Sunday, November 24, 2013

Losing faith in Barack Obama's cult of personality

White House photographer
Washington Examiner "Conservatives and libertarians were quick to ridicule President Obama's photobombing of the Kennedy assassination anniversary Friday -- they've gotten used to noticing how his cult of personality overshadows everything else, even the brilliance which still reflects from Camelot 50 years later.
"But the president's attempt to ride on John F. Kennedy's popularity may have been a last gasp. There are signs that even the most die-hard of Obama cultists have gotten tired of the endless, fawning hagiography."....

"The dismantling of the Obama cult has even reached across the Atlantic, with this week's cover of The Economist showing him mired in the water instead of walking on it.

 
Obama, Cyrus among GQ’s least influential list  "Obama came in at No. 17 because “nothing gets done.' ”

John Bolton: Abject Surrender by the United States; What does Israel do now?

First: Iranian news agency publishes alleged text of nuclear deal
The details of the agreement signed in Geneva with world powers, according to semi-official regime outlet Fars.


Next: Full text of Obama statement on nuclear deal with Iran
"President says interim agreement cuts off ‘Iran’s most likely paths to a bomb’ ".
Weekly Standard  "This interim agreement is badly skewed from America’s perspective.  Iran retains its full capacity to enrich uranium, thus abandoning a decade of Western insistence and Security Council resolutions that Iran stop all uranium-enrichment activities. Allowing Iran to continue enriching, and despite modest (indeed, utterly inadequate) measures to prevent it from increasing its enriched-uranium stockpiles and its overall nuclear infrastructure, lays the predicate for Iran fully enjoying its “right” to enrichment in any “final” agreement.  Indeed, the interim agreement itself acknowledges that a “comprehensive solution” will “involve a mutually defined enrichment program.”  This is not, as the Obama administration leaked before the deal became public, a “compromise” on Iran’s claimed “right” to enrichment. This is abject surrender by the United States.

"In exchange for superficial concessions, Iran achieved three critical breakthroughs. First, it bought time to continue all aspects of its nuclear-weapons program the agreement does not cover (centrifuge manufacturing and testing; weaponization research and fabrication; and its entire ballistic missile program). Indeed, given that the interim agreement contemplates periodic renewals, Iran may have gained all of the time it needs to achieve weaponization not of simply a handful of nuclear weapons, but of dozens or more.
 
"Second, Iran has gained legitimacy. This central banker of international terrorism and flagrant nuclear proliferator is once again part of the international club.  Much as the Syria chemical-weapons agreement buttressed Bashar al-Assad, the mullahs have escaped the political deep freezer." 

OBAMA'S IRANIAN NUKE DEAL IS EVERY BIT AS GOOD AS KERRY'S PLASTIC SURGERY

Iran and world powers reach nuclear deal in Geneva

The Times of Israel  "Obama hails ‘important first step’ but says Israel has ‘good reason to be skeptical’; Rouhani applauds agreement, which comes after weekend of marathon talks and puts substantial curbs
on uranium enrichment program; Kerry: Deal makes Israel safer."
....Political Cartoons by Robert Ariail
 "According to a fact sheet released by the White House, under the deal Iran will halt all uranium enrichment above 5% and “dismantle the technical connections required to enrich above 5%.” During the period covered by the deal, Tehran will also “neutralize” its existing stockpile of 20% enriched uranium, either diluting it to less than 5% or converting it “to a form not suitable for further enrichment.' ”

 
White House held secret talks with Iran for past year   "High-level, face-to-face meetings were kept from Israel and allies."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama embrace at a ceremony held in honor of Obama as he lands at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, on March 20, 2013 (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Khamenei and Obama are Geneva’s winners, Netanyahu the big loser   "The interim agreement announced in Geneva early Sunday morning between Iran and the world powers does not resolve the issue of Iran’s rogue nuclear power program. It is only the starting point on the way to a decisive junction that the sides will reach in another six months. Only then will it become clear how good or bad the interim agreement is for the State of Israel, the United States, Iran and its Arab neighbors. Only then will it be possible to gauge its success (or lack thereof) in reducing Tehran’s ability to attain a nuclear bomb."