Chinese Dissident, Chen Guangcheng, Arrives in New York City

This is great news that he will be able to get his law degree while here on a fellowship.  Then he can decide what his next course of action will be.  Cannot even fathom what must have been going through his mind when he was able to speak to the people gathered.  This is what America is all about -- that beacon of light is still shining as we are witnessing the cooperation from China when most would have bet money that he would never have landed in America.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton set the right tone followed up by other State Department officials.  Even though he is on a fellowship and did not seek asylum in three to four years the climate can change.  It is the fact that our State Department today took the right steps without being confrontational to get him to the United States.  They deserve praise for a job well done!

Dissident From China Arrives in U.S., Ending an Ordeal 

Dave Sanders for The New York TimesChen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident, arriving in New York on Saturday shortly after he landed at Newark Airport. 

By THOMAS KAPLAN, ANDREW JACOBS and STEVEN LEE MYERSPublished: May 19, 2012 

Chen Guangcheng, the blind legal advocate who recently sought refuge in the American Embassy in Beijing, arrived in the heart of Greenwich Village on Saturday, holding the kind of open-air news conference that he could have never imagined while under virtual house arrest in China.

After a daylong and hastily arranged flight from Beijing, Mr. Chen stood on crutches — with a lawyer at his side and facing spectators cordoned off by the police — and addressed a throng of reporters. He said he was grateful to the American Embassy and the Chinese government, which allowed him to leave China, and thanked Chinese officials for “dealing with the situation with restraint and calm.”

“I hope to see that they continue to open discourse and earn the respect and trust of the people,” said Mr. Chen, one of China’s most prominent dissidents, who spoke through a translator near the New York University apartment tower that will become his home.

It was not clear weeks ago that China would permit Mr. Chen to leave, and the United States’ role in his evading the authorities threatened to cause a diplomatic breach just as American officials were seeking China’s cooperation on a range of economic and security issues it considers crucial.

Mr. Chen’s departure from Beijing on Saturday, and the arduous negotiations that led up to it, appeared to reflect careful calculations in both countries that the episode was not worth jeopardizing relations. The Chinese, who were initially infuriated and complained bitterly about what they considered interference in their internal affairs, in the end quietly engaged with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and a team of diplomats to defuse the situation.

The trip to New York ended an improbable journey that began in late April, when despite his lack of sight, Mr. Chen scaled the walls around his house, sneaked past the guards who held him captive and was whisked to Beijing by a human rights activist. American officials agreed to provide at least temporary shelter, but the pickup almost went awry: Chinese security cars trailed their vehicle, forcing them to sweep Mr. Chen into their car from another vehicle and race through the streets of the capital to the embassy.

But the drama did not end there. Mr. Chen decided more than a week later to stay in China, only to change his mind several hours later when American officials left him at a hospital and friends expressed fears for his safety. That led to renewed negotiations and eventually to Saturday’s release.

Now, after years of isolation — his every move at his home recorded by surveillance cameras — and serving time in a Chinese jail, Mr. Chen found himself at the center of a media frenzy generated by his release.

But the sudden ability to speak out was bittersweet, which he acknowledged in an interview on the plane. China has a pattern of allowing some especially vocal dissidents to leave the country in order to minimize the impact of their activism at home, and it is unclear if he will be able to effect change as easily from so far away, while he studies at New York University.

“I don’t really feel that happy, but rather sentimental,” he said in the brief interview. “After all the suffering for years, I don’t have those tearful moments anymore, but I do feel something inside.”

He looked calm, but his hands shook as he talked about leaving a country he has tried to change from within for years. 

“I’m very clear what kind of role I’m playing right now,” he said. “Opportunity and risk exist at the same time.” 

In Washington, the State Department praised the Chinese government in a statement that reflected the United States’ handling of the case from the start: understated and nonconfrontational, despite the emotions and high stakes involved for both countries. “We also express our appreciation for the manner in which we were able to resolve this matter and to support Mr. Chen’s desire to study in the U.S. and pursue his goals,” the State Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said.

Her statement referred to the complex understanding — the Chinese were loath to call it a deal — in which Mr. Chen will be allowed to attend law school on a fellowship rather than seek asylum, which the authorities in Beijing would have considered an affront. School officials said they had already stocked a faculty apartment with Chinese food and new furniture for him.  

Excerpt:  Read More at the New York Times       

The German Miracle: Another Look -- Germany has cut government spending and its economy is growing smartly.

Note the reference from article in this paragraph about Keynesian economics which German leaders started using in 1963 and with that the welfare state grew and economic growth stagnated and then fell. Obama appears to be a follower of Keynesian economics as he has tanked our economy and making it worse by the day. The economy Obama inherited had a much lower unemployment rate but his policies have managed to grow the unemployment rate while shrinking the economic growth by following the tax and spend approach.

Interest in Ordoliberal ideas waned in Germany after 1963, eclipsed by interest in Keynesian economics. The welfare state grew. The economy became clogged with interest-group policies. Not coincidentally, economic growth also waned. From 1960 to 1973 growth was about half as great as it had been in the 1950s, and during the period from 1973 to 1989 it was halved again to only 2% per year.

The Germans get it now as they have turned their backs on Keynesian economics, have refused to listen to Obama's ideas how to grow the economy by spend, spend, spend, and instead have cut government spending to grow the economy. The results: US economy is failing and the German economy is thriving.

Obama ideas to grow the economy by taking over free market companies/banks/insurance companies too big to fail putting them under government control plus spend, spend, spend and now tax, tax, tax has not helped revive the economy, but made it worse. All he wants to do is mortgage more of the future of this Country by spending more now along with taxing to get votes for Democrats with his latest boondoggle to fund infrastructure. Same infrastructure that was supposed to be funded by his stimulus right after he took office.

The first Obama stimulus can be labeled "Failure" as it has not spurred the economy and the cost for each job is well over $100,000. It has has failed to produce anything near what they promised except for more bloated state governments.

Bet most Germans are happy that their Government didn't follow the Obama plan that he was pushing on them.

The German Miracle: Another Look
Germany has cut government spending and its economy is growing smartly. It's not the first time that market-friendly policies have led the nation out of crisis.

By LAWRENCE H. WHITE
Sep 8, 2010

Earlier this summer George Soros and some leading Keynesian economists criticized what they regarded as Germany's overly strict fiscal discipline. Yet Germany's real output expanded at a robust 9% annual rate in the second quarter, while the U.S. economy grew at an anemic 1.6% rate. So is Germany now a role model for how to recover?

In a June op-ed, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble justified his government's decision to cut spending, citing "aversion to deficits and inflationary fears, which have their roots in German history in the past century." He was presumably making a reference to the destructive hyperinflation of the 1920s.

Yet Mr. Schäuble might have cited another relevant episode from his nation's history. Sixty-two years ago Germany became a role model for recovery from a very different crisis. In the aftermath of World War II, Germany's cities, factories and railroads lay in ruins. Severe shortages of food, fuel, water and housing posed challenges to sheer survival.

(snip)

Germany's new Social Democratic Party wanted to continue the controls and rationing, and some American advisers agreed, particularly John Kenneth Galbraith. Galbraith, an official of the U.S. State Department overseeing economic policy for occupied Germany and Japan, had been the U.S. price-control czar from 1941-1943; he completely dismissed the idea of reviving the German economy through decontrol.

A 1950s Volkswagen plant. Between 1950 and 1960 the
West German economy's real output more than doubled,
 growing at a compound annual rate of nearly 8% per year.

Fortunately for ordinary Germans, Erhard—who became director of the economic administration for the U.K.-U.S. occupation Bizone in April 1948—thought otherwise.... Gen. Lucius Clay, phoned him when he heard about the decree and said: "Professor Erhard, my advisers tell me that you are making a big mistake." Erhard replied, "So my advisers also tell me."

It was not a big mistake. In the following weeks Erhard removed most of the Bizone's remaining price controls, wage controls, allocation edicts and rationing directives. The effects of decontrol were dramatic.

The shortages ended, black markets disappeared, and Germany's recovery began. Buying and selling with Deutsche marks replaced barter. Observers remarked that almost overnight the factories began to belch smoke, delivery trucks crowded the streets, and the noise of construction crews clattered throughout the cities.

The remarkable success of the reforms made them irreversible. A few months later the French zone followed suit. The Allied authorities went on to lower tax rates substantially.

Between June and December of 1948, industrial production in the three Western zones increased by an astounding 50%. In May 1949 the three zones were merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly called West Germany, while East Germany remained under Soviet domination as the German Democratic Republic.

(snip)

If Mr. Schäuble is sincere when he says that, by comparison with U.S. policy makers, "we take the longer view and are, therefore, more preoccupied with the implications of excessive deficits and the dangers of high inflation," he can find a useful model in the policies of his predecessor 60 years ago.

Mr. White is professor of economics at George Mason University. This op-ed draws on his forthcoming book, "The Clash of Economic Ideas."

Excerpt: Read more at Wall Street Journal

By comparison to the Germans, Obama and his Administration have been a dismal failure as unemployment continues to grow and business owners refuse to add new employees not knowing what Obama plans to do next with the Bush Tax Cuts expiring. Obama wanting the Bush Tax Cuts to end on his version of wealthy will hurt the economy and slow down business owners hiring of new employees even more. If someone set out to intentionally wreck the American economy, they could not have done a better job than Obama and his economic advisors. Some of those advisors have quit because of his policies which is telling.

According to Fox News, the first book to come out about the early months of Obama by former Car Czar Steve Rattner contains some interesting details that were exposed by The Huffington Post after receiving an advance copy of the book:

-When Obama was told of the plan to pay GM CEO Rick Wagoner a $7.1 million severance package after Obama ordered that he be sacked, Rattner writes: "Suddenly I felt that I was indeed in the presence of a community organizer..."

-Rattner describes presidential political adviser David Axelrod coming to car meetings armed with poll data to support the takeover and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel identify Congressmen in whose districts large Chrysler facilities were located.

-"[Obama's economic team] veered dangerously close to having the government take control of the two most troubled banks, Bank of America and Citigroup."

-"If his team had linked arms with the outgoing administration, as President Bush's advisers had proposed, billions of dollars could well have been saved."

-Rattner says Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual dictated Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's schedule, public appearances and staff selections.

-He says Obama economic advisers Larry Summers and Austan Goolsbee and FDIC Chair Sheila Bair as enemies who slowed down decision making with infighting

-Rattner said Obama was frustrated with the auto companies from the start: "Why can't they make a Corolla?" he has Obama asking.

Bottom Line is that Obama's economic plan is a dismal failure so now this week he attacks the Republican Minority Leader John Boehner when his attacks on President Bush were turning out to be a failure.  Now that is what you call another plan for failure.

How Does Sharia Law Affect Women?

That is a question Americans should be asking after the August 9th issue of Time Magazine hit the stands. The cover is enough to make you cringe and then you learn that her nose and ears were cut off on the order of the local Taliban Commander. The crime: fleeing the home of her husband after being beaten and enslaved. Her nose and ears were cut off by her husband and brother-in-law.

This is a follow up to yesterday's article on the building of mosques in America and the political correct politicians who see nothing wrong with Sharia law. Too many times we have heard Sharia law does not conflict with the Constitution, but that is a lie. It conflicts big time. In the United States under our Rule of Law, the husband and brother would be charged with a crime for doing this to his wife.

Mutilations like Aisha's are far from the worst that can happen to women under Sharia law; the United Nations estimates that at least 5,000 women are murdered every year in "honor killings" by Muslim family members aggrieved by a wife or daughter thought to have disgraced her kin. As Fox News' recent reporting has made clear, such crimes happen in America, too, and will likely become more frequent occurrences as Muslims here demand, as their co-adherents already are in Britain and on the continent, that they be allowed to live under Sharia separate from the established civil law.

Will Obama agree to them living under Sharia Law in this Country and not prosecture the people who kill or maim woman in the name of Islam? Will Eric Holder at the DOJ turn a blind eye to these kills. We have already had killings in this country. Are we going to have more because a woman didn't do what she was told under Sharia Law?

It is time to stop this nonsense of liberals led by Obama trying to convince the rest of us that we have nothing to fear from the Muslim religion. What other religion advocates mercy killings against woman who disobey and don't want to be treated like slaves or flies planes into buildings to kill people in the name of Allah?

Read this article from Mark Tapscott, Editor of the Examiner, and ask yourself why we are allowing huge Mosques to be built in the United States when Sharia Law advocates mercy killings. It is time to end political correctness as the Muslims who adhere to Sharia Law are the ones who want to kill Jews and Christians. How many Muslims do not follow Sharia Law? That is a question that needs an answer.

Desperate stakes for women under Sharia
Examiner Editorial
August 10, 2010

The cover of the Aug. 9 issue of Time Magazine shows a photo of Aisha, an 18-year-old Afghan woman whose nose and ears were cut off in 2009 under orders from a local Taliban commander as punishment for fleeing her husband’s home. (Jodi Bieber, Institute for Time Magazine/AP)

It is impossible to view Time magazine's cover photograph of Aisha, an 18-year-old Afghan girl whose nose and ears were severed by her husband and brother-in-law on the order of a Taliban commander, without shuddering in recoil. Her "crime" was nothing more than fleeing the hellish home of in-laws who had beaten and enslaved her. That Aisha's only recourse in the face of such abuse was to run and hide is testimony to the reality that, in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world that Sharia law prevails, women are at best second-class citizens. Sharia is the vehicle by which the most oppressive tenets of extreme Islamic religion become the civil law of any society on which it is imposed. In many such places, daily life for women and girls remains today much as it was a millennium ago -- the unrelieved tedium, oppression and drudgery of chattel.

It would thus be a terrible mistake to dismiss Aisha as a nightmarish exception to the rule. As Examiner columnist Diana West noted Sunday, "similar scenarios play out beyond the wilds of the Taliban zone wherever Sharia culture flowers, an expanding zone that now includes urban centers of the Western world from Berlin to London to Atlanta to Calgary." ...

It is no coincidence that renewed attention is being paid to the plight of Aisha and other Muslim women, even as we learn that 10 medical missionaries with a Christian charitable organization, including six Americans, were slaughtered last week in a remote area of northeast Afghanistan while returning from a mercy mission giving medical and dental care. The Taliban murdered them for allegedly speaking about Christianity, a charge the sponsoring organization vigorously denied. Such barbarities remind us that no place must be given for moral equivalence on these issues.

If our civil law doesn't permit Mormon polygamy, Fundamentalist snake handling or Christian Scientist denial of medical care for children, even less can it tolerate Muslim mutilation and murder of women. Those who can't -- or won't -- see the difference between a murderous intolerance and the intolerance of murder should be pitied and ignored.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Desperate-stakes-for-women-under-Sharia-1008710-100300154.html#ixzz0wCwlvCEj

Ahmadinejad Accuses U.S. of 'Acts of Terror,' Defends Nuclear Program (US, GB, and France walkout)

Ahmadinejad Accuses U.S. of 'Acts of Terror,' Defends Nuclear Program
FOXNews.com

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States Monday of committing "acts of terror" and blamed the host nation at a U.N. nonproliferation conference for a worldwide spread of nuclear weapons, prompting the U.S. representative to walk out.

Excerpt: Read more at Fox News

NOTE: Reports have France and Great Britain also walking out. Why did the UN give this man a bully pulpit is what we would like to know.