a notion.
This nation {its government} is not our friend, and by all objective evidence {their actions} our active enemy. We can hope for the best, but we need plan...]
.
The Great Game in the 21st Century
China sends out a trial balloon that it "mulls setting up military bases in Pakistan."
... But the U.S. does have a significant deterrence move, and it is air power. The London Times just reported the first flight of the Russian version of our fifth generation F-22. It is obvious that fifth-generation Air Dominance fighters have great value.
The Russian plan for their fifth-generation fighter is unlike the U.S.'s. They will not limit production, and they will concurrently develop an export version. History tells us that the PLAAF has been a significant beneficiary of Russian aircraft design.
It is time that the administration and Congress immediately rethink both more Raptors for the USAF and also an export version and the immediate deployment of Raptors where they will be a demonstration of American resolve.
Both the Times of India and the London Times had important implied questions: What will America do? Both issues can be addressed concurrently by basing the F-22 Raptor on strip alert in Afghanistan.
The smart geopolitical move in light of a possible PLA base in Pakistan is to deploy the F-22 where it can make a huge statement of U.S. positioning against any PLA/PLAAF maneuvering for basing.
Such a move would signal visionary leadership and action in this most serious and dangerous time.
READ MORE
FLASHBACKs >
Axing the Air Force
Production of the F-22 has been terminated. Production of the C-17 has also been terminated. Production of the Combat Search and Rescue Helicopter has also been terminated. Production of the Multiple Kill Vehicle has also been terminated. F-15s, F-16s, and A-10s will all leave the Force with no replacements...
“This budget guarantees that the oldest Air Force in the history of our nation will get even older" ... “B-52s, built in the 1950s, will have to be kept on duty for a minimum of another 15-20 years.”
.
.
New U.S. air strategy in Afghanistan: First, do no harm
Subject: txt gwot -
Along the main road to the base just outside Jalalabad, the unit was flagged down by a man who said that a policeman had found a roadside bomb up ahead in a busy area of shops, where it should have been difficult to hide an explosive without others knowing.
As Lt. Col. Simmons interviewed the local police chief about how a bomb could have been buried just outside his station, Brooks determined that an F-15 was flying 15 miles to the north. He jumped out of the truck and began trying to find a target.
As he listened to the police chief's answers, which were growing increasingly evasive, Brooks became antsy. Taliban fighters might be nearby, and the unit was now stopped. He asked the F-15 to drop flares. Ten minutes later it did, sending the villagers running out of fear they were about to be struck.
That was a success, Brooks said. The troops were safer. Still, he sighed.
Under the new tactical directive, Brooks would have to explain why he used flares...
"All I can think about is the paperwork," he said. "It will take hours for 15 minutes of air power."
[War? Try suicide - murder when you consider it's not ourselves but our brave young folks in uniform who pay for this insanity.
Unbelievable but reality > you need know > ]
READ MORE
Collins: 'This administration cannot see a foreign terrorist right in front of them'
[HT:DG]Subject: txt gwot -
Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) on Saturday hammered the Justice Department for treating Flight 253 terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a "common criminal" -- a move she described in her party's weekly address as a "failure" of the entire justice system. The decision to read Miranda rights to Abdulmutallab -- better known as the Christmas Day bomber -- is symptomatic of the White House's general "blindness" in its approach to the ongoing war with terror...
READ MORE
Christian in Egypt: ‘They Try to Kill Us’
Subject: txt islm -
Egyptian Maher El-Gowhary and his 15 year old daughter Dina never pray twice at the same church, never stay longer than a month in any one apartment. They are constantly under threat, always on the run because they converted to Christianity in a largely Muslim country. Maher and Dina nervously agreed to meet us at a Church in Cairo.(Snip) Born Muslims they chose to convert to the Christian Church...
READ MORE
Cardinal: EU faces Islamisation
Subject: txt islm intl -
The European Union has diverted from the Christian foundations on which it was being built and it has got secularised, by which it has opened space to Islamisation, Czech Cardinal Miloslav Vlk says in an interview released on his web page yesterday.
READ MORE
Rape victim receives 101 lashes for becoming pregnant
Subject: txt islm -
A 16-year-old girl who was raped in Bangladesh has been given 101 lashes for conceiving during the assault. The girl's father was also fined and warned the family would be branded outcasts from their village if he did not pay. According to human rights activists, the girl, who was quickly married after the attack, was divorced weeks later after medical tests revealed she was pregnant.
Her rapist was pardoned by the elders...
READ MORE
United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror -
Subject: txt islm gwot nsec edu -
With the decline of communism, the Left began to support Islamism. Whereas journalists, novelists and activists led the charge in the first wave, Glazov explains in the second half of the book, the most vociferous defenders of Islamism now come from the Ivory Tower...
READ MORE
SOBERING...
[HT:MH]
Here is a blunt and chilling answer to a serious question put to Newt Gingrich on CNN. It is a clearly worded warning not heard from any other public figure concerning the state of world affairs. This is one the most powerful and articulate summaries of the dangers of our current situation ever heard, and a mystery why it is not painfully obvious to every American and a subject of constant discussion. It not only demonstrates the dangers we face, but clearly shows what an experienced and knowledgeable leader can convey in five minutes without the use of a Tele-Prompter and a speech writer.
[five minutes - Recommended > ]
YOUTUBE
Football, hot dogs, applie pie...and federal intervention
It just wouldn't be liberal America unless Obama's Justice Department could find a way to regulate the BCS Championship game
Apparently, there is no way that you and I can enjoy our college football diversions without Washington's intervention. What's more, the nation's economy depends on it! Thankfully, the Pronoun-in-Chief's Justice Department plans to save us from our heretofore pleasant madness:
The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.
In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.
Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason," Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws.
Query: Will we have to pay a tax for cheering for our home team?
This is America, where, once upon a time, kids used to win and lose without any government assistance. Back then, Washington didn't own Chevrolet. Looks like they'll soon own football. Can we hold on to hot dogs and apple pie?
READ MORE
A few reminders for the constitutionally challenged
Subject: txt msm bias sclm bbro legal lbrty -
"The right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon ... has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right."-- James Madison
The Bill of Rights does not grant rights. Those 10 amendments limit the power of government to encroach on the rights presumed to belong to all of us.
The Founders were students of the proponents of natural law, especially John Locke and his treatises on government. For the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson drew from Locke's argument that government must protect the people's life, liberty and property or it may be legitimately overthrown.
James Madison embraced Locke's concepts of checks and balances in the Constitution. Madison even thought the Bill of Rights unnecessary because such rights are presumed.
Rights come from nature, not government.
Look at how the Bill of Rights is phrased. None says the state hereby grants these rights to its citizens. It should more properly have been called the Bill of Prohibitions.
"Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech ..."The freedom is presumed and Congress shall not interfere.
"... the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed ..."The right exists. Don't infringe.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons ..." "... the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ..."Preserved, not granted.
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."They are enumerated, not granted. And those not enumerated are retained by the people.
Don't imagine what you want the Constitution to say or pretend it says something it does not.
If you, like the president, don't like what the Constitution says, amend it.
An amendment banning corporate free speech probably would pass, because most people think the rest of us are too gullible to resist a message backed by money.
If that's the case, this experiment in democracy is over.
READ MORE
Watchdog: Bailouts Created More Risk in System
Subject: txt mny msm -
The government's response to the financial meltdown has made it more likely the United States will face a deeper crisis in the future, an independent watchdog at the Treasury Department warned.
The problems that led to the last crisis have not yet been addressed, and in some cases have grown worse, says Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the trouble asset relief program, or TARP. The quarterly report to Congress was released Sunday.
"Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car,"...
Since Congress passed $700 billion financial bailout, the remaining institutions considered "too big to fail" have grown larger, Barofsky wrote.
He said the banks still have an incentive to take on high-risk investments because they know if they fail the government will save them... [As known would be the case when such bailout were being 'debated'.]
He said the key to preventing future crises is to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and re-implement rules that separated lending banks from speculating investment firms...
READ MORE
Reality Check re: " America needs an alternative."
Subject: txt mny --
"Our nation is barrelling down a path of uncontrolled Federal Government spending, unsustainable entitlement growth, and crushing levels of taxes and debt. If we resign ourselves to this, our health and retirement security programs will grow themselves into extinction... America needs an alternative.
For that reason, I am re-introducing ‘A Roadmap for America's Future' - updated to reflect the dramatic decline in our economic and fiscal condition since its introduction in 2008..."Paul Ryan (R-WI)
US Federal Debt, With and Without Republican Plan
Source: Congressional Budget Office.
Federal spending (excluding interest) and deficit projections under the CBO's "alternate scenario" in 2020, 2040, 2060 and 2080, as percentage of GDP.
Spending: 22.1%, 27.3%, 30.4%, 34.4%.
Deficits: 7.4%, 17.2%, 28.0%, 42.8%.
Same projections under the Republican plan.
Spending: 19.0%, 19.3%, 16.1%, 13.8%..
Deficits: 3.7%, 4.5%, 0.5%, surplus of 5%.
Source: Congressional Budget Office.
.
Obama Says Deficit Could Jeopardize Recovery
Subject: txt mny -
[But he'll ignore the above Republican plan and, with the help of the MSM, portray them as 'do nothings'...]
READ MORE
Democrats quietly working to resuscitate healthcare overhaul
Subject: txt hcare -
President Obama's campaign to overhaul the nation's healthcare system is officially on the back burner as Democrats turn to the task of stimulating job growth, but behind the scenes party leaders have nearly settled on a strategy to salvage the massive legislation...
[Eternal vigilance.]
READ MORE
Global warming science implodes overseas: American media silent
The great unraveling not being covered here
The revelations have been nothing short of jaw dropping. Dozens - yes dozens - of claims made in the IPCC 2007 report on climate change that was supposed to represent the "consensus" of 2500 of the world's climate scientists have been shown to be bogus, or faulty, or not properly vetted, or simply pulled out of thin air.
We know this because newspapers in Great Britain are doing their job; vetting the 2007 report item by item, coming up with shocking news about global warming claims that formed the basis of argument by climate change advocates who were pressuring the US and western industrialized democracies to transfer trillions of dollars in wealth to the third world and cede sovereignty to the UN... [snip]
A Canadian analyst has identified more than 20 passages in the IPCC's report which cite similarly non-peer-reviewed WWF or Greenpeace reports as their authority, and other researchers have been uncovering a host of similarly dubious claims and attributions all through the report...
This is a great story. It has everything a media outlet could desire; scandal, conflict of interest (IPCC head Pauchuri runs companies that benefited from climate scare stories), government cover ups - why then, has this unraveling of the basis of climate science that posited catastrophic man made warming not been making any news at all in the United States?
It's past time to ask why this story being revealed overseas with new revelations almost daily in Europe while being completely ignored here. We hear crickets chirping when it comes to stories from major newspapers and - outside of Fox News - the cable nets.
As global warming the political movement is losing its scientific justification, the American people - who will be asked to foot the bill to the tune of trillions of dollars if Obama goes ahead with his "green" plans - are grossly uninformed about the state of the debate. Until the media starts to give this story the coverage it deserves, that state of affairs will not change...
READ MORE
HOW REGRESSIVE IS A PRICE ON CARBON?
Subject: txt grn engry -
Under either a cap-and-trade program that limits carbon emissions or a carbon tax that imposes an outright tax on these emissions, the poor may be among the hardest hit.
Because they spend a greater share of their income on energy than higher-income families, households in the lowest fifth of the income distribution could shoulder a relative burden up to 4 times higher than that of households in the top fifth of the income distribution, according to a study by Corbett Grainger and Charles Kolstad, conducted for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
READ MORE
Today's Insult...
.
Obama: Health Debate 'Actually Was on C-SPAN’
Freshman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told the president that he and many Americans were disappointed that “when you stood up before the American people multiple times and said you would broadcast the healthcare debates on C-SPAN, you didn’t.”
Obama answered Chaffetz by saying, “Look, the truth of the matter is that if you look at the healthcare process, just over the course of the year, overwhelmingly the majority of it actually was on C-SPAN, because it was taking place in congressional hearings in which you guys were participating...”
The president seemed to be saying that when he promised during the presidential campaign that health reform “negotiations” would be televised on C-SPAN, what he really meant was “congressional hearings.”
The trouble with that claim is that congressional hearings have been televised by C-SPAN for many years. What force does a campaign promise have if the promise is for something that’s already there?
READ MORE
Bill Gates promises $10 billion for vaccines
Subject: txt gdd lbrty othr intl owg -
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Bill and Melinda Gates said on Friday they would spend $10 billion over the next decade to develop and deliver vaccines, an increased commitment that reflects progress in the pipeline of products for immunizing children ...
[American philanthropy; second to none. Well done Bill.]
READ MORE
Paranoid Much? Robert Reich Imagines that Fox News Was Around in 1994
Subject: txt msm bias libs fnn =
In a Monday column at Salon.com ("Is the President Panicking?"), Reich excoriated President Obama's proposed discretionary spending "freeze" -- a "freeze" that NewsBuster Julia Seymour noted fails to offset the spending proposals Obama brought up in his State of the Union speech -- for "invok(ing) memories of (Bill) Clinton's shift to the right in 1994," [oh horror]
But in the process of recounting his fevered view of 1990s history, Bill Clinton's former Secretary of Labor revealed that paranoia really does strike deep:
In December 1994, Bill Clinton proposed a so-called middle-class bill of rights including more tax credits for families with children, expanded retirement accounts, and tax-deductible college tuition. [but] Right-wing populists were the ascendancy, with Newt Gingrich and Fox News leading the charge..."
There's one "little" problem:
Fox News Channel's first day on the air was October 7, 1996.
READ MORE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
