Sen. Marco Rubio's thoughtful speech on the future of U.S. foreign policy before The Brookings Institution -more muscle, less 'realism' dithering! #rubio

Sen. Marco Rubio video: Sen. Marco Rubio's speech on the future of U.S. foreign policy before The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. April 25, 2012.
http://youtu.be/9Hb31bEa0mg


Sen. Marco Rubio's thoughtful speech on the future of U.S. foreign policy before The Brookings Institution -more muscle, less 'realism' dithering!


See summary of remarks at http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0425_rubio.aspx 
or the full transcript at http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2012/0425_rubio/20120425_rubio.pdf

The Washington Post

Marco Rubio’s foreign policy speech stakes out a middle ground in GOP

By Karen DeYoung

Published: April 25, 2012

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) took another step onto the national stage Wednesday with a foreign policy speech that positioned him squarely in the middle between a dying breed of GOP moderates and his partisan brethren who have condemned President Obama as an international weakling.

“The easiest thing for me to do here today is to give a speech on my disagreement with this administration on foreign policy,” Rubio told a packed auditorium at the Brookings Institution. “I have many.”

Read the rest of the article at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/marco-rubios-foreign-policy-speech-stakes-out-a-middle-ground-in-gop/2012/04/25/gIQAOsLohT_story.html

The Washington Post

PostPartisan blog

Marco Rubio’s foreign policy message for the GOP

By Michael Gerson

Posted at 03:32 PM ET, 04/26/2012

Sen. Marco Rubio’s speech on foreign policy at the Brookings Institution was not oversold. It deserved the designation “major” for its courage, skill and moral seriousness. 

The courage came in criticizing a drift toward isolationism within the Republican Party.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/marco-rubios-foreign-policy-message-for-the-gop/2012/04/26/gIQANTAcjT_blog.html


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http://www.brookings.edu/


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/


http://www.foreignaffairs.com/


http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio


http://www.heritage.org/

Syria bleeds while dithering O 'condemns' -Charles Krauthammer calls out Obama's ineffectual foreign policy on Syria that's unsatisfactory to GOP, Democrats AND our overseas allies

Above, the segment that Channel 4 News in Sweden ran this morning on Syria, as the United States continues "to condemn."
How's that working out so far?
It’s time for President Obama to back up his rhetoric with firm action.




The Washington Post
While Syria burns
By Charles Krauthammer
Published: April 26, 2012

Last year President Obama ordered U.S. intervention in Libya under the grand new doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect.” Moammar Gaddafi was threatening a massacre in Benghazi. To stand by and do nothing “would have been a betrayal of who we are,” explained the president.

In the year since, the government of Syria has more than threatened massacres. It has carried them out. Nothing hypothetical about the disappearances, executions, indiscriminate shelling of populated neighborhoods. More than 9,000 are dead.

Read the rest of the column at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/while-syria-burns/2012/04/26/gIQAQUC0jT_story.html


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For more on Obama's failed foreign policy re Syria, see my previous posts on the subject:


April 29, 2011 blog post titled, Marco Rubio is crystal clear in Foreign Policy magazine - "How America Must Respond to the Massacre in Syria
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/marco-rubio-is-crystal-clear-in-foreign.html


March 20, 2011 titled, Marco Rubio on dithering O: “So if Russia doesn’t care and China doesn’t care and we care but won’t do anything about it, who’s it up to, the French?
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/marco-rubio-on-dithering-o-so-if-russia.html


It's completely impossible for me or any of my like-minded friends to think of any time since he's been in the U.S. Senate when 'nice guy' Bill Nelson has said anything nearly as pointed or effectively as what Rubio has done repeatedly on Syria since last year.


My vote for Senate will be FOR people with similar intelligent and articulate views and AGAINST someone who wants to be a U.S. Senator because they think it would be cool.
That completely eliminates Connie Mack IV and puts George LeMieux back in the U.S. Senate.


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http://www.foreignpolicy.com/


http://www.foreignaffairs.com/


http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio


http://www.heritage.org/

Coming this Fall: A 24/7 News Channel from Univision & ABC News -in English! Marriage of news & advertising convenience, necessity or desperation? And will it be hard news or soft?; Brazil abtains

Wall Street Journal: Disney's ABC, Univision May Launch News-Channel. February 7, 2012. 
http://youtu.be/pfOnlXlV8lA

Coming this Fall: A 24/7 News Channel from Univision & ABC News -in English! Marriage of news & advertising convenience, necessity or desperation? And will it be hard news or soft?; Brazil abstains

Naturally, as has been described here on the blog many times previously, given the rapturous and over-the-top way the Miami Herald has traditionally chosen to greet almost any quasi-news story that involved either Spanish-language marketing, advertising or television, always emphasizing the froth with lots of positive quotes from the people who stand to profit the most, in what is, essentially, a consumer transaction that involves selling soap to someone, possibly with a tilde, but never really looking hard at whether or not what is being offered is actually quality or not, I can hardly wait for the coming Herald article on this new way of trying to sell more advertising. 


I hereby predict that the Herald reporter, whomever it is, will say that that this move may well be "Revolutionary."
Or genius. Or overdue.
Or a guaranteed hit even before it hits the air.


We all know how the Herald gets when they have a brand-new shiny toy to talk about that has something to do with Latin America and marketing, witness their recent spate of pro-Brazil articles and editorials the past year.


Who can count the number of pieces they've done on the theme of visiting Brazilians make-the-world-go-around in Miami, which, given where we are and the current sad state of serious news coverage in local Miami TV stations, quite naturally copied the theme like nobody's business.


But when President Obama was leaving for Brazil last year, despite all the news coverage nationally in print and on TV about what the U.S. and the West wanted to do at the U.N. with regard to sanctions or counter-moves to the killings and repression in Syria, the Miami Herald NEVER wrote a single thing in the newspaper or online about Brazil abstaining from voting on the matter, did they?
Nope, and I was looking, too.


I checked not only the online archives but scrupulously checked the newspaper -everyday.
Before, during and after his trip.


The Herald said nothing even while writing about how important Brazil was asserting itself... blah, blah.
But when push came to shove, Brazil ducked.
That's many things, but what it's NOT is leadership.
Or positive.


For a country like Brazil that's forever talking so much about wanting to be taken seriously on the international scene, it hardly gets more transparent about what you really want to do than abstaining from an important vote at the U.N, does it?
Of perhaps having to vote against China and Russia.
So they did nothing.

Today's New York Times tells the tale of what that indifference has wrought months later:

In Turkey, once a strong supporter of Mr. Assad and now one of his most vocal critics, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Parliament that the veto of the United Nations resolution on Syria by Russia and China had given Mr. Assad a “license to kill,” 

The only thing missing in this and so many other news articles the past about all the people who have been maimed or killed is a note that reads "Thanks Brazil" from President Assad.


And lest you forget, last year, on March 21st, I wrote about Brazil abstaining on a vote on sanctions against Libya.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/rejecting-pixie-lotts-boys-and-girls.html


So why the South Florida news media refusal to report the facts about the Brazil abstentions on Libya and Syria, and their logical consequences?
Good question.


But not for me, for the Herald and the rest of the South Florida news media that far too often seems content to lets its own advertising bottom line dictate what actually gets covered or mentioned on-air on in print.


No, unfortunately, as I've said here before many times, the South Florida news media, and the Herald in particular, simply can't say enough good things about Latin America, whether its countries, its consumers or its markets, when there's money to be made, but rather curiously, they and their reporters only seem to seek out people for the article who will say good things.
Or who will directly or indirectly profit from it.


Where's the objective balance to the stories?
Where's the follow-up and perspective?


No, THAT won't come until months later.
Then, they may run an AP story that they post online, but which you never see in the newspaper itself.


Sort of like the one they used here to share the news:
Univision, Disney look at English news channel
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/06/2628257/univision-disney-look-at-english.html


No doubt we'll see that over-the-top story in the Herald soon, and I can already guess whom they will interview from their small list of Usual Suspects to say how great this is for everyone.
No, not really, mostly just some of the advertising folks who want to sell air time for Barack Obama political commercials.
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See more news video from The Wall Street Journal LIVE's News Hub at:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL40ABBAC77E4BF616&feature=plcp


Wall Street Journal YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WSJDigitalNetwork

A hoax swallowed in one big gulp!: The curious case of the faulty Mainstream Media gaydar and the kidnapped lesbian blogger

The Guardian video: Gay Girl in Damascus hoaxer - Edinburgh-based American student Tom MacMaster, 40, talks to the Guardian's Esther Addley via Skype, and explains why he pretended to be a lesbian Syrian blogger with the A Gay Girl in Damascus blog and claimed to have been kidnapped.

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"You can't con an honest man" - Phineas T. "P.T." Barnum

American hoaxster Tom MacMaster completely fools the Mainstream Media not by claiming to be a 'Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,' but by playing on their latent news/political bias and claiming to be a lesbian blogger in Syria -who was kidnapped!

News media can't get out of their own way fast enough, disavow the expected wariness and vetting and swallows in one large gulp!

Well played, sir, well played!

Still, in the end, that hoax was not nearly as insidious as the one perpetrated on the American people by John Edwards of North Carolina, the future prison-yard lawyer and celebrity, who was exposed not by the dogged investigation and muckraking of the Washington Post or NPR or the New York Times or ABC News or... but by The National Enquirer.

I mention them just in case you forgot who did the real sleuthing.

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The Guardian

Gay Girl in Damascus hoaxer acted out of 'vanity'

Tom MacMaster, heterosexual American, contrite over fictional lesbian blogger 'Amina Abdallah Aral al Omari'

By Esther Addley, guardian.co.uk

Monday 13 June 2011 16.58 BST

The male American PhD student who confessed to being an internet hoaxer masquerading as a lesbian blogger in Damascus has spoken publicly about the reasons behind his deception, saying he was motivated, in part, by his own "vanity".

Read the rest of the story at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/gay-girl-damascus-tom-macmaster

See also:

Panic Attacks: Media Manipulation and Mass Delusion, by Robert E Bartholomew & Hilary Evans.

http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/2167/outbreak.html

Ben Stein: "Arab Spring" is a fraud; David Rothkopf: Obamamandias: the great shrinking superpower in the Middle East

CBS News Sunday Morning video- Ben Stein: "Arab Spring" is a fraud. May 15, 2011.

"Arab Spring" is a fraud. Says street movements in Middle East mean U.S. is losing valuable allies - and Iran is reaping a "gigantic regional coup"

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7366114n&tag=related;photovideo

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Did you happen to catch Ben Stein's spot=on comments on Sunday's CBS News 'Sunday Morning' TV program?

It's long been a personal favorite of mine from the day it started due to its smart, lengthy essays on subjects and people that often received little public notice, but who were doing some very interesting things.

If you didn't catch it, the video above will correct that situation toute-de-suite.

Stein is largely right that President Obama's bewildering and feckless Mid-East policy seems to constantly profit Iran at the West's expense, and Israel in particular, as he channels Prof. Obama and lectures everyone, issuing threats to Libya and Syria to change their methods or consider leaving, threats that are completely ignored but which would've been mocked by the U.S. Mainstream Media if Bush 43 had made them.

The very same condescending crowd in the news media, academe and the foreign policy desk of Comedy Central who said that Bush & Co.'s contention that democracy would work in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, were crazy, but who now play the role of Obama sycophants and valets for his bewildering policies that never seem to quite result in anything positive or tangible for the people.

Or did you forget how quiet Obama was when there were genuine street protests for reform, democratic institutions and fair elections in Iran two years ago, and everyone, esp. The American Left, wanted to know why it took Obama so long to recognize what was happening and say something of substance?

I haven't.

Not that I was ever a fan of former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, per se, but he's undeniably a very, very smart and savvy guy who knows how to handle himself.

(I mean he wasn't a federal judge for nothing.)

Well, he's bailing out as Obama's Mid-East policy czar, trouble-shooter and general explainer of things that make no sense coming out of C Street, the U.S. State Dept.

Who's his replacement?

Don't expect to get that answer soon or even any educated guesses anytime soon in the Herald or Sun-Sentinel.

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Foreign Policy magazine blog

Obamamandias: the great shrinking superpower in the Middle East

Posted by David Rothkopf Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - 4:06 PM

http://rothkopf.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/05/18/obamamandias_the_great_shrinking_superpower_in_the_middle_east

Foreign Policy magazine blog

Another major policy speech on the Middle East? Yawn

Posted by Stephen M. Walt Thursday, May 19, 2011 - 10:44 AM

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/05/19/another_major_policy_speech_on_the_middle_east_yawn

Foreign Policy magazine

Discord in the Rebel Capital

Benghazi may seem like an island in the storm, but beneath the surface lies confusion and disharmony.

By Portia Walker

May 18, 2011

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/18/discord_in_the_rebel_capital

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/

New York Times video: New York Times Op-Ed columnist Roger Cohen's hopes for President Obama's Middle East peace efforts.

http://youtu.be/H0m2WJjKHeQ

Marco Rubio is crystal clear in Foreign Policy magazine - "How America Must Respond to the Massacre in Syria"

Foreign Policy
How America Must Respond to the Massacre in Syria
It’s time for President Obama to back up his rhetoric with firm action.
The first step: Recall the U.S. ambassador from Damascus.
By Marco Rubio
April 28, 2011

In recent days, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has used its army to murder hundreds of innocent civilians as part of a vicious campaign of violence against unarmed Syrian demonstrators. What we are witnessing in Syria is another tragic outrage in the Middle East that requires immediate condemnation backed by specific measures from the United States and the international community. U.S. President Barack Obama needs to make clear whose side America is on, back up our rhetoric with action, and clearly articulate why Syria matters to the United States.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/28/how_america_must_respond_to_the_massacre_in_syria