May 02, 2009
NYC Letter: The Enchanted Presidency, Part III
Day 102 of CHOPE
You know, when I first started this race, Iraq was a central issue, but the economy appeared on the surface to still be relatively strong. There were underlying problems that I was seeing with health care for families and our education system and college affordability and so forth, but obviously I didn't anticipate the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
And so the typical President I think has two or three big problems; we've got seven or eight big problems. And so we've had to move very quickly, and I'm very proud of my team for the fact that we've been able to keep our commitments to the American people to bring about change while, at the same time, managing a whole host of issues that had come up that weren't necessarily envisioned a year and a half ago.
Mr. Obama,
admitting his lack of perspicuity, his lack of vision
PRESS CONFERENCE April 29, 2009 (White House)
What comprises Mr. Obama's host of unenvisioned issues? Let's start by looking at the "seven or eight big problems" -- Mr. Obama is not exactly sure -- that have occupied Team Barry in the first hundred days.
- NUCLEAR IRAN. Hard not to envsion this problem. It has been the subject of repeated overtures, agreements, sanctions, hand-wringing, and resigned sighs since Iran skunked the EU3 back in August of 2005. Mr. Obama was a United States senator at that time.
- NUCLEAR NOKO. This one goes back as far as 1994. Surely Mr. Obama heard about NoKo's 2005 detonation, which, unlike dissembling Iran, made plain to all its nuclear ambitions.
- RETRO-SOVIET RUSSIA. This too has been in the works coincident with Mr. Putin's ascent. And even Mr. Obama took note of last summer's Russian invasion of Georgia. So no surprises here.
- U.S. FINANCIAL CRISIS. Well, to hear Mr. Obama tell it, he was all over this two years before it arrived. And though he never crafted or even supported any reform legislation, he did write a 2007 close-the-barn-door-the-horse-is-out letter to then-Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke.
- MEXICAN DRUG WAR. President Felipe Calderón has been at war with the Mexican drug cartels since taking office in 2006. It has steadily escalated as the cartels recruited larger and larger armies and moved closer to their American market. We couldn't find anything in Mr. Obama's treasury of campaign vision (or here) on this. No vision here.
- IMMIGRATION. Nope. A whole page of slogans as policy here.
- STAFFING CRISIS. Bill Richardson (Withdrew, corruption investigation), Tim Geithner (Confirmed, tax cheat), Tom Daschle (Withdrew, tax cheat), Nancy Killefer (Withdrew, tax cheat), Annette Nazareth (Withdrew, job performance), Caroline Atkinson (Withdrew, "tax problem"), Lee Sachs (Withdrew), H. Rodgin Cohen (Withdrew). Lots of surprises.
- SOMALI PIRATES. OK. He didn't see these guys coming.
Only three out of eight "big problems" appear to have blindsided Mr. Obama. During the campaign he wanted us to believe he had thought long and hard on "a whole host of issues" and he possessed the vision to act on them. He asked us to believe a junior senator with less than a term served (half of it running for another office), with no noteworthy legislative accomplishments, and no comparable executive or budgetary experience was ready for the most powerful job on the face of the earth. [Pause.] Apparently that was just the CHOPE talking.
CHOPE.
Missing vision. Surprises galore. Flatfooted presidency.
Posted by Damian at May 2, 2009 11:30 PMhttp://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2009/05/02/editorial-netherlands-sticks-it-to-putin/
EDITORIAL:
Netherlands Sticks it to Putin
La Russophobe, May 2, 2009
Last week a court in the Netherlands ruled that the Russian government, specifically its Rosneft oil subsidiary, owes nearly $400 million to YUKOS Capital, a company owned by former managers of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s YUKOS oil concern, because it had wrongfully seized their assets.
The ruling will allow the court, in turn, to seize Rosneft assets abroad and was the first time that YUKOS has scored a victory in a foreign court challenging the corrupt proceedings that liquidated the company and transferred all it assets to the Russian state.
Robert Amsterdam says that Russian courts will ignore the ruling, but European courts won’t. Russia can now expect an avalanche of similar rulings leading to billions of dollars in Russian governmental assets across Europe being seized and sold to satisfy the judgment.
And that’s not the worst of it, not by a long shot.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky himself has his own lawsuits pending in Europe challenging the theft of his company, and these rulings do far more than to imperil assets the Kremlin desperately needs as the Russian economy sinks into the mire of failure. The suits challenge the very legitimacy of the Russian state, and unfavorable rulings imply that the Putin regime is viewed in Europe as being essentially a gang of criminals little different than the mafia.
If the Kremlin ignores these rulings and won’t allow them to be enforced in Russia, that impression will only get more profound. Russia will lose the ability to defend its own interests in the European court system, and the basis of the Russian economy (selling oil and gas to Europe) will be severely undermined. Russia will no longer be a partner, but an enemy.
5 Commentaries
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc2m8p62_175gw7v3t7d
EDITORIAL:
Justice aux Pays-Bas : Putin l’a dans l’os
La Russophobe, 2 mai 2009
La semaine dernière aux Pays-Bas, un tribunal a jugé que l’Etat de Russie, notamment sa dépendance pétrolière Rosneft, est redevable de près de 400 millions de dollars envers YUKOS Capital, société détenue par les anciens dirigeants du groupe pétrolier Yukos de Mikhaïl Khodorkovsky, parce que c’est en violation du Droit qu’il s’est emparé de leurs biens.
Ce jugement va permettre au tribunal, à sa suite, de saisir les avoirs de Rosneft à l'étranger et représente la première victoire de YUKOS devant une juridiction étrangère pour contester la procédure truquée qui a liquidé la société et transféré tous ses actifs à l'Etat de Russie.
Robert Amsterdam affirme que les tribunaux russes feront comme si le jugement n’existait pas, mais les tribunaux européens, eux, en tiendront compte.
La Russie peut désormais s'attendre à une avalanche de décisions similaires conduisant à la saisie dans toute l'Europe de milliards de dollars d’actifs détenus par l’Etat russe, pour les vendre et assurer l’exécution du jugement.
Et ce n'est pas la plus mauvaise nouvelle pour elle, et de loin.
Mikhaïl Khodorkovsky a lui-même sa propre procédure en cours en Europe pour contester le vol de son entreprise, et ces décisions font bien plus que compromettre les possessions dont le Kremlin a désespérément besoin au moment où l'économie de la Russie s'enfonce dans le bourbier de sa faillite.
Ces procès mettent en cause la légitimité même de l'État de Russie, et ces jugements contraires sont une affirmation implicite que l’Europe perçoit essentiellement le régime de Putin comme une bande de criminels, guère différente de la mafia.
Si le Kremlin fait fi de ces décisions et ne leur permet pas d'être appliquées en Russie, cette impression n’en sera que plus profonde.
La Russie perdra la capacité de défendre ses propres intérêts dans le système judiciaire européen, et la base de l'économie russe (vendre du pétrole et du gaz à l'Europe) sera gravement compromise.
La Russie ne sera plus un partenaire, mais un ennemi.
