Obama calls for 'resolute' spending cuts in Spain

Obama calls for 'resolute' spending cuts in Spain

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – US President Barack Obama on Tuesday asked Spain for "resolute action" to stem its widening deficit, in order to regain market confidence in the eurozone and avoid a spill-over effect from Greece.

The Federal Reserve late Sunday opened a program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe in a move to head off a broader financial crisis on the continent. The Fed's balance sheet ballooned to $2.3 trillion, more than double where it stood before President Barack Obama took office.

At issue is the US share of a $39 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, about $7 or $8 billion. The loan to Greece has grown to more than a trillion. Does that make the US' share 14 to 16 trillion? I dunno.

Moody's Ratings warns that the potential contagion on sovereign risks could impact on the banking systems of other euro zone states as well as those in the UK.

"As shown by the recent downgrade of Greek banks as a result of sovereign weakness, the potential contagion of sovereign risks to banking systems could spread to other countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy as well as Ireland and the UK," the agency states in a new Special Report.

FDIC regulators close seven banks last week, at a cost to the insurance fund of $7.33 billion That brought the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 64 and reduced the federal deposit insurance fund by billions of dollars.

So... We borrow money from China so we can lend it to Europe?

Our debt load is comparable to Greece. So are we rushing to speed up our own downfall? Or are we just delaying the inevitable?

They say that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. We are more Neapolitan than that. We just “work the phones”.

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America's Shiny New Palestinian Militia 

"March 16, 2010 12:00 A.M.

America's Shiny New Palestinian Militia 

No matter how events play out, this story ends with U.S.-trained soldiers pointing their guns at Israel.

"The stupidest program the U.S. government has ever undertaken" last year that's what I called American efforts to improve the Palestinian Authority (PA) military force. Slightly hyperbolic, yes, but the description fits because those efforts enhance the fighting power of enemies of the United States and its Israeli ally."

Daniel Pipes

National Review

This has bee brewing for years.

Mr. Pipes coments:

"In late 2004, the U.S. government established the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator to reform, recruit, train, and equip the PA militia and make them politically accountable. For nearly all of its existence, the office has been headed by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton. Since 2007, American taxpayers have funded it to the tune of $100 million a year. Many agencies of the U.S. government have been involved in the program, including the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the Secret Service, and branches of the military.

The PA militia has in total about 30,000 troops, of which four battalions, totaling 2,100 troops, have passed scrutiny for lack of criminal or terrorist ties and undergone 1,400 hours of training at an American facility in Jordan. There they study subjects ranging from small-unit tactics and crime-scene investigations to first aid and human-rights law.

With Israeli permission, these troops have deployed in areas of Hebron, Jenin, and Nablus. So far, this experiment has gone well, prompting widespread praise. Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) calls the program "extremely encouraging." and Thomas Friedman of the New York Times discerns in the U.S.-trained troops a possible "Palestinian peace partner for Israel" taking shape...

...Dayton proudly calls the U.S.-trained forces "founders of a Palestinian state," a polity he expects to come into existence by 2011. What if . as has happened many times before , the Palestinian state does not emerge on schedule? Dayton himself warns of "big risks," presumably meaning that his freshly minted troops would start directing their firepower against Israel."

The Palestinian Authority has never wavered in its goal of eliminating Israel. And despite their bickering, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the PA have an over-arching goal to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.

The crisis between the U.S. and Israel is going from bad to worse. Some are calling it the worse crisis in 35 years.

This is from The Jerusalem Post,

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration's row with Israel over settlements has prompted some analysts to wonder whether it seeks "regime change," a new government that can make peace with the Palestinians.

However, the analysts doubt that President Barack Obama's administration, which has made Arab-Israeli peace a national security priority, will achieve anything if it has indeed adopted such a strategy.

It looks like things will be interesting in the next few weeks. There are too many factors at work, and too many fingers on hair-triggers. I believe the Arabs take the Obama administration's actions as feeble and ineffective, and Israel feels that they have betrayed.

If you have never accepted Jesus, the time short. If you have, look up, because he's coming.

Obama at the Bat