Fausta's Blog

The North American summit that the US media ignored was a disaster that the foreign media reported: IBD explains how Obama Alienates Canada And Mexico At Three Amigos

Obama’s neglect of our nearest neighbors and biggest trade partners has created deteriorating relations, a sign of a president who’s out of touch with reality. Problems are emerging that aren’t being reported.

Fortunately, the Canadian and Mexican press told the real story.
…
Energy has become a searing rift between the U.S. and Canada and threatens to leave the U.S. without its top energy supplier.

The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Obama the U.S. will have to pay market prices for its Canadian oil after Obama’s de facto veto of the Keystone XL pipeline. Canada is preparing to sell its oil to China.

Until now, NAFTA had shielded the U.S. from having to pay global prices for Canadian oil. That’s about to change.

Canada has also all but gone public about something trade watchers have known for a long time: that the U.S. has blocked Canada’s entry to the eight-way free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an alliance of the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru, Chile, and Singapore. Both Canada and Mexico want to join and would benefit immensely.

With the media’s “layers of fact-checkers,”

U.S. media dutifully reported Obama’s false claim that Canada, our top trading partner, is too protectionist

But the Canadians know the truth,

Canada’s take was far more blunt: “Our strong sense is that most of the members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership would like to see Canada join,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in essence revealing that it’s the Obama administration alone that is blocking Canada, and suggesting that payback on energy was coming.
…
Things were even worse, if you read the Mexican press accounts of the meeting.

Excelsior of Mexico City reported that President Felipe Calderon bitterly brought up Operation Fast and Furious, a U.S. government operation that permitted Mexican drug cartels to smuggle thousands of weapons into drug-war-torn Mexico. This blunder has wrought mayhem on Mexico and cost thousands of lives.

The mainstream U.S. press has kept those questions out of the official press conferences, while Obama has feigned ignorance to the Mexicans and hasn’t even apologized.

In short, the summit was a diplomatic disaster for the U.S. and its relations with its neighbors north and south.

It should have been the easiest, most no-brainer diplomatic task Obama faces.

Go read the whole thing, while at the same time keep in mind that Obama diverted the press conference into the issue of Obamacare and the SCOTUS.

And he got his Constitution facts wrong.

UPDATE,
Linked by Moe Lane, and Instapundit. Thank you!
Linked by HACER. Thank you!

And now,
Canadian PM Harper: The Price The US Pays For Canadian Oil Is About To Go Up, Up, Up, Thanks To President Ladies’ Tee. AFTER KEYSTONE, WE’D RATHER SELL OIL TO CHINA (h/t Instapundit)

“Smart diplomacy”, folks, “smart diplomacy”…

Ask yourself this question

Why does Obama feel the President of Russia is entitled to know more about Obama’s plans than the American public?

while you watch this video,

President Obama Asks Medvedev for ‘Space’ on Missile Defense — ‘After My Election I Have More Flexibility’

The exchange:
President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.
President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…
President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

Ed Morrissey:

This, to quote our Vice President, is “a big f*****g deal.” What solution does Obama envision that would pay off for Putin so much that the Russians would agree to the “space” necessary by keeping quiet about US plans for its deployment? The only possible answer would be the dismantling of even the smaller missile-defense system to which Obama committed in 2009. And it looks as though Obama has already tipped his hand to the Russians — against whom this particular defense system would be mainly ineffective anyway — in exchange for political assistance to influence the election.

Let’s kill his “space” program, and defeat him at the election.

UPDATE,
Hot mic reveals more than one thinks

Linked by The Faceless Blogger. Thanks!

Tuesday, 27 March,
Morning Bell: Obama Whispers Away America’s Security

In asking Mr. Medvedev to tell Mr. Putin to “give me space” until he can be more flexible next year if he gets re-elected this November, Mr. Obama was clearly telegraphing the willingness to give Mr. Putin at least part of what he wants on missile defense. This President has already given too much. In the New START strategic nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, President Obama agreed that U.S. missile defense capabilities must be reduced along with strategic nuclear weapons — essentially laying down America’s arms and its shield, as well.

Now it appears that President Obama wishes to go even a step farther in order to appease Mr. Putin. Where that step leads, we truly don’t know. All we can see is the direction the President is already headed.

The exchange with Mr. Medvedev, lastly, only deepens and validates two already extant and related narratives about our President: one is that he harbors views that are inimical to the American people and only come out in unguarded moments. An example of that is when he said in San Francisco four years ago that Americans cling to their religion and guns bitterly when they’re afraid of the future. The other narrative is that the President will be unshackled once (and if) he is re-elected, and will put in place a plan far more radical than he is letting on in public at the moment.

If concessions to Russia on missile defense are what Mr. Obama wants, he can make his case to the American people and ask them to endorse his policies. To hide them until it is too late and he is safely ensconced in office is unseemly.

And evil.

Erik has the details,

Smart Diplomacy: Obama White House Goes Out of Its Way to Prepare for the Visits of Foreign Heads of State and Treat Them With Utmost Respect

UPDATE:
Linked by Smitty. Thanks!
Linked by Troglopundit. Thanks!

Aiming to “reset” the button, Hillary stands out in the crowd; perhaps she thought she was in Rode Island with Joe Biden,

Didn’t get the memo? Hillary Clinton dons lime green shirt for G20 ‘family photo’ while everyone else wears white (h/t Babalu)

Fashion faux-pas, or smart diplomacy? You decide!

Not quite what Hillary and Obama expected from “smart diplomacy,”

Venezuela News and Views has more

As I posted last month, Obama eased travel & money restrictions to Cuba in exchange for nothing. The news was announced on late afternoon Friday January 14, and easing travel restrictions to Cuba, and allowing U.S. citizens to send up to $2,000 a year to help Cubans support religious institutions or run small businesses.

In an economic environment where the dictatorship fired from state jobs between 500,000 to 1,300,000 people, the island is broke.  The fired workers supposedly will be allowed to become self-employed in 178 trades (strictly defined in a “Draft Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy” issued by the dictatorship), even when currently there is no private sector in Cuba, and whatever private sector there may trie to exist, will do so at the whims of the dictatorship.

The Communist regime currently is being propped up by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.  Chavez in turn has become a de-facto dictator and must spend lavishly in his own country in order to keep himself in power.  Were Chavez to reduce his aid to Cuba,

Cuban social services, the flagships of the Revolution, cannot be sustained under the current economic model and can only remain if all the reforms recommended by President Raúl Castro are enforced.

What this amounts to is to prolong the Cuban Communist dictatorship to live for yet another day.

What did the US get in exchange? Nothing.

The Cuban government has been holding US citizen Alan P. Gross prisoner for since December 2009 without charge on suspicion of spying. Gross has now been formally charged with spying

Prosecutors are charging a jailed American contractor with “acts against the integrity and independence” of Cuba and requesting a 20-year jail term, state news media reported Friday, dimming hopes the 60-year-old Maryland native would be allowed to go home soon.

According to the AP article,

Gross was working for a firm contracted by the U.S. Agency for International Development when he was arrested Dec. 3, 2009, and sent to Havana’s high-security Villa Marista prison. The project Gross worked with was part of a $40 million-a-year USAID program to promote democracy and political change on the island.

U.S. officials have defended the program and said they will never give up pushing for democracy and openness in Cuba. Detractors of the Cuba project have criticized it as ineffective and counterproductive.

While Gross claims to have been working with the 1,500-strong Jewish community, the leaders of the island’s two main Jewish groups have told The Associated Press they had nothing to do with him.

Juan Tamayo, writing at the Miami Herald (via Babalu) reports

Then on Friday, Gross’ Washington lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, issued a surprisingly affirmative reaction to the Cuban announcement, saying that “after 14 months in a Cuban prison without charge, the fact that Alan Gross’ case is now moving forward is a positive development.

“We respectfully urge the Cuban authorities to free Alan immediately for time served,” Kahn added, without making any mention of the 20-year sentence.

Rather than seek Gross’s release and the freedom of Cuban political prisoners as a condition to the easing of travel and money restrictions, the Obama administration granted huge concessions for nothing.

Now Gross is still in prison, will be undergoing trial and may spend the rest of his life (he’s 61 years old) in a Cuban jail.

Smart diplomacy? Thanks for nothing!

Cross-posted at The Green Room

Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
Obama eases travel & money restrictions to Cuba, a major concession, while an American remains imprisoned.

You can listen to the podcast live, or at the archived podcast at your convenience, here.

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean will be up this afternoon.

Obama: Israelis Are Most Likely Suspicious Of Me Not Because Of My Anti-Israel Policies But Because Of My Middle Name, Hussein

It’s kind of amazing that every single criticism of, or lack of proper enthusiasm for, Barack Obama is rooted in some sort of bitter, clingy ignorance and malice. Apparently not a single critique of him is well-founded, or founded upon anything at all, really, except hatred and mental retardation.

Particularly since this time Netanyahu wasn’t left to his own devices during a lunch date.

Related:
Congrats! You Just Beat Your High Score of Sputtering Outrage!

Must be that “smart diplomacy” again:

John Hinderaker calls it “unfreakingbelievable, even for the Obama administration:”

The Obama administration wants to push Beijing to treat its citizens better, but it also needs Chinese support on Iranian and North Korean nuclear standoffs, climate change and other difficult issues. …

[Assistant Secretary of State Michael] Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.

He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its [sic] own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person’s immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.

John posts the actual transcript of the Assistant Secretary of State, Michael Posner:

QUESTION: Was there any areas in which China sort of turned the tables and raised its own complaints or concerns about U.S. practices around the globe or at home? Can you give some examples there -

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: Sure. You know, I think – again, this goes back to Ambassador Huntsman’s comment. Part of a mature relationship is that you have an open discussion where you not only raise the other guy’s problems, but you raise your own, and you have a discussion about it. We did plenty of that. We had experts from the U.S. side, for example, yesterday, talking about treatment of Muslim Americans in an immigration context. We had a discussion of racial discrimination. We had a back-and-forth about how each of our societies are dealing with those sorts of questions. …

QUESTION: Did the recently passed Arizona immigration law come up? And, if so, did they bring it up or did you bring it up?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own society.

You explain to my why should any American allow China, of all people, for cryin’ out loud, to “sort of turn the tables” on a discussion regarding human rights. At.All.

May murdered baby girls haunt your dreams, Mr. President.

Must be that “smart diplomacy” again:

John Hinderaker calls it “unfreakingbelievable, even for the Obama administration:”

The Obama administration wants to push Beijing to treat its citizens better, but it also needs Chinese support on Iranian and North Korean nuclear standoffs, climate change and other difficult issues. …

[Assistant Secretary of State Michael] Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.

He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its [sic] own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person’s immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.

John posts the actual transcript of the Assistant Secretary of State, Michael Posner:

QUESTION: Was there any areas in which China sort of turned the tables and raised its own complaints or concerns about U.S. practices around the globe or at home? Can you give some examples there -

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: Sure. You know, I think – again, this goes back to Ambassador Huntsman’s comment. Part of a mature relationship is that you have an open discussion where you not only raise the other guy’s problems, but you raise your own, and you have a discussion about it. We did plenty of that. We had experts from the U.S. side, for example, yesterday, talking about treatment of Muslim Americans in an immigration context. We had a discussion of racial discrimination. We had a back-and-forth about how each of our societies are dealing with those sorts of questions. …

QUESTION: Did the recently passed Arizona immigration law come up? And, if so, did they bring it up or did you bring it up?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own society.

You explain to my why should any American allow China, of all people, for cryin’ out loud, to “sort of turn the tables” on a discussion regarding human rights. At.All.

May murdered baby girls haunt your dreams, Mr. President.