Heavy-Handed Politics: October 18, 2009

Destructive 'Solutions' | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

For at least a century, the Washington political class has been correctly known for creating more problems than solving existing ones. This tendency to enact destructive, rather than constructive, solutions for problems (most often created by government) has now gone into hyper-drive.

Many who see this situation often blame it on "excessive partisanship," where the real problem is caused by a bipartisan lust for power that breeds too much accommodation, rather than questioning and resistance to bad ideas. Read more.

A DITHERING DEMAGOGUING WHITE HOUSE THAT IS A DANGER TO AMERICA
By Dick Cheney

[This is the full text of former Vice-President Dick Cheney's speech at the Center for Security Policy award dinner in Washington on October 21, 2009.]

Thank you all very much. Its a pleasure to be here, and especially to receive the Keeper of the Flame Award in the company of so many good friends...And I thank you for the great energy and high intelligence you bring to as vital a cause as there is -- the advance of freedom and the uncompromising defense of the United States.

Most anyone who is given responsibility in matters of national security quickly comes to appreciate the commitments and structures put in place by others who came before. You deploy a military force that was planned and funded by your predecessors. You inherit relationships with partners and obligations to allies that were first undertaken years and even generations earlier.

With the authority you hold for a little while, you have great freedom of action. And whatever course you follow, the essential thing is always to keep commitments, and to leave no doubts about the credibility of your country's word.

So among my other concerns about the drift of events under the present administration... Read more...

Marxism

"...for Marxist Communists, there is no difference between make-believe and reality. There is no such thing as reality. There is only what people believe. If people believe something is true, it is. If they don't, it isn't, it doesn't exist..."

-- Dr. Jack Wheeler--

OMG. What next.

CNSNews.com - Lawyers Call for Changes in International Law to Help ‘Climate Exiles’

(CNSNews.com) – International law dealing with refugees should be amended to cover people affected by disasters attributed to climate change, environmental lawyers are arguing.

T. Boone Pickens on Iraq: 'We leave there with the Chinese getting the oil'

WASHINGTON — A leading energy developer said the United States has been excluded from Iraq's revived energy market.

T. Boone Pickens told Congress that U.S. companies were losing opportunities in the Iraqi crude oil and natural gas sectors to competitors from China and Europe.

The senior executive said the United States could lose all influence in the Iraqi oil sector after the military withdrawal in 2011. More...