My News Summary, 6/16/2009

For the past few months I’ve been collecting and sending to a friend of mine links to articles dealing mostly with Obama’s domestic and foreign policies. Rather than send my friend a dozen emails daily, I’ve decided to collect these links on my website and send him that. Most of what you will find here are links to articles that I find interesting or important with maybe a few words of commentary that I’ll add. The sites I visit most often are Atlas Shrugs, Hot Air, Instapundit, Ace of Spades HQ, JOSHUAPUNDIT, and Wolf Howling. Although I don’t necessarily agree with everything on these sites, I’ve overall found the analysis there to be good and worth reading, which is why I reference their articles. You can consider what I’m doing as either a personal news summary or my sharing with you my part of a conversation.

Foreign News/Policy

Some interesting articles on the situation in Iran: Anti- Ahmedinejad protests will die out, Did Iran concoct election results before the election?, At the brink: Ahmadinejad refuses to guarantee Mousavi’s safety, and Iran’s Military Coup. What I like about these articles, besides giving information on the current situation, is that they try and answer the following question: why did the Mullahs rig the election results? If Mousavi was unacceptable, he could have been barred from running in the first place. The first two articles suggest that Mousavi was becoming too popular with the young and indicated he would change the laws to elevate the status of women (a no-no for Islamists). If this is true, are the Mullahs afraid of an Iranian Gorbachev? The last two articles suggest a coup by the supporters of Ahmedinejad, the Revolutionary Guards. There may well be an element of truth to this: Ayatollah Khameini has allowed a coup because he has faith in the Revolutionary Guards as totally loyal to the current system. It could even be some combination of the two points of view.

BTW, Michael J. Totten’s posts on Iran, or any other foreign policy issue, either at his own site or at Commentary are worth reading.

What are the chances Iran will want to make a deal on it’s nuclear program?: Imposing Ahmadinejad Is Rather Significant.

OBAMA’S REACTION TO IRANIAN CHAOS. The only quibble I have is, even in jest, calling Obama a “pragmatist.” I think of Obama as an opportunist (like Nixon) whose most important goal is to turn America into a socialist country. His second major goal is to advance the cause of Islam in the West. Everything else is just a means to an end. Don’t be fooled by the fact that that he doesn’t take the most direct route to get where he wants. He has to keep public support while he achieves his goals. Sometimes that means taking two steps forwards and one step backwards. That’s not “pragmatic,” it’s Machiavellian. The key is how honest Obama is about his goals and methods. Answer: Not very.

More on the Obama administration’s reaction to Iran: Obama votes present (my title) and Obama Official Refuses to Condemn Brutality. Response: Most Americans in Poll Think Obama’s a Mewling Sissyboy.

Obama on the Mideast: Is there any doubt that had he said that in 2008 he would have been greeted with catcalls and boos?

An Arab woman speaks out on Obama’s Cairo speech.

Obama quoted in his Cairo speech from violent jihad verses in Qur’an: Click here and Obama quotes verse 5:32, omits 5:33. One has to wonder how many different messages Obama is deliberately sending by using ambiguous quotes pulled out of context. I’m sure he’s aware that hardly anyone in the West would check the context of his quotes. Even if they did, almost everyone would be willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. I’m not because he studied the Koran for several years when he was young. He has to be aware that Muslims will see his words in a much different context than most Westerners will. If he wanted to, Obama could’ve easily taken words from the more peaceful passages in the Koran (Muhammad’s Meccan phase). Either he doesn’t care about the impact of what he says, or he’s deliberately sending mixed messages. He doesn’t have the typical Western politician’s excuse of ignorance about Islam.

Standing up to Obama and Hillary on Israel: Netanyahu Steps Up To Bat, Netanyahu: The last man standing, and Netanyahu’s Response To Obama.

Outrage: UN workers stealing food from starving children. They sell it on the black market.

Too Jewish and pro-Israel for the Mullahs: Obama Ousts Dennis Ross as envoy to Iran and Dennis Ross out at the Iran desk?

Worth reading: Geert Wilders, The Euro-Left and Salafi Islam.

Wake up Jewish community: Republicans support Israel more than Democrats do.

Domestic News/Policy

Hope-n-Change from our new capital, Chicago-on-the-Potomac: A Descent Into Corruption and Abuse Of Power Is Not The Change For Which We Had Hoped, CORRUPTION ERUPTION: THUG IN CHIEF FIRES AMERICORPS INSPECTOR GENERAL, Obama cronyism: Going after AmeriCorps IG on behalf of contributor; Update: A Michelle Obama connection? , The curious firing of Gerald Walpin gets … curiouser, GERALD WALPIN SPEAKS: The Inside Story of the Americorps Firing, and HOPE AND CHANGE: Obama fires Americorps Inspector General who investigated friend.

Michelle: Our new Hillary? In spite of the promises, some things never do seem to change.

On the other hand, why worry? I’m still waiting for Obama to heal our souls.

Is there no end to the madness? Obama’s Urban Renewal: Obama administration considering bulldozing parts of cities and US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive. This reminds me of harebrained schemes like Mao’s Great Leap Forward and destroying crops and animals during the Depression to keep prices from falling. Before considering anything as drastic as this, why didn’t they at least try cutting taxes and regulation in these cities by creating Enterprise Zones?

Big Labor insolvent? Wall Street isn’t the only one who spent more than they could afford.

Who were the rubes? So called educated, sophisticated, wealthy, morally-sensitive Liberals who believed in Obama.

Zo’s video to Letterman: “You don’t make jokes, man, you hide behind jokes. You’re a weak, mean-spirited humanoid.”

Letterman caves: Apologizes to Palins. Although he said that he was sorry, why did he ever think that an 18 yr. old single mother was fair game? Also, I’m not aware of him apologizing for his remarks about Palin’s “slutty looks.”