The Administration like the Democratic Leadership in Congress are drunk with power and in a rush to either reverse past administration policy or make their own as fast as they can. They are acting as if they only have 100 days in office rather than 4 years. With regard to Cuba, the President and the State Department obviously gave their blessing to members of the Congressional Black Caucus to visit Cuba last week and meet with the dictator brothers Castro. The Castros put on a show, and the Members of Congress were bit players. They were taken in by Fidel and Raul and their propaganda, as was the President. We should not be rewarding Cuba with unilateral concessions. They have retarded generations of their own people with their brutal regime and they are no friend of the United States. The President’s policy of apology and concession will not work in Europe, the Middle East or in our own Hemisphere.
My advice to the President with regard to the Summit of the Americas is this, democracy and free trade is what made us the greatest Nation on earth and it is those same principles that will make the Americas prosper as well. We need the Columbia Free Trade Agreement. We need to promote democracy and make the people of the Americas feel that they are just as important to us as is Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Showing posts with label Bradley Blakeman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bradley Blakeman. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Bradley Blakeman Op-Ed: Self Defense on the High Seas
With regard to African Pirates - A bad story that has one chapter that ends well is still a bad story. Thank God the Captain of our U.S. Merchant Ship was rescued. Now that the World's attention has been shone on African Pirating, maybe the international community will finally act to stop it once and for all. It is unacceptable for rag tag criminals to rule the seas with impunity. Isn’t it about time that the United Nations did what they were chartered to do? Shouldn’t they be the ones to rally the World to stop this scourge? Commercial ships must be allowed to defend themselves. Ships should be allowed to travel with trained armed onboard security. The rules of engagement must me retooled to allow a ship's crew to deal with threats themselves if they can. This law enforcement operation by the U.S. Navy was avoidable. The millions of dollars this cost the U.S. Tax Payer should not have been necessary. This is not nor should it be a U.S. Problem alone to solve.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Is Larry Summers Over Already?
Submitted by ASO member: Bradley Blakeman
It’s time for the sun to set on Summers. The Press is reporting that the President’s chief economic advisor Larry Summers was himself a greedy pig who just this past year was paid by his fellow wall street buds more than 5 Million Dollars in compensation. While these executives were looting their companies and running them into the ground, Mr. Summers did not miss the opportunity to partake from their feedbag. All the economic advisers, treasury secretaries and the like have one thing in common, a incestuous relationship with Wall Street. It is where they came from, it is where they made their riches before coming to government and it is where they go back to, to make more. They “oversee” and “regulate” their friends. There is no arms length relationship. The President talks about aspiring to have the most transparent and ethical administration this country has ever seen and it has been to date everything but. He rails on Wall Street greed and he hires as his chief economic advisor the poster boy for it. He shames corporate executives for taking millions from companies who are going down the tubes and are taking US Bailout Dollars yet, the head person of his economic team is a pig himself. Mr. President you saw fit to fire the CEO of GM and you saw fit to call out Wall Street Execs who paid themselves millions in bonus money, will you fire Larry Summers for the same type of behavior you admonish others for? You can’t make this stuff up, Our Treasury Secretary is a tax cheat, the President’s chief economic advisor is guilty of the same type of greed that he now is charged to stop, the OMB Director this week was on the John Stewart Comedy Show yucking it up on how bad the economy is, Geithner cannot find anyone to work with, and the list goes on. Folks, we are in deep trouble.
It’s time for the sun to set on Summers. The Press is reporting that the President’s chief economic advisor Larry Summers was himself a greedy pig who just this past year was paid by his fellow wall street buds more than 5 Million Dollars in compensation. While these executives were looting their companies and running them into the ground, Mr. Summers did not miss the opportunity to partake from their feedbag. All the economic advisers, treasury secretaries and the like have one thing in common, a incestuous relationship with Wall Street. It is where they came from, it is where they made their riches before coming to government and it is where they go back to, to make more. They “oversee” and “regulate” their friends. There is no arms length relationship. The President talks about aspiring to have the most transparent and ethical administration this country has ever seen and it has been to date everything but. He rails on Wall Street greed and he hires as his chief economic advisor the poster boy for it. He shames corporate executives for taking millions from companies who are going down the tubes and are taking US Bailout Dollars yet, the head person of his economic team is a pig himself. Mr. President you saw fit to fire the CEO of GM and you saw fit to call out Wall Street Execs who paid themselves millions in bonus money, will you fire Larry Summers for the same type of behavior you admonish others for? You can’t make this stuff up, Our Treasury Secretary is a tax cheat, the President’s chief economic advisor is guilty of the same type of greed that he now is charged to stop, the OMB Director this week was on the John Stewart Comedy Show yucking it up on how bad the economy is, Geithner cannot find anyone to work with, and the list goes on. Folks, we are in deep trouble.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Power to the People!
Submitted by ASO member: Bradley Blakeman
The greatness of America rests not in our government, it rests in our people. We should not be growing government in trying times; we should be unleashing the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of our businessmen and women, our scientists, our students, and our inventors.
Growing government, to some how make up for the lost productivity of the private sector makes no sense. At this time, government should be cutting costs and reducing spending. Our lawmakers should be cutting taxes and providing incentives to the marketplace for investment and ingenuity.
Businesses that have been mismanaged should fail. Businesses that need to reorganize under bankruptcy laws, should do so. Government bailouts are not the answer. Our laws are for everyone, the corporation and the individual, the big, the tall and the small.
Our government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers by providing taxpayer funds to finance greedy, corrupt or incompetent businesses and practices.
People and corporations must be held accountable for their behavior, including but not limited to their business decisions. There must be more than a sense of responsibility it must be real and it must be accounted for.
There must be consequences. For those who have violated the public trust, they should be brought to justice and for those who have acted incompetently, they should be removed.
The marketplace is resilient. We will come back stronger economically, if Wall Street and Main Street operate on the same rules and principles.
Now is the time for sacrifice, but out of sacrifice we will be a stronger nation. We have all lost something of value in this past year, but there is nothing more valuable than our collective spirit and that is still in tact and unwavering.
The American People can solve any problem and over come any diversity. My message to my government is simple, "Let my People go"! Get out of our way and lighten our load and we will come back stronger than ever.
The greatness of America rests not in our government, it rests in our people. We should not be growing government in trying times; we should be unleashing the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of our businessmen and women, our scientists, our students, and our inventors.
Growing government, to some how make up for the lost productivity of the private sector makes no sense. At this time, government should be cutting costs and reducing spending. Our lawmakers should be cutting taxes and providing incentives to the marketplace for investment and ingenuity.
Businesses that have been mismanaged should fail. Businesses that need to reorganize under bankruptcy laws, should do so. Government bailouts are not the answer. Our laws are for everyone, the corporation and the individual, the big, the tall and the small.
Our government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers by providing taxpayer funds to finance greedy, corrupt or incompetent businesses and practices.
People and corporations must be held accountable for their behavior, including but not limited to their business decisions. There must be more than a sense of responsibility it must be real and it must be accounted for.
There must be consequences. For those who have violated the public trust, they should be brought to justice and for those who have acted incompetently, they should be removed.
The marketplace is resilient. We will come back stronger economically, if Wall Street and Main Street operate on the same rules and principles.
Now is the time for sacrifice, but out of sacrifice we will be a stronger nation. We have all lost something of value in this past year, but there is nothing more valuable than our collective spirit and that is still in tact and unwavering.
The American People can solve any problem and over come any diversity. My message to my government is simple, "Let my People go"! Get out of our way and lighten our load and we will come back stronger than ever.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The UN is Unfit to Deal With Terrorism
How can the United Nations adequately work to prevent and fight terrorism when they don’t even have the will to define it?
Is there any doubt that terrorism is real? We experienced it on our own shores and we have witnessed it take place in every corner of the globe, unfortunately, on an all to frequent basis. The United Nations has neither the will nor the leadership to take the lead to defeat terrorism and it is only a matter of time when terrorists carry out a catastrophic attack that the World will no longer be able to ignore. The only question is where and when it will occur.
The first step to dealing with a problem is defining it and properly acknowledging it. The following are some widely recognized definitions of terrorism:
League of Nations Convention (1937) : “All criminal acts directed against a State and intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or a group of persons or the general public”;
US Code: “terrorism means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience”;
Columbia Encyclopedia: “The threat or use of violence, often against a civilian population, to achieve political or social ends, to intimidate opponents, or to publicize public grievances”;
The Arab Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism (1998): “Any act or threat of violence, whatever its motives or purposes, that occurs in the advancement of an individual or collective criminal agenda and seeking to sow panic among people, causing fear by harming them, or placing their lives, liberty or security in danger, or seeking to cause damage to the environment or to public or private installations or property or to occupying or seizing them, or seeking to jeopardize a national resource”.
If other diverse groups and nations can define terrorism,
why then can’t the UN settle on a definition?
The answer is clear. They do not want to.
The United States and other freedom loving nations must now demand that the UN define terrorism once and for all. They must also vow to aggressively thwart it and condemn it wherever and whenever it occurs, not with mere words but with meaningful actions.
The UN stands for nothing if it cannot face up to and defeat a scourge that will be the undoing of civilized society unless it is defeated.
President Obama needs to lead on this issue. To date he and his Administration seems to have banned even the mention of “terrorism” from their public speak. They believe it is inflammatory and insulting. To who? The Terrorists?
There will be another major attack by terrorists. When that occurs, the World will respond with shock and horror and condolence. The question is what did we do to confront it and prevent it in the first place.
Submitted by ASO member: Bradley Blakeman
Is there any doubt that terrorism is real? We experienced it on our own shores and we have witnessed it take place in every corner of the globe, unfortunately, on an all to frequent basis. The United Nations has neither the will nor the leadership to take the lead to defeat terrorism and it is only a matter of time when terrorists carry out a catastrophic attack that the World will no longer be able to ignore. The only question is where and when it will occur.
The first step to dealing with a problem is defining it and properly acknowledging it. The following are some widely recognized definitions of terrorism:
League of Nations Convention (1937) : “All criminal acts directed against a State and intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or a group of persons or the general public”;
US Code: “terrorism means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience”;
Columbia Encyclopedia: “The threat or use of violence, often against a civilian population, to achieve political or social ends, to intimidate opponents, or to publicize public grievances”;
The Arab Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism (1998): “Any act or threat of violence, whatever its motives or purposes, that occurs in the advancement of an individual or collective criminal agenda and seeking to sow panic among people, causing fear by harming them, or placing their lives, liberty or security in danger, or seeking to cause damage to the environment or to public or private installations or property or to occupying or seizing them, or seeking to jeopardize a national resource”.
If other diverse groups and nations can define terrorism,
why then can’t the UN settle on a definition?
The answer is clear. They do not want to.
The United States and other freedom loving nations must now demand that the UN define terrorism once and for all. They must also vow to aggressively thwart it and condemn it wherever and whenever it occurs, not with mere words but with meaningful actions.
The UN stands for nothing if it cannot face up to and defeat a scourge that will be the undoing of civilized society unless it is defeated.
President Obama needs to lead on this issue. To date he and his Administration seems to have banned even the mention of “terrorism” from their public speak. They believe it is inflammatory and insulting. To who? The Terrorists?
There will be another major attack by terrorists. When that occurs, the World will respond with shock and horror and condolence. The question is what did we do to confront it and prevent it in the first place.
Submitted by ASO member: Bradley Blakeman
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