Category: foreign politics

THE THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAMISM

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Authored by William Robert Barber

With the grace of God, the people of greater Boston, and an impressive assembly of police authorities from federal to state to local, the evil ones were caught.

We find out that the perpetrators are people America reached out to; people that attended our school system, lived for ten years in our culture, our community. These two very dangerous fellows fraternized with American friends, participated in our sports, the oldest one of the two married and had a child in this country. Nevertheless, withstanding America’s willingness to include, educate, and protect, within a portion of the residing ten years these dastardly fellows planned and executed the killing and maiming of the very people that welcomed them and their families to America. 

Militant radical Islam is not a protest of defiance. It is not a means to counter Western influence. Radical Islam is theocratic-fascism wherein the obligation of a believer is to dedicate one’s life to the eradication of all perceived challenges to Muslim culture and laws. To a Jihadist, the holy war is the bridge to heaven and acts of violence including suicide is blessed by Muhammed.

The theorem of militant radical Islam is wrought with misgivings, misnomers, and such gobbledygook one of common understanding must question its vitality of truthfulness; but instead, the royal family of Saudi Arabia financially supports its teachings. And they are not alone in this endeavor.

There are billions of law-abiding Muslims. Islam is a stable religion. Conflict between the West and the Islamic world has been going on since Islam forged their presence out of the Arabian Peninsula. I do not believe that the secular West will convert to the teachings of Mohammed or the Muslims to secularism, much less Christianity. Therefore, for the rational of mind the compromise is tolerance; understanding of one for the other is a reasonable alternative to acts of terror.

But the government of Iran is not rational nor reasonable. The Taliban and Jihadist are not interested in compromise; these fanatics are not willing to agree on a series of understandings. As with other extremists, these militant Muslim radicals kill their brethren. Preaching the dictates of a traditionally strict Sharia, these terrorists are members of an Islamic cult wherein obedience to the uncompromising Caliph of the true Islamic faith is never questioned; this cult of zealots has willfully segregated itself from the nonbelievers and by shouting aloud “God is great” have pledged their lives to Allah.         

This radicalization of Islam is a definitive threat of the very highest priority. We cannot simply wait. We must act proactively to mitigate any and all probable threats to the homeland. For instance Syria is in possession of chemical weapons and the bad guys could get their hands on this stockpile… the question is: what we are doing about this?!

As horrible the bombings in Boston were, imagine the horror of a chemical weapons attack anywhere in the United States. We need to set aside the niceties and deal with the threat directly and affirmatively.

VOX POPULI

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Authored by William Robert Barber

 

In the words of Alexis de Tocqueville:  “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” 

 

As never before in American history the warning of De Tocqueville has been realized. This election plainly presented a classic exemplar, the quantitative consequence, of President Obama’s class warfare propaganda.  The ethnic minorities, the have-less, the welfare-dependent, the callow, the obsessive contrarians, the idealistically inclined, and the devoted liberal-progressives…  in essence an assortment of divergent special interest groups coalesced to defeat the candidate with the only viable political-economic alternative to the current economic malaise.

 

The Federal Reserve can and will print all the cash it deems necessary, congress will tax, nevertheless printing monies and increased taxation will not generate a fiscally viable economy. There are some financial-commercial realities that cannot be swept away by promises. Taxes and fees (all taxes and fees) are generated from the profits of commerce. Even those creative municipalities that feed off of total revenue instead of net profits can only successfully collect their monies if the particular private enterprise is profitable. 

 

President Obama’s second term will include the enthusiastic continuance of unions financing Democratic politicians, States with Democratic governors will excessively levy, budgetary problems of federal entitlements rhetorically regurgitated but not resolved, ObamaCare implemented at a price of fiscally disastrous effects and complications, statutorily compliant corruption will proliferate, the concept of central planning and green energy rewarded, as the constitutionally enshrined meaningfulness of federalism retrogrades into a meaningless historical-remnant.   

 

On the international front Russia and China will enthusiastically extend their influence, allies will exhibit anxiety, Iran ecstatic, Israel apprehensive; and Canada is wondering if the pipeline will ever go through.   

 

The president and his disciples will immediately focus on the next election with the ambition of returning the House to Democratic control. They will continue overtly and in Argot to personally demonize the Republican Party and its members. Obama’s Deus ex Machina magic requires his coterie of devotees to control all branches of government. By the midterm election the president must establish the means to execute the progressives’ egalitarian entitlement state and their brand of authoritarian statism.

 

The plenipotentiary ambitions of the Statist contested against those persons of conservative principles and limited government will almost immediately evolve into an indignant balkiness of will. A spectacular reminiscent of a televised Mexican Lucha Libre wherein stories of hair-pulling, spitting, and eye-gouging dominate the news media.

But no matter who does what to whom, socialism, progressivism, authoritarian statism, or a status of egalitarian entitlement will not displace the present economic malaise with the antitheses. Governmental largeness will always fail to deliver fiscal success and abate freedom from the within and the without. Obama and his progressives will, at great cost to Americans, follow the path of the entire socialists and progressives of the past — they will fail to deliver.

OUTSOURCING — ANTI-AMERICAN OR A CRIME? REALLY?!

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Authored by William Robert Barber

Outsourcing seems to be the bone of contention between the political clans Obama and Romney. For inexplicable reasons (well, it seems inexplicable only to me), the idea, concept, and practice of outsourcing is anti-American or counter to the working peoples of America… or something like that. The supposition is that outsourcing is counter to America’s economic interest. My assumption is that (obviously I am wrongheaded) every able bodied individual with an 8th grade education would understand that trade is international. That American companies are in every geographic sector of the world and correspondingly, international (non-American) companies are operating in America; outsourcing is not only commonplace, it is the international business norm.

American companies operating in a United Europe can only operate in those countries if they are duly licensed and compliant to domicile rules and regulations. So in Germany, IBM is a German company. The currency is €uro and the labor force is predominately German. Such is the circumstance for every country that for example Procter and Gamble operates within the global economy… Is that outsourcing?

This entire argument is totally stupid. The president willfully and with purposeful intent internationally outsource(d) stimulus funds: he invested in Brazilian oil exploration, the World Bank, and International Monetary Fund; besides the State Department spends billions in foreign aid supposedly to garner commercial support, and through the UN’s corruptive means & ways the US sends billions of dollars, willy-nilly, all over the world.

Rome is burning and Obama wants to discuss when Romney left Bain Capital… and in his defense, Romney cannot muster up the truth of the matter.

The problem within the EU is not whether austerity or growth is the answer; the problem is its policy of social solidarity since post WWII. The issue at hand is satisfying an addiction to a belief that entitlement is a basic human right. The enormous social security and entitlement promises made over successive political administrations was founded on the premise that borrowing into the future was the god sent economic surety. People wanted to believe that lifelong protection was feasible, and most importantly that such an entitlement would not infringe on their personal liberty and freedom. So they baked the cherry pie à la mode and ate it all… now what? Wait a minute, isn’t that the issue at hand here in the good ole USA?

There are those that believe that the financial burden must now fall on those that have. No matter if you attained your wealth by the sweat of one’s brow and the risk of one’s own monies, the wealthy are to share their wealth with those that have less. Ideally, this dividing of wealthy resources should go on until everyone is denominated to less rather than more. For the liberal progressives this is the perfect example of fairness…let’s call it righteous fairness.

If spreading the wealth is slowed down by those nasty conservatives, there is always inflation. Negating the U. S. Congress Act of 1792 that declared currency debasement a felony punishable by death because it constituted theft from the citizenry. These very same suggest that inflation is an alternative that either is commensurate with spreading the wealth or certainly an economic model valued enough to implement at will.

Obama and Romney both graduated from Harvard with a degree in something or other; nevertheless, one blast (knowing otherwise) outsourcing as counter to America’s economic interest and the other can’t seem to grasps the reins of deductive logic to declare outsourcing; simply put, in the interest of America as well as a by-product of international trade. I think both should sue the university and get their tuition money refunded. Neither one has learned anything at Harvard…

OBAMA! GOVERNING OR CAMPAIGNING?

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Authored by William Robert Barber

Have we Americans become so disconnected from the plain, simple, and obvious, the logical and deductive, that we can be influenced into believing that President Obama’s $447 billion jobs-stimulus bill is genuinely a presidential effort to promote job growth? Or is it that the Obama administration’s focus is on his reelection and the jobs bill is a tactical ruse, a means to a political end? Is it possible that this president, the superb elocutionist, after the results of his personally guided and endorsed legislative actions are measured; wherein the meaningfulness of such a measurement indicates anemic economic growth and high unemployment… Is this president going to win over the American people with his rhetorical sleight-of-hand? The president’s recent words, policies, and self-touting performances, inclusively mimicked by his progressive ducklings, are undeniably the dealings of a man and office striving for reelection. This looks and sounds like a man who conceitedly believes everything his vice-president and publicist convey.

The opening scene on the Obama campaign for reelection melodrama is a picture of all cheering his carte du jour of scurrilous slander, lies, deceitful exaggerations, and other such banal accusations. He is always choreographed standing with and encircled by the usual suspects that composite the Obama entourage: Public union bosses, their employees, progressive-ideologically inclined benefactors, civil servant bureaucrats, and empathic elected officials of the liberal progressive Democratic persuasion.

The president is professionally staged to be viewed by the populous as a leader wholesomely propagating the righteousness of his cause. He induces a call-to-arms (the repetitive Obama rant) attacking Republicans, specifically by name, to “straighten-up and fly-right,” and pass my jobs bill.

This is the very same ‘job bill’ defeated in the Senate by members of his own party.

Herein is the conundrum for Obama and his liberal progressives: Socialism whether European, Cuban, N. Korean, Venezuelan, or the current American style does not work. Aside from a nation fully committed to a war of survival, a nation therefore, willingly ceding constitutional guarantees for the perceived safety of martial law, the idea that the wise and the expert can accurately central plan the workings of a diverse domestic economy is a fantasy; a Wizard of Oz scenario that has been played out many times to the same failed result. The concept that the taxpayer funding of government largeness will inspire, catalysis, spawn, and electrify a substantial growth of private enterprise is absurd. Indeed funding government such as the Bush stimulus, TARP, or the Obama stimulus, an act ostensibly designed to stimulate the private economy, resulted instead, in supporting unions, sustaining the excessive cost of governing, aided and assisted in the corrupting of original intent, encouraged wastefulness, and enabled the status quo.

Not only is President Obama arrogantly disingenuous when promoting his jobs bill; he is in unison, ignorantly dismissing the palpable: The social and entitlement justice that complements the Obama ideal of how to engineer the American economy is not only impossible to profitably put into practice, the norms required for implementation is directly contrary to the required fiscal, cultural, and statutory environment to maintain a robust American style capitalistic system.

Prompted by the three branches of government, the feds, by means legal and extralegal, are operating beyond and outside of well-defined constitutional limits, the very premeditated concerns of the Founders have come into being, the pillars that established the legal basis of a nation of laws not of men is now, once again, in jeopardy. Liberal progressives manipulate, trounce, envelope, and ignore the meaningfulness of the words and spirit of the U.S. Constitution; regretfully, such contrivances are not limited to the Democratic Party, nevertheless, President Obama and his confederates have exponentially exemplified the discernible meaning of a liberal-progressive social justice conscious entitlement enriching government.

It is time get these buggers out of office…

THIS BLAME STUFF IS A WASTE… LET’S GO FISHING!

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Authored by William Robert Barber

I have been, for the last week, on business in Ireland. Today after frisking about with the Irish people, gazing and stomping on their generously forested land of gently rolling green country-side, driving through narrow village streets dotted along the hill and dale; enjoying many a stimulating discussion intertwined with good food and ale. I am heading home.

Interestingly, the economic concerns of Ireland and indeed all of Euro-land, are about the same as they are in America. Everyone I met and every publication I scanned emphasized the painfully high unemployment, the lack of bank-funding, dismal economic growth, and the sad, bitter effects of the almost complete devastation of real-estate value.

Entertainingly, the blame-story is similar to what we Americans channel. When the marketplace puts money or even the illusion of putting money in peoples’ pocket, everyone is unquestioning and quite pleased. However, when money has stopped flowing in and in fact starts to flow out or not flow at all, well, fault is seeking a dance partner. The people negatively affected point the finger at any and all except their own blindly excessive spending indulgences. The Irish – just like us Americans – readily exclude their most recent willy-nilly mindless behavioral addiction to a belief and practice in nonrecourse consumption.

When specifying the present American financial and real estate downturn I suggest that one should review the fuel that created the economic boom-cheap money and debt. The collateral was a commodity known as real estate and equity market trades and holdings. When private enterprise is managing its own risk and the speculator-public accepts their own risk, individually, the winners and losers suffer or gain. But when government and their cohorts public-private unions gets in the middle to install a “fair playing field,” to “protect the worker or the investor,” or enact by law a third-party ideal of fairness, the taxpayer pays excessively for the governing service.

There is an ancient adage that runs parallel to the biblical saying, “God helps those that help themselves,” inclusively, one cannot by edit nullify stupid or criminal behavior nor can government by legislation bind or mandate the practice of good sense and morality.

Of course these well-known adages do not stop the elected from their task of constant governmental interference. This is best evidenced by the government’s insistence on retaining an ambiguous federal tax code, enacting the excessively expensive regulatory dud Sarbanes-Oxley, the retention of duplicating departments and agencies, the persistence of continuing federal policies that bully risk-takers and reward losers. The systematically applied coercive pushing and pulling by several Congresses since the Eisenhower administration has driven private enterprise straight to attorneys, litigation, and bureaucratic discombobulating.

The liberal progressives in line with congress’ Barney Frank have for years forced private banks in the direction of mal-ginned imprudent lending practices. For the elected, evidence to the contrary of their ideal, be damned; the policy of government in their eye’s is as a matter of policy, to taxpayer finance a seemingly never-ending series of perverse societal contrivances that have, in the present, after decades of persistence, finally, impaired the nation.

When one combines such governmental action with a popular consumption frenzy stirred and prompted at every opportunity by a political leadership motivated solely to attain or maintain public office; the tangibles of sensible and pragmatic are pushed into the delete file in favor of the intangible and deceptive. These rascals, the elected Noblesse oblige, and their allies such as public employee unions, the New York Times, National Broadcasting Company, all liberal progressives, and labor lobbyist in general, are consistently remissive of applying prudent real-world principles to the issues and concerns of governing the peoples’ money. Either consciously purposeful, or permissively naïve, political leaders have, for many years, mislead the voting public as to the nation’s economic disposition. Experience has documented, the elected class will lie, cheat, and steal to and from their constituencies.

When reviewing the governing of particularly democratic-republics one is inclined to believe in the governing tenants of righteousness, particularly in these countries the predominately sane champions the irrational. Corruptive behavior in and by government is assumed to be spotty at best. After all, one is led to believe that in democratic-republics reason dominates the unreasonable, but low and behold, instead we find the non-sensible overwhelming good sense.

Upon surveying the historically documented factual pieces and parts that lead to the 2008 recession one could conclude that it was if the world of the otherwise prudent and rational was managed from the Emerald City by the hedge fund wonk, The Wizard-of-Oz.

Bloated property assessment permitted the government to tax and squanders more of the people’s money; equity pricing egregiously mismatch derivative to market value, and the wholesale of government policies explicitly designed to give away other people’s money. Could there have been another outcome? If governments’ print money, if fiat currency is forced into acceptance, if tax revenue lags behind governmental distribution of that revenue how could there actually be a functioning economy? No one with enough political juice considered the cost verses the benefit; everyone was chasing the butterflies, enjoying the rainbows, and receiving their pot of gold.

Captivatingly, the financially affected, withstanding the history of government stupidity, the government’s culpability in a total lack of sensible, rational, prudent, and reasonable governess, these persons, still contemplate government as the quick and easy solution. I am particularly astounded by the incredulous insistence of not just the financially affected populous but institutional leaders from bankers to insurance executives, economist, and broker-dealers they all create a novel wherein they write-in, admittedly, in degrees of measurable variance, governmental agencies and departments as the solution-protagonist.

The solution to our economic malaise is simple. Learn to find the bait, fancy the bait onto the hook, choose a line and pole; discover a place where fish are to be found, throw the baited line into the water, catch the fish, prepare the fish, cook the fish and eat it. Now all of this is to be done without paying a licensing fee, and entrance fee, a poundage tax, governmentally assisted learning, or some federal agency telling you how to eat the fish.

In other words, government shut up, do less, and stay out of my business…

PROFESSIONAL GUESSERS AND FEARFUL INVESTORS

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Authored by William Robert Barber

As the stock markets of the world kinetically vibrate, setting a pace of newly found extremes for sell-off and buy-in, investors surrender to the bafflement of two offers: The first is to accept the blindfold, and the second is to stare-down the oncoming bullet as it races for the spot just above one’s nose.

Speculators of genuine risks are buying gold futures, coin, and billion by following the golden rule for speculation: Prices rise when buyers significantly outperform sellers — of course the opposite rings just as true.

Remember! The purchase of gold does not add capital to a company’s balance sheet; these treasures will not fund research of discovery or invention. An ‘investment’ in gold is a bet founded on the principle of hoarding.

King Midas regularly counted his gold; but he gained no material benefit from the gold until he made a purchase. Obviously, as soon as Midas transacted a purchase, he not only had less gold but the price of gold as a necessity of market dynamics depreciated. When one sells ones — gold which is a requirement in order to attain a product or service — one does so by a conversion to fiat currency. In other words, eventually one is going to sell gold for legal tender; otherwise, there is no benefit to holding on to gold. If I was a holder of gold I would want to be first in line on the selling side because if I am not in the front, the price of gold will be far less valuable to me standing somewhere in the middle of the sellers pack.

Licensed professionals bandy about their theories and conjecture their forecast. All of these suit-and-tie personalities act as if they were/are the bona fide harbingers of repute, each exuding the confidence of an “I knew my horse would win” bettor; of course this is only after the horse race was over.

It is my belief that genius, like wisdom, and luck are results that can only be accurately measured in arrears. No one knows — one only guesses that one knows.

A hypothesis, a tentative explanation of a phenomenon, is a best guess effort to explain what we do not know for sure. I believe all of these professional guessers are sincere hypothesist striving to analyze and present a reasonable rational commentary on an event that quite possibly could be wholly unreasonable and irrational.

The statist that occupy the White House lament that the Stimulus was too small, not big enough because they miscalculated the enormity of the economic Bush debacle. Their premise of finding the economically viable light and the way has not moved one iota from their insistence that Keynesian economics is the answer to the woeful status of present US economic ills.

In keeping with that belief they also believe that the federal government can directly create private sector jobs. Well, the certainty is that the federal government cannot directly create jobs. Other than covertly enhance or overtly embrace governmental bureaucracy, possibly bedfellow, even more openly the unionization of America, government involvement in private business can only increase the cost of doing business, stymie productivity, and – when coupled with Obama’s resolve on super-regulating enterprise – government can only belay growth.

I have no idea why we need to relearn the simple and palpable over and over again. Capitalism is the most potent of economic methodologies/systems. Currently, the federal government is managed by progressive persons who depend on an ever-increasing manifest for governmental largeness; they depend on the viability of increase taxation as a matter of policy. Factually, liberal progressives could not sustain their raison d’être, their howl in the light of a full moon if government is limited in operational scope. Progressives require a big fat bureaucratically enriched government in order to inhale their brand of oxygen.

This American economy will overcome the Keynesian policy of where-for-naught as it intersects with the Obama administration’s design of social justice and class warfare; it will rise above the ills of the EU malaise, it will, with the aid and assist of the Supreme Court, withstand the costly breach of good sense by rescinding ObamaCare. All is to be rightfully settled in the election of 2012.

letter from a WASHINGTON POST staffer

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Dear Bill,

I write today about the ever increasing pressure to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. A vote last week drove home the point that this is becoming more and more of a contentious issue. In a bill that was expected to fail by a longshot, the vote actually came to a close failure vote of 215-204, with 26 Republicans joining in the effort with all but eight of the Democrats. This was a significant step for the Democrats to step out against the President in opposition to his public stance. This bill essentially called for the Obama Administration to establish a plan this summer to accelerate the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and to pursue a negotiated settlement with “all interested parties”.

This is a substantial shift as just one year ago Congressman McGovern suffered a much greater defeat with 98 Democrats going against a similar piece of legislation. After the heightened coverage surrounding Bin Laden’s death, Americans are more aware that as Congressman Hoyer observed, “Many of the terrorists against whom we are fighting are no longer located in Afghanistan but are in disparate locations, from Yemen to Somalia to Southeast Asia.” This is one factual point that has provided a basis for the sentiment that the U.S. troop’s ongoing mission in Afghanistan is in part a futile waste of U.S. time and resources.

Although the situation in Afghanistan is complicated and may be hard for those without military experience much less inside intelligence information to fully understand or appreciate, there are a few basic observations that can be made. First, there multiple obstacles preventing the U.S. from making progress as intended. Second, Obama has failed to present a clear strategy that people, even those within his own party, can unify behind. For any issue in politics, messaging is always key to rallying support. The problem is that the Administration has not determined a clear exit strategy and therefore, they are unable to communicate a vision of a withdrawal method to the taxpayers who are funding these efforts. It is natural for Americans to grow anxious about an exit strategy when it is clear our troops are not making significant progress in regards to the stated purposes of the mission, namely “nation building”. The white elephant in the room is the fact that the U.S. Government is conceivably not revealing the true purpose for remaining in Afghanistan. This of course is the geographic proximity to a growing threat to the U.S., Pakistan. This is a country in which the core leadership of al-Qaeda is now located in addition to their develop nuclear weapons. The U.S. would not want to vocalize this purpose as it would further strain the delicate relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan. However, there is logic in positioning ourselves in the region in a way that prevents the terrorist groups from growing in size and power. Since this purpose is still only hypothetical, I will just address the current challenges the U.S. faces in Afghanistan which are delaying an immediate exit.

Fist, the U.S. has stated that our troops would be withdrawn when Afghanistan has a permanently stable and well-resourced government. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the Bush Administration made the decision to try to rebuild a relatively strong central government and to assist Afghanistan’s economy. Even at the January 28, 2010 “London Conference” and the July 20, 2010 “Kabul Conference”, two international conferences on Afghanistan, the focus was still on expanding and reforming the Afghan convernance.The problem with using this measurement as a prerequisite to exiting, is the fact that Afghanistan may never meet this objective. Current President Hamid Karzai’s failure to forcefully confront corruption within the government has caused a great loss of support by the people. The rife corruption has caused the Afghan citizens to even resent the Karzai government; completely undermining any faith they may have held that America could be trusted in their strategy of rebuilding stable governance. The two more recent corruption stories were that involving the Kabul Bank, and the U.S. sanctions imposed on the money trading firm New Ansari Money Exchange on February 18, 2011. In response to this, the Obama Administration and Congress have begun strategically urging Kazai to publicly confront government corruption. Karzai has in turn resisted these efforts and has become more suspicious of the U.S. motivations.

Secondly, there are several factions of conflicting governance currently controlling this country in various regions and capacities. Amidst the more organized, legitimate bodies, there are also individual “warlords”, local strongmen who wield personal militias and functionally destabilize the progress between the U.S. and Afghan officials. In newly released Defense Department reports in May 2011, they recognized the fact that our security efforts are being challenged by multiple armed groups. Until the U.S.-led offensives launched in 2009, the Karzai government was estimated to control about 30% of the country, insurgent’s controlled 4% officially and were considered to heavily influence or operate in another 30%, and finally local tribes and groups controlled the remainder. As of 2009, the Taliban had named shadow governors in 33 of 34 Afghan provinces. It is incredibly difficult for the U.S. to make progress when the citizens have such varied and divided loyalties to difference governing bodies. Certain regions continue to be potential safe havens for al-Qaeda forces, and therefore General Patraeus has stated the U.S. will not leave these areas. These threatening areas include Kandahar and Helman in the South and Kunar and Paktika in the East, along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, he U.S. has stated it would hand-over security responsibilities to Afghan Security Forces for seven areas of the country in July, even though there is no apparent solidified Security Force to hand off the baton to. The U.S. has failed to strengthen a central governing body that the citizens could coalesce behind. Unless a strategy to accomplish this is formed, the U.S. progress will continue at a sluggish pace at best.

Thirdly, there is the instability that is created by way of their drug creation and distribution, an issue that gets little media coverage. However, some consider the narcotics trafficking to be a core impediment to the U.S. missions. The trafficking of narcotics undermines the rule of law and provides large sums of money to the insurgency, which often times goes untraced. The Taliban makes between $70-$100 million per year off the trafficking of poppy or opium. As the Obama Administration has focused on developing and promoting alternative agricultural crops, the Afghans have turned away from the U.S. and instead to the Taliban for protection of their ability to earn income in what is one of the top industries for Afghans. This counter-narcotics approach has severely back-fired on the U.S. and given the Taliban more control among the locals.

The stated U.S. policy thus far has been to ensure that Afghanistan will not again become a base for terrorist attacks against the United States. The Obama Administration has asserted that it is pursuing a well-resourced and integrated military civilian strategy intended to pave the way for a gradual transition to Afghan leadership that is to be completed by 2014. To support this mission, an additional 51,000 U.S. forces were authorized in 2009 reviews to increase U.S. troop levels to 99,000. However, Obama has also said we intended to have a relationship with Afghanistan that will include military involvement long after 2014, an indication that the administration sees no foreseeable end to our presence.

Amidst the tension over this issue, is the continual increase in Government funding for expanded efforts. The House Appropriations Defense subcommittee just released their Pentagon budget bill for FY 2012 which contained $119 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. government continues to spend a substantial portion of our defense budget in a country where there is a lack of clear vision for efforts moving forward. It is now time for the Administration to communicate their intentions to the American people, in a way that is nonthreatening to our security. At some point we will have to determine whether it is worth the billions of dollars and other resources spent to remain in a region when we continue to take one step forward, two steps back.

Sincerely,

Hill Observer

THE SOLUTION FOR IMMIGRATION AND BORDER SECURITY

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Authored by William Robert Barber

The constituents of this nation of ours are crying out for congressional action regarding illegal immigration and border security. Therefore, in an effort to relieve congress of an obligation it will not address I have decided to solve the US border/immigration problem with our neighbor to the South. Sound a little hubris? Well, if President Obama with little regard for truthfulness willfully exaggerates his administration’s successes along the border and make fun of those constituents that populate the border as never going to be satisfied no matter if he constructs a moat inhabited with alligators. Then surely I can put forward a ‘new approach’ or solution to a seemingly everlasting problem.

What Spanish speaking country financially benefits from its willful albeit illegal exportation of it citizens into the United States? That’s about as hard a question as who is buried in Grant’s tomb.

Well, clearly Mexico the sovereign nation benefits, and obviously, Mexicans benefit, if not, multimillions over these many, many, years would not trek north. The very fact that Mexican citizens, seeking financial surety and all of its derivatives must leave their home, by usually dangerous and certainly illegal measures, is a negative indictment of the Mexican government’s veracity of governing competence.

Multi-millions of US Dollars are sent by illegal Mexican immigrates to Mexican banks for a repatriation service fee. All of this income flowing into Mexico is prompted solely by the successful illegal export of its citizens into America. This exportation of Mexican citizens are premeditated, willful, contrived, and supported with a wink and a nod by the Mexican government and its private affiliates.

Hence it is not the individual alone that is liable for breaching US immigration law. The government of Mexico is the real culpable indispensable accomplice.

Therefore, for conspiring and committing a breach of US law it is the Mexican government in addition to the individual Mexican that is the violator. This ameliorated new approach (of mine) to viewing an old problem once thoughtfully contemplated reveals itself as axiomatic and sensible. The governing Mexican administrations, both present and past, for years have been aiding and abetting the willful violation of US law. Mexico is the prime offender; and is, consequently, the first cause of liability.

Let me be absolutely clear, I am stating, unequivocally, that the Mexican government is directly liable for its citizens’ contravention of US immigration laws.

Ok, well, so what! The “so what” is a strategic realignment not just of culpability but of subsequent judicial recourse. Nevertheless, the United States can offer to Mexico a means to end their participation in breaching US immigration law or face the consequences of lawful recourse. Interestingly, the elimination of the problem is not only costless but readily implemental.

The USA offers to open its borders by issuing 6-months work permits, with some obvious restrictions, terms, and conditions to all able boded Mexicans. The work permits are authorized by the federal government but issued for a fee by the particular state the worker agrees to work within. Any violations of the covenants by the individual will have a financial penalty including deportation and permanent exclusion. The secondary financial guarantor of this transaction is the Mexican government. All applicable taxes due are collected; any none applicable taxes (possibly social security) are exempt.

Any and all “paths to citizenship” remain within current US law. Those illegal persons already within the USA must apply for year-to-year work Visas or face deportation. For those who have resided in the country for more than 5-years, speak English or will attend a formal sponsoring school to learn the language and have no criminal record (standard to be noted) will be eligible for a very specifically issued resident status. Special attention will be dedicated to those children brought by their parents illegally into the United States when they were under preschool age and have been attending an academic program throughout their obligatory schooling period.

For a permanent solution to this illegal immigration problem:

If the Mexican government would permit US firms the right of majority ownership in Mexican domiciled business, private property, and adopts an equal status for investment in Mexico as the US affords to Mexicans in the United States. In less than a generation at the high and within ten years at the low, citizens of Mexico will have less cause to legal or illegally live and work in the United States because US firms with minority owned partners will blossom in Mexico. The border will be gleefully overrun by a global tourist boom, businesspersons, and investors.

I am very skeptical that this permanent solution will ever take place but I do believe by holding the Mexican government legally and financially accountable for their citizens are the proper approach to the issue of present concern.

However, Mexico is now and has been since its inception a nation fearful of Yankee dominance. After losing Texas, California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona to the United States plus being invaded by US forces they certainly have a good cause for fearfulness. Notwithstanding the other urgent drug-gangster mayhem that is perverting the normalcy of transaction in Mexico our neighbors to the South do have a deep-seated latent problem with corruption at almost every cultural, civil, and governmental level.

In the interest of brevity I have dumb down my solution to the single initiative of holding the Mexican government lawfully responsible for the immigration problem. There is so much more to my solution…any questions or request for more detail just send me a comment.

OBAMA’S IDEAL OF CHANGE

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Authored by William Robert Barber

The working suppositions of the Obama government are that more regulation is better than less, increasing the taxes of those who have more is not only a requisite to social justice but a moral initiative worthy of any confrontation, increasing the power of the federal government is the willfulness necessary to instill a liberal progressive policy, and that all of the these working suppositions are not only the very thesis of liberal progressivism but essential to the Obama scheme for meaningful change.

In the Obama world of ‘Change One Can Believe In,’ patriotism is a low priority. While Obama’s idea of social-economic fairness is a high priority, a greater, more powerful bureaucracy in partnership with unions is the essential engine that will power the doctrine of social-economic fairness.

The location of power within the United States preceding the progressive era was founded on the idea that decisions should be taken as close as possible to the people it affects. Hence the states, counties, and cities played a much larger role in governing. But over time, and particularly since the rule of FDR, power has been ceded to the distant federal source. Now evidence demonstrates that although this transference of power has been going on enthusiastically for many years, this administration has far greater ambition than simply growing the size and scope of the central government. Obama insists on a transfer of sovereignty to the United Nations; he wants European integration wherein the United States would be part of a united Europe.

Let’s look at the evidence: European-style healthcare, welfare, carbon taxes, day care, college education… he even acts as a European espousing a Brussels-like foreign policy, mimicking a European approach to nuclear disarmament, and his reluctance to deploy US troops in a leadership role is a direct reflection of his ideal Euro-America.

Obama and his progressive confederates possess dangerous ideas. Their ideal America would abate growth, increase taxes (not exactly compatible factors), surrender America’s superpower standing, and trade our exceptionalism for the common denominator of being the same. Of course the Europeans might think of us more kindly; we might become more popular, the Russian and Chinese would gladly welcome us into their sphere of influence. I, of course, do not believe America’s role is one of subordination — indeed, the antithesis is true.

I believe that Obama and his acolytes are internationalists who have accepted the concept of a Brussels-led union wherein the ruling doctrine is that the nation-state must transcend individualism, freedom, liberty, and democracy, and the American rule of law in the interest of servicing policies that are inextricably tied to social justice.

All I see in Europe is a burgeoning bureaucracy, more spending, higher taxes, slower growth, and rising unemployment. This has been the European experience for the last forty years. It is clear to me that American capitalism will win the day… unless the liberal progressives kill the hand that feeds them. And they are trying real hard with fiscal stimulus, nationalization, bailouts, quantitative easing, more regulation, and the stubborn insistence on taxing “the rich,” to snap off the very hand that feeds them.

I was inspired to write this blog-topic by Daniel Hannan, a member of the European Parliament…

WHAT EXACTLY IS OUR PROBLEM?

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Authored by William Robert Barber

We have an economy larger than China and Japan combined — and we still need to sell debt instruments to foreign entities in order to meet our spending requirements?

Let’s think about this self-imposed conundrum… This nation protects the trading interest, the physical properties, and lives of millions of people who reside within the “providence” of the Free World. We are a very real martial hesitation for any aggressor; in fact, we, along with Canada, England, and Australia are the only true deterrent to any overt military threat whatsoever.

We are the largest consumer nation that has ever existed and withstanding our fiscal issues and unsustainable national deficit, we are still the transactional envy of the world.

If all is as I describe, how did this nation put itself in the position that it finds itself in 2011? How could we have so tangible a resource and yet be so very dependent on foreign nations purchasing our debt? Presently our national debt is 1.6 trillion dollars. Imagine the interest payments! The people of this nation are consuming benefits by borrowing money from foreign sources. We are caught up in this fiasco of counter-intuitive intercourse because we lack the managerial wherewithal or fiscal discipline to reduce our spending while living within the means of our tax revenue.

The grand question is: How in the hell did this happen? Why is it that America lacks the managerial wherewithal and fiscal discipline to straighten out its mess?

Over the last hundred years we have allowed the illogical influence of socialists, progressives, liberals, Epicureans, sophists, academia recluses, and the ideologically naïve into convoluting the very ethos of American governing tradition. The result is a legislative approach that champions a doctrine that government knows best, a presumption wholly void of empirical evidence.

As a nation we have traded leadership for a benign-sort of followship. Wherein legislators blend, compromise, affiliate, and with purposeful intent have collectively deduced that it is much safer (reelection considerations) to hide within the majority of opinions than to step forward and be distinguished. Because there is a human empathy for the commonality of behavioral dysfunction, tragedy, financial inequality; a differing of social and cultural upbringing. Many of the elected, in the interest of buying votes, have decided that government should fund entitlements, grants, and loans as well as all sorts of social, educational, and economic development programs to right any and all wrongs that could possibly be attributed to anyone not born into a financially functional family.

Obama has just put forth his budget; he has chosen to follow instead of lead. Rather than addressing the issues of the day he is playing the political game of 2012 reelection. He is the quintessential follower posing as a leader — he is a spokesperson, a representative of a political ideology — nothing more. Leadership is a distinctive trait; one knows it when one sees it. A leader embodies confidence, takes all the responsibility, and knows he or she has just one obligation, and that is to be right. Obama and his confederates are lost in the ‘wilderness of wish-it-was-so;’ they are the weight around the ankles of self-determination, self-reliance, and values that aggregate to form American exceptionalism.

We do need to rid this nation of the Obamas of the world; the election right around the corner, opportunity is nearby… but conservative principled leadership is required!