Hosni Mubarak’s Egyptian Government Should Be Abandoned, and the Protesters Endorsed: Weak U.S. Response Will Lead to a Weak U.S./Egyptian Relationship

President Obama’s response to the massive upheaval in Egypt has been exceptionally weak, and the U.S./Egyptian relationship that emerges may reflect that.

We should be telling Mubarak to not let the door hit him in the butt on the way out, and endorse the leader that the protest factions have united behind, Mohamed ElBaradei.   ElBaradei can lead the Egyptian people out of the current dictatorship. and into free and fair elections.

We’ve been backing the wrong man in Egypt for far too long, and President Obama needs to show some iron. 

Mubarak’s time is running out, and so is our time to strengthen our ties to the Egyptian people.

And the more friendship we display to the Egyptian people, the less likely the Brotherhood of Islam will take control of Egypt once Mubarak’s government is toppled.  Obama’s making this much more difficult than it needs to be.

What Some Call “Vitriol”, Others Call “Freedom of Speech”: People Are Complaining Because Congress DOESN’T LISTEN and Does What It Wants, and The Public Has Had Enough

I’ve been watching Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats use the term “vitriol” to describe the current atmosphere when it comes to their incompetence and irresponsibility.

If they don’t like the current atmosphere, perhaps they ought to consider changing their own behavior to get the public off their cases.  Because that’s the source of much of the public tension.  

In the last session, Congress enacted a health care bill that the majority of Americans opposed, continued spending outside its means, and continued to push the debt ceiling higher and higher.  They’ve got their priorities backwards, choosing to move their party agenda forward, at the expense of all Americans. 

And they’re hypocrites too, name-calling their opposition and employing the same kind of “vitriol” that they’re accusing the public and their right-wing opponents of employing against THEM.  Except that when the Democrats call one of their GOP opponents a “Nazi” or a “racist”, they claim that it isn’t “vitriol” at all.  They’re exercising their rights to be idiots, after all.

And they can’t figure out why the public is so irate with them?    According to the example that the Democrats are setting, it’s “vitriol” until they (the Dems) use the same kinds of words.  THEN it’s “free speech.”

Bunch of dang hypocrites.

British Moves to Cut Their Military Budget Are Yielding Strange Results: Aircraft Carriers Without Aircraft, New $5 Billion Surveillance Aircraft Being Turned Into Razor Blades Without Performing a Single Mission

One note: I converted British pounds into U.S. dollars for this posting.

Great Britain has been slashing programs from their military budget, and it’s yielded some strange results, and some costly ones too.

Most of their front line aircraft carriers are being scrapped or sold.  Their Harrier jumpjets are being scrapped.  Their brand-new aircraft carriers won’t be online for at least five years, and they won’t have any fixed wing aircraft for the remaining or new carriers for several years after that.

The latest thing is that they spent the equivalent of $6.5 billion on a new class of spy aircraft, and now that they’re rolling off the production line they’re being retired without taking to the air.  They’re severely over budget ($1.2 billion) and nine years behind schedule.

The cancellation of the Nimrod Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MRA4) is expected to save the British military approximately $3.1 billion over ten years.

They’re also laying off 17,000 troops and support personnel.

Is this what our military cuts will look like when they do come?

So This is the New Moderate Tone in Washington? Democrat Refers to Republicans as “Nazis”

Well, well, well!

As anticipated, the Democrats couldn’t refrain from getting nasty in the ongoing health care debate, with Nazi references to the Republican position on health care.

Why am I not surprised that this “truce” wasn’t going to last very long?  Politicians have no choice but to launch personal attacks; they do not possess the vocabulary to argue their points without doing so.

The more things change…the MORE they STAY THE SAME!!

President Obama Should Ask President Hu if Chinese Ballistic Anti-Ship Missiles Will Be for Chinese Military Only, or if They’re Planning on Exporting Them Elsewhere

China is continuing their development of the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile, and the U.S. Navy needs to adapt to this new weapons system and soon.

But first, we need to assess what the Chinese intend to do with these weapons.  Once they’re deployed, will they remain on Chinese territory, or is China planning on selling the designs or the actual weapons to countries who would love to destroy a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier?

China says that they will be to protect China from the U.S. Navy.  But has anyone asked them what their intentions are with these game-changing ballistic missiles in terms of international sales?

President Obama Needs to QUIT BOWING to Foreign Leaders! This is Disgraceful!

I think Burger King is the ONLY one President Obama hasn’t bowed and scraped to.

As the American head of state, President Obama is on an equal footing with ALL heads of state, whether they’re Presidents, Premiers, Prime Ministers, Kings, Queens, Emperors, and other people with equally impressive titles before their names.

He MUST quit bowing to his equals unless the bow is being returned at the same level. He keeps violating diplomatic protocol and American tradition, and it’s sickening to watch.

With the arrival of the President of the People’s Republic of China today in Washington, he needs to bow to no one, no matter how much money we owe them. Straighten up and represent the American people properly, please, Mr. President.

Here's what the Taiwanese make of President Obama entertaining President Hu. This is not good for an American President to be thought of like this.

Israel and U.S. May Have Unleashed Computer Virus to Sabotage Iran’s Nuclear Program: It’s Better Than Launching a Military Assault on an Iranian Nuclear Facility and Sparking a Regional War

There have been several news reports that Israel and the U.S. are responsible for unleashing a computer virus on Iran’s nuclear production facilities.

Israel is said to have assembled the same sort of centrifuges that Iran is using, and tested the virus, with U.S. cooperation, at their facility first before sending people in to plant it.  The virus causes the centrifuges to spin wildly out of control and ruins them.  The virus is said to be extremely difficult to eradicate and has set back the Iranian nuclear project back 3-5 years.

For those who think that this is a bad idea, remember what Israel did to the Osirak nuclear  facility in Iraq in the early 1980s?  They sent in a squadron of F-16s to destroy the facility and assassinated several Iranian and French nuclear scientists who were assisting the Iraqis.

I like this sort of action over military action.  Iran’s got enough military hardware to cause a lot of trouble in the Middle East, and we don’t need that right now.

It has been the stated goal of the U.S. and the international community to stop Iran from getting the bomb.   This sabotage is a good start.

Tucson Victim Claims Gunman Was “Exercising His Second Amendment Right” When He Opened Fire: NO HE WASN’T!!

One of the people who was wounded in last Saturday’s mass shooting in Tucson put an inflammatory document online, in which he attacked the media and private citizens by name (he’s probably going to get sued by one or more of the individuals he attacked) and said that the gunman was exercising his “Second Amendment rights.”

With all due respect, no he wasn’t.  The Second Amendment doesn’t say ANYTHING about shooting a federal judge or a U.S. Representative or a nine-year-old girl, or any of the other victims whose names and stories we are still learning.   The victim’s political statement is deeply flawed.

The gun is nothing but an extension of the person’s will.   What good is a gun without a hand to wield it, a steady arm and an eye to aim it, and a finger to pull the trigger?

People have been posting the following note on the social websites.  It reads in part: “…If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk, and spoons made Oprah fat ! Remember: Hold the person accountable for their actions, not the means they chose to utilize!!!”

Quit blaming the Second Amendment. 

This guy could have just as easily climbed into his car and drove through the very same crowd that he attacked with a gun, like the madman who tried to run over Rep. Katherine Harris in Florida in 2004.  That fool claimed he was exercising his “political expression.”  I don’t seem to recall people trying to ban the First Amendment after that, or banning cars either.

Restricting the First Amendment right of free speech or the Second Amendment right to bear arms doesn’t deal with the lunatics out there who might go off at any time for any reason.

Build more loony bins.

Now Liberal Media Bashes Palin for Defending Herself: Do They Seriously Expect Her to Allow Them to Trash Her Without Comment?

Liberal media outlets NBC, ABC and CBS went out of their way to blame Sarah Palin for the Tucson massacre, and then cried foul when she gave it right back to them.

They stand revealed as the hate-mongering opportunists that they really are.  They’ve all but accused Palin of having blood on her hands, even as their more even-tempered colleagues are telling them to back down on the rhetoric even before the first victims of Saturday’s mass shooting are laid to rest.

This is the most disgusting political ploy that I’ve ever seen by the left-wing press; this is even more disgusting than the political rally/funeral of Minnesota congressman Paul Wellstone.

And like the Wellstone “funeral”, this will also backfire on the opportunists, especially the idiot sheriff out there who sounds more like a Democratic Party spokesman rather than a lawman.   He’s a political hack masquerading as a cop.  Hope his constituents are paying attention to his inattention to the facts of the case.

The “blood libel” quote that the press is skewering her about is in reference to a very old false rumor that Jews and other non-Christians kill Christian children for their blood for use in pagan rituals and foods.   Blood libel accusations over the centuries have caused even more blood to run in the streets.

I think' Palin knew EXACTLY what she was saying, and who she would provoke.  And that their angry responses would provide her with even more source material to use against the Democrats. 

While I’m concerned over the use of this particular religious term, it’s really amusing to see the Democratic media sputtering over what Palin’s said now.   They get so flummoxed.

With the blood libel card now played, I think it would be a smart move for both sides to refrain from using it again.  It is an offensive term. 

If the Democrats are serious about lightening up the tone, perhaps they should refrain from calling Republicans “Nazis” during political debate, and using the SAME graphics with bulls-eyes on vulnerable Republican districts, as Palin did with crosshairs on vulnerable Democratic districts.   That will be a good start.

I don’t think either side can stop.   They would run out of vocabulary to use.

Quit Blaming the Tea Party for Today’s Catastrophe in Arizona: The Shooter is a Lunatic and Had His OWN Agenda

In the midst of the day’s disastrous events in Tucson, one of Congresswoman Gilffords’ Senatorial colleagues blamed the Tea Party and the GOP for pushing the IDIOT who shot her and eighteen others over the edge.

And some liberal bloggers are echoing the remarks.

Grow up!

This guy is a lunatic!  He shot nineteen people for no good reason, and the investigation will bear this out.

Gates Targeting Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle: He Might Want to Hold Off on Decision to Cut Marine Landing Craft from Military Budget

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) in his sights for termination.  It’s a high speed landing craft/infantry carrier that will replace the much slower and lower performance Amphibious Assault Vehicle that has been around since the 1960s.

I think he should look at other programs to cut.

We might need to land the Marines along the Korean coast, like they did during the Korean War.  What if we need to land troops in Somolia, or Yemen, or Ivory Coast, or Iran, or Taiwan, or any of the coastal hotspots around the world? 

Chances are, if they have to repel a North Korean invasion of South Korea, most of South Korea will be overrun before we can get additional troops in there.  And if that were to come to pass, the North Koreans would be ready for an end-run this time.   They’ve got artillery all up and down their coastline now, as well as mobile artillery.  They didn’t have nearly as many guns in 1950.   Inchon was moderately defended, but the North Koreans still damaged two U.S. Navy cruisers and three destroyers with their coastal guns.

I really think the EFV should be spared; the Iraq War will be winding down in the next year; the military will save money by cutting out Iraq War funding in the future on the level that it has been at.

This is a program that should be spared for now.

Russia Delivers 1,800 Shoulder-Launched Anti-Aircraft Missiles to Venezuela: Should We Threaten to Return the Favor and Send the Same Number of Stinger Missiles to Chechnya?

Venezuela has continued its massive arms buildup, preparing to export the weapons to rebel groups in neighboring democratic nations, with most of its weapons purchases coming from the Russian Federation.

This is not particularly helpful.  Russia needs to stop supporting Hugo Chavez.

Vladimir Putin seems to want to reignite the Cold War, and is using proxies like Venezuela to do it.

In that vein, should we threaten to match the Russian arms sales to Venezuela with shipments of arms to Chechnya in equal numbers?   Russia recently delivered 1,800 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to Venezuela.  What if we were to send 1,800 shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to Chechnyan rebel groups?  Russia would have a stroke!

Unfortunately, al-Qaeda has been known to support the Chechnyan independence drive, and there’s no guarantee that any Stinger missiles provided to Chechnya wouldn’t end up elsewhere in the world, being used against American, Israeli and European airliners as well as Russian interests.

It’s an interesting “What if?” 

But the risks far outweigh the benefits of taking an action as dangerous as supplying advanced arms to the Chechnyans.

When our nation provided Stinger missiles to the Afghans in their war against the Soviets in the 1980s, we had little idea that some of the same people we were supporting back then would become America’s most dangerous enemies down the road.   In those days, the Soviets were the #1 threat, and the perception was that they’d be around for a long time to come.

All Stingers provided to the 1980s mujahedeen in Afghanistan were either used, or went off-line when the batteries in the Stinger’s target-acquisition system ran out, or became unusable due to lack of maintenance by qualified technicians.  Remember, we are talking about 12rh century horse soldiers using 20th Century technology. 

But with today’s arms market, it might be possible to keep Stinger technology going for a lot longer if we WERE to provide Stingers to Chechnya.  We’d probably have issues with the missiles for a LONG time to come should the missiles fall into the wrong hands.

But what if….