The Iran-Venezuela Axis

I wrote on September 29 that the growing relationship between Iran and Venezuela had as one of its goals the installation of Iranian nuclear missiles on Venezuelan soil to threaten America.

I'm now not the only on with that view, since recently Warren Kozak in the Wall Street Journal expressed a similar view.

Iran's nuclear problem is not just of concern because of its impact on the Middle East or Israel, as big a problem as that is for Amercia given the multiple wars we have fought in the region since 1991. If left unchecked, it also poses a direct military threat to American cities.

Iran-Venezuela Axis

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau has undertaken the unusual step of writing an op-ed piece warning of the growing relationship between Iran and Venezuela. Morgenthau believes that Iran is interested in using Venezuela to launder money to purchase materials for its nuclear and missile programs, while Iran supports Venezuela's efforts to overthrow pro-American regimes and replace with Chavez-oriented dictatorships.

Remarkably for a district attorney, Morgenthau adds that law enforcement alone is not sufficient to deal with this threat, and he is no doubt correct.

But let me add what I suspect may be another long-term goal of the Iran-Venezuela axis. Caracas is less than 2,150 miles from New York and 1,400 miles from Miami. If Iran deployed the ballistic missiles it is developing, armed with nuclear weapons, to Venezuela, it would confront the United States with a direct, credible nuclear threat against the continental United States.

Every so often, a Chinese general will publicly ask, "will America sacrifice Los Angeles to protect Taiwan?" Someday Iran can ask, "will America sacrifice Miami to protect Israel or Saudi Arabia?"

If Barack Obama does not deal with the nuclear threat from Iran decisively with a military attack, it will be one of the greatest disasters in American foreign policy history.

Honduras Outrage

Barack Obama is pursuing "change" in our foreign affairs: he is punishing our friends and coddling up to thuggish regimes.

From pushing Israel to stop settlement activity to help the Palestinians, imposing trade restraints to help unions, and ending the missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic to help Russia, the Obama administration has decided it is easier to get "progress" on its diplomatic efforts by hurting our friends and helping our enemies.

No where is that more evident than Honduras. Mary Anastasia O'Grady of the Wall Street Journal has done yeoman's work on the Obama administrations efforts to pressure Honduras to overturn its constitution to force its former president back in office (see here and here). The administration has even threatened not to recognize the victor in the November presidential election, all the more stunning since the ousted president wasn't constitutionally allowed to run again.

The beneficiary of Obama's efforts is the Venezuelan dictator, Hugo Chavez.

Nice trade: out with the Honduras constitution, in with Chavez authoritarianism.

The Enabler-in-Chief

The Obama administration's actions regarding Honduras are aiding Hugo Chavez's attempts to install socialist dictatorships throughout Latin America

Manuel Zelaya is supported by Venezuela tyrant Hugo Chavez, following his playbook for gradually taking control of a country through steps that individually don't provoke international outrage but collectively amount to a coup. Zelaya had ordered Honduran broadcasters to air two hours a day of pro-government propaganda, as example.

Zelaya's latest effort to enhance his power came from his desire to re-write the constitution to allow himself to run for the presidency again. When the Honduras supreme court ruled against his efforts, he sought to get ballots printed by the Chavez's regime distributed anyway.

The Honduras supreme court ordered Zelaya arrested, which the military did. His arrest and deportation is supported by the leaders of his own political party, including the interim president, Roberto Micheletti.

So what is Barack Obama's response to this effort to maintain freedom in Honduras? Naturally, it is to support Hugo Chavez's efforts to have his ally Zelaya returned to power.

I think we have a new nickname for Obama: Enabler-in-Chief for tyrants. Obama had a hard time coming to the defense of the Iranian people as its regime crackdown on protests against rigged elections; he has reached out to the tyrants in Syria; he has cozied up to the Putin regime in Russia; and he won't or can't speak against Chavez's efforts to undermine freedom in Latin America.

Comrade Chavez

The tyrant of Caracas, Hugo Chavez, has been pursuing a socialist dictatorship in Venezuela for years. His method is to slowly take on more power, each step deeply offensive but not so catastrophic that it offends his leftist defenders around the world.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Comrade Chavez's offenses include a campaign against Venezuela Jews, who in response to this persecution, are fleeing the country: since 1998, the number of Jews has dropped from 22,000 to an estimated 10,000 to 15,000.

Chavez's anti-semitism is driven by two forces. The first is the long-standing effort by leaders who produce misery with their failed policies to blame the Jews in their midst for their own failings. And the second is Chavez's anti-American policies, which has led to a cooperative relationship with Iran. And what better way to cement such a relationship than with anti-semitism?

Just one more reason to despise Chavez. And one more reason to be dismayed by Obama's recent handshake with the tyrant.

Chris Dodd to Wall Street: Drop Dead

Chris Dodd, as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut and a former presidential aspirant in the Democratic primaries in 2008, is an important figure in our national politics. Tragically for our country, he is a real menace to our well-being.

He has long sought to improve U.S. relations with Hugo Chavez, the socialist thug in charge of Venezuela who is doing his best to make himself dictator.

He received low interest rate mortgages from Countrywide in a "Friends of Angelo" program to provide politically important figures attractive mortgages, in a program named for Countrywide's CEO Angelo Mozilo. Countrywide had an extensive relationship with the failed mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, providing Friends of Angelo loans to key executives there while Fannie and Freddie were buying Countrywide mortgages.

And why would Dodd get such favorable treatment? Because he sat on the Senate Finance committee that regulates the financial services industry in general, and Fannie and Freddie in particular. Suffice to say, he presided over the massive expansion of mortgage lending by Countrywide/Fannie/Freddie that has helped cause our current financial crisis.

And now Dodd has pulled another caper, worthy of this distinguished record. At the last minute, he inserted to the recent "stimulus" bill a provision that limits bonuses to a broad number of top executives at future and previous recipients of TARP money. It is so destructive, even the Obama administration is opposed to the measure. The measure:

• Encourages TARP recipients to increase salaries, since only bonuses are limited, to offset the reduction in compensation. More compensation will be fixed, rather than performance-based as bonuses provide.

• Motivates employees of TARP firms to leave for financial firms that are not TARP recipients, where these restrictions don't apply. This "brain drain" will increase the likelihood that TARP firms continue to struggle and be unable to repay the government for the money invested in them.

• Provides incentives for TARP recipients to repay the government investment sooner, and discourage potential future TARP recipients from accepting such funds. While this has some positive aspects to it, it is important to recognize that the Treasury Department under both President Bush and Obama want to encourage firms to accept TARP money to strengthen the financial system.

• Violates the principle that ex post facto laws are wrong, since existing TARP recipients didn't realize when they accepted TARP funds that this restriction would be applicable. Recall that the government twisted the arms of some firms to accept TARP money so as to minimize the stigma for the weaker firms for receiving TARP money. The financial sector gets tarped again.
  

This is quite a record for the dear Senator.