Blame Fixing

In the face of Congressional objections to the nuclear arms deal “negotiated” with Iran, President Barack Obama had this to say:

If Congress kills this deal—not based on expert analysis, and without offering any reasonable alternative—then it’s the United States that will be blamed for the failure of diplomacy. International unity will collapse, and the path to conflict will widen.

Of course, it couldn’t possibly because this deal needs to be killed. It couldn’t possibly be that Obama and his Secretary of State are such incompetent negotiators that this deal is itself not a reasonable alternative. It couldn’t possibly be that Obama and Kerry are so oblivious that they think a deal that allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium; that allows Iran to continue to use Fordo (itself a nuclear facility built and operated in secret, in violation of prior Iranian agreements, and that inspection régimes were terribly slow to detect); a deal that has no meaningful inspection process, only prior notice walkthroughs that are carefully choreographed by the inspectee is somehow a good deal.

Never mind that the US is going to be blamed for something in this no matter what we do, or that we should not be developing our foreign policy based on what others think of us. Never mind that with an active Iranian nuclear weapons program intact, the “path to conflict” and the destruction of Israel already is wide open.

Nope. Couldn’t be any of that.

Foolishness

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) said on Sunday’s CNN State of the Union about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

I wish that he would contain himself, because he has put out no real alternative[.] I don’t think it’s helpful.

It would be good if the Senator could contain herself, because there is no useful primary version: the deal under discussion permits a nation committed to the extermination of a people to obtain nuclear weapons.

It isn’t helpful, either, to attempt to suppress differing opinions about this deal that frees billions of dollars by “easing” sanctions, so that Iran will have plenty of money with which to pursue its program.

The Modern Liberal Limited Government

The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2015 was 0.1% on April 2, up from 0.0% on April 1. Following this morning’s international trade release from the US Census Bureau, the nowcast for the change in real net exports in 2009 dollars increased from -40 billion to -33 billion. The nowcast for real equipment investment growth declined from 7.5% to 6.1% following the international trade report and the Census Bureau’s M3 manufacturing report.

That’s the Atlanta Fed’s prediction of our GDP performance in the just concluded first quarter of 2015. The official number will be out at the end of this month. The real equipment investment growth shrinkage is interesting, too: that’s future production capacity for our businesses, and they’re not optimistic.

As Power Line put it,

[L]iberal policies—extravagant government spending, steadily mounting debt, endless regulations, cronyism and the suppression of innovation, promotion of expensive energy, war on cheap electricity, and all the rest—have condemned a generation of Americans to limited opportunities for employment, promotion and the acquisition of wealth.

That’s limited government, modern Liberal style: government limits on individual opportunity.

Step up the Pressure

Russia wants a cease fire in Yemen; it wants the Saudis, et al., to stop their bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels there. Saudi Arabia isn’t to secure its southern border.

Russia has presented a draft resolution calling for a humanitarian cease-fire in Yemen at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council that Moscow called on Saturday, [Vladimir Safronkov, Russian Deputy UN Ambassador] said.

If the Russians want this cease fire, it can only be because their clients are in trouble. The only “humanitarian” concern Russia has is the welfare of the Houthis. The need, then, is not for a cease fire but for the Saudi-led air coalition to step up the pressure, increase their sortie rate, pile on.

Right to Exist

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late last week that any deal with Iran regarding its nuclear weapons program must contain Iran’s explicit guarantee that Israel has the right to exist.

Our State Department has rejected that out of hand.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, in a terse response to a question about Netanyahu’s concerns, told reporters, “This is an agreement that is only about the nuclear issue”—a comment that indicates the Obama administration is not looking to enshrine Israel’s security into a final agreement.

“This is an agreement that doesn’t deal with any other issues, nor should it,”

How is a commitment to not use arms to destroy a nation not relevant to an arms control agreement?