Obama's China Policy

In a recent interview with The Plain Dealer, President Obama proved his inability to deal with our competitors in China. In addressing Chinese trade violations he said the United States must not “go out of our way to embarrass” the country, which he believes would “trigger an all-out trade war that would damage both economies.” Is he saying he doesn’t want to embarrass the Chinese by enforcing legal and fair trade practices? Because that’s sure what it sounds like.

The United States does not and should not support trade practices that are questionable or illegal. By saying he will not strictly refuse to accept Chinese trade policies questioned by governments the world over, President Obama is capitulating to that nation’s demands and is weakening America’s international power. But that’s only the beginning of his disappointments on matters of international trade.

On seven occasions, President Obama has refused to label China a currency manipulator. For three years, Obama stalled approval of three American free trade agreements. On Obama’s watch, the United States has sat on the sideline while our competitors have been aggressively moving forward, putting American jobs at risk.

President Obama’s trade policies are killing the American economy, and Mitt Romney is the solution. He will not tolerate unfair trade practices, Chinese or otherwise, and his economic plan will cut the deficit, achieve energy independence, champion small business, and create 12 million new jobs. That’s the sort of policy every American can get behind.

OH-02: Olympics, China, and Wulsin

HT: Ohio Daily Blog

Apparently, Vic Wulsin thinks that the Olympics currently going on in China is a good time to sound off about politics. The Cincinnati Enquirer has a comment from Virus Vic:

"With the eyes of the world on Beijing, the is an opportunity to tell the truth about the Chinese government's persecution of Christians, political prisoners and anyone else who refuses to toe the communist ideology."
- Victoria Wulsin, Democratic candidate for the 2nd Congressional District

Of course, Vic forgot to condemn medical experiments on the Chinese people.....you'd think that she would since she is so opposed to malariotherapy that she wrote one sentence against it in a 25+ page report describing how the Heimlich Institute should go forward with the project.

I'm just saying...

MADISON Writes In on Dodd

It has been awhile since we've heard from our good friend MADISON, but here is the latest dispatch:

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman, said the legislation "would allow us to begin to put a tourniquet on the hemorrhaging of foreclosures in this country."

"What better gift on independence could we give the American people than a sense that this, their Congress of the United States, can come together, despite political differences, and craft legislation to make a difference for our country," Dodd said.

In reality it brings two gifts - one good and one not so good.

It is a great gift for Countrywide - the company which gave Senator Dodd a VIP loan for his private holdings (which the MSM almost completely ignored) Although he claims to not to have understood what the VIP rating entailed.

The not so good gift is for future generations who will be tagged with paying for this gift so that today's Americans can have a great sense of accomplishment from their Congress and be relieved of a little discomfort. When this $300 billion is added to the $160 billion economic stimulus package it will be nearly a 1/2 trillion dollar advancement in the debt owed by future generations - what a gift!!!!

Given the recent growth in the debt and those who are financing it, Communist China will have an even larger share in American life and larger interest only payments from American taxpayers each month. It will do wonders in helping them fund their military buildup.

A very sad commentary.

MADISON

PS The interest on our debt is the third largest expenditure in our federal budget AND soon will be number two.

As usual, MADISON hits the nail squarely on the head and drives the point home.

CORRECTION: China MAY Be Drilling for Oil in Cuban Waters

In the interests of truth, which we do hold dear on Weapons of Mass Discussion, I need to offer up a minor correction to a talking point that we've seen in a number of posts in regards to the possibility of China drilling for oil 60 miles off the coast of the United States.

I made the comment in the discussion section of this post. I'm not sure where I saw it first, but I have seen it twice on WMD since then in blockquoted material from Michael Steel and Rep. Jean Schmidt.

An anonymous commenter noted this May 9, 2006 CNNMoney piece that makes the assertion that China, India and other nations had entered in to an agreement with Cuba for oil in the Gulf.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Plans for foreign oil companies, some from India and China, to drill off the cost of Cuba are prompting calls from lawmakers to ease environmental restrictions that prohibit coastal drilling in most of the U.S., according to a report Tuesday.

The New York Times has a role to play in this dasterdly deed to mislead the American people through a few posts on Weapons of Mass Discussion. The CNN piece draws heavily from NYT reporting.

I must sincerely apologize for trusting in sources who trusted the reporting of CNN and the New York Times. Had I known that such dubious sources had been used to dupe me and the readers of Weapons of Mass Discussion, I would have launched a full scale investigation on a shoe-string budget without Congressional oversight or approval. Clearly, this piece by McClatchy, as WMD regular reader Surfer points out, is clearly the definitive accounting of what is or is not happening 50 or 60 miles off the coast of the United States. I mean, in having to choose between Sen. Larry Craig and CNN in May of 2006 or Sen. Martinez and McClatchey two years later...that's enough to send a good conservative like me to get migranes. No wonder I blew the call. The McClatchey piece also calls out Investor's Business Daily as an offender as well.

The key takeaway from the piece is that we're supposed to be okay with the fact that China isn't getting the oil...

...but Brazil is.

...and the United States is not.

...or something like that.

UPDATE: Why didn't I hop in the DeLorean and get her up to 88 miles an hour so I could get the truth? Two reasons:

1) Gas prices are too high.

2) I don't drive.

Yawn....Olympic Boycott???

Yep, one leader is actually going to boycott the Olympics...Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel. Here is some info:

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, yesterday became the first world leader to decide not to attend the Olympics in Beijing.

As pressure built for concerted western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, EU leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time today, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.

The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games' opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown's determination to attend the Olympics.

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, became the first EU head of government to announce a boycott on Thursday and he was promptly joined by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, who had previously promised to travel to Beijing.

"The presence of politicians at the inauguration of the Olympics seems inappropriate," Tusk said. "I do not intend to take part."

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, confirmed that Merkel was staying away.

Right here, we need to insert from the film Animal House, Otter's (Tim Matheson) line about,

Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

But We're Looking Forward to the Games...

AP News Alert:

WASHINGTON (AP) The United States government says Olympic host China has a repressive human rights record including torture, media harassment and forced population control.

...but we're looking forward to the Games!

Global War on Terror Update: Chinese Edition

AP News Alert:

BEIJING (AP) Chinese official says flight crew prevented planned terrorist act aboard jetliner.

China Visits Japan - UPDATE: US Can't Visit Hong Kong

AP News Alert:

TOKYO (AP) A Chinese warship has arrived in Japan for a port call, for the first time since World War II.

This is interesting, but I'm not exactly sure why I find it so...

UPDATE: Meanwhile, the United States Navy is denied a visit to Hong Kong by...wait for it...China.

“We can go anywhere at a moment’s notice — except Hong Kong.”

Not good at all.

Pork Equity

Seems as if these people ought to help out these people...

I'm just saying...

UPDATE: I think Ohio could help out China as well...

Red China Update

AP News Alert:

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) A federal jury convicted a Chinese-born engineer of conspiring to export U.S. defense technologies to China and being an unregistered foreign agent.

I was reading a STRATFOR piece the other day in my email that talked about this case a bit and how it reflected a return of some assets to counter-intelligence operations from counter-terrorism missions. Honestly, I think both assignments are equally vital for national security and it is good to see that we are having some success on both fronts. Spies can be as dangerous as terrorists in the long run...

North Korea Update: They Can Hit US With Missile

From the AFP via Breitbart:

North Korea is technically capable of building a long-range missile that can hit the United States despite a test failure last year, a senior US military intelligence official said Tuesday.
Lieutenant General Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said North Korea has probably learned from the failure of its Taepodong-2 missile during a test in July, and made changes to its other missiles.

"I believe they have the technical capability, as we saw by the Taepodong, but they have not successfully tested it yet," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Asked how long before North Korea would have a missile capable of reaching the United States, he said, "I would probably estimate it's not a matter of years."

This is anothe brewing crisis on the horizon. We are well past the time for a solution. I blame China...clearly the Chinese do not have what it takes to be a superpower...