AND A STEAK!

I want to wish all a Happy 4th of July!

It's becoming clear Obama has a more favorable view of America's enemies than its friends.
The first clue was his rude behavior towards the English. Then he's all cackles and smiles with Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. Then he joined their book club. Witness Obama's giving the stinkeye to every good freedom-supporting leader of the world. Then he was silent and dismissive with the recent unrest in Iran as the mullahs shoot people in the street and are threatening to execute hundreds of the protesters. Then the Congress and Military of Honduras stop their Hugo Chavez wannabe from becoming dictator and Obama falls all over himself to support the little marxist. Is military invasion of Honduras, allied with the Venezualans next? We shouldn't be surprised, Obama supported these types before he was President. His man in Africa Odinga is becoming fast allies with Iran. Maybe it's just that Obama doesn't support the protesters in Iran or the Honduran Congress because he doesn't want us to get any ideas as he turns us into a marxist third world nation.

Of all the tributes pouring out even as I write this, I have conclude that comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis put it best:

so we're all going to pretend he wasn't a mentally ill child molester who should have been drinking his jesus juice in jail?

According to AFP, "[t]he United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters."

President Barack Obama's administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"There's no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

Over at National Review, Greg Pollowitz asks "how many young women must be shot before the invitation is rescinded?"

Labels: Barack Obama, Iran

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may be Iran's Supreme Leader, but he's a pale shadow to the late Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomenei. After three decades of strict Islamic law, perhaps not even the (still) revered Ayatollah Khomenei could deny young Iranians their democratic aspirations, and that's a good thing.

Having rigged one election too many, despite Jimmy Carter's assurances to the contrary, Iran's ruling mullahs find themselves in much the same predicament that the late Shah Reza Pahlavi found himself in 30 years ago today - desperately clinging to power in the face of ever growing popular opposition.

More than 100,000 opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defied an Interior Ministry ban Monday and streamed into central Tehran to cheer their pro-reform leader in his first public appearance since elections that he alleges were marred by fraud.

Security forces watched quietly, with shields and batons at their sides.

The outpouring for reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi—swelling as more poured from buildings and side streets, and wearing the trademark green of his campaign—followed a decision by Iran's most powerful figure for an investigation into the vote- rigging allegations.

Mousavi paused on the edge of Tehran's Azadi, or Freedom, Square—where Ahmadinejad made his first post-election speech—to address the crowd, which was more than five miles (nine kilometers) long. They roared back: "Long live Mousavi."

I don't know much about the so called "reformist leader" Mir Hossein Mousavi (he was approved as a candidate by Iran's ruling mullahs after all), but I do know that he hasn't publicly threatened to plunge the world into nuclear war, so at least that's something to cling too - right?

The U.S. General Services Administration has admitted that the Obama White House, when replacing its fleet of government cars, buys more Fords than GM or Chrysler vehicles.

As reported by Autoblog, "[o]f the three American automakers, Ford was the clear winner of government funds with a total of 7,924 Blue Ovals bought and paid for at a total of $129 million...."

No word yet from the administration on why it hands billions in tax dollars to two auto companies to keep them in business...and then takes the majority of its business to a competitor.

NEW YORK—Former Vice President Al Gore thinks that financial markets are to blame for environmental problems.

Gore, speaking at a Cornell University-sponsored roundtable in New York City on Wednesday (June 3), told the audience that the "tyranny of short-term horizons” forced companies to maximize returns on a short-term quarterly basis. This, the panelists said, undermined long-term progress in combating environmental ills, such as global warming.

This "tyranny of short-term horizons is not limited to investing but also to politics," said Gore. But the Obama administration has an opportunity to lead the world, he said, especially at the forthcoming United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen. And if the cap-and-trade bill to tax carbon passes in Congress this year, it would help create a "global framework" to bring China into a global agreement on regulating carbon, he said.

Gore’s comments came in response to--and echoed sentiments expressed by--Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, a multi-national conglomerate that promotes itself as environmentally conscious.

Despite decrying the financial markets, both Tata and Gore have direct financial interests in advancing global warming alarmism and promoting environmental technologies.

The Tata group recently unveiled its “green” Nano car, a small car funded in large part by government subsidies. And, in 2008, Gore admitted to having a direct financial interest in a number of green investments.

The conference was organized by the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University's Johnson School of Business Management. Cornell, like other Ivy League Universities, is heavily invested in the financial markets, including Hedged Equities, Real Assets and foreign equities.