Secret Serviced

I'm a guy who respects our federal officers--it must be the veteran in me. However, I have no respect for those who are on duty and have to be on their game when it comes to protecting POTUS (and yes, as advance guys two days before the president arrives, they are on duty).

The story is unfolding but it appears that quite a few of Turbo Tax Timmy's guys were getting busy with the seedier elements of of Cartgena (and cheating them out of well-earned pesos according to this.) The drug angle is even more hideous, especially since Colombia just came through a horrible battle with narco-traffickers.

This is a major problem from an international standpoint as well as our neighbors in South America. The men assigned to protect Obama failed in their assigned mission and that just may make some on-the-fence psycho think he can get close and off the CINC.

Read the link at the NY Post above. This is the best comment to that story:

Jay Allen

Solyndra: $535 Mil. GSA convention: $823 Thou. Columbian hooker: $47 bucks. Obama Administartion: Priceles!

Reply · 152 · Like · Follow Post · 10 hours ago

Obama, Ortega and Chavez

This weekend, President Obama sat through a diatribe about American imperialism from a dictator, made happy talk with a another who insulted our nation and our president and generally belittled our nation in the eyes of our hemispheric neighbors. An all-around successful weekend for the South American region if you happened to be a crackpot socialist or quasi-communist.

So who are these men that Obama allowed to embarrass our nation? Well, we know all about Chavez--a man who is about to make himself President for Life and has supported terrorists in a neighboring nation who were trying to overthrow their democratically-elected leader. But what about Daniel Ortega?

Ortega has a history as brutal as any despot:

The Sandinistas also institutionalized torture. Political prisoners in jails such as Las Tejas were consistently beaten, deprived of sleep, and given electric shocks (but hey, they didn't waterboard--ed). They were routinely denied food and water and kept in dark cubicles known as chiquitas (little ones), that had a surface area of less than one square meter. These cubicles were too small to sit up in, were completely dark, and had no sanitation and almost no ventilation. Prisoners were also forced to stand for long periods without bending their arms or legs; they were locked into steel boxes exposed to the full force of the tropical sun; their wives and daughters were sexually assaulted in front of them; and some prisoners were mutilated and skinned alive before being executed (again, at least they didn't play Barney music loud--ed).

One Sandinista practice was known as corte de cruz: this was a drawing-and-quartering technique in which the prisoner’s limbs were severed from the body, leaving him to bleed to death. The result of all of these horrifying cruelties was yet another mass exodus from a country enslaved by Communism, with tens of thousands of Nicaraguans escaping and settling in Honduras, Costa Rica, or the United States.

This is the guy Obama allowed to berate us without so much as an "er" or an "uh" or a "senor". Because we deserve to be berated by men such as this who we used our full-force to oust because of just such abuses. But it was done by a republican named Reagan so it was unjust and just another example of our imperialism and oppression of other nations.

We have reached the point where we allow torturous murderers to slam America in front of our president and he says nothing. Ortega could have called us a cabron and Obama would have smiled that idiotic smile and nodded and thanked him afterward.

Alright, I can see making nice with Europe, we'll need them someday. But why should we apologize and be nice with a man who killed tens of thousands? Thank the good Lord that the Soviet Union was destroyed by Reagan because Obama would have given our secrets, weapons and country away to them.

How to Keep Hugo Chavez in Check

One of the best editorial pages around is at Investors Business Daily. Today they have this on Venezuela.

Communist dictator Hugo Chavez has been living large these last few years thanks to US oil dollars. He's managed to persuade a good-sized portion of South and Central America to follow his communist ideology through payoffs and support of opposition groups. It seems our only true ally is Colombia led by Pres. Uribe and who knows how long he'll remain one the way the Dems have treated him.

That said, Chavez lifeblood is oil and oil profits. Take away his massive oil profits and he'll be Paraguay with a coastline. Fortunately, we're seeing that start to happen. Oil prices have been declining steadily as markets work to correct themselves as they always have (I paid $3.07 for regular unleaded this morning) and the steady down pressure has affected Chavez' bottom line.

Here's where we can hit him hard. Chavez exports over 60% of his oil to the US as we are among the few nations that can easily refine their oil because of the high sulfur content. Let's cut him off. Venezuelan oil accounts for only 11% of US imported oil, a minimal number that is probably even lower at present. We boost production within our borders and on the continental shelf and watch his socialist paradise crumble into the Caribbean.

We don't have to fight a war by proxy like we did in the 1980's, all we have to do is hit him in the wallet and the violently oppressed (and murdered) insurgency will spring to life. Chavez' rule is a house of cards supported by high oil prices. He lacks the clout to keep prices high and market forces--capitalist forces--will work to steadily reduce the price per barrel.

It's well passed time to deal with this murderous, communist pig and drilling more domestically will be the easiest way to finish him off once and for all.

News & Notes

Links from around the web:

Now this is funny, someone affixed an Obama bumper sticker to the "Straight Talk Express."

The CSM probes why the government doesn't impose windfall profits on the movie industry.

Reason #356,796,222 PETA is led by the biggest scumbags in the world. (link fixed)

As always happens once the people get a taste of real communism, they want the lefty leader ousted asap. Maybe Hugo Chavez will be next.

Dude, no.

The case for human-induced Global Warming is rather flimsy once one actually looks at the facts. That sums up Democrats and libs, doesn't it; once they start looking at issues with their head instead of their heart, they tend to see that their deeply held beliefs just look downright silly. It seems that the only campaign failing apart faster than Obama's is the anti-global warming one.

A New Front in the War on Terror

Terrorists are terrorists. Whether they kill in the name of Allah or in the name of a godless religion named communism.

Colombia has been fighting a war for nearly half a century with the FARC--a particularly vile and violent organization that believes in Marxist-Leninism and will kill, kidnap (Americans included) and generally anything thing else if it helps them attain their goals.

FARC has been shored up in recent years by Hugo Chavez's oil wealth (some say to the tune of $300-million), Daniel Ortega and other communist regimes in the region. Colombia now faces Venezuelan troops on one border, Ecuadoran troops on the other and now Nicaragua smells blood:

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced Thursday that he is breaking off relations with Colombia because of his country's opposition to the Colombian raid on a guerrilla base in Ecuador.

Ortega announced his decision publicly after meeting with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who is on a multination tour in the region to rally opposition to Colombia's action, which killed the No. 2 commander of the Colombian FARC guerrilla group and 23 other Colombian guerrillas.

"We are breaking off relations because of the political terrorism being carried out by the government of Alvaro Uribe, not because of the Colombian people," Ortega said.

Taste the sweet irony of the moment, folks. Daniel Ortega--a man who used covert means to take out rivals--is accusing another government of terrorism and protecting those who are actually perpetrating terrorism. Ortega led a rebellion that killed thousands.

The US is backing Colombia and rightly so; when a neighboring nation harbors those who've killed thousands in your own country, the Colombian version of the Bush Doctrine applies. Ecuador was harboring a terror leader and the Colombians warned them not to, when they continued, they took the scumbag out.

Terrorism is terrorism, regardless of the ideology behind it.

Chavez Inciting War Throughout South America

He's a supporter of Ahmadinejad, is constantly kissing up to former Cuban dictator Fidel and now is threatening war against Colombia. Yeah, I'd say the arogant little bastard has worked his way up to the level of real threat from irritating menace:

The reaction of presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Rafael Correa of Ecuador to the killing of FARC commander Raul Reyes is now threatening to plunge South America into a disastrous conflict.

"This could be the start of a war in South America," Chavez said. He warned Colombian president Alvaro Uribe: "If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I'll send some Sukhois" _ Russian warplanes recently bought by Venezuela.

This is no small threat. In the past several years Chavez has spent , according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, $4.3 billion in weapons in 2005-2006, more even than China. This includes a Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK-47) factory licensed from Russia. For a nation not at war, this is hardly an auspicious sign.

This is the alliance many of us have warned of for some time. Chavez, Correa, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Evo Morales in Bolivia have been trying for some time now to form an anti-American bloc in Latin America but have no coherent ideology to counter the changes in the world.

Chavez was openly supporting the terrorist group FARC and his words cannot be brushed aside. That said, the Russian planes are not of the quality of American planes and I would suspect that Venezuelan pilots are not of the highest caliber either.

A few questions: how much backing does the US give to Colombia? Will it be covert or overt? Will this foment a complete conflagration on a continent in our hemisphere?

This bears watching.

Gas-Rich Region Secedes From Socialist Bolivian Government

This isn't going to be pretty:

(CNN) -- Tensions were rising in Bolivia on Saturday as members of the country's four highest natural gas-producing regions declared autonomy from the central government.

...Council representatives vowed to legitimize the so-called autonomy statutes through a referendum that would legally separate the natural-gas rich districts from President Evo Morales' government.

The move also aims to separate the states from Bolivia's new constitution, which calls for, among other things, a heavier taxation on the four regions to help finance more social programs.

The tide of socialism may well have been halted in Venezuela when Hugo Chavez lost in his national referendum a few weeks ago. This is just further proof that socialist policies divide nations, not unite them.

Imagine if the US government, led by say, John Edwards (shudder) levied an oppressive tax on Alaska because that state has the most oil in the nation under the auspices of using that tax to fund anti-poverty programs in Mississippi. How do you think Alaskans would react? This situation is analogous to that.

While civil war is never good for a nation, many South American nations are in the midst of throwing off the chains of extreme socialism and communism (again) and we'll see this play out in that region more often I would guess.

Map of Bolivia here. Other reactions here and here.