Tag Archives: United Nations

Could Hungary Break the Back of the EU?

Thursday, 19 January 2012 11:45

The European Commission on Tuesday threatened to take legal action against Hungary unless it revised its brand new constitution to allow the country’s central bank to operate without interference from the Hungarian government. The EC’s threat requires a response within 30 days.

Hungary’s new constitution was a long time coming. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Hungary’s constitution was amended numerous times, allowing more and more freedom for a free market economy to grow and making other provisions that limited government power. In 2010 the process of developing a new constitution began in earnest which included questionnaires mailed out to all Hungarians for their input and opinion. Nearly one million questionnaires were returned and provisions in the new constitution were either added or deleted based largely on that input. In April the Hungarian parliament approved it overwhelmingly and it was signed into law by President Pál Schmitt, to take effect on January 1, 2012.

Noteworthy are the limits on spending until the public debt drops below 50 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (it is now about 80 percent) as well as the president’s power to dissolve parliament if acceptable budgets aren’t approved. The life of a fetus is protected from the moment of conception while marriage is defined as being between one man and one woman. It reduces mandatory retirement for judges from the current age of 70 to 62, and limits the powers of the head of the country’s central bank. In addition, its preamble contains references to

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Two Years Later: Where Did the Haiti Earthquake Money Go?

Wednesday, 18 January 2012 04:48

Two years after the Haiti earthquake on January 12, 2010—which killed 316,000, injured 300,000 more, left one million homeless, and destroyed $8 billion in property—most of the billions of dollars pledged to help the island recover can’t be accounted for. And of that which can be, precious little found its way into the hands and mouths of the Haitians themselves.

Some $12 billion was pledged, including $2.75 billion from the United States, $650 million from the European Union, and the balance from 35 other countries.

Much of the U.S. government’s aid was funneled through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which reported that it helped build a 10-megawatt power plant and repaired and upgraded five electric power substations in Port-au-Prince, provided some $10 million in financing for 46 “micro financial institutions and financial cooperatives” and another 7,600 loans to coffee, cocoa, and mango growers. USAID rebuilt roads, irrigation systems, and storage and processing facilities, while offering “improved seeds, fertilizer and technologies to more than 9,700 farmers [who] have increased rice yields by 64 percent, corn yields by 338 percent, bean crops by 97 percent, and plantain outputs by 21 percent for beneficiary farmers.”

According to the USAID report, the agency built 600 semi-permanent furnished classrooms, which allowed some 60,000 students to return to school after the earthquake. It also helped build a temporary Parliament building to replace the one destroyed by the earthquake.

So far, so good. But when the Government Accounting Office (GAO) looked at the progress made by the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), a joint effort between the Haitian authorities and international donors to coordinate the flow of assistance last May, the GAO was chagrined to find that

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Obama’s Anti-Gun Agenda Remains Alive and Well

Thursday, 05 January 2012 11:06

Barack Obama

Barack Obama (Photo credit: jamesomalley)

On March 30 of last year, President Obama dropped in to greet Sarah Brady, who was meeting with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. Sarah is the wife of Jim Brady, the former White House Press Secretary under Reagan, who was shot but not killed in an assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981. The Bradys subsequently became strong supporters of gun control. According to Brady, the President brought up the issue of gun control “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda. [The President said,] ‘I just want you to know that we are working on [additional limits on gun ownership]. We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.'”

Thanks to the efforts of freedom advocates such as John Lott, Obama’s efforts to stay under the radar are now glistening in the sunlight. Lott reviewed an unsettling and lengthy list of Obama’s “processes,” starting with the President’s intention to ignore at least 20 parts of the 2012 omnibus spending bill that he signed into law last week. Using the controversial and likely unconstitutional “signing statements,” Obama said, “I have advised Congress that I will not construe these provisions as preventing me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibility…such measures as I shall judge necessary and expedient.” Buried in the 1,200-page bill was a restriction that bars health officials from using taxpayer funds to lobby for gun control. To rub it in, Obama iterated his position: “Our spending decisions shall not be treated as dependent on the approval of congressional committees.” In plain English, the President just told Congress to go jump—he was going to do what he wanted to do, regardless.

Lott noted that Obama’s Interior Department just issued new administrative rules that threatened the use of public lands for recreational shooting. The language of the new regulations reads in part:

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New York Times Distracts from the Real European Story

Monday, 21 November 2011 11:59

Thursday’s article in The New York Times by writers Jack Ewing and Nicholas Kulish about the “rift” between factions over the role of the European Central Bank (ECB) was a distraction and misdirected attention from what is really happening there. The piece makes it sound as though the ECB is standing firm against pressures to have it buy up the debt from Greece and Italy in order to keep the debt “contagion” from spreading elsewhere.

For instance, the article quotes Spain’s Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, as saying that he expected the ECB to do whatever was necessary, for “this is what we transferred power for…[to] defend the common policy and its countries.” Of course Zapatero would have to say that or he would be gone, just as unelected bankers replaced elected leaders in Greece and Italy. Just a reminder as to who is in charge was reflected by the recent rise in Spain’s borrowing costs, the highest since 1997, and exceeding the “default” level of 7 percent on its 10-year bond. But nothing was said in the article that Zapatero’s comments reflected a desire to save his skin.

In fact the ECB has been taking an active role economically and politically by buying up the debt of those countries in massive amounts, already in excess of $250 billion, and manipulating interest rates to favor the newly installed rulers Mario Monti in Italy and Lucas Papademos in Greece. But authors Ewing and Kulish prefer to present the ECB as being run by “fiercely conservative stewards” who have “steadfastly resisted letting it take up the mantle of lender of last resort.” And to support that falsehood the authors enlisted the help of

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More Recycling, Less Liberty

Sunday, 20 November 2011 05:11

To celebrate America Recycles Day, the Tellus Institute published a study showing the benefits of increased recycling, by force if necessary. The Tellus Institute’s mission is “to advance the transition to a sustainable, equitable, and humane global civilization,” and has published 3,500 studies, analyses, and reports on everything from energy, water, sustainable communities, corporate social responsibility, and climate change.

Its latest study, “More Jobs, Less Pollution,” prepared for several interested parties including the BlueGreen Alliance, the Teamsters, and the SEIU, purports to provide

strong evidence that an enhanced national recycling and composting strategy in the United States can significantly and sustainably [there’s that word again] address critical national priorities including climate change, lasting job creation, and improved health.

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Taking a Hard Look at Italy

Thursday, 10 November 2011 07:11

With yields on Italy’s 10-year government debt rising sharply higher and beyond the seven-percent ceiling deemed unsustainable, Italy is running out of options in finding buyers for its debt. It is also running out of options as a sovereign nation.

Jan Randolph, head of sovereign debt risk at IHS Global Insight, said, “Italy will not be out of the heat of bond markets until a solid and stable government actually implements austerity and undertakes reforms with strong credible leadership.” That may be asking the impossible.

When Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took office in 1994, his government was the country’s 62nd in 64 years. His personal popularity was sufficient to quell concerns about corruption, personal sex scandals, and lack of any plan or intention to install measures that would have begun to rein in Italy’s spending habits. It was easier to give way to the labor unions, controlling 40 percent of the labor force, and offer additional spending programs to buy the votes to keep him in power. Now that Berlusconi has agreed to step down, it is unclear

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Romney’s Advisors Are Leftist Elites

Thursday, 13 October 2011 05:20

Mitt Romney

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Late last week GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney released the names of his foreign policy and national security advisors just in time for his Friday address on America’s foreign policy. He effused over his selection:

I am deeply honored to have the counsel of this extraordinary group of diplomats, experts and statesmen. Their remarkable experience, wisdom and depth of knowledge will be critical to ensuring that the 21st Century is another American Century.

His campaign continues to be plagued with an increasing chorus of doubters about his conservative posture. His claim to have balanced the budget of Massachusetts without raising taxes was

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Food Crisis Used to Push Global Governance

Sunday, 17 July 2011 07:56

The original advisory opinion was requested by...

Image via Wikipedia

According to internationally acclaimed author and highly regarded expert Lester Brown, writing in the January 10 issue of Foreign Policy magazine:

Tonight there will be 219,000 additional mouths to feed at the dinner table, and many of them will be greeted with empty plates.

Another 219,000 will join us tomorrow night.

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Bohemian Grove: Where the Elite Meet to Eat (and Conspire)

Friday, 15 July 2011 06:04

Bohemian Grove

Image by 18brumaire via Flickr

Debra Saunders complained that, because she is a woman, she wasn’t invited to the upcoming Bohemian Club meeting which begins this Thursday at the Bohemian Grove retreat center an hour’s drive north of San Francisco. Even if she were a man, she most likely still wouldn’t be invited as she is not a member of the “elite.”

Founded just after the Civil War by Henry “Harry” Edwards as a private camp where bohemians—artists and writers—could go to relax and recuperate from the rigors of the work-a-day world, over time the club’s membership evolved to include the rich and powerful, which now numbers over 2,400.

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The Food Crisis Explained (Away)

Tuesday, 07 June 2011 12:16

Image via Wikipedia

Hysterics and Manipulation

When the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced its latest round of increases in the cost of food, analysts were nearly breathless in their recommendations for solutions that involved—what else?—more international “cooperation,” under the tender ministrations and control of the UN.

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Pawlenty: “I’m Running for President—Soon”

Thursday, 14 April 2011 09:02

Tim Pawlenty speaking, Dec 29, 2007

Image via Wikipedia

When former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (pictured) was being interviewed on CNN last week, he was asked if he would accept the position as Donald Trump’s running mate for President, he responded: “I’m running for President. I’m not putting my hat in the ring rhetorically or ultimately for vice president so I’m focused on running for president. ” Host Piers Morgan jumped on his statement immediately:

Governor, unless I was mistaken you just said you were running for President. Can we take that as a formal announcement?

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$4 Trillion in Cuts Proposed by GOP Rep. Paul Ryan

Monday, 04 April 2011 21:47

Paul Ryan

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr

During an interview on “Fox News Sunday”, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, outlined many of the details of the GOP‘s 2012 budget proposal that will officially be announced on Tuesday. He said, “We can’t keep kicking this can down the road. The President has punted. We’re not going to follow suit. ” Implying that the proposal would cut the deficit by “much more than” $4 trillion over the next decade, he offered a synopsis of what to expect on Tuesday:

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Funding of Bretton Woods II by George Soros Exposed

Wednesday, 30 March 2011 10:03

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 27JAN10 - George Soros, Cha...

Image via Wikipedia

When billionaire George Soros wrote two years ago that what the world needed now was “a new world architecture,” he was already laying plans for Bretton Woods II, April 8-11, 2011, to be held at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

Soros wrote:

While international cooperation on regulatory reform is difficult to achieve on a piecemeal basis, it may be attainable in a grand bargain that rearranges the entire financial order.

A new Bretton Woods conference, like the one that established the international financial architecture after World War II, is needed to establish new international rules…reconstitute the International Monetary Fund (IMF)…[and] to reform the currency system…

Claiming that the international monetary system “cannot survive in its present form,” Soros argues that it could and should be revamped so that American leadership would be “re-established…in a more acceptable form.”

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Tea Party Cements Patriot Act Into Place

Monday, 14 March 2011 13:35

"A Patriot Act"

Image by basykes via Flickr

In light of recent extensions of the Patriot Act, it can be concluded that many Tea Partiers are reneging on parts of the Tea Party agenda. Of the 41 Tea Party-backed candidates, 31 voted to extend the Patriot Act, eight voted against it, and one did not vote. As John Tyner stated at Lewrockwell.com: “Despite the eight nea votes, Tea Party-backed candidates overwhelmingly backed an extension of the Patriot Act.”

It took Congress scarcely six weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to write, deliberate, and then overwhelmingly pass the Orwellian-named USA PATRIOT Act on October 26, 2001, and the Bill of Rights hasn’t been the same since. In its chilling summary of the law, Wikipedia noted

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Sharron Angle vs. Harry Reid and the GOP

Saturday, 19 June 2010 07:39

Senator Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader

Image via Wikipedia

Sharron Angle is going to have to learn how to fight with both hands in Nevada’s general election battle against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as Manu Raju explains in two articles appearing at Politico.com here and here. With her left hand she will be busy fending off attack ads from the Reid camp for her “extremism,” and with her right hand soothing sitting Senators with whom she might well be working after the election.

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