This is yesterday's opening salvo, recorded on C-SPAN.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Dennis Kucinich Complete Statement on Libyan Civil War, 31 March 2011
As promised, OS posts the entire presentation for his hordes of readers to view.
Kucinich, a Lion of the Left, and one of the more colorful characters in Congress, presented a well-written, documented, sober, well-thought-out case.
This is trouble for Obama, no doubt about it.
Now, as a conservative, and as a citizen, OS has one question: Where are the Republicans? Why are they not lining up behind him? Will they leave him hung out to dry? At least Speaker Boehner cleared the way for him to have his hour on the floor.
Can you imagine a Speaker Pelosi allowing this? Elections have consequences.
He details the secret order signed by Obama weeks before the bombing began, authorizing the CIA to support the Libyan opposition.
He takes the whole enterprise apart, piece by piece by piece by piece...
Ya'll--if you are an American citizen, left/right/center/neutral, this is something that cannot be ignored. If Obama is allowed to get away with this, we drift toward a world where any future President of the United States can start wars in our name, with our resources, and our children, and never even glance at the Constitution. Unless it is honored and enforced, that document becomes just another historical document, supplanted by something else much more sinister.
Obama and Hilary cannot be allowed to simply ignore this--and they will attempt to pretend today never happened, that Kucinich is just some nutter (wait for it, the stories about him will be floated far-and-wide), that opposition is unpatriotic (an old chestnut tactic), that the Founders could never have anticipated such a situation (thus the Constitution doesn't apply, except that bit about the President as Commander-in-Chief...).
Listen in, pay attention. So many lives are on the line. This sort of thing can set tragic sequences of events into motion.
The Irish Banks Report Is Released
OS is no economist, but even his feeble brain knows that this is ugly.
From today's Irish Times:
Ireland’s beleaguered banking sector will require a further €24 billion recapitalisation, pushing the total cost of bailing out the banks to €70 billion.
The figure was determined by the Central Bank’s long-awaited stress tests on Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, Irish Life and Permanent and the EBS.
This will be the fifth attempt to draw a line under the banking crisis, which have so far cost the State €46 billion, and will bring the entire banking sector under Government control.
It also means the State will require substantially more of the €35 billion earmarked for the banks under the EU/IMF bailout deal than previously envisaged.
The recapitalisation will coincide with a major restructuring of the sector, the details of which are being outlined by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan in the Dail.
For a simple soul like OS, the figures, breathtaking as they are, matter less than the opening line of the third paragraph above--'This will be the fifth attempt...'
Remember, ya'll? The Irish electorate said 'NO' to entry into the Eurozone in '08, so the Utopians kept at it, essentially saying 'We're just keep holding referendums until you dumb Irish get it right, and surrender your hard-won independence to Brussels'. So in 2009...they did. After all that struggle and blood spilled, they voted for life in the EU.
Wonder if they want their sovereignty back yet? And their currency? And their culture? And their freedom?
More than the bank balance sheets eroded here, ya'll. There has been an erosion of the essential trust that holds things together...which is why the balance sheets melted down.
It can happen here, in the US. It doesn't have to, but it can. We are not out of the woods, by a long shot.
From today's Irish Times:
Ireland’s beleaguered banking sector will require a further €24 billion recapitalisation, pushing the total cost of bailing out the banks to €70 billion.
The figure was determined by the Central Bank’s long-awaited stress tests on Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, Irish Life and Permanent and the EBS.
This will be the fifth attempt to draw a line under the banking crisis, which have so far cost the State €46 billion, and will bring the entire banking sector under Government control.
It also means the State will require substantially more of the €35 billion earmarked for the banks under the EU/IMF bailout deal than previously envisaged.
The recapitalisation will coincide with a major restructuring of the sector, the details of which are being outlined by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan in the Dail.
For a simple soul like OS, the figures, breathtaking as they are, matter less than the opening line of the third paragraph above--'This will be the fifth attempt...'
Remember, ya'll? The Irish electorate said 'NO' to entry into the Eurozone in '08, so the Utopians kept at it, essentially saying 'We're just keep holding referendums until you dumb Irish get it right, and surrender your hard-won independence to Brussels'. So in 2009...they did. After all that struggle and blood spilled, they voted for life in the EU.
Wonder if they want their sovereignty back yet? And their currency? And their culture? And their freedom?
More than the bank balance sheets eroded here, ya'll. There has been an erosion of the essential trust that holds things together...which is why the balance sheets melted down.
It can happen here, in the US. It doesn't have to, but it can. We are not out of the woods, by a long shot.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Kucinich Throws Down The Gauntlet In Today's One-Minute Speeches
Video's not available yet, but OS was beavering away at his desk when The Dennis strode up to the mic about forty-five minutes ago, looked into the camera, and declared the US's role in the Libyan civil war to be illegal and unconstitutional, and announced he would have an hour's presentation tomorrow.
Listening to him, one would think we were listening to a Tea Partier, not someone on the left side of the Democratic Party.
He had that tone of 'I've had enough. I don't give a shit anymore what Nancy Pelosi does to me for wandering off the plantation.' And the look he gave the camera at the end was essentially to say, 'Go on, Obama, just try to fuck with me. I'm too old to care, and you don't have a leg to stand on'.
As a prelude to his minute of eloquence today, he posted this at HuffPost yesterday.
Last night the President said it took one month to put together a response to the situation in Libya. During that time the President consulted with 28 member nations of NATO, 22 member nations of the Arab league and 15 members of the UN Security Council, ten of whom approved the resolution. There was also time for extensive coordination with France and Great Britain. The President had time to consult with the international community, but had no time to come to the United States Congress?
There is no question that the administration should have followed the Constitution and received the approval of Congress before starting a war. Consulting with a few members is not the same thing as following the Constitutional requirements of Article 1, Section 8.
Further complicating the administration's failure to come to Congress prior to ordering an attack is the fact that our primary partners in the war against Libya, France and Great Britain, had, according to a French military website, planned certain war games which now may have significance.
On November 2, 2010 France and Great Britain signed a mutual defense treaty, which paved the way for joint participation in a military exercise called 'Southern Mistral'. While war games are not uncommon, the similarities between 'Southern Mistral' and 'Operation Odyssey Dawn' highlight just how many unanswered questions remain regarding our own military planning for Libya.
The 'Southern Mistral' war games called for Great Britain-French air strikes against an unnamed dictator of a fictional country, "Southland." The pretend attack was authorized by a pretend United Nations Security Council Resolution. The 'Southern Mistral' war games were set for March 21-25, 2011.
On March 19, 2011, the United States joined France and Great Britain in an air attack against Muammar Gaddafi's Libya pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1973.
Scheduling a joint military exercise that ends up resembling real military action could be seen as remarkable planning by the French and British, but it also highlights questions regarding the United States' role in planning for the war. We don't know how long the attack on Libya has been in preparation, but Congress must find out. We don't know who the rebels really represent and how they became armed, but Congress must find out.
With so many unknowns, Congress' only path to protect both the Constitution and the institution of government of the people is to cut off funds for the war in Libya. A cutoff of funds would require the president to follow the Constitutional process with respect to going to war. He would have to seek Congressional approval.
Otherwise, we will have given our tacit consent to a policy that undercuts Congress' constitutionally-mandated role as a coequal branch of government. Moreover, since the Founders established Congress under Article 1 and the Executive under Article 2, Congress is first among equals, unless we refuse to be.
That is why I will propose an amendment to the next continuing resolution or omnibus appropriations bill that would prevent any U.S. funds from being used for the war in Libya.
This will get interesting, 'cuz the deadline for the gubbermint shutdown looms next week.
Betcha Miz Nancy and Missah Harry wish they had actually passed a budget last year, when they had a majority, and the Constitutional responsibility to do so.
The blackmailing and threatening of Democrat members of both houses is likely underway in earnest. If a significant number of Dems escape the plantation, Obama will find himself in deep deep deep doo-doo.
Listening to him, one would think we were listening to a Tea Partier, not someone on the left side of the Democratic Party.
He had that tone of 'I've had enough. I don't give a shit anymore what Nancy Pelosi does to me for wandering off the plantation.' And the look he gave the camera at the end was essentially to say, 'Go on, Obama, just try to fuck with me. I'm too old to care, and you don't have a leg to stand on'.
As a prelude to his minute of eloquence today, he posted this at HuffPost yesterday.
Last night the President said it took one month to put together a response to the situation in Libya. During that time the President consulted with 28 member nations of NATO, 22 member nations of the Arab league and 15 members of the UN Security Council, ten of whom approved the resolution. There was also time for extensive coordination with France and Great Britain. The President had time to consult with the international community, but had no time to come to the United States Congress?
There is no question that the administration should have followed the Constitution and received the approval of Congress before starting a war. Consulting with a few members is not the same thing as following the Constitutional requirements of Article 1, Section 8.
Further complicating the administration's failure to come to Congress prior to ordering an attack is the fact that our primary partners in the war against Libya, France and Great Britain, had, according to a French military website, planned certain war games which now may have significance.
On November 2, 2010 France and Great Britain signed a mutual defense treaty, which paved the way for joint participation in a military exercise called 'Southern Mistral'. While war games are not uncommon, the similarities between 'Southern Mistral' and 'Operation Odyssey Dawn' highlight just how many unanswered questions remain regarding our own military planning for Libya.
The 'Southern Mistral' war games called for Great Britain-French air strikes against an unnamed dictator of a fictional country, "Southland." The pretend attack was authorized by a pretend United Nations Security Council Resolution. The 'Southern Mistral' war games were set for March 21-25, 2011.
On March 19, 2011, the United States joined France and Great Britain in an air attack against Muammar Gaddafi's Libya pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1973.
Scheduling a joint military exercise that ends up resembling real military action could be seen as remarkable planning by the French and British, but it also highlights questions regarding the United States' role in planning for the war. We don't know how long the attack on Libya has been in preparation, but Congress must find out. We don't know who the rebels really represent and how they became armed, but Congress must find out.
With so many unknowns, Congress' only path to protect both the Constitution and the institution of government of the people is to cut off funds for the war in Libya. A cutoff of funds would require the president to follow the Constitutional process with respect to going to war. He would have to seek Congressional approval.
Otherwise, we will have given our tacit consent to a policy that undercuts Congress' constitutionally-mandated role as a coequal branch of government. Moreover, since the Founders established Congress under Article 1 and the Executive under Article 2, Congress is first among equals, unless we refuse to be.
That is why I will propose an amendment to the next continuing resolution or omnibus appropriations bill that would prevent any U.S. funds from being used for the war in Libya.
This will get interesting, 'cuz the deadline for the gubbermint shutdown looms next week.
Betcha Miz Nancy and Missah Harry wish they had actually passed a budget last year, when they had a majority, and the Constitutional responsibility to do so.
The blackmailing and threatening of Democrat members of both houses is likely underway in earnest. If a significant number of Dems escape the plantation, Obama will find himself in deep deep deep doo-doo.
Murphy's Law, Kelly's Corollary, Part Deux: Irish Banks
OS mentioned this yesterday, and the news is beginning to trickle in.
If you don't believe OS, check out today's Irish Times front page. That unemployment number is pretty chilling. We don't think it can happen here?
(Click to enlarge..)
If you don't believe OS, check out today's Irish Times front page. That unemployment number is pretty chilling. We don't think it can happen here?
(Click to enlarge..)
Sense of Events: "Hope is not a method, and wishes are not plans."
Plan? What Plan? There is no Plan A, or B, or C.
Donald Sensing says it best.
This was the president's speech in a nutshell: There is no Plan C, no Plan B, and for that matter, there is no Plan A, either. He knows what he wants to happen, but shrinks definitively and certainly away from making it happen. He hopes Qaddafi will play nice and beat feet outta there, and wishes Libya the best in the meantime. Or as Josh Trevino tweeted after the speech,
This is the first time in American history that a President has simultaneously set a war aim and disavowed means to obtain it.
Think the Balkans from 1912-1914, all of Europe in the 1930's, Lyndon Johnson and his Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, our successful efforts to arm the Taliban in the 1980's.
Hope is not a method, and wishes are not plans.
Donald Sensing says it best.
This was the president's speech in a nutshell: There is no Plan C, no Plan B, and for that matter, there is no Plan A, either. He knows what he wants to happen, but shrinks definitively and certainly away from making it happen. He hopes Qaddafi will play nice and beat feet outta there, and wishes Libya the best in the meantime. Or as Josh Trevino tweeted after the speech,
This is the first time in American history that a President has simultaneously set a war aim and disavowed means to obtain it.
Think the Balkans from 1912-1914, all of Europe in the 1930's, Lyndon Johnson and his Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, our successful efforts to arm the Taliban in the 1980's.
Hope is not a method, and wishes are not plans.
Wow, It's Great To Know No Ground Troops From The US Will Be In Libya
...so that's why the Marines are packing up for a ten-month stint.
To Libya.
Whew, he had me worried there for a bit...
To Libya.
Whew, he had me worried there for a bit...
Kelly's Corollary--Murphy Was An Optimist: The Irish Banks Admit The Extent Of Their Losses
Murphy was Irish, no doubt about it. And, in his honor, that black-humor classic 'Murphy's Law' has attained immortality. There are many versions of it floating about, but it goes like this:
1. If anything can go wrong, it will, at the most inopportune time.
2. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong...first.
3. If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
4. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
5. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
6. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
The list stretches on, but OS's hands-down favorite is Kelly's Corollary: Murphy was an optimist.
All this as an introduction to Robert Peston's most recent droll post on the basket case that Ireland has become.
To prevent Irish banks toppling over one after another, the European Central Bank has lent €117bn to them and the Central Bank of Ireland has lent them a further €71bn. So that's €188bn of loans from the eurozone's taxpayers to Ireland's banks - which makes the €67.5bn lent directly by the eurozone and IMF to the Irish government look like peanuts.
And a further €20bn of bank bonds - another form of bank debt - is still guaranteed by the Irish state through the Eligible Guarantee Scheme.
So that is €208bn of taxpayer loans to Ireland's banks - equivalent to a remarkable 154% of GDP.
It gets much worse, in the tradition of Murphy, and OS hopes you take time to read the entire essay.
Today, the banks will have to announce the extent of the damage that has hitherto not been discussed in public. And then, some hard decisions will follow. The illusion spun by The Left that there is no problem, that the massive debts aren't deleterious to a culture's health, that we can just go about business as usual--is just that, and is finally seen for what it is in Eire.
When will our leadership admit the same in the US? Not anytime soon. The story about Chuckie Shumer coaching everyone on the party line within earshot of the press would normally be funny, but the time for laughter has long passed.
Tuesday's effort by the House GOP to wind down the HAMP program, a scandalous failure, in order to save a few billion and protect homeowners from disaster, was met with scorn and vitriol by House Democrats today. It was like watching bad opera, with Barney Frank holding the big spear, wearing the horned helmet.
By noon today in the US, we'll have the news. It will be interesting to see if the markets have any reaction, at all, or even a moment's reflection on what it means.
OS ain't holding his breath, but he sure ain't sitting long on the market either, if yuh know-whudd-I-mean.
1. If anything can go wrong, it will, at the most inopportune time.
2. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong...first.
3. If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
4. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
5. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
6. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
The list stretches on, but OS's hands-down favorite is Kelly's Corollary: Murphy was an optimist.
All this as an introduction to Robert Peston's most recent droll post on the basket case that Ireland has become.
To prevent Irish banks toppling over one after another, the European Central Bank has lent €117bn to them and the Central Bank of Ireland has lent them a further €71bn. So that's €188bn of loans from the eurozone's taxpayers to Ireland's banks - which makes the €67.5bn lent directly by the eurozone and IMF to the Irish government look like peanuts.
And a further €20bn of bank bonds - another form of bank debt - is still guaranteed by the Irish state through the Eligible Guarantee Scheme.
So that is €208bn of taxpayer loans to Ireland's banks - equivalent to a remarkable 154% of GDP.
It gets much worse, in the tradition of Murphy, and OS hopes you take time to read the entire essay.
Today, the banks will have to announce the extent of the damage that has hitherto not been discussed in public. And then, some hard decisions will follow. The illusion spun by The Left that there is no problem, that the massive debts aren't deleterious to a culture's health, that we can just go about business as usual--is just that, and is finally seen for what it is in Eire.
When will our leadership admit the same in the US? Not anytime soon. The story about Chuckie Shumer coaching everyone on the party line within earshot of the press would normally be funny, but the time for laughter has long passed.
Tuesday's effort by the House GOP to wind down the HAMP program, a scandalous failure, in order to save a few billion and protect homeowners from disaster, was met with scorn and vitriol by House Democrats today. It was like watching bad opera, with Barney Frank holding the big spear, wearing the horned helmet.
By noon today in the US, we'll have the news. It will be interesting to see if the markets have any reaction, at all, or even a moment's reflection on what it means.
OS ain't holding his breath, but he sure ain't sitting long on the market either, if yuh know-whudd-I-mean.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Claims Don't Fit The Facts: What The Brits Know That Obama Assumes Americans Don't Know
It is breathaking to listen to Barack Obama, as OS did yesterday, in the parking lot of the grocery in his old pick-em-up truck. He didn't mean to, but as he was doing his Honey-Do errand after golf, here came the speech. OS just could not garner the moral courage to just dismiss it, and go buy milk and juice.
He kept listening for one word or phrase, which Himself (as President of The United States) never bothered to utter: The Constitution, or Constitutional Authority, or Congressional Approval Under The Law, or...well, you get the drift.
That's becuz, as the person who placed his hand upon the Bible and swore to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of The United States', he has no-zero-nil-nada-nichts authority under the Constitution (that he swore on the Bible to 'preserve, protect and defend, against all enemies, foreign and domestic'). It is of no consequence to him. He himself is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, as he has demonstrated again and again and again--from the illegal bailouts of car companies, to the unconstitutional health care 'reform' (so ruled by a Federal court, whose ruling he ignores and refuses to appeal), to the shutdown of the oil industry along the Gulf Coast (again, ignoring a Federal court order). On and on it goes, the slow creep of rule by diktat.
Only this time, ya'll, he has led the United States into war, against someone who is not an imminent threat to our shores or interests, without a shred of legal authority.
Tom McClintock's letter to the President states the problem clearly, and remains unanswered.
From the other side of the pond, and much more within reach of any mayhem Gadhafi may wish to create, the Brits know better. Little wonder they are so cynical about their American cousins.
Just a sample:
OBAMA: "Our most effective alliance, Nato, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and no-fly zone. ... In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role."
THE FACTS: The US is, and always has been, the pre-eminent player in Nato. The United States supplies 22 per cent of NATO'S budget, almost as much as the next largest contributors – Britain and France – combined. A Canadian three-star general was selected to be in charge of all Nato operations in Libya. His boss, the commander of NATO'S Allied Joint Force Command Naples, is an American admiral, and the admiral's boss is the supreme allied Commander Europe, a post always held by an American.
They know, and they know that he knows he is deliberately obscuring the truth of the situation, confident that he can fool enough of his own electorate, focused as they are on survival in The New Normal, and otherwise preoccupied with American Idol, The Final Four and the NFL labor lockout.
If he gets away with it, this will be the first of many more. How long does the laundry list of places to invade run? On what pretext? By what legal right? It is a slippery slope, a bloody and ghastly slippery slope.
Yes, Gadhafi's a blood-soaked tyrant, and needs to be killed, ASAP. Let's do that, without killing off our rule of law in the process, and killing millions more as an unintended consequence.
He kept listening for one word or phrase, which Himself (as President of The United States) never bothered to utter: The Constitution, or Constitutional Authority, or Congressional Approval Under The Law, or...well, you get the drift.
That's becuz, as the person who placed his hand upon the Bible and swore to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of The United States', he has no-zero-nil-nada-nichts authority under the Constitution (that he swore on the Bible to 'preserve, protect and defend, against all enemies, foreign and domestic'). It is of no consequence to him. He himself is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, as he has demonstrated again and again and again--from the illegal bailouts of car companies, to the unconstitutional health care 'reform' (so ruled by a Federal court, whose ruling he ignores and refuses to appeal), to the shutdown of the oil industry along the Gulf Coast (again, ignoring a Federal court order). On and on it goes, the slow creep of rule by diktat.
Only this time, ya'll, he has led the United States into war, against someone who is not an imminent threat to our shores or interests, without a shred of legal authority.
Tom McClintock's letter to the President states the problem clearly, and remains unanswered.
From the other side of the pond, and much more within reach of any mayhem Gadhafi may wish to create, the Brits know better. Little wonder they are so cynical about their American cousins.
Just a sample:
OBAMA: "Our most effective alliance, Nato, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and no-fly zone. ... In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role."
THE FACTS: The US is, and always has been, the pre-eminent player in Nato. The United States supplies 22 per cent of NATO'S budget, almost as much as the next largest contributors – Britain and France – combined. A Canadian three-star general was selected to be in charge of all Nato operations in Libya. His boss, the commander of NATO'S Allied Joint Force Command Naples, is an American admiral, and the admiral's boss is the supreme allied Commander Europe, a post always held by an American.
They know, and they know that he knows he is deliberately obscuring the truth of the situation, confident that he can fool enough of his own electorate, focused as they are on survival in The New Normal, and otherwise preoccupied with American Idol, The Final Four and the NFL labor lockout.
If he gets away with it, this will be the first of many more. How long does the laundry list of places to invade run? On what pretext? By what legal right? It is a slippery slope, a bloody and ghastly slippery slope.
Yes, Gadhafi's a blood-soaked tyrant, and needs to be killed, ASAP. Let's do that, without killing off our rule of law in the process, and killing millions more as an unintended consequence.
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