Recap of Some Notable Developments This Week

• Valiant Georgia, The Mouse that Keeps on Roaring: In what could be a desperate attempt on the part of Georgia, a chastened ally of the US, to draw America's attention to the tenuousness of Georgian security, in August the Georgian navy seized a Turkish tanker delivering fuel to Georgia's breakaway republic, Abkhazia. Moscow quickly warned Tbilisi that the Russian coastguard would guarantee the unencumbered flow of commerce to its client state in the future. Undeterred, Georgian President Saakashvili boldly declared a blockade of Abkhazia which is still in effect. Of course, in view Washington's detente with Moscow and an increasingly hollow NATO military capability, credible NATO or American backing of Georgia is unlikely should another Russian-Georgian clash occur. While Georgia's gamble to strengthen ties with the West to ensure its survival as an independent state is most likely doomed, in an extraordinarily intrepid act of solidarity with Georgia, the Ukraine, also a former republic of the now defunct USSR, has threatened to both blockade the Russian Black Sea fleet at Savastopol and to bar the return of Russian ships to that base if Moscow takes any military action against Georgia. A country of 47 million and a key transit point for lucrative Russian gas supplies to Europe, Ukraine wouldn't be a cakewalk for the Russians should a confrontation occur. So, though bereft of American and NATO support, lilliputian Georgia, with Ukraine's resolute backing, may yet be able to avert its being swallowed up by an emboldened and adventurist Russian bear.
• Obama Eligibility: Obama's legal Team, Perkins Coie, has, to date, been paid by Obama's "Organizing for America" lobbyists $1,352,378.50 to block from public scrutiny BHO's birth certificate in Hawaii. Despite the Obama team's criticizing concerned citizens for harboring misgivings about his presidential eligibility by virtue of lingering constitutional questions about his natural born citizenship status, one must still logically ask why Obama has felt the burning need to spend so much money to impede public access to his original birth certificate. Inescapably, one can only rationally suspect that the Community Organizer-in-Chief remains determined to hide the truth about his birth and his eligibility.
• Healthcare Reform's "Individual Mandate" Provision For Real. Though clearly unconstitutional as explained in my previous post entitled "Federal Healthcare Reform Poses Serious Constitutional Questions", it has been confirmed that those uninsured citizens unwilling to purchase healthcare coverage will be subject to a $1,300 - $1,900 fine! Refusal to pay the fine would result in a jail sentence of up to one year and/or a $25,000 fine. So much for the rule of law. Adoption in the final bill of this invasive provision would manifestly illustrate that the once venerable Constitution is, indeed, dead in Washington. Another march on Washington anyone? But this time with pitch forks or something perhaps more...persuasive?
• Doctor Shortage Looms: A recent survey by Investor's Business Daily indicates that if any single-payer semblance of Obamacare passes 45% of all doctors will likely "consider retiring or closing their practice". The resulting scarcity in medical services would quickly render meaningless Obama's oft-repeated assurances of quality care, no rationing and no waiting lines. It's amazing how dismissive of "we the people" our so-called representatives have become.
• A recent Zogby poll of 4,420 Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare voters indicates that a majority are opposed to a single-payer system. Perhaps they know something the politicians don't know or are deliberately ignoring?
• Healthcare Transparency a la Obama? The Heritage Foundation reported that Rep. Bunning (R-KY) offered an amendment that would have required "the actual text" and "the CBO estimate of costs" of any bill be posted for 72 hours on the Senate Finance Committee website for public review before the Committee could vote on its final passage. Obviously, a rational and responsible amendment, no? Sadly, with the exception of Sen. Lincoln (D-KY), the amendment was defeated along party lines. Can anyone any longer be truly surprised by what has become a shameless litany of liberal heavy-handedness and obfuscation?
• Coverage for Illegals Still Possible: Despite indignant denials to the contrary, Human Events reports that provisions among various Obamacare bills still floating around on Capitol Hill these days would entitle upwards of 6.6 million ILLEGAL ALIENS to free health care at gov't-run clinics. Cost to American taxpayers: $31 billion/year. Though still elusive, proper vetting and adequate enforcement of ID requirements is essential if we are to prevent this costly travesty.
• Israel Poised to Attack: With respect to the disclosure of a secret nuclear facility in Iran this week, during an interview with FOX's Bill Hemmer on Thursday, Israel's former Ambassador to the US ominously asserted that "the game is over". When queried about Israel's possible military response, and parroting Obama's campaign sloganeering, the Ambassador affirmed "yes we can, and yes we will". So, it looks like the jig is up for the mendacious Mullahs in Tehran and the weak-kneed appeasers in the West. And judging from the uncharacteristically bellicose posturing of Obama, Brown and Sarkozy this week, it appears the US, Great Britain and France are finally beginning to rationally deal with the near-certainty of an Israeli pre-emptive stike if Iran "lies again". If and when the attack comes, given that Americans remain shackled by an infuriatingly shortsighted Administration energy policy which effectively impedes domestic drilling and the achievement of energy independence, it looks like we will all soon face painful spikes in fuel prices in the coming months. But, on balance, this temporary economic hardship is but a small price to pay to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat.