As President Obama readies the nation for health care reform, there is ample evidence that socialized medicine won’t work. Even the much admired Canadian health care program loses some of it’s luster under close scrutiny.
Why? One word: SOAP.
And now, a few words from your grandfather. Really.
Slow down and take a few minutes.
Health Care Reform
March 4, 2009
What is in the fine print?
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington would not work with a Palestinian unity cabinet that includes Hamas unless the Islamists recognise Israel and renounce violence.
“If there is to be a unity government that includes Hamas, then we would expect that Hamas would comply with the principles as set forth by the Quartet,” Clinton told CNN, referring to a group consisting of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia.
“(Those principles) are the same: that Hamas must renounce violence, recognize Israel, and agree to abide by prior PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) commitments,” she added.
“In the absence of Hamas agreeing to the principles that have been adopted by such a broad range of international actors, I don?t see that we or they, anyone, could deal with Hamas.”
When pressed, Clinton said Hamas would have to make a formal announcement recognising Israel and giving up armed struggle, as the PLO — which includes most Palestinian factions but not Hamas — did in 1988.
“The principles are clear. They have been adopted. And we would expect any unity government to abide by those,” she said.
Clinton made the remarks on her first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since being appointed secretary of state, a two-day tour during which she met senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
US President Barack Obama has vowed vigorously to pursue the peace process between Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas, but has ruled out any negotiations with Hamas.
The Islamist movement — which is sworn to Israel’s destruction and blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Israel and the West — seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Abbas.
Left Out Of The Constitution
March 4, 2009
Mission Accomplished?
March 4, 2009
Yet another regime Barack Obama wants to engage has learned from his recent attempt at engaging the Russians: Challenge this administration and they’ll be sure to back down.
We’d like to think of the Obama foreign policy as ‘walking softly and beating ourselves with a big stick’
Iran’s leader said on Wednesday that President Barack Obama is pursuing the same “wrong path” as his predecessor George W. Bush in supporting Israel and described the Jewish state as a “cancerous tumor.”
The comments by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are likely to frustrate the new U.S. administration which has been seeking to engage Iran but has called on Tehran to “unclench its fist.”
“Even the new president of America, who has come to power with slogans about changing Bush’s policies, is defending state terrorism by talking about unconditional commitment to Israel’s security,” Reuters reported Khamenei said at a conference on the Palestinian issue in Tehran.
“Another big mistake is to say that the only way to save the Palestinian nation is by negotiations,” Khamenei said.
“Negotiations with whom? With an occupying and bullying regime, who does not believe in any other principle other than force? … Or negotiations with America and Britain who committed the biggest sin in creating and supporting this cancerous tumor … ?” he added.
“The way to salvation [for Palestinians] is standing firm and resisting,” the supreme leader said.
Khamenei also said the Holocaust was used to “usurp” Palestinian land and said the West and Israel showed the weakness of their cause by not allowing anyone to question the Holocaust.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who previously drew fury from the West by saying the Holocaust was a “myth,” told the conference: “The story of the Holocaust, a nation without a homeland and a homeland without a nation … are the big lies of our era.”
“The continuation of the Zionist regime even on one inch of the land of Palestine, because of the nature of that regime, means the continuation of crime, occupation, threat and insult to the nations,” Reuters reported Ahmadinejad as saying.
The remarks came after the U.S. on Tuesday joined other major world powers in urging Iran to curb its nuclear program, in a statement notable for its moderate language and for its commitment to diplomacy to defuse the atomic standoff.
Diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board meeting said they could not remember such a joint statement from Washington, Moscow, Beijing and the three big European powers in Vienna. The statement urged Tehran to heed U.N. Security Council demands to limit its nuclear activities and thereby reduce fears it was trying to make atomic arms.
