DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Thursday, February 11, 2010
State Of Emergency Update
The State of Emergency in Salisbury has NOT been lifted. I'm hearing something like 3:00 PM today. More to come.
Emergency Services
Joe,
There is currently a Delmar ambulance sitting on our road with lights on…..it appeared that he was being led by a local farmer with a tractor & plow—trying to clear the way for him. He was also followed by the Fire Dept 4 wheel Drive vehicle. The ambulance is at a point where it can no longer make it through the roads, so the tractor & 4WD truck continued on without him. We need help with these roads now. It is great to see a farmer out on his tractor helping out, but please spread the word that this is a dangerous situation & we need all of the help we can get…..
There is currently a Delmar ambulance sitting on our road with lights on…..it appeared that he was being led by a local farmer with a tractor & plow—trying to clear the way for him. He was also followed by the Fire Dept 4 wheel Drive vehicle. The ambulance is at a point where it can no longer make it through the roads, so the tractor & 4WD truck continued on without him. We need help with these roads now. It is great to see a farmer out on his tractor helping out, but please spread the word that this is a dangerous situation & we need all of the help we can get…..
A Letter To The Editor
Joe,
Today around noon I was traveling from Salisbury to Berlin on Rt. 50 to pick up my daughter from work at a health care facility. The roads had not gotten bad yet but just before Pittsville I ran up on slower traffic. There were four dump trucks (not county) spread across the highway traveling at a speed of from 10 - 20 MPH. Traffic was backed up behind these trucks as far as you could see. I repeat the roads at that time were not bad mostly just wet. These trucks traveled this way all the way till the county line. I saw nothing they were doing except impeding traffic. They finally pulled into the median just past the county line and traffic got on its way. I traveled on in to Berlin and on my way back the four dump trucks were sitting in the same place they were when they pulled off. I realize what a terrific job most of the plows do, I just have no idea what these trucks were doing. If the county was paying for this service they were certainly not getting anything for their money. I didn't know if anybody else had brought this to your attention or might have know what was going on. Thanks for all you do for the community.
Today around noon I was traveling from Salisbury to Berlin on Rt. 50 to pick up my daughter from work at a health care facility. The roads had not gotten bad yet but just before Pittsville I ran up on slower traffic. There were four dump trucks (not county) spread across the highway traveling at a speed of from 10 - 20 MPH. Traffic was backed up behind these trucks as far as you could see. I repeat the roads at that time were not bad mostly just wet. These trucks traveled this way all the way till the county line. I saw nothing they were doing except impeding traffic. They finally pulled into the median just past the county line and traffic got on its way. I traveled on in to Berlin and on my way back the four dump trucks were sitting in the same place they were when they pulled off. I realize what a terrific job most of the plows do, I just have no idea what these trucks were doing. If the county was paying for this service they were certainly not getting anything for their money. I didn't know if anybody else had brought this to your attention or might have know what was going on. Thanks for all you do for the community.
Camden Ave, Fruitland
Took this pic on camden ave in fruitland, thought you might get a laugh from this idiot, lol.
"I'm Tired" By Robert A. Hall
I’ll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.
I’m tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth around" to people who don’t have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.
I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.
I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros, and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela . Won't multiculturalism be beautiful?
I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.
I believe "a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin." I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of US Senators from Illinois.
I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.
I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that think Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.
I’m tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue, or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.
I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.
I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.
I’m tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military.... Those are the citizens we need.
I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.
I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet as well.
I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers, and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.
Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.
I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination, or big-whatever for their problems.
Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.
I’m tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth around" to people who don’t have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.
I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.
I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros, and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela . Won't multiculturalism be beautiful?
I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.
I believe "a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin." I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of US Senators from Illinois.
I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.
I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that think Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.
I’m tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue, or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.
I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.
I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.
I’m tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military.... Those are the citizens we need.
I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.
I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet as well.
I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers, and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.
Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.
I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination, or big-whatever for their problems.
Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.
Wicomico County AFP February News And Events
This is certainly unusual for our area and flies in the face of the Cap and Trade legislation based on the junk science hoax of "Global Warming". The one silver lining out of this is it has shut down Washington DC, preventing much of the dangerous legislation we oppose. In the following; please click on the hyper-links for more details of each topic.
Announcing: Regular Monthly Meetings Now Scheduled for AFP Wicomico
Wicomico County AFP is pleased to announce that we have secured a regular meeting time and place to make it easier to plan your schedule. We will be meeting the fourth Wednesday of each month at Brew River in Salisbury, Maryland at 7pm. Our next scheduled meeting is Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at Brew River at 7pm. Please bring your friends and family! As usual will plan to bring to you some great information, education, and speakers. Details to follow shortly. For more information and directions to this location, Click Here For a Recap of January's meeting Click Here.
For the Wicomico County Council and the Salisbury City County council AFP Czars please make sure you attend the upcoming meetings this month. Information on the Wicomico County Council: Wicomico County Council Meetings are held on the first and third Tuesday of each month in Council Chambers (Room 301) on the third floor of the Government Office Building, 125 N. Division St. Salisbury, MD. Please Check out the next scheduled meeting on Tuesday, February 16th at 10am. I believe the council will be voting on the 1.5 Million dollar Parking Lot for the Civic Center.
Information on the Salisbu ry City Council The Salisbury MD City Council meets in regular session on the second and fourth Monday of each month. The meetings are held the Council Chambers, Room 301, of the Government Building (125 N. Division St) FOR COUNCIL MEETING DATES: CLICK HERE Visit Julie's Website
We've Been Busy!!
2010 promises to be an exciting year! With the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts and the recent downward approval number in the polls of the administration and the democratic congress, the political winds are changing! AFP of Maryland has been busy helping to shift the tides in our own state. In January, we marched on Annapolis to let our state representatives know enough is enough! In February, we responded to Governor O'Malley's state of the state address, and recently we have been testifying in Annapolis during the general session to make sure our voices are heard!
This election year is going to prove to be exciting, busy, and very important! Don't miss out! the challenges are great on every level of government. We don't have a lot of time to change the direction of this great country. Please help us before it is too late! Visit Julie's Website
As always you remain my inspiration to keep pushing on for our cause, for the good of our country and the future of our children and grandchildren.
Sincerely, Americans for Prosperity Lower Shore Julie Brewington and Joe Collins
Americans for Prosperity Maryland
email: americansforprosperitymd@comcast.net
phone: 410-251-8884
web: http://www.afpmaryland.com
TEXAS HOLD'EM CANCELLED
TEXAS HOLD'EM SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH AT THE MARDELA SPRINGS VOL. FIRE CO. HAS BEEN CANCELLED. OUR NEXT TOURNAMENT WILL BE MARCH 13TH.
Maryland Poem
WINTER POEM
It's winter in Maryland
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At five below.
Oh, how I love Maryland
When the snow's up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.
Yes,
The weather here is wonderful
So I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave Maryland
Cuz I'm frozen to the ground!
It's winter in Maryland
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At five below.
Oh, how I love Maryland
When the snow's up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.
Yes,
The weather here is wonderful
So I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave Maryland
Cuz I'm frozen to the ground!
Computer Trouble
I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Richard, the 11 year
old next door whose bedroom looks like Mission Control, and asked him to come over.
Richard clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.
As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong?
He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.'
I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, 'An, ID
ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again.'
Richard grinned. 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?''
No,' I replied.
'Write it down,' he said, 'and I think you'll figure it out.'
So I wrote down: I D 1 0 T
I used to like the little guy.
old next door whose bedroom looks like Mission Control, and asked him to come over.
Richard clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.
As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong?
He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.'
I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, 'An, ID
ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again.'
Richard grinned. 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?''
No,' I replied.
'Write it down,' he said, 'and I think you'll figure it out.'
So I wrote down: I D 1 0 T
I used to like the little guy.
America Rides Off Into The Sunset
Thousands in Tokyo have been echoing Barack Obama's signature call for "change" — but as in "Change! Japanese-U.S. relations."
Our military is rushing anti-missile batteries to Iran's Arab neighbors in the Gulf in anticipation of new Iranian military escalation.
As in the case of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, the U.S. both gives the most aid to a devastated Haiti and still seems to receive the most criticism.
China has just warned us not to supply more armaments to Taiwan.
Our Predator drones continue to be the judge, jury and executioner of suspected terrorists in Pakistan.
What's gone wrong with Obama's dream of multilateral cooperation?
For starters, the world's tensions were not caused by, and remain far larger, than George W. Bush — and thus cannot be so easily solved by his absence.
Obama also has apparently confused what people say with what nations do.
The world's masses — most of them young, poor and non-Western — may applaud a hip, post-racial Barack Obama more than they ever would an old-money Texan like Bush. Obama may give soaring Wilsonian speeches abroad and be crowned with the Noble Peace Prize for his anointed vision of a new global brotherhood.
But, unfortunately, national leaders themselves do not behave like excited concertgoers or European intellectuals. Instead, they have only long-term self-interests — not temporary emotional crushes — and so seek to expand their influence whenever they can.
Obama better understand that difference. A world without strong U.S. leadership really would become a far more dangerous place where the strong do as they please and the weak obey as they must.
After World War II, a reluctant America guaranteed a global system of secure trade and encouraged free-market capitalism and democracy. Both communist and fascist tyrants fought those efforts, eager to expand totalitarianism beyond their borders. And envious allies and neutral countries that benefited enormously from the American-enforced system resented the high profile of the United States.
All that responsibility was unpopular and costly for the United States. But the American people felt the activist bad choice was far better than the worse passive alternative of allowing more of the kind of chaos that had wrecked much of civilization in the first half of the 20th century.
And if allies sometimes derided America, privately they were mostly relieved that there was some sort of policeman — and that it was us and not an authoritarian China, Iran or Russia.
After winning the cold war, the United States continued to keep the peace that allowed a new globalization to lift millions worldwide out of poverty. In bipartisan fashion under Presidents Reagan, Bush I and II and Clinton, America dealt with right-wing and left-wing tyrants alike that threatened regional order, whether a Muammar al-Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Manuel Noriega or the Taliban.
Obama for practical and idealistic reasons may believe that America no longer can afford or should play that pre-eminent role; he may even believe that such prominence was never really needed and was mostly counterproductive.
That diffidence often certainly seems the message from Obama's serial apologies, bowing, attacks on prior American foreign policy, and suggestions that tensions abroad are caused by misunderstandings — many of them our own — rather than irreconcilable differences in national character and objectives.
But he should at least admit that in such a vacuum of American power and influence, the natural order of things abroad would be chaotic.
Let us hope that Obama learned that tragic fact when events heated up in 2009. Promising to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay; initially planning to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York; broadcasting supposed past American sins; issuing meaningless deadlines to Iran; and snubbing allies like Britain, Israel, Poland and the Czech Republic won't win over enemies or ease world tensions.
Al Qaeda claims the Christmas Day attempt to blow up another American airliner — and promises more havoc to come. North Korea still demands bribe money to put aside its nukes. Russia is bragging about a new generation of weapons. Hugo Chavez keeps talking about becoming a regional bully with his new oil-supplied arsenal.
Implicit in all this braggadocio is a growing suspicion abroad, rightly or wrongly, that a more naive, more unsteady America is broke, tired and unwilling to confront challenges as in the past.
Right now the world's bad actors confidently see "hope" for a vast "change" in the old world order — but not the kind Obama once so boldly promised.
Source
Our military is rushing anti-missile batteries to Iran's Arab neighbors in the Gulf in anticipation of new Iranian military escalation.
As in the case of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, the U.S. both gives the most aid to a devastated Haiti and still seems to receive the most criticism.
China has just warned us not to supply more armaments to Taiwan.
Our Predator drones continue to be the judge, jury and executioner of suspected terrorists in Pakistan.
What's gone wrong with Obama's dream of multilateral cooperation?
For starters, the world's tensions were not caused by, and remain far larger, than George W. Bush — and thus cannot be so easily solved by his absence.
Obama also has apparently confused what people say with what nations do.
The world's masses — most of them young, poor and non-Western — may applaud a hip, post-racial Barack Obama more than they ever would an old-money Texan like Bush. Obama may give soaring Wilsonian speeches abroad and be crowned with the Noble Peace Prize for his anointed vision of a new global brotherhood.
But, unfortunately, national leaders themselves do not behave like excited concertgoers or European intellectuals. Instead, they have only long-term self-interests — not temporary emotional crushes — and so seek to expand their influence whenever they can.
Obama better understand that difference. A world without strong U.S. leadership really would become a far more dangerous place where the strong do as they please and the weak obey as they must.
After World War II, a reluctant America guaranteed a global system of secure trade and encouraged free-market capitalism and democracy. Both communist and fascist tyrants fought those efforts, eager to expand totalitarianism beyond their borders. And envious allies and neutral countries that benefited enormously from the American-enforced system resented the high profile of the United States.
All that responsibility was unpopular and costly for the United States. But the American people felt the activist bad choice was far better than the worse passive alternative of allowing more of the kind of chaos that had wrecked much of civilization in the first half of the 20th century.
And if allies sometimes derided America, privately they were mostly relieved that there was some sort of policeman — and that it was us and not an authoritarian China, Iran or Russia.
After winning the cold war, the United States continued to keep the peace that allowed a new globalization to lift millions worldwide out of poverty. In bipartisan fashion under Presidents Reagan, Bush I and II and Clinton, America dealt with right-wing and left-wing tyrants alike that threatened regional order, whether a Muammar al-Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Manuel Noriega or the Taliban.
Obama for practical and idealistic reasons may believe that America no longer can afford or should play that pre-eminent role; he may even believe that such prominence was never really needed and was mostly counterproductive.
That diffidence often certainly seems the message from Obama's serial apologies, bowing, attacks on prior American foreign policy, and suggestions that tensions abroad are caused by misunderstandings — many of them our own — rather than irreconcilable differences in national character and objectives.
But he should at least admit that in such a vacuum of American power and influence, the natural order of things abroad would be chaotic.
Let us hope that Obama learned that tragic fact when events heated up in 2009. Promising to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay; initially planning to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York; broadcasting supposed past American sins; issuing meaningless deadlines to Iran; and snubbing allies like Britain, Israel, Poland and the Czech Republic won't win over enemies or ease world tensions.
Al Qaeda claims the Christmas Day attempt to blow up another American airliner — and promises more havoc to come. North Korea still demands bribe money to put aside its nukes. Russia is bragging about a new generation of weapons. Hugo Chavez keeps talking about becoming a regional bully with his new oil-supplied arsenal.
Implicit in all this braggadocio is a growing suspicion abroad, rightly or wrongly, that a more naive, more unsteady America is broke, tired and unwilling to confront challenges as in the past.
Right now the world's bad actors confidently see "hope" for a vast "change" in the old world order — but not the kind Obama once so boldly promised.
Source
Cajuns
Everyone is implying with bad jokes that Cajuns aren't smart.
But anybody who would build a city 10 feet below sea level in a hurricane zone and fill it with Democrats is a genius . . . .
But anybody who would build a city 10 feet below sea level in a hurricane zone and fill it with Democrats is a genius . . . .
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