Judge Napolitano: The Civil War and Gilded Age - The History of Liberty Part 2 Video

In Judge Napolitano's History of Liberty Part 2, Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War and succession are examined. Take a look at a side of Lincoln that perhaps you have not seen before.

Judge Napolitano: The Civil War and Gilded Age The History of Liberty Part 2 (video)
The History of Liberty Series:Judge Napolitano: The Original Tea Party - Part 1Judge Napolitano: The Civil War and the Gilded Age - Part 2Judge Napolitano: The Progressive Era - Part 3Judge Napolitano: FDR's State - LBJ's Society - Part 4Judge Napolitano: Big Government - Tea Parties - Part 5

America in the Year 2016? Obama: Whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower: America in the year 2016:

We all will rest better tonight knowing that our president is concerned about America's outrageous military power. We can be comforted that he plans to do something to tamp it down. If you think Obama did not mean exactly what he says in the video below: "whether we like it or not we remain a dominant military superpower," you are seriously not paying attention to the world around you - check yourself for ADHD. Some country, perhaps some dictator, will always be the "most powerful." Who would Obama choose to fill the void America leaves...one day probably not too far away? Perhaps we might look to the year 2016. If you are already aware of Obama's "superpower" comment, just skip on down the page to the year 2016.

America 

in the 

Year 

2016

First Obama's "superpower comment" from Cassy Fiano at Hot Air:

Now, Obama may have been simply referring to the fact that we get dragged into world conflicts. As a world superpower, that is true. But as I recall, we are supposed to be a force for good in the world. Part of being a force for good in the world means that, occasionally, we have to be the “world’s police”. 

Let’s think about WWII and Germany. If Obama was president then, would he have bothered fighting the Nazis? Or would he have just let them continue their evil reign throughout Europe, murdering millions along the way? 

Yeah, sure, it’s easy to say now, in retrospect, that of course he would have helped to liberate Europe and destroy the Nazis. But remember his position on preventing genocide during the campaign? Specifically, he said that preventing genocide in Iraq was not a good enough reason to keep our troops there. 

Why should we believe he’d have wanted to stop Hitler if he wouldn’t have had a problem letting Hussein continue his tyranny and terrorization of Iraq? The point is, being a superpower in the world is a good thing

In January 2008, the New York Times published a piece by Parag Khanna. The 8-page article goes on an on - I'll admit I did not read every word; it was written by a Liberal. I'll admit that on the first page there is some scolding of America for Afghanistan and Iraq and our "imperialism." That aside, the article takes us to 2016 and a world where "America's standing in the world remains in steady decline:"

It is 2016, and the Hillary Clinton or John McCain or Barack Obama administration is nearing the end of its second term. America has pulled out of Iraq but has about 20,000 troops in the independent state of Kurdistan, as well as warships anchored at Bahrain and an Air Force presence in Qatar. Afghanistan is stable: Iran is nuclear. China has absorbed Taiwan and is steadily increasing its naval presence aroudnt he Pacific Rim and, from the Pakistani port of Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea. The European Union has expanded to well over 30 members and has secure oil and gas flows from North africa, Russia and the Caspian Sea, as well as substantial nuclear energy. America's standing in the world remains in steady decline...

At best, America's unipolar moment lasted through the 1990's, but that was also a decade adrift. The post-cold-war "peace dividend" was never converted into a global liberal order under American leadership. So now, rather than bestriding the globe, we are competing -- and losing -- in a geopolitical marketplace alongside the world's other superpowers: The European Union and China. This is geopolitics in the 21st century: the new Big Three. Not Russia, an increasingly depopulated expanse run by Gazprom.gov; not an incoherent Islam embroiled in internals wars; and not India, lagging decades behind China in both development and strategic appetite. The Big Three make the rules -- their own rules -- without any one of them dominating. And the others are left to choose their suitors in this post-American world...

And Europe's influence grows at America's expense. While America fumbles at nation-building, Europe spends its money and political capital on locking peripheral countries into its orbit. Many poor regions of the world have realized that they want the European dream, not the American dream. Africa wants a real African Union like the E.U. We offer no equivalent. Activists in the Middle East want parliamentary democracy like Europe's, not American-style presidential strongman rule. Many of the foreign students we shunned after 9/11 are now in London and Berlin: twice as many Chinese study in Europe as in the U.S. We didn't educate them, so we have no claims on their brains or layalties as we have in decades past. More broadly, America controls legacy institutions few seem to want -- like the International Monetary Fund -- while Europe excels at building new and sophisticated ones modeled on itself. The U.S. has a hard time getting its way even when it dominates summit meetings -- consider the ill-fated Free Trade Area of the Americas -- let alone when it's not even invited, as with the new East Asian Community, the region's answer to America's Apec.

Let's skip to the last page of the essay:

[On the last page he says the American president in 2016 should] "channel" his/her "inner J.F.K." "You are president, not emperor. You are commander in chief and also diplomat in chief.  Your grand strategy is global strategy, yet you must never use the prhase "American national interest."...that means no more talk of advancing "American values" either." What is worth having is universal first and American second. This applies to "democracy" as well...

Of course, we know today that this author adores Barack Obama. Let us make certain his 2016, or any other similar possibilities, never becomes reality beginning with November 2010.


Obama at end of Nuclear Summit: Whether we like or not, we remain a dominant military superpower (video)

Kill the Protesters!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

That is the cry from Ayatollah Mehyaddin Haeri Shirazi on Iran Television recently in a live interview.  (View it here.)

In a live interview broadcast on the Islamic Republic's national television station sometime within the last two weeks, Ayatollah Mehyaddin Haeri Shirazi described a Communist protest movement from the early years of the Islamic Republic, noting how it was effectively crushed by the authorities. The government targeted opposition activists, he said, "arrested them in the afternoon and the same night announced the names of 30 people killed or executed by the government forces."

In reaction to the arrests and killings, Shirazi continued, "nothing happened. Why? Because they killed them."

Expanding on what he sees as the lesson from those events, the ayatollah said,"The more of them [the opposition] are killed, the more beneficial [to the people]. If the armed forces kill some of them, it is to our benefit."

On the other hand, Shirazi continued, "When they are arrested, it is bad [for public opinion], when they are captured [it is bad for public opinion]. Do not make victims out of them."

Killing the opposition protesters, the ayatollah insists, "is sanctioned by obedience to Allah and the prophet and is handed down to the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei]. When it is sanctioned by such a power, there is no need to go through the government powers."

Shirazi warned the opposition forces, "Do not look upon the Supreme Leader [simply] as a person with a soft turban on his head, and that you can beat him. His support comes from the Hidden Imam Mahdi, he [Khamenei] is made of iron. It will come back down to break your own heads."

Perhaps in reaction to the increasing levels of violence by government forces, on December 26 a previously unknown anti-regime group calling itself the National Iranian Armed Resistance Forces (NIRU) "declare our readiness to rise to the armed defense of our nation against the forces of the criminal, illegitimate, transgressing and occupying current Government of Iran...." The group "accuses the current government and the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Mr. Sayyed Ali Khamenei of legal transgressions and high treason of nation and homeland."

NIRU claims to be made up of "a number of officers, soldiers and personnel of the armed forces", calling for "support" and "cover... in this moral and nationalist act" from "our brothers and sisters serving with the armed security forces of Iran...."

Iranian pro-democracy activists in contact with Israel National News said they are hesitant to believe in the authenticity of the organization until there is some external evidence of its activities beyond email and Web postings.

The first of two NIRU communiques, headed with praise for the Islamic god Allah, explained: "In accordance with the regulations of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we are commissioned to protect the lives, properties and honor of our nation, and defend our sacred soil, as well as combat all occupying forces within the borders of the land. Any failure in carrying out this duty is considered a betrayal of nation and oath. According to the constitution, the defense of the rights of the nation of Iran, and avoidance of the collapse of the country takes precedence over protection of the ruling regime."

The group announced "the initiation of Operation Azadi ('Freedom')," which they said will end upon "unconditional surrender of the occupying government and leadership." The operation, the NIRU communique said, will involve taking control of military bases, taking over government buildings, arrest of "government-supporting agents within your units", "seizing... military and public communication facilities, as well as other news media", "combat mission[s] at the regional level, and expanding", and more.

Read the full story here.

Ayatollah Mehyaddin Haeri Shirazi has a wonderful nickname in Iran:  Land Thief.  For he has stolen thousands of acres of land in Shiraz and became a billionaire doing it.  So he is scared of what will happen to him if Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs are overthrown.

If the National Iranian Armed Resistance Forces (NIAR) is an actual group of resistane and not a front group set up by the Iranian government to destroy the Green Revolution, then it brings a whole new dynami to the Iranian equation.  For then the world will have an Iran in a very bloody civil war. Waged on one side by the Mullahs and the Revolutionary Guard, on the other side by the Protesters and the regular army.

The side that is victorious in this will become stronger than ever, the losers will be executed.  Thus is the way with despots.

Now is the time for the leaders of the Free World to speak up and be heard.  To speak words of encouragement to the people of Iran longing for Freedom, Justice and Liberty.  For the people of Iran who wish to throw off the tyrant who has destroyed their nation (physically and spiritually).  And still, President Obama says nothing.  His silence on this is deafening.

This is not the time to be silent Mr. President.  It is the time for you to stand up and speak to the people of Iran.  Not the Mullahs or Ahmadinejad.  The people who are fighting for the Freedom and Liberty that you take for granted.

The Iranin government has rejected your hand of friendship.  Now is the time for you to end your vacation, and become the Leader of the Free World.  If you fail on this, and the people of Iran are resubjegated into the slavery and despair that they have lived under these last 30 years, the verdict of history will be damning of you.  Your legacy will be one of incompetence and stupidity.  You will have shown the world that you are nothing more than a 2-bit street hustler who made it big!