Phil Gordon: Travelin’ in style, taking ego along for the ride

From the United Arab Emirates port of Dubai to Toronto and points in between, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is on the go.  He even works in a few trips to Washington D.C. to rail against those who oppose his Sanctuary City  policies.

As to his global jetsetting, Philly says:

“When developing new economic opportunities, you have to do things face to face. I believe to create jobs, to help our city, to keep people safe, the mayor of Phoenix should be leading, not following, and risking that Phoenix will be passed by others cities in the country.

And I’m good at it. I’ve got the energy, I’ve got the background, and I’m representing the state of Arizona when I’m doing this.”

A suggestion you might want to consider regarding keeping the people of the city of Phoenix safe, Mr. Mayor: How about discarding the policies that provide safe haven to lawbreakers and reward criminality?

The article in the daily can be read here.

Another on Hizzoner’s globetrotting includes this portion: Gordon may be all over the map, literally and figuratively, as his critics allege. A more focused approach might make more sense.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

BHO lectures Russians: “States must have the right to borders that are secure”

The UK’s Telegraph reports on President Barack Obama’s speech to students at the New Economic School in Russia. Oddly, he lays out for them what he and his Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, refuse to institute for the United States of America — the right to sovereign, enforceable, national borders.

“State sovereignty must be a cornerstone of international order,” said Obama. “Just as all states should have the right to choose their leaders, states must have the right to borders that are secure, and to their own foreign policies.”

Then came his obligatory apology for America and the requisite ethnic references.

“By no means is America perfect,” Obama informed the Russian students. “Independent media have exposed corruption at all levels of business and government. Competitive elections allow us to change course. If our democracy did not advance those rights, I as a person of African ancestry wouldn’t be able to address you as an American citizen, much less a president.”

Swine flu pandemic called “unstoppable by WHO

Dr. Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), addressing a symposium in Mexico on the swine flu said that the spread of the virus worldwide is now “unstoppable.”

Although she acknowledged that most cases are mild, the United Kingdom alone is projecting more that 100,000 new cases, of what is also being called H1N1 virus, a day by the end of the summer, according to a BBC report.

“As we see today, with well over 100 countries reporting cases, once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further international spread is unstoppable,” Dr Chan said in her opening remarks. As the peak of the flu season approaches in South America, some areas have declared public health emergencies.

Leaders and experts from 50 countries are in Cancun for the two-day meeting to discuss strategies for combating the virus. It has been more than two months since the initial alert over swine flu. Since then, the virus has entered more than 100 countries, infected more than 70,000 people and killed more than 300 worldwide.

And although the serious contagion originated in Mexico, the WHO chief was careful not to marginalize the country or harm their tourism industry, regardless of risk. “Mexico is a safe, as well as a beautiful and warmly gracious, place to visit,” enthused Dr. Chan.

This WHO chart gives the breakdown of the number of laboratory-confirmed cases in each nation as of today.

When does the United States of America start cutting off foreign aid?

An economic adviser to India’s Prime Minister is urging the Indian government to diversify its $264.6 billion foreign-exchange reserves and hold fewer dollars.

“The major part of Indian reserves is in dollars — that is something that’s a problem for us,” said Suresh Tendulkar, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, questioning U.S. dollar dominance.

India is preparing to join leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations — the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia — at a summit in Italy next week which is due to tackle the global economy. China and Brazil will also send representatives to the summit.

China and Russia have already stepped up calls to rethink how global currency reserves are composed and managed. Yet these heavy polluting emerging markets along with India, are not constrained by the recently passed Cap-and-Trade legislation which imposes severe restrictions and heavy penalties on U.S. industry — while not requiring them to reduce their carbon emissions.

“There should be a system to maintain the stability of the major reserve currencies,” the former Chinese Vice Premier said in Beijing yesterday, highlighting China’s concerns about a global financial system dominated by the dollar, Bloomberg News reports.

The late Paul Weyrich noted on Townhall last November that former President George W. Bush’s Fiscal Year 2009 Foreign Operations Budget for the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other foreign affairs agencies totals $26.1 billion. The requested amount was an 8.9% increase over the total Fiscal Year 2008 amount, including emergency funding. In addition, the United States contributes well over $3 billion to the United Nations, an organization which in turn welcomes our enemies to speak against us.

Many of the nations topping the list are also top oil producing nations. Of the top 13 suppliers of oil, only one among them, Canada, can be counted as a friend.

Strange bedfellows: The Republic becomes apologist for Jeff Flake

In an editorial today, A dad’s tough call on historic vote, Doug MacEachern, struggles to give cover to Congressman Jeff Flake. MacEachern does his best to explain away Flake’s absence from the crucial vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act – better known as the Cap-and-Trade bill, intended to restrict carbon emissions by imposition of exorbitant penalties against the U.S. which other nations are able to skirt.

The bill passed by a slim margin, 219-212. The legislation is often called “historic” since its effects are far reaching and disastrous to American manufacturing.

Juxtapose the immense proportions of that against the fact that Flake’s 18-year-old daughter Alexis, was a contestant in a beauty pageant in Mobile, Alabama.  Flake opted to attend the pageant, although the contest finals were not held until the weekend. He attempted to put a fatherly face on his egregious action, writing on his site: “I’ve let my daughter down enough over the years, and I felt I just couldn’t let her down again.”

It might have been a good opportunity to teach young Alexis a lesson about the seriousness of responsibility — while still showing up for the main event.

The vote was on the most sweeping environmental bill in U.S. history — an expansive measure that aims to undercut American industry by placing severe restrictions on carbon-emitting fuels which liberals blame for the questionable science of global warming. China, our largest debtor nation, and India, among a host of other countries, have no such restrictions, allowing them to further hamstring the United States in the competitive global marketplace.

The final vote total is here. 

As we noted on Friday, syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin lists the eight turncoat Republicans and calls out the two Republicans who weren’t available to vote: Arizona’s own Jeff Flake and John Sullivan of Okalahoma, who is undergoing alcohol rehab. Dem. Rep. Patrick Kennedy was pulled out of rehab to cast his vote.

Democrats hard at work ensuring Third World status for U.S.

The House of Representatives is poised to vote today on one of the most sweeping environmental bills in U.S. history — an expansive measure that aims to cut industry’s reliance on the carbon-emitting fuels liberals blame for the questionable science of global warming.

The Wall Street Journal runs an excellent piece citing the growing number of skeptics, including more than 700 scientists, who are expressing concern over the reliability of the United Nations-based climate change hysteria. “Far from shrinking, the number is swelling,” the WSJ writes.

The collapse of the “consensus” has been driven by reality. The inconvenient truth is that the earth’s temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of C02. And, many previously inclined members of the world’s scientific community have altered their views.

None of this dissuades Democrats, who have been working to ensure there are at least 218 votes in the 435-seat House to pass the legislation that is a high priority for President Obama, Reuters reports.

Like the “stimulus” program was sold as an economic boost to create jobs — which turned out to mainly be in the government sector — we are now being told by Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, “It’s a job creator. It’s going to help save millions of dollars, billions of dollars, for our economy…”

But not all Democrats are taking the bait. U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, a Democrat who is considering running for governor of Alabama, says he will vote against the measure.

“The bill has been improved, but this is the wrong time,” he said, noting the hard economic times and the lack of commitment from heavy-polluting countries like China and India to significantly reduce their emissions.

Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to the package, warning it would hit recession-weary consumers in their pocketbooks with higher prices for energy and other necessary consumer goods.

UPDATE:

The historic 219-212 vote which imposes the nation’s first mandatory reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to the questionable science of global warming, divided Democrats much more sharply than the vote on President Obama’s stimulus plan.

There were some heroes. 44 Democrats broke with their party’s ’yes bloc,’ voting against the climate change legislation. But the eight Republicans who broke from their party leadership to support it — although the vast majority of all Republicans from their states opposed the bill — are deserving of scorn.

 The final vote total is here.

Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin lists the eight turncoat Republicans and calls out the two Republicans who weren’t available to vote: Arizona’s own Jeff Flake, whose daughter was in a beauty contest — although the pageant finals were not scheduled until the weekend — and John Sullivan of Okalahoma, who is undergoing alcohol rehab. Dem. Rep. Patrick Kennedy was pulled out of rehab to cast his vote.

Iranian President rebukes Obama

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not happy.

He is so unhappy, in fact, that he has compared President Barack H. Obama to former President George W. Bush.

Reacting to Obama’s comment earlier in the week that he is “appalled and outraged” by political unrest, including approximately 20 deaths of protestors, following the disputed election in Iran, Ahmadinejad said, “Mr. Obama made a mistake to say those things — our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously Bush used to say.”

“Do you want to speak with this tone? If that is your stance then what is left to talk about? I hope you avoid interfering in Iran’s affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it,” he added, according to a report in Reuters UK.

“But only I’m the President of the United States”

The press corps laughs as Barack Obama entertains. Remember when President George W. Bush was mocked for saying “I’m the decider.”

POLITICO notes the startling omissions during Obama’s press conference. Among the surprising words missing from President Barack Obama’s 55-minute news conference: “Iraq,” and “Afghanistan.”  Also MIA: “Korea,” “Pakistan,” “soldiers,” “surge” and “war” — as well as the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

The omissions were partly a result of the short attention span of the press, which did not ask about those topics after the president did not mention them in his opening statement, they write.

The omissions can also be attributable to the fact that the MSM are Obama’s willing and gleeful lapdogs, even in view of the critical issues facing the world and the impact they portend for the United States, as Korea threatens missiles at Hawaii and Iran erupts after questionable elections with demonstrators killed for protesting against what are considered flawed results.

Happy birthday to us

Seeing Red AZ was inaugurated on June 23, 2007. Today begins our third year. It has been our mission to provide a conservative vantage point to the Arizona blogosphere, with news, commentary and analysis.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal readers who have made us a leading voice on the political scene.

Our initial post highlighted Why I am a Republican, written by AZ GOP Chairman Randy Pullen. That is no longer archived, but Part 2 can be read here.

Staying home a definite guarantee to keep these crime stats down

Almost 10,000 migrants passing through Mexico enroute to U.S. kidnapped in 6 months

An AP report out of Mexico City, tells of a survey by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission which claims that thousands of mainly Central American “migrants” crossing the country to reach the United States are kidnapped for ransom every year.

Notice the terminology used? Central American “migrants” are merely migrating — like swallows to Capistrano — through Mexico, enroute to slipping illegally into the United States.

The commission says an estimated 9,758 migrants were kidnapped in Mexico between September and February, mainly by drug gangs, although some illegal aliens reported that authorities were involved. They were held for ransom and  then released in exchange for payments ranging from $1,500 to $5,000. The ransom payments made over that time are estimated to be approximately $25 million over that six months

To give you an idea of the liberal bent of this group, the report also “examines the commission’s role in addressing abusive laws, including restrictions on freedom of expression, and responding to important reforms, such as the Mexico City abortion law passed in 2007.”  This is another example, as is this. But, this one is the icing on the proverbial cake, as Human Rights Watch presumes to dictate legal policy to the United States as it relates to prisoner lawsuits.

Once again Seeing Red AZ is happy to provide our helpful glossary to assist in navigating the journalistic minefield of unintelligible language as it relates to illegals entering our sovereign nation in violation of our borders and laws.