Obama's Maximus Mea Culpa - NSA Aftermath

Far from the maddening lights and cameras to which he is accustomed, President Obama has been forced to offer the Maximus Mea Culpa to friends, allies and major investors alike as he is the first world leader caught with his fingers in the cookie jar of cyber scandal.

 

Leave it to the National Security Agency, NSA, the most mysterious of all our intelligence agencies in America, to give a top security clearance to a private NSA contractor who within a matter of months after getting the job was blabbering all the NSA secrets to an English newspaper.

 

 

Unfortunately these were not little secrets but really big stuff like the fact NSA bugged top secret computers of our friends and foes alike.  In fact they were hacked by the US 10-15 years ago and we have been listening in ever since.

 

From Germany and Britain to Russia and China, they were all hacked long ago and we have known all along what they were up to in terms of military, monetary or any other kind of policy.

 

 

Look what happened the past decade and a half.  There was Clinton's good time government with it's focus on strategic initiatives like global warming, alternate energy, legalizing fraudulent housing  mortgage programs, and increasing the duties of White House Interns.

 

Bush brought us the 911 terrorist attack, war in Iraq and Afghanistan and pretty much a collapsed economy, while Obama brought us, well, more of the same.  How many of our decisions were made based on information we "legally stole" from everyone else?

 

 

Better yet, if NSA was tapping phones and emails all these years surely they were aware of the 911 attack in advance.  Were they aware and did they sit on the information?  Let's hope not.

 

Regardless, they did bug all those nations and leaders through phones and the Internet so President Obama is now left with a lot of explaining to do and with a need to demonstrate a sincere Mea Culpa to those friends and allies.

 

Ironically, while it is Germany who demanded the first private meeting with the president people from Britain to the European Union are in the queue wanting similar assurances we have not compromised their national security.

 

Then there is China, our Sugar Daddy yet willing to join with Russia at any time to block Obama initiatives in the United Nations.  Many times Obama has accused the Chinese of "cheating" by hacking American computers.

 

The last time the White House made a big deal of showing how the hack attack had come from a very specific building in China.  I guess we know now how the White House knew about the Chinese hacking connection since the US has been hacking everyone for a very long time.  However, the truth that we were secretly hacking China the last 15 years while protesting Chinese attacks on us is quite disingenuous.

 

 

We need China as an ally to help us in Asia and the Middle East.  That is beyond the fact they are the largest owner of our national debt in the world.  And there is a great deal in import and export trade between the US and China significantly helping both nations.

 

We also need Russia as an ally in the same places.  Yet we accuse them both of all kinds of mischievous behavior.

 

 

Let us hope our national security policy is not guided by paranoid patriotism but by logic, ethics and a respect for individual rights and freedom.  I doubt the record as the NSA mess unfolds will be good news.

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Osama bin Laden threatens France - Sarkozy says France will not be intimidated

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Paris, France (CNN) -- The French government will not be swayed by a threatening message apparently recorded by Osama Bin Laden, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday.

"It goes without saying that France does not let its politics be dictated by anyone, and certainly not by terrorists," Sarkozy said while attending the European Union summit in Brussels Friday.


Bin Laden warned France to get its troops out of Afghanistan and not to oppress Muslims at home in a tape broadcast by the Al-Jazeera network Wednesday and authenticated by the French Foreign Ministry on Thursday.


"If you want to tyrannize and think that it is your right to ban the free women from wearing the burqa, isn't it our right to expel your occupying forces, your men from our lands by striking them by the neck?" the speaker demands, in reference to recently passed French legislation barring women from covering their faces in public.


"This message only confirms the reality of the terrorist threat against which the French authorities have taken and continue to take appropriate measures," the ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Sarkozy wins Pension Reform - saves French economy


PARIS (Dow Jones)--Anti-government industrial action and protests continued to diminish Friday after President Nicolas Sarkozy's contentious pension reform was voted into law.




"We have the satisfaction of having accomplished our duty" on pension reform, Dominique Paille, a spokesman for Sarkozy's conservative UMP party told French television.


The pension reform cleared parliamentary hurdles Wednesday but will be delayed a week or two as the opposition Socialist party, as expected, appeals to the country's constitutional court which for its part is expected to dismiss the appeal.


Sarkozy has "by and large won the pensions battle," Douglas Webber, a political science professor at the Fontainebleau-based international business school INSEAD said. "Despite a few concessions, he's got pretty much what he wanted, keeping his political majority intact and united at the same time," Webber added.


Publicly, Sarkozy was modest. "There is only one winner in this affair and that's the social security system and the French people," Sarkozy told reporters on Friday. "French people's pensions will be funded," he added.


After a union-led national day of protest and strikes Thursday fizzled out, striking refinery workers were heading back to work Friday and a crippling strike at the key Fos-Lavera oil port came to an end.
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The Death of European Socialism - Angela Merkel: Multiculturalism has failed in Germany

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One of the most powerful, respected and popular females to ever head a European nation, Angela Merkel of Germany, stunned the liberal world and socialist advocates worldwide by declaring Multiculturalism has failed in Germany.

Yet another example of the breakdown of European socialism that is being under reported in main stream American media, Merkel shattered the world of political correctness that seems to prevail here in America.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK reports that the Chancellor's assertion that onus is on new arrivals to do more to integrate into German society stirs anti-immigration debate.

Chancellor Angela Merkel says multiculturalism in Germany has 'failed utterly'. She tells a conference of the youth wing of her Christian Democratic Union party that Germans and foreign workers could not 'live happily side by side'. The speech has been interpreted as a dramatic shift to the right.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has courted growing anti-immigrant opinion in Germany by claiming the country's attempts to create a multicultural society have "utterly failed".

Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democratic Union party, Merkel said the idea of people from different cultural backgrounds living happily "side by side" did not work.

She said the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society.

"This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin, yesterday.

Her remarks will stir a debate about immigration in a country which is home to around 4 million Muslims.

Last week, Horst Seehofer, the premier of Bavaria and a member of the Christian Social Union – part of Merkel's ruling coalition – called for a halt to Turkish and Arabic immigration.

In the past, Merkel has tried to straddle both sides of the argument by talking tough on integration but also calling for an acceptance of mosques.

But she faces pressure from within the CDU to take a harder line on immigrants who show resistance to being integrated into German society.

Yesterday's speech is widely seen as a lurch to the right designed to placate that element in her party.

Merkel said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her argument that they should learn German in order to cope in school and take advantage of opportunities in the labour market.

The row over foreigners in Germany has shifted since former central banker Thilo Sarrazin published a highly-controversial book in which he accused Muslim immigrants of lowering the intelligence of German society.

Sarrazin was censured for his views and dismissed from the Bundesbank, but his book proved popular and polls showed Germans were sympathetic with the thrust of his arguments.

One recent poll showed one-third of Germans believed the country was "overrun by foreigners".

It also found 55% of Germans believed that Arabs are "unpleasant people", compared with the 44% who held the opinion seven years ago.

In her speech, Merkel said the education of unemployed Germans should take priority over recruiting workers from abroad, while noting that Germany could not get by without skilled foreign workers.

The chancellor's remarks appear to confirm a suspicion that she has sympathy with Sarrazin's anti-immigrant rhetoric. On Friday, he declared: "Multiculturalism is dead".

Other members of Merkel's government disagree. In a weekend newspaper interview, her labour minister, Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), raised the possibility of lowering barriers to entry for some foreign workers in order to fight the lack of skilled workers in Europe's largest economy.

"For a few years, more people have been leaving our country than entering it," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

"Wherever it is possible, we must lower the entry hurdles for those who bring the country forward."

The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has said Germany lacks about 400,000 skilled workers.

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The BP Oil Leak - Where is it taking us?

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What if they are not telling us the whole truth about the oil spill? We already were told first by the Coast Guard that the spill was 1,000 barrels a day. Then BP said 5,000 a day, followed by increases to 12,000 to 20,000, 40,000, and now they are planning on recovering 53,000 barrels of 60,000 that are spewing out.

Current scientific estimates range up to 100,000 a day and the BP "worst case" estimate in their permit was for 162,000. That means the actual flow rate could be between 100,000 and 162.000 a day, or 20 to 32 times more than they first estimated (5,000).



So will the two relief holes be able to block off a leak 20 - 32 times larger than originally thought? That might explain why two relief holes instead of one were necessary from the beginning. If the oil flow rate is approaching 100,000 barrels it might be too much pressure for one or even two relief holes to stop the spill.

So what if they fail to seal off the leak? Well first off BP will be salvaging oil at a rate of about 55,000 barrels a day. No one seems to be paying attention to the fact that salvaged oil, that captured as part of the clean up, means there is lost royalty revenue that would have eventually streamed into federal government coffers (and partially shared with Gulf states) from the production of oil and gas at the site.



BP's lease to drill on the outer continental shelf means the company would have paid an 18.75 percent royalty to the federal government for all produced oil and gas. At a capture rate of 55,000 barrels a day the oil is worth at today's price for crude ($78.22), a total of $43 million a day. The lost royalty is about $8 million a day. Not a bad revenue stream and royalty savings for the company. The irony is BP was not even going to produce oil from the well, just cap it for future production. Most of the deep water wells being built are for future production.

Another interesting fact is that the highest production well flow rates for land or sea drilling are about 25,000 barrels a day. If the BP spill is around 100,000 barrels a day that is almost five times more oil than the best producing oil wells in the world. I suspect that means BP has a financial windfall from the royalty free oil. The $43 million a day revenue could offset the estimated clean up cost for BP which is now over $23 billion. Viewed another way, it would take one and one-half years of capturing the oil to equal $23 billion.



So what happens if they cannot seal the leak with the relief wells? The answer is rather foreboding. You see a failure to seal the leak may result in an increase in the flow rate to 100,000 barrels or more a day. Oceanographer John Kessler said that the crude gushing from the well contains 40 percent methane, compared to about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits. Methane is a natural gas that could potentially suffocate marine life and create "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives. "This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history," Kessler said.



There is also a problem with the oil remaining underwater. No one has a clue how much is staying below the surface in the form of oil plumes but some scientists have estimated it could be equal to the surface oil. When it remains underwater it is impossible to track by satellite. It is also impossible to know how much oil has reached the Gulf "Loop Current", the flow from the Gulf around the tip of Florida and up the East Coast.



We do know that on May 19 scientists monitoring the surface spill with the European Space Agency Envisat radar satellite stated that oil had reached the Loop Current. When it reaches Florida it becomes the Gulf Stream. Since the Loop Current is a very intense deep ocean current, it will accelerate the mixing of the oil and water which may remove the oil film on the surface and prevent further tracking it with satellites, but the pollution is likely to affect the coral reef marine ecosystem.



If the oil continues up the Gulf Stream scientists say it should remain 50-60 miles away from the Eastern Beaches but weather patterns could change that. Eventually the oil could continue in the Gulf Stream all the way to Europe. Such a result could have a catastrophic impact on the world.



Extreme results could be the extinction of sea life in the Gulf region. If it also reaches Europe the high level of toxicity will hurt the ocean life in the region. A prolonged failure to seal the leak could result in pollution of the entire Atlantic Ocean.

There is a possibility the methane gas, the natural gases in this field, could erupt and break through the ocean floor creating a tsunami of immense destructive capability aimed at any area from Florida to Texas and into Mexico as well as the release of poisonous gases into the region. Who knows what happens if the oil leak keeps expanding and eventually causes a rift in the ocean floor large enough to create a tectonic shift?



Another more likely disaster scenario is for the continued leak to impact on our economic recovery which is extremely fragile and teetering right now. We cannot handle an extended disaster on top of the Wall Street and housing fiasco, the lingering health care questions, wars and deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a host of other policy issues where the president seems opposed to the will of the people.

If we fail to maintain an economic recovery mode we could all be in for a very serious time ahead. Right now we should remain aware of events and cautious about projections and know that we cannot continue to spend far more than we have and increase the national debt at a record pace.

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European Socialism, the Darling of the Obama White House, Bankrupting the Euro

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With the near collapse of the Greek economy and subsequent bailout from the EU partners, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the US Federal Reserve for a trillion dollars, the nations of Europe might get to catch their collective breath.

If ever there was a need for a clear symbol on what would happen if the Obama redistribution of wealth program got adopted, this is it. Greece goes bankrupt from the deficit burden of the socialist promise of cradle to grave care from the state. Now we find out most of the members of the European Union have far exceeded their allowed deficit and must institute emergency budget cuts.



These are some of the key features of the European style Obamacare being sought by the White House and Democrat controlled Congress.

National Health Insurance
Nationalization of certain insurance, banking and auto industry elements
Nationalization of the housing and commercial mortgage market with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac already siphoning off over a trillion dollars in taxpayer money
New restrictions on energy industry and increased global warming and environmental pressure
Creation of a futures trading market with Goldman Sachs for industrial carbon credits



There are a lot of other things they want as well but you get the general idea. Obama has often cited the socialized programs of Britain, Germany, Canada, Denmark Norway, Switzerland, Finland and the Netherlands as examples of successful socialized social programs.

For decades demographers and economists warned Europe that social welfare was doomed because of the aging of Europe's baby boomers. With most countries now achieving zero population growth, there are not sufficient youth to pay the cost of benefits to the baby boomers as they retire. Still the social welfare states kept adding to the excessive benefits over the years falling deeper and deeper in debt.



Now the nations of Europe face deep cuts and the first round of cuts came by reducing public payrolls and benefits, the least objectionable. They are not nearly enough to achieve the cuts necessary however so cuts to the social welfare programs are next and they will be painful.

Germany is the financial foundation for Europe and it is facing a $3.75 billion budget cut from it's budget. The only way to achieve it is with cuts to the nation's unemployment program, which just went through difficult cuts 5 years ago. Unemployed people under 50 years of age will get 60% of their last salary before taxes, and the benefit lasts up to a year.



Britain's new government is facing $8.6 billion in cuts mostly to government payrolls. Retirement ages to qualify for state pensions are being raised from 60 to 65 for women, and from 65 to 66 for men. The current system that allows people to remain unemployed indefinitely when not looking for work will change to require people to seek employment.

Funding for Britain's nationalized health program is safe for the time but is scheduled to increase each year until 2015. The current $360 payment to families for every newborn, intended to encourage a higher birth rate but largely unsuccessful throughout Europe will be eliminated and child tax credits reduced.



In France people can now retire at age 60 with 50% of their annual salary. The French intend to raise the retirement age like Britain and are bracing for massive union opposition like occurred in Greece.

Spain is cutting billions of dollars in state salaries next month and the socialist government has frozen increases in pensions for cost of living increases for the next two years. Assistance payments for disabled people is being cut by $375 million, the new baby bonus of $3,124.35 per baby is eliminated and the retirement age for men is being raised from 65 to 67.



Denmark and other Nordic countries have the world's highest taxes and most generous cradle to grave benefits and have moved fastest to address long term needs. As a result they also have the lowest unemployment rates and most generous benefits. Norway, whose benefits are fully funded with oil revenues, has the lowest jobless rate in Europe at 3%.

Southern European countries have the most trouble. In Greece civil servants earning over $3,750 per month will lose two extra months of salary now being paid, one at Christmas and another between Easter and summer vacation. They now have to contribute to pensions for 40 years instead of 37 and early retirement cannot be taken before age 60.



To make their cuts Portugal is raising income, corporate and sales taxes, unemployment benefits will be cut and out-of-work must accept any job that pays 10% more than they earn on unemployment.

German public education, which was free until 2005, now allows tuition fees of up to $1,250 per year. All German students pay no more than that to attend state funded universities, including the most elite schools.



The most expensive and elite universities in Britain like Cambridge, charge $4,720 per year which is far less than the elite USA schools like Harvard that charge $35,000 per year.

These are just some of the problems being faced by the social welfare states of Europe and by the way, yes, through the Federal Reserve we are helping to bail out these countries for their excessive socialist spending. Does Obama really think after we underwrite the bailout of the European socialist nations and their failures in redistributing wealth, will we really have any wealth left to redistribute?

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