martes, septiembre 30, 2014

Banco Central de Cuba sobre la unificación monetaria

El ministro-presidente del Banco Central de Cuba, Ernesto Medina, aseguró hoy en La Habana que la eliminación de la dualidad monetaria y cambiaria en el país representa una tarea de alta responsabilidad para el sistema bancario nacional.
Al dialogar con la prensa sobre cómo se prepara la referida institución para el “día cero” de esa medida, Medina comentó que conformaron un grupo de trabajo, que labora de conjunto con los organismos de la Administración Central del Estado que intervienen en el proceso.
Comentó que indudablemente las entidades financieras deben respaldar la implementación de la unificación monetaria, lo cual demandará de un esfuerzo logístico, para todos los pasos que hay que dar en tal sentido.
Es lógico que de establecerse el peso cubano como única moneda, y a partir de que los precios minoristas mantendrán el presente nivel, se necesite de mayor cantidad de circulante, incluso, se valora la posibilidad de emitir billetes de más alta denominación, precisó.
De igual forma, subrayó Medina, buscamos potenciar la utilización de las tarjetas magnéticas, mediante el establecimiento de Terminales de Puntos de Venta (los llamados POS) en determinadas centros, y así evitar el uso de efectivo y facilitar las operaciones.
Puntualizó que en tal sentido se trabaja con el Ministerio de Comercio Interior, la Unión Eléctrica, la Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba, entre otros organismos y entidades, para incorporar esos sistemas informáticos en las oficinas comerciales.
El titular refirió que actualmente el BCC coordina con FINCIMEX, empresa dedicada a la compra e instalación de los puntos de venta, y que ya cuenta con un grupo de estos dispositivos, cuyo valor es de 300 dólares cada uno.
Insistió en que la eliminación de la dualidad monetaria en Cuba no afectará el estado de las cuentas bancarias, pues estas se convertirán de forma automática, con el propósito de proteger a los clientes.
Mencionó como otras acciones que desarrollan hoy, la del estudio de los indicadores que miden la circulación monetaria, “los cuales ofrecerán los síntomas de hasta qué punto resulta correcta o no la circulación existente en la población y en el sistema empresarial”, abundó.
Asimismo, acotó Medina, el sistema bancario está enfocado en medidas de carácter macroeconómico, pues las instituciones financieras deben disponer de activos para ponerlo en función de las nuevas capacidades de créditos a demandar por la economía.
De acuerdo con opiniones de expertos, la unificación monetaria, política recogida en el Lineamiento número 55, deviene proceso necesario en pos de alcanzar la máxima efectividad de las demás acciones que emprende el país dentro la actualización de su modelo económico.

lunes, septiembre 29, 2014

Cuba asked for $55-million, assets to release Canadian CEO

Allison Martell
Cuba had offered a deal to release a Canadian executive sentenced to 15 years in prison last week in return for $55-million and company assets, the Canadian firm’s officials said on Monday.
Cy Tokmakjian, 74, was convicted of bribery and other economic charges. Two of his aides from the Tokmakjian Group, an Ontario-based transportation firm, received sentences of 12 and 8 years. Fourteen Cubans were also charged.
The Tokmakjian Group, which did an estimated $80-million in business annually with Cuba until it was shuttered in September, 2011, filed claims worth more than $200-million through the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris and an Ontario court.
The case has strained Cuba’s relationship with Canada, one of its biggest trading partners. Western diplomats have said it would dissuade foreign investors at a time Cuba is actively seeking partners from abroad to do business on the communist-ruled island.
After Tokmakjian was detained in 2011, company lawyers met with Cuban officials about the case.
“They were ... told ‘We’re taking all your assets and in addition you’re going to have to send another $55-million down before Cy will be released,’” Lee Hacker, Tokmakjian Group’s finance vice-president, told reporters at the company’s Ontario headquarters. He did not say why the deal fell through.
Cuba has yet to comment on the verdict or the sentencing. A call on Monday to the Cuban embassy in Ottawa for comment was not returned.
Other attempts at negotiation have failed, partly because Tokmakjian does not want to admit to crimes he has not committed, his son Raffi Tokmakjian said. Efforts to strike a deal have also been stymied by lack of direct contact with decision makers.
Tokmakjian Group’s Cuban lawyers said the government also wants international claims dropped.
“The problem is we don’t know who we’re talking to. It’s like we’re dealing with a ghost,” Hacker said.
The charge of economic crimes against the state involved the alleged late delivery of equipment, while the bribery charges included salary top-up payments to employees in joint venture operations, the company said.
Tokmakjian is the distributor for Hyundai vehicles and construction equipment in Cuba, as well as other mining equipment.
“The bribery charges are things that are also ludicrous,” Hacker said. “We would pay incentives to our staff in Cuba like every company does in Cuba. Everything we did in Cuba was normal.”
Hacker said Tokmakjian Group’s practice of making incentive payments to joint venture employees – the firms were majority owned by Cuban entities – seemed to have triggered concerns.
“We would pay incentives to everybody, from the lowest person to the highest person, and it was clear that there was no link between any incentive payments versus any advantage that was given to Tokmakjian whatsoever.”
Tokmakjian, the company’s founder and president, has been transferred to a military hospital, his son said on Monday.

Clama Cuba a EU por contrato de peloteros a traves del regimen

a traves de un articulo- "editorial" del periodista deportiva del granma oscar sanchez, el regimen cubano hace un desesperado llamado a estados unidos y en particular a la organizacion de las grandes ligas de beisbol, para que contraten a traves de la federacion cubana en manos del principito tony castro a los peloteros cubanos, tal como son los casos de algunos que juegan en mexico y japon. cuba no renuncia a la propiedad de todo lo que exista en la isla paraplejica, incluyendo los recursos humanos de cualquier tipo, sean medicos, oficiales de inteligencia, alfabetizadores o deportistas. todo es propiedad absoluta del clan biranico, representado en este caso por tony castro, quien a tiempo se construyo su propia parcela de poder y lucha por ampliarla, para convertirse en el agente exclusivo que represente a todos los peloteros cubanos que jueguen en ligas foraneas. 

Culture matters when thinking about China's future

globalguerrillas
China is in the process cracking down on democracy protesters in Hong Kong. 
ByoL54DCIAAENbS
It's important to remember that China is a dictatorship.  It's almost always been a dictatorship.  It also has a long history of extreme insularity and xenophobia.
_77874576_024103652-1
That's why it's important to consider this when investing in Chinese companies.  
As a dictatorship, China can nationalize all assets and shut its borders tight overnight.  It's done it many times before.  
This isn't ancient history.  Forty years ago, this government engaged in ruthless social engineering that killed an estimated twenty million people.
This and more is why investments in China, in particular the amazing valuation given to Alibaba ($200 billion plus) is nonsensical given the potential downside risks ($0 valuation overnight).
In contrast, countries like the US have a long tradition of economic and personal freedom.  It's one of the best features of American culture.  
How many countries have demonstrated that for 200 years plus?  
Very, very few.
Culture matters.  Don't discount it.  

domingo, septiembre 28, 2014

Fuel of the future produced at Russia’s high-tech underground plant

Spent fuel storage in Zheleznogorsk
http://rt.com/news/188332-mox-nuclear-fuel-production/
Russia’s ‘Breakthrough’ energy project enables closed a nuclear fuel cycle and a future without radioactive waste. The first batch of MOX nuclear fuel has been manufactured for the world’s only NPP industrially power generating breeder reactors.
The first ten kilograms of the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) – a mixture of plutonium and uranium dioxides (UO2 and PuO2), have been industrially produced by Russia’s nuclear monopoly, Rosatom, at the Mining & Chemical Combine (GKhK) in the Krasnoyarsk region.
A world first, tablets of the fuel of the future have been put on serial production and are destined for Russia’s next generation BN-800 breeder reactor (880 megawatts), currently undergoing tests at the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant.
The production line, now undergoing start-up and adjustment, was assembled in a mine 200 meters underground and will become fully operational by the end of 2014.
Fast fission reactors solve the problem of depleted uranium nuclear fuel on the planet. They can ‘burn’ not only ‘classic’ uranium-235, (scarce and already coming to an end), but also uranium-238, which is abundant, and expands the world’s nuclear fuel capacity by an estimated 50 times.
Fuel for breeder reactors could even be made from nuclear waste, which from an ecological point of view is a priceless advantage.
The GKhK facility will be equipped with a unique dissolvent reactor that will break down nuclear waste containing plutonium and extract plutonium dioxide to be used in MOX-fuel production.
Also, while producing electric energy, breeder reactors actually generate more fissile material, and that one also can be used as nuclear fuel.
The GKhK plant is Russia’s leading full nuclear fuel cycle complex, processing nuclear waste from power generating nuclear reactors to establish future nuclear fuel ring closure.
MOX-fuel for previous versions of fast breeder reactors in the USSR and Russia had limited production at Russia’s oldest Mayak nuclear processing facility.
Starting from 2016, industrial-level MOX-fuel production in Russia will run at full capacity.
“Produced MOX-fuel tablets fully conform to the technical specifications,” Rosatom’s statement said, adding that the fuel will now be thoroughly tested.

Derek Jeter's final at-bat


So he retires with 3,465 career hits and 1,311 career runs batted in. Special moment there at Fenway Park.

UFC: El cubano Yoel Romero TKO-3 Tim Kennedy

Round 1: Big John McCarthy makes his return to Nevada, and he's the third man for this middleweight bout. They touch them up. Southpaw stance for Romero. Body kick from Kennedy, just a feel out. He back-pedals and resets. Romero tris a kick and Kennedy catches his foot, twists him to the fence. Kennedy with a high kick. Left hand from Romero lands, and Kennedy circles. Now another one, and that one hurt more. Kennedy is bleeding from nose. Romero hunching forward, and looking to further that advantage. Big body shot sends Kennedy rolling back, but Kennedy still plunging ahead cautiously looking for an opening. Punch to the thigh. Now a big leg kick from Romero. Straight left hits home from Romero. It's all Romero right now, big strikes that are landing. Now Kennedy, on cue, shoots for a takedown, gets it, then Romero gets up and takes Kennedy down! Now they get right back up; great example of the type of wrestling on display in this fight. Scrambles are going to be interesting. Blood gushing from Kennedy's face; he seems not to be picking up the speed by Romero. The Cuban rushes in and tackles Kennedy violently at the middle of the cage, but Kennedy once again able to get back up. Kennedy looks to land a knee, but doesn't deploy. Now Kennedy lunges forward with a combo, but nothing much got through flush. MMA Fighting scores R1 for Romero, 10-9.

Round 2: Greg Jackson wants Kennedy to set up his combinations better. They touch them up, and Kennedy swings high but Romero ducks under it. Big high kick from Romero, and that caught Kennedy's forearms. Body kick from Kennedy, and Romero returns with a left. Head kick from Romero now. Kennedy having a very hard time getting Romero's timing down. He can't get inside, either. Romero keeping it at his range, and right as I say that Kennedy drives a big kick into his body. That angered Romero enough to club him on the head with his left. Kennedy comes charging in with a right-left, and those got in. Another lunging overhand right, and that glanced off the top of Romero's head. The Cuban has been quick; deceptively quick, given how massive he looks. It does look like he is huffing air though. Kennedy is a little wobbly, and he ties up at center, and after getting tossed down, they scramble. Now Kennedy grabs Romero's neck, and tries for the guillotine! Can't get it, though, too slick from sweat. They stand up and trade body shots. Spinning back fist from Kennedy lands, but he gets dropped with a left. He stands back up, very unsure on his feet, and Romero drives him backwards into fence, where he is bullying. Still, Kennedy sticking him with acute elbows in tight, which aren't deterring Romero much. He is definitely tired, is Romero, and Kennedy lands a kick to the body on the separation. Then Kennedy lands a huge uppercut! And another! Wow, he is hurt! Late in the round Kennedy comes forward landing bombs and Romero is staggering backwards! But the bell rings and saves him! MMA Fighting scores R2 for Kennedy, 10-9 (19-19 overall)

Round 3:
Romero took an extra 30 seconds between rounds, and McCarthy had to throw the stool out. Romero lands a huge shot and Kennedy goes flailing! Now Romero, who was dead on his feet, comes to life! He is landing huge shots on Kennedy, one after another. Kennedy in real trouble here. Romero on top, and Kennedy bleeding profusely. A couple of more shots from Romero and it's over! McCarthy steps in. It was a pushkick and then a left hand that started the trouble. Then Romero came in and just blasted Kennedy with shot after shot. After taking some of those on the ground, he rolled over in a bloody heap, and McCarthy had seen enough. Wow.
UFC 178 official results: Yoel Romero def. Tim Kennedy via TKO (strikes) at :58 of R3

sábado, septiembre 27, 2014

Cuba: 15-year sentence for Canadian businessman

Cy Tokmakjian
HAVANA — A Canadian company says its president has been sentenced in Cuba to 15 years in prison on corruption-related charges that Cuban officials call part of a widespread campaign against graft.
The Ontario-based automotive company Tokmakjian Group says its lawyers were notified Friday that Cy Tokmakjian was convicted and sentenced on a variety of charges. Company vice president Lee Hacker tells The Associated Press that firm managers Claudio Vetere and Marco Puche got shorter sentences.
Cuban officials have provided few details about the case. But dozens of Cuban executives and government officials and a series of foreigners have been swept up in what is described as an attack on a culture of payoffs by foreigners.
The arrests sent a chill through international business people investing in Cuba.

El miedo al choteo y la injusticia de una sanción a los creadores de los aromas socialistas “Ernesto” y “Hugo”

Que el Consejo de Ministros de Cuba se haya reunido en la noche de un viernes para hacer una Declaración acerca de los perfumes “Hugo” y “Ernesto” es todavía más ridículo que la idea de producirlos.
Pero además de ridículo es peligroso. Entre otras cosas por el mensaje de fragilidad que envía en medio de un mundo virtual. La Declaración del Consejo de Ministros muestra que el gobierno de Raúl Castro es chantajeable, manipulable, trajinable. Si no por la oposición o la invasión extranjera, al menos por “el qué dirán”.
Por añadidura, es injusto sancionar a un funcionario comunista que en el peor de los casos (en el mejor se trataría de un homenaje sincero) lo que deseaba era congratular y anotarse un punto con la elite doctrinaria-militar, para poder conservar su puesto en la estructura de la Cuba raulista.
En verdad, existen pocas acciones más desacralizadoras de la imagen del Che Guevara que la de sus descendientes haciendo turismo por todo el mundo en calidad de vendedores ambulantes de una mercancía barata concretada en películas, conferencias y emociones actuadas sobre “Ese lindo futuro que tanto añoraba papá”.
Los cubanos no enmiendan errores por pragmatismo o humildad sino por soberbia y temor al ridículo. Al papelazo. Para borrar hasta la misma posibilidad de haberlos cometido y obtener licencia para cometer otros errores más desastrosos todavía. Más honorable que “rectificar errores” (o “tendencias negativas” en el perfumar) es persistir en los mismos y arrastrarlos como una prueba de que cualquiera es falible.

Bloody Jihad Comes To Oklahoma

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
NoisyRoom.net
Alton Alexander Nolen | Photo credit: Logan County Sheriff’s Office
Right in my freaking back yard! The religion of pieces has struck in Moore, Oklahoma yesterday. Alton Alexander Nolen, 30 years old and an ardent Muslim, got fired from his job yesterday at a food processing plant. He had been actively recruiting fellow workers to Islam. When the infidels fired his sorry ass, he decided to cut off a woman co-worker’s head and stab another. Always with the damn heads. Maybe we should practice a head for a head… Just sayin’. Quite impressive for a barbaric demon with a knife, wouldn’t you say?
This warrior for Jihad was working at Vaughan Foods in Moore when he got an urge to behead an innocent woman. This country’s about to blow folks, because there are lots of us that just won’t stand for this murderous crap. Moore is 10 miles or so from Oklahoma City and about 100 miles from Tulsa. This is the Bible belt, but if you look closely, the whole place is now inundated with mosques and followers of Allah. Whole tours at the local zoo are comprised of nothing but Islamic young uns’ and hijabs are a common site at the store. It isn’t just here either… I’ve been all across the nation the last few years and it is everywhere. We have been quietly invaded and subverted.
It’s laughable that the authorities wasted no time in saying there is no connection to terrorism — it’s workplace violence. I’d call beheading terrorism, you moronic asshats. The person who shot and injured Nolen was the company’s former Chief Operating Officer, Mark Vaughan, who is also an Oklahoma County reserve sheriff’s deputy. Vaughan’s ballistic intervention came as the attacker was stabbing a second woman at the plant. Too bad Nolen wasn’t dispatched to hell, where he belongs. He and the surviving victim were taken to an area hospital. Both are listed in stable condition.
Now, the local police are asking the FBI to help investigate Nolan. Which will go nowhere I predict. He’s a Muslim and a terrorist. They should check out his ties to ISIS, his mosque, his Imam — his life. But they won’t. They’ll cover it up – just another dead woman, as the bodies keep piling up in America.
KFOR-TV reports Nolen drove to the front of the building, hit a vehicle and the proceeded to walk inside where he encountered 54-year-old Colleen Hufford. Nolen allegedly began stabbing Hufford with a knife that is the same kind of knife used at the plant. Lewis said Hufford was stabbed several times, adding that Nolen “severed her head.”
After killing Hufford, Lewis said Nolen encountered 43-year-old Traci Johnson and began stabbing her with the same knife. KFOR-TV reports that Mark Vaughan, an Oklahoma County reserve deputy and a former CEO of the business, “shot him as he was actively stabbing Johnson.”
“He’s a hero in this situation,” Sgt. Lewis said, referring to Vaughan. “It could have gotten a lot worse.”
Damned right it could have been a lot worse. Much. But leave it to the politically correct media to cast doubt by using the word ‘allegedly,’ when the sadistic asshole was caught in the act. Next it will be ‘the poor, misunderstood Muslim’ and somehow it will be the business owner’s fault. You watch. You want motive, you moronic idiots? It’s called Islam.
Nothing like a zealous recent convert to get his rage on.
Nolan was the perfect convert to Islam — a violent and unstable criminal:
Records show Nolen has a previous criminal record including assault and battery on an officer and possession of a controlled substance.
In 2010, he was charged with escaping from detention after he sparked an overnight manhunt. Police officers had tried to arrest him over drug-related warrants but he eluded them until the following day.
So, of course the murderous cretin went after women. Easy prey and not armed. Everyone should be armed folks – every adult… period. We are at war with the Islamic State and the war is here. It will affect each of us – this won’t be a far off war we can wax poetic over. It will be in our front yards, on our streets, at our work, in our houses of worship… in our homes. Your families and your children are now targets for a holy war. You had better prepare for battle.
The Islamic ritual slaughter of beheading has moved past Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Philippines and into the streets of London and now the American workplace.
Qur’an 47:4: “When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks…”
Former co-workers said he tried to convert them to Islam after recently converting himself. The New York Daily News does not mention that salient fact in its coverage here but they will run vicious attacks on our jihad-awareness ads.
Bloody Jihad comes to Oklahoma and America finds herself at war with the enemy within and without.
Oklahoma beheading suspect Alton Alexander Nolen calls himself “Jah’Keem Yisrael” on his Facebook page, where he uploaded photos of himself reading the Koran and wearing Muslim religious clothing.
Nolen’s Facebook “cover” photo appears to be of several Taliban fighters, according to a Google reverse image search.
‘Workplace violence’ my ass.
30-40 Oklahoma Muslims read from the Koran during the press conference,  

Truenan a los creadores de los perfumes "Hugo" [Chavez] y "Ernesto" [Che Guevara]

notesen las unas del presentador/ Foto: AP.
la creacion de estos perfumes no fue un libretazo como ahora se quiere hacer ver en la nota del consejo de ministros que publica granma, pues el director-cacique de labiofam es el dr. jose antonio fraga castro, sobrino del moringuero en jefe y del general de despachos en funciones de presidente; que como miembro del clan conoce perfectamente las reglas internas del negocio castrista. el proyecto de investigacion y de negocios desarrollado conjuntamente  con la firma comercial francesa Robertet durante mas de ano y medio y en el que estuvieron involucrados investigadores importantes de labiofam, tuvo que haber contado ademas con la entusiasta autorizacion de las familias de los prestigiosos difuntos. el asunto no esta en el truene de los participantes kubiches del proyecto que no debe salpicar a fraga castro, sino en por que se echaron ahora para atras.
 

Marino Murillo, nuevo Ministro de Economía y Planificación

el general de despachos en funciones de presidente de cuba en vistas del fracaso de su plan de reanimacion economica del pais, el concede el ultimo chance a la nomenklatura economica que encabeza murillo antes de que sus cabezas rueden. a favor de los incompetentes hay que senalar que las causas del descalabro son intrinsecamente sistemicas y no gerenciales. nota de granma
Como se ha señalado públicamente, la implementación de los lineamientos de la política económica y social del Partido y la Revolución se adentra en las cuestiones más complejas y profundas.
Para llevar adelante esta tarea se considera necesario armonizar e integrar a un nivel superior el proceso de actualización del modelo económico y la planificación como principio de la conducción de la economía nacional.
Considerando este objetivo, el Consejo de Estado, a propuesta de su Presidente, acordó liberar del cargo de Ministro de Economía y Planificación al compañero Adel Yzquierdo Rodríguez y en su lugar nombrar al compañero Marino Murillo Jorge, quien continuará desempeñando sus responsabilidades como Vicepresidente del Gobierno y Jefe de la Comisión Permanente para la Implementación y Desarrollo.
En interés de contribuir a este propósito, el compañero Adel Yzquierdo Rodríguez, miembro del Buró Político del CC-PCC, ha sido nombrado Viceministro Primero del Ministerio de Economía y Planificación, cargo que ocupaba con anterioridad a su designación como Ministro del propio organismo.

jueves, septiembre 25, 2014

Eric Holder Finally Throws In the Towel

Attorney General Eric Holder will resign on Thursday, several media outlets have confirmed. “Attorney General Eric Holder will on Thursday announce his plans to leave his post at the Justice Department once a successor is confirmed, a Justice Department official said,” Politico reported. "Holder has been in the job for nearly six years, since the start of the Obama administration.”

“Eric Holder Jr., the nation's first black U.S. attorney general, is preparing to announce his resignation Thursday after a tumultuous tenure marked by civil rights advances, national security threats, reforms to the criminal justice system and five and a half years of fights with Republicans in Congress,” National Public Radio added.
Holder was voted on a bipartisan basis into both criminal and civil contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with a congressional investigation into the gun walking program Operation Fast and Furious, run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with oversight from senior Department of Justice (DOJ) officials. A total of 130 members of the House of Representatives called for him to resign in 2011 and 2012, as did eight U.S. Senators and every GOP presidential candidate in 2012, including the eventual presidential nominee Mitt Romney and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.
As the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Holder in contempt on both the criminal and civil citations, President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege over the Fast and Furious documents that Holder refused to provide to Congress pursuant to subpoenas from chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ron Machen, declined to prosecute Holder on the criminal contempt of Congress citation, but the House of Representatives is currently pursuing ongoing legal action against the administration using the civil contempt citation to fight to have the president’s executive privilege overturned.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Issa have both argued the president’s privilege assertion over those Fast and Furious documents is invalid and illegal because he used the lower form of the two types of executive privilege—deliberative process privilege—rather than presidential communications privilege. If Obama used the higher form, it would have meant that either he or his senior White House staff was aware of the gun walking tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious, something that both Obama and Holder have denied. Usually, deliberative process privilege claims are considered invalid when there is even a suspicion of government wrongdoing—something Issa and Grassley have noted time and again—and in this case the government has admitted to wrongdoing.
Nonetheless, President Obama continues to hide these documents from the American people and from Congress.
Holder accused this reporter in November 2011 at a White House press conference of being “behind” the calls for his resignation because this reporter had contacted various members of Congress, asking if they agreed with the surging calls for him to resign.
"You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it,” Holder said of this reporter’s efforts while working for The Daily Caller.
Calls for Holder’s resignation have continued since 2011 for reasons other than Operation Fast and Furious.
Holder’s press team also coordinated against various media outlets using far left-wing advocacy groups like the George Soros-funded Media Matters for America (MMFA). MMFA, which is led by pro-Hillary Clinton activist David Brock, used talking points and direction provided by then-Holder spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler to smear this reporter, Issa, Breitbart News reporters, ex-DOJ officials and whistleblowers, and reporters from across the media.
Emails recently uncovered via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by The Daily Caller found that Holder's press aide Schmaler specifically singled out and targeted this reporter.
“As revealed in the FOIA docs, Media Matters Deputy Research Director Matt Gertz sent a post concerning the NRA’s growing contributions to Holder’s critics to DOJ spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler, Holder’s top press flack who resigned in March, 2013,” the Daily Caller’s Betsy Rothstein wrote.
In response to that email, Schmaler wrote back to Gertz: “Thanks, you know boyle has been doing robo calls to top members right? This is campaign mounted by daily caller. He has called 60 offices and gotten to 8 last week.”
“Yeah, that was what my original piece on the story was about,” Gertz replied.
The terminology that was provided to Media Matters by the Department of Justice about this reporter—the word “campaign” specifically—appeared in subsequent Media Matters posts about this reporter.
The efforts to silence reporting on Fast and Furious are not the only questionable activity Holder and his team have been involved in with regards to the media. The DOJ labeled Fox News’ James Rosen a “co-conspirator” in an effort used to monitor him and targeted the Associated Press by monitoring the news agency’s communications.
Holder has been a lightning rod for scandal since he was confirmed in 2009. Right off the bat, he declined to prosecute the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) for voter intimidation at voting stations in 2008 in Philadelphia, despite efforts by career prosecutors at the DOJ to do so. He has been involved in the Trayvon Martin case in Florida in 2012, the Michael Brown case in Missouri this year, and in allegations by whistleblowers that Holder stopped the prosecution of alleged financial criminals, politicians, and DOJ officials who are accused of having taken bribes in connection with a U.S. Virgin Islands telecom cooperative. Just like how the DOJ originally denied guns were walked in Fast and Furious and has since retracted that denial, the DOJ denied the Virgin Islands scandal’s early report.

Report: Nearly 2.5 Million Immigrants from 'Predominantly Muslim Countries' Reside Inside U.S.

Approximately 2.5 million immigrants from “predominantly Muslim countries" reside inside the U.S. right now, a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies found.

The four-page report, which details which countries and world regions from which immigrants in the U.S.—both legal and illegal—came to this country, found that since 2000 nearly a million more immigrants from such Muslim countries came to the U.S.
In 2000, there were 1,518,755 immigrants from Muslim countries in the U.S. In 2010, That number stood at 2,184,664, and in 2013 it stands at 2,480,407.
Between 2010 and 2013, there was actually a greater increase in the number of immigrants from the Middle East than from Central America. During that timeframe, 207,758 more immigrants moved to the U.S. from the Middle East, whereas only 113,744 immigrants came from Central America.
The report found that despite the staggering growth of immigration from the Middle East, the regions that sent even more immigrants to the U.S. in the past few years are South Asia, East Asia, and the Caribbean. South Asia, which includes India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, sent 372,546 more immigrants to the U.S. between 2010 and 2013, whereas East Asia—which includes China, Korea and Vietnam—sent 364,909 more immigrants to the U.S. during that timeframe. From the Caribbean, 223,011 more immigrants entered the U.S. between 2010 and 2013.
During that same timeframe, immigration from Mexico dropped 126,126. In 2010, there were 11,711,103 immigrants both illegal and legal in the U.S. from Mexico, according to this data set, and in 2013 there were just 11,584,977 immigrants from Mexico in the U.S.
The report, authored by Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler from CIS, relies on U.S. census data to make these observations.
"The data show that the nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) grew by 1.4 million from July 2010 to July 2013,” Camarota and Zeigler wrote. “The data also imply that 3.3 million new immigrants settled in the country in that same period. These new arrivals were offset by return migration and deaths among the existing population. The immigrant population, referred to as the foreign-born by the Census Bureau, includes all those who were not U.S. citizens at birth, including illegal immigrants.”
Between legal and illegal immigrants residing in the U.S., the authors found that America’s immigration population “hit a record 41.3 million in July 2013.”
“The sending regions with the largest increases from 2010 to 2013 were South Asia (up 373,000, 16 percent growth); East Asia (up 365,000, 5 percent growth); the Caribbean (up 223,000, 6 percent growth), the Middle East (up 208,000, 13 percent growth); and sub-Saharan Africa (up 177,000, 13 percent growth),” Camarota and Zeigler wrote.
Center For Immigration Studies Report

Obama Defends Islam, Smacks Israel, American Racism at UN

breitbart
By

On Wednesday, on the first anniversary of President Barack Obama’s speech to the United Nations in which he called for ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, Obama attempted to rally support for his airstrikes against Assad’s terrorist opposition. Taking on issues ranging from Iran to Russia, from Ukraine to Syria, from global warming to Ebola, Obama pledged to utilize American might in service to the United Nations, speaking grandly of the beauty and power of the world’s least effective and most morally bankrupt international institution.


Obama opened with a Dickensian world of Manichean opposites:

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen: we come together at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and integration; between fear and hope.

He then offered delegates a choice between paper and plastic.

Actually, he stated that the world has never been better off, praising the increase of member states at the UN and the decrease in poverty (neglecting, of course, that that decrease in poverty is a direct result of the rise of global capitalism), as well as the iPhone. “I often tell young people in the United States that this is the best time in human history to be born, for you are more likely than ever before to be literate, to be healthy, and to be free to pursue your dreams,” Obama said, apparently forgetting the last two decades of human history.

But, said Obama, there are a few problems with which we have to contend: Ebola, Russian aggression, “brutality of terrorists” in Syria and Iraq. And those problems, Obama continued, are “symptoms of a broader problem – the failure of our international system to keep pace with an interconnected world.” Incredibly enough, the rise of disease, Obama believes, is because we haven’t invested enough in the United Nations, not because incompetent regimes upheld by the UN have failed their people. In amazingly hypocritical fashion, Obama – a man elected on the basis of his undercutting of George W. Bush’s Iraq war, a war based almost entirely on enforcement of UN resolutions -- said that terrorism has flourished because “we have failed to enforce international norms when it’s inconvenient to do so.”

Obama said America chooses “hope over fear.”

According to Obama, that choice entails standing up to Russia – presumably, by doing nothing. Obama stated that Russia’s worldview was that “might makes right,” that their vision was of a “world in which one nation’s borders can be redrawn by another, and civilized people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed.” Obama then contrasted that vision with America’s:

America stands for something different. We believe that right makes might – that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones; that people should be able to choose their own future.

Right, of course, does not make might. To believe in that vision is idiotic. Right must build might in order to enforce right. But Obama’s unceasing belief in the power of his own verbiage means that he thinks he can simply talk Russia into backing off:

We call upon others to join us on the right side of history – for while small gains can be won at the barrel of a gun, they will ultimately be turned back if enough voices support the freedom of nations and peoples to make their own decisions.

Obama went on to suggest that Russia should use “the path of diplomacy and peace,” citing our signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Russia has been routinely cheating. “That’s the kind of cooperation we are prepared to pursue again,” Obama said.

To which Vladimir Putin has formally responded: “ROFLMAO.”

Obama then turned to Ebola, stating that we’re sending troops to West Africa; he turned to Iran, where he said that “we can reach a solution that meets your energy needs while assuring the world that your program is peaceful.”

To which the mullahs have formally responded: “LOLWUT.”

Obama next addressed China’s aggression in the South China Sea, suggesting that America will insist “that all nations abide by the rules of the road, and resolve their territorial disputes peacefully, consistent with international law.”

To which China has formally responded: “SMDH.”

Then Obama went on his world-beating rant: he said that America would help “eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.” Not through capitalism, mind you: through foreign aid. He said that America would cut our own carbon emissions. He spouted trite slogans: “On issue after issue, we cannot rely on a rule-book written for a different century. If we lift our eyes beyond our borders – if we think globally and act cooperatively – we can shape the course of this century as our predecessors shaped the post-World War II age.”

Finally, he turned to the actual pressing issue of the day, Islamic terrorism. And he proceeded to explain that Islam is a religion of peace, no different from any other, and defend his reactive foreign policy as somehow proactive.

I have made it clear that America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism. Rather, we have waged a focused campaign against al Qaeda and its associated forces – taking out their leaders, and denying them the safe-havens they rely upon. At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.

He stated that America rejected “any suggestion of a clash of civilization.” Our opponents have not done the same, of course. But Obama stated that we could fight those “religiously motivated fanatics” – fanatics who have nothing to do with Islam, of course, even if they are universally Muslim – by providing food and water and jobs. Obama’s Marxist foreign policy has never wavered: he believes that inequality, not religious conflict, lies at the root of Islamist enmity for the West.

Obama laid out a four-pronged plan for fighting terrorism.

First, he said that ISIL had to be “degraded, and ultimately destroyed.” And once again, he emphasized that ISIL was not Islamic, and once again, he ruled out utilizing American troops.

Second, Obama said that Muslim communities had to “explicitly, forcefully, and consistently reject the ideology of al Qaeda and ISIL.” In the process, he praised Islam as part of a family of religions that “accommodate devout faith with a modern, multicultural world,” and added that “All religions have been attacked by extremists from within at some point, and all people of faith have a responsibility to lift up the value at the heart of all religion: do unto thy neighbor as you would have done unto you.”

His solution: talking about how ISIL and al Qaeda and Boko Haram are bad. Obama’s faith in words is absolutely unshakeable, as he made clear: “The ideology of ISIL or al Qaeda or Boko Haram will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed, confronted, and refuted in the light of day.” Hilariously, Obama explained that the UN Security Council would pass a resolution about combating “violent extremism,” but refused to explain what steps would actually be taken to do so, instead putting that discussion off for “next year.”

Third, Obama stated, sectarian conflict must end. How? Obama didn’t say. But he did pooh-pooh Muslim sectarian conflict as the religious norm:

There is nothing new about wars within religions. Christianity endured centuries of vicious sectarian conflict. Today, it is violence within Muslim communities that has become the source of so much human misery. It is time to acknowledge the destruction wrought by proxy wars and terror campaigns between Sunni and Shia across the Middle East. And it is time that political, civic and religious leaders reject sectarian strife. Let’s be clear: this is a fight that no one is winning.

Flipping through his trusty rhetorical playbook, Obama neglected any realistic solution to these sectarian conflicts, but did come up with this hackneyed chestnut:

Cynics may argue that such an outcome can never come to pass. But there is no other way for this madness to end – whether one year from now or ten. Indeed, it’s time for a broader negotiation in which major powers address their differences directly, honestly, and peacefully across the table from one another, rather than through gun-wielding proxies. I can promise you America will remain engaged in the region, and we are prepared to engage in that effort.

Fourth, Obama proposed, Arab and Muslim countries had to focus on “the extraordinary potential of their people – especially the youth.” He said that young Muslims “come from a great tradition that stands for education, not ignorance; innovation, not destruction; the dignity of life, not murder. Those who call you away from this path are betraying this tradition, not defending it.” That is the same message Obama and his minions have been braying for years at this point. No one, apparently, is listening.

And then Obama dropped the other shoe. After spending fifteen minutes blabbering about the glories and wonders of Islam, even as he decried extremism and sectarianism, Obama proceeded to blame Israel for conflict in the Middle East:

         Leadership will also be necessary to address the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. As bleak as the landscape appears, America will never give up the pursuit of peace. The situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya should cure anyone of the illusion that this conflict is the main source of problems in the region; for far too long, it has been used in part as a way to distract people from problems at home. And the violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace. But let’s be clear: the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza is not sustainable. We cannot afford to turn away from this effort – not when rockets are fired at innocent Israelis, or the lives of so many Palestinian children are taken from us in Gaza. So long as I am President, we will stand up for the principle that Israelis, Palestinians, the region, and the world will be more just with two states living side by side, in peace and security.

The Israelis may not be the “main source of problems in the region,” but by pressuring Israel before the entire world just weeks after Hamas continuously fired rockets into Israel and shielded its own rockets with children, Obama demonstrates his distaste for the Jewish State, and his desire to cast them as a bleeding abscess leading to more violence. The moral equivalence here was stunning, unjustifiable, and purely disgusting.

As Obama moved toward his conclusion, he finally turned inward, apologizing for America yet again:

I realize that America’s critics will be quick to point out that at times we too have failed to live up to our ideals; that America has plenty of problems within our own borders. This is true. In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions. And like every country, we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear.

Ferguson? Really? This is just the latest incident in which President Obama has condemned a private citizen before the world. In 2012, it was a filmmaker who guilty of provoking Islamic rage; today, it’s Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, who has provoked America’s racial conflict. The United Nations has become a wonderful place for President Obama to convict American citizens.

Obama concluded with his campaign stump speech:

After nearly six years as President, I believe that this promise can help light the world. Because I’ve seen a longing for positive change – for peace and freedom and opportunity – in the eyes of young people I’ve met around the globe. They remind me that no matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you look like, or what God you pray to, or who you love, there is something fundamental that we all share.

America shares virtually nothing with the other member states at the UN. But President Obama shares a lot with them: a desire for America to take a secondary role in the world affairs, a desire for Israel to surrender in the face of its enemies, a desire for talk rather than action, a desire to demean the United States on the global stage.

On Wednesday, on the first anniversary of President Barack Obama’s speech to the United Nations in which he called for ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, Obama attempted to rally support for his airstrikes against Assad’s terrorist opposition. Taking on issues ranging from Iran to Russia, from Ukraine to Syria, from global warming to Ebola, Obama pledged to utilize American might in service to the United Nations, speaking grandly of the beauty and power of the world’s least effective and most morally bankrupt international institution.


Obama opened with a Dickensian world of Manichean opposites:

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen: we come together at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and integration; between fear and hope.

He then offered delegates a choice between paper and plastic.

Actually, he stated that the world has never been better off, praising the increase of member states at the UN and the decrease in poverty (neglecting, of course, that that decrease in poverty is a direct result of the rise of global capitalism), as well as the iPhone. “I often tell young people in the United States that this is the best time in human history to be born, for you are more likely than ever before to be literate, to be healthy, and to be free to pursue your dreams,” Obama said, apparently forgetting the last two decades of human history.

But, said Obama, there are a few problems with which we have to contend: Ebola, Russian aggression, “brutality of terrorists” in Syria and Iraq. And those problems, Obama continued, are “symptoms of a broader problem – the failure of our international system to keep pace with an interconnected world.” Incredibly enough, the rise of disease, Obama believes, is because we haven’t invested enough in the United Nations, not because incompetent regimes upheld by the UN have failed their people. In amazingly hypocritical fashion, Obama – a man elected on the basis of his undercutting of George W. Bush’s Iraq war, a war based almost entirely on enforcement of UN resolutions -- said that terrorism has flourished because “we have failed to enforce international norms when it’s inconvenient to do so.”

Obama said America chooses “hope over fear.”

According to Obama, that choice entails standing up to Russia – presumably, by doing nothing. Obama stated that Russia’s worldview was that “might makes right,” that their vision was of a “world in which one nation’s borders can be redrawn by another, and civilized people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed.” Obama then contrasted that vision with America’s:

America stands for something different. We believe that right makes might – that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones; that people should be able to choose their own future.

Right, of course, does not make might. To believe in that vision is idiotic. Right must build might in order to enforce right. But Obama’s unceasing belief in the power of his own verbiage means that he thinks he can simply talk Russia into backing off:

We call upon others to join us on the right side of history – for while small gains can be won at the barrel of a gun, they will ultimately be turned back if enough voices support the freedom of nations and peoples to make their own decisions.

Obama went on to suggest that Russia should use “the path of diplomacy and peace,” citing our signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Russia has been routinely cheating. “That’s the kind of cooperation we are prepared to pursue again,” Obama said.

To which Vladimir Putin has formally responded: “ROFLMAO.”

Obama then turned to Ebola, stating that we’re sending troops to West Africa; he turned to Iran, where he said that “we can reach a solution that meets your energy needs while assuring the world that your program is peaceful.”

To which the mullahs have formally responded: “LOLWUT.”

Obama next addressed China’s aggression in the South China Sea, suggesting that America will insist “that all nations abide by the rules of the road, and resolve their territorial disputes peacefully, consistent with international law.”

To which China has formally responded: “SMDH.”

Then Obama went on his world-beating rant: he said that America would help “eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.” Not through capitalism, mind you: through foreign aid. He said that America would cut our own carbon emissions. He spouted trite slogans: “On issue after issue, we cannot rely on a rule-book written for a different century. If we lift our eyes beyond our borders – if we think globally and act cooperatively – we can shape the course of this century as our predecessors shaped the post-World War II age.”

Finally, he turned to the actual pressing issue of the day, Islamic terrorism. And he proceeded to explain that Islam is a religion of peace, no different from any other, and defend his reactive foreign policy as somehow proactive.

I have made it clear that America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism. Rather, we have waged a focused campaign against al Qaeda and its associated forces – taking out their leaders, and denying them the safe-havens they rely upon. At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.

He stated that America rejected “any suggestion of a clash of civilization.” Our opponents have not done the same, of course. But Obama stated that we could fight those “religiously motivated fanatics” – fanatics who have nothing to do with Islam, of course, even if they are universally Muslim – by providing food and water and jobs. Obama’s Marxist foreign policy has never wavered: he believes that inequality, not religious conflict, lies at the root of Islamist enmity for the West.

Obama laid out a four-pronged plan for fighting terrorism.

First, he said that ISIL had to be “degraded, and ultimately destroyed.” And once again, he emphasized that ISIL was not Islamic, and once again, he ruled out utilizing American troops.

Second, Obama said that Muslim communities had to “explicitly, forcefully, and consistently reject the ideology of al Qaeda and ISIL.” In the process, he praised Islam as part of a family of religions that “accommodate devout faith with a modern, multicultural world,” and added that “All religions have been attacked by extremists from within at some point, and all people of faith have a responsibility to lift up the value at the heart of all religion: do unto thy neighbor as you would have done unto you.”

His solution: talking about how ISIL and al Qaeda and Boko Haram are bad. Obama’s faith in words is absolutely unshakeable, as he made clear: “The ideology of ISIL or al Qaeda or Boko Haram will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed, confronted, and refuted in the light of day.” Hilariously, Obama explained that the UN Security Council would pass a resolution about combating “violent extremism,” but refused to explain what steps would actually be taken to do so, instead putting that discussion off for “next year.”

Third, Obama stated, sectarian conflict must end. How? Obama didn’t say. But he did pooh-pooh Muslim sectarian conflict as the religious norm:

There is nothing new about wars within religions. Christianity endured centuries of vicious sectarian conflict. Today, it is violence within Muslim communities that has become the source of so much human misery. It is time to acknowledge the destruction wrought by proxy wars and terror campaigns between Sunni and Shia across the Middle East. And it is time that political, civic and religious leaders reject sectarian strife. Let’s be clear: this is a fight that no one is winning.

Flipping through his trusty rhetorical playbook, Obama neglected any realistic solution to these sectarian conflicts, but did come up with this hackneyed chestnut:

Cynics may argue that such an outcome can never come to pass. But there is no other way for this madness to end – whether one year from now or ten. Indeed, it’s time for a broader negotiation in which major powers address their differences directly, honestly, and peacefully across the table from one another, rather than through gun-wielding proxies. I can promise you America will remain engaged in the region, and we are prepared to engage in that effort.

Fourth, Obama proposed, Arab and Muslim countries had to focus on “the extraordinary potential of their people – especially the youth.” He said that young Muslims “come from a great tradition that stands for education, not ignorance; innovation, not destruction; the dignity of life, not murder. Those who call you away from this path are betraying this tradition, not defending it.” That is the same message Obama and his minions have been braying for years at this point. No one, apparently, is listening.

And then Obama dropped the other shoe. After spending fifteen minutes blabbering about the glories and wonders of Islam, even as he decried extremism and sectarianism, Obama proceeded to blame Israel for conflict in the Middle East:

         Leadership will also be necessary to address the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. As bleak as the landscape appears, America will never give up the pursuit of peace. The situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya should cure anyone of the illusion that this conflict is the main source of problems in the region; for far too long, it has been used in part as a way to distract people from problems at home. And the violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace. But let’s be clear: the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza is not sustainable. We cannot afford to turn away from this effort – not when rockets are fired at innocent Israelis, or the lives of so many Palestinian children are taken from us in Gaza. So long as I am President, we will stand up for the principle that Israelis, Palestinians, the region, and the world will be more just with two states living side by side, in peace and security.

The Israelis may not be the “main source of problems in the region,” but by pressuring Israel before the entire world just weeks after Hamas continuously fired rockets into Israel and shielded its own rockets with children, Obama demonstrates his distaste for the Jewish State, and his desire to cast them as a bleeding abscess leading to more violence. The moral equivalence here was stunning, unjustifiable, and purely disgusting.

As Obama moved toward his conclusion, he finally turned inward, apologizing for America yet again:

I realize that America’s critics will be quick to point out that at times we too have failed to live up to our ideals; that America has plenty of problems within our own borders. This is true. In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions. And like every country, we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear.

Ferguson? Really? This is just the latest incident in which President Obama has condemned a private citizen before the world. In 2012, it was a filmmaker who guilty of provoking Islamic rage; today, it’s Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, who has provoked America’s racial conflict. The United Nations has become a wonderful place for President Obama to convict American citizens.

Obama concluded with his campaign stump speech:

After nearly six years as President, I believe that this promise can help light the world. Because I’ve seen a longing for positive change – for peace and freedom and opportunity – in the eyes of young people I’ve met around the globe. They remind me that no matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you look like, or what God you pray to, or who you love, there is something fundamental that we all share.

America shares virtually nothing with the other member states at the UN. But President Obama shares a lot with them: a desire for America to take a secondary role in the world affairs, a desire for Israel to surrender in the face of its enemies, a desire for talk rather than action, a desire to demean the United States on the global stage.

On Wednesday, on the first anniversary of President Barack Obama’s speech to the United Nations in which he called for ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, Obama attempted to rally support for his airstrikes against Assad’s terrorist opposition. Taking on issues ranging from Iran to Russia, from Ukraine to Syria, from global warming to Ebola, Obama pledged to utilize American might in service to the United Nations, speaking grandly of the beauty and power of the world’s least effective and most morally bankrupt international institution.

Obama opened with a Dickensian world of Manichean opposites:
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen: we come together at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and integration; between fear and hope.
He then offered delegates a choice between paper and plastic.
Actually, he stated that the world has never been better off, praising the increase of member states at the UN and the decrease in poverty (neglecting, of course, that that decrease in poverty is a direct result of the rise of global capitalism), as well as the iPhone. “I often tell young people in the United States that this is the best time in human history to be born, for you are more likely than ever before to be literate, to be healthy, and to be free to pursue your dreams,” Obama said, apparently forgetting the last two decades of human history.
But, said Obama, there are a few problems with which we have to contend: Ebola, Russian aggression, “brutality of terrorists” in Syria and Iraq. And those problems, Obama continued, are “symptoms of a broader problem – the failure of our international system to keep pace with an interconnected world.” Incredibly enough, the rise of disease, Obama believes, is because we haven’t invested enough in the United Nations, not because incompetent regimes upheld by the UN have failed their people. In amazingly hypocritical fashion, Obama – a man elected on the basis of his undercutting of George W. Bush’s Iraq war, a war based almost entirely on enforcement of UN resolutions -- said that terrorism has flourished because “we have failed to enforce international norms when it’s inconvenient to do so.”
Obama said America chooses “hope over fear.”
According to Obama, that choice entails standing up to Russia – presumably, by doing nothing. Obama stated that Russia’s worldview was that “might makes right,” that their vision was of a “world in which one nation’s borders can be redrawn by another, and civilized people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed.” Obama then contrasted that vision with America’s:
America stands for something different. We believe that right makes might – that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones; that people should be able to choose their own future.
Right, of course, does not make might. To believe in that vision is idiotic. Right must build might in order to enforce right. But Obama’s unceasing belief in the power of his own verbiage means that he thinks he can simply talk Russia into backing off:
We call upon others to join us on the right side of history – for while small gains can be won at the barrel of a gun, they will ultimately be turned back if enough voices support the freedom of nations and peoples to make their own decisions.
Obama went on to suggest that Russia should use “the path of diplomacy and peace,” citing our signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Russia has been routinely cheating. “That’s the kind of cooperation we are prepared to pursue again,” Obama said.
To which Vladimir Putin has formally responded: “ROFLMAO.”
Obama then turned to Ebola, stating that we’re sending troops to West Africa; he turned to Iran, where he said that “we can reach a solution that meets your energy needs while assuring the world that your program is peaceful.”
To which the mullahs have formally responded: “LOLWUT.”
Obama next addressed China’s aggression in the South China Sea, suggesting that America will insist “that all nations abide by the rules of the road, and resolve their territorial disputes peacefully, consistent with international law.”
To which China has formally responded: “SMDH.”
Then Obama went on his world-beating rant: he said that America would help “eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.” Not through capitalism, mind you: through foreign aid. He said that America would cut our own carbon emissions. He spouted trite slogans: “On issue after issue, we cannot rely on a rule-book written for a different century. If we lift our eyes beyond our borders – if we think globally and act cooperatively – we can shape the course of this century as our predecessors shaped the post-World War II age.”
Finally, he turned to the actual pressing issue of the day, Islamic terrorism. And he proceeded to explain that Islam is a religion of peace, no different from any other, and defend his reactive foreign policy as somehow proactive.
I have made it clear that America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism. Rather, we have waged a focused campaign against al Qaeda and its associated forces – taking out their leaders, and denying them the safe-havens they rely upon. At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.
He stated that America rejected “any suggestion of a clash of civilization.” Our opponents have not done the same, of course. But Obama stated that we could fight those “religiously motivated fanatics” – fanatics who have nothing to do with Islam, of course, even if they are universally Muslim – by providing food and water and jobs. Obama’s Marxist foreign policy has never wavered: he believes that inequality, not religious conflict, lies at the root of Islamist enmity for the West.
Obama laid out a four-pronged plan for fighting terrorism.
First, he said that ISIL had to be “degraded, and ultimately destroyed.” And once again, he emphasized that ISIL was not Islamic, and once again, he ruled out utilizing American troops.
Second, Obama said that Muslim communities had to “explicitly, forcefully, and consistently reject the ideology of al Qaeda and ISIL.” In the process, he praised Islam as part of a family of religions that “accommodate devout faith with a modern, multicultural world,” and added that “All religions have been attacked by extremists from within at some point, and all people of faith have a responsibility to lift up the value at the heart of all religion: do unto thy neighbor as you would have done unto you.”
His solution: talking about how ISIL and al Qaeda and Boko Haram are bad. Obama’s faith in words is absolutely unshakeable, as he made clear: “The ideology of ISIL or al Qaeda or Boko Haram will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed, confronted, and refuted in the light of day.” Hilariously, Obama explained that the UN Security Council would pass a resolution about combating “violent extremism,” but refused to explain what steps would actually be taken to do so, instead putting that discussion off for “next year.”
Third, Obama stated, sectarian conflict must end. How? Obama didn’t say. But he did pooh-pooh Muslim sectarian conflict as the religious norm:
There is nothing new about wars within religions. Christianity endured centuries of vicious sectarian conflict. Today, it is violence within Muslim communities that has become the source of so much human misery. It is time to acknowledge the destruction wrought by proxy wars and terror campaigns between Sunni and Shia across the Middle East. And it is time that political, civic and religious leaders reject sectarian strife. Let’s be clear: this is a fight that no one is winning.
Flipping through his trusty rhetorical playbook, Obama neglected any realistic solution to these sectarian conflicts, but did come up with this hackneyed chestnut:
Cynics may argue that such an outcome can never come to pass. But there is no other way for this madness to end – whether one year from now or ten. Indeed, it’s time for a broader negotiation in which major powers address their differences directly, honestly, and peacefully across the table from one another, rather than through gun-wielding proxies. I can promise you America will remain engaged in the region, and we are prepared to engage in that effort.
Fourth, Obama proposed, Arab and Muslim countries had to focus on “the extraordinary potential of their people – especially the youth.” He said that young Muslims “come from a great tradition that stands for education, not ignorance; innovation, not destruction; the dignity of life, not murder. Those who call you away from this path are betraying this tradition, not defending it.” That is the same message Obama and his minions have been braying for years at this point. No one, apparently, is listening.
And then Obama dropped the other shoe. After spending fifteen minutes blabbering about the glories and wonders of Islam, even as he decried extremism and sectarianism, Obama proceeded to blame Israel for conflict in the Middle East:
         Leadership will also be necessary to address the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. As bleak as the landscape appears, America will never give up the pursuit of peace. The situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya should cure anyone of the illusion that this conflict is the main source of problems in the region; for far too long, it has been used in part as a way to distract people from problems at home. And the violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace. But let’s be clear: the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza is not sustainable. We cannot afford to turn away from this effort – not when rockets are fired at innocent Israelis, or the lives of so many Palestinian children are taken from us in Gaza. So long as I am President, we will stand up for the principle that Israelis, Palestinians, the region, and the world will be more just with two states living side by side, in peace and security.
The Israelis may not be the “main source of problems in the region,” but by pressuring Israel before the entire world just weeks after Hamas continuously fired rockets into Israel and shielded its own rockets with children, Obama demonstrates his distaste for the Jewish State, and his desire to cast them as a bleeding abscess leading to more violence. The moral equivalence here was stunning, unjustifiable, and purely disgusting.
As Obama moved toward his conclusion, he finally turned inward, apologizing for America yet again: 
I realize that America’s critics will be quick to point out that at times we too have failed to live up to our ideals; that America has plenty of problems within our own borders. This is true. In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions. And like every country, we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear.
Ferguson? Really? This is just the latest incident in which President Obama has condemned a private citizen before the world. In 2012, it was a filmmaker who guilty of provoking Islamic rage; today, it’s Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, who has provoked America’s racial conflict. The United Nations has become a wonderful place for President Obama to convict American citizens.
Obama concluded with his campaign stump speech:
After nearly six years as President, I believe that this promise can help light the world. Because I’ve seen a longing for positive change – for peace and freedom and opportunity – in the eyes of young people I’ve met around the globe. They remind me that no matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you look like, or what God you pray to, or who you love, there is something fundamental that we all share.
America shares virtually nothing with the other member states at the UN. But President Obama shares a lot with them: a desire for America to take a secondary role in the world affairs, a desire for Israel to surrender in the face of its enemies, a desire for talk rather than action, a desire to demean the United States on the global stage.