What is Rubio doing?

Marco Rubio is in Libya with John McCain and Lindsey Graham, but I have no idea why. Rubio is one of the new senators I was glad to see come on board, but now I'm not so sure. I questioned his views on foreign policy in earlier posts, but I thought he might just be showing off his toughness. Standing alongside McCain and Graham in Libya, though, is going too far, especially when he talks about Libya in terms of freedom and the wonderful Arab Spring. Perhaps Rubio knows something I don't know, but the reports of the Muslim Brotherhood gaining influence and calling for the death of all zionists doesn't bode well for liberty.

Plus, Rubio might want to explain who's leading the Libyan revolution and what's happened to the missing weapons. Rather than validating the Libyan operation, Rubio ought to use his energy to make sure presidents can't simply send our military into action against countries which haven't attacked us or declared war against us. If Rubio is just another neo-conservative, we can do without his influence.

Morning Joe 5/19/2011 -- Pakistan, Greece and the Arab Spring

I have to hand it to the Morning Joe gang -- this morning there was serious analysis of current events. Although there were a few more gratuitous hits on Gingrich, the whole show wasn't wasted on this nonsense. Pat Buchanan and Bob Woodward provided the gravitas as they discussed our national debt, Pakistan, Greece and the Arab uprisings, and how Israel is in a bind.

There was still no serious discussion of fundamental problems, but they did a good job of identifying symptoms. Joe Scarborough lamented the Republican capitulation regarding serious spending cuts, and most on the panel believe that serious cuts will not happen -- they also all agreed that financial collapse is a coming reality if we continue on this path. This hinted at the fundamental problem, but no one took it to the next step, which is that our statist system is geared for collapse, just like Rome and Britain. Our empire is crumbling, and there's much fiddling going on -- fiddling, spinning, dodging, obscurantism, misdirection, rationalizations and delusion.

Yesterday Neil Cavuto showed a progressive ad with someone who looks like Paul Ryan pushing an old lady off a cliff -- this was an ad from a progressive group attacking Ryan for suggesting reform to Medicare. In this atmosphere, Republicans will back down and Medicare will roar on eating everything in its path, along with Medicaid and SS. There is still no serious opposition to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Obama's mini-war in Libya, so defense spending roars on eating everything in its path. This type of statism can't be sustained, yet liberals, moderates and statist Republicans fear China is going to get some kind of "lead" over some international something. So, you see Rachel Maddow on commercials calling for America to do great things like the Hoover dam, and there are commercials begging government to create jobs by creating work for Americans, like building roads, producing green energy and building more schools and bureacracies.

Like Rome we're crumbling and doubling down on the actions that got us here, or at least promoting doubling down. We might be stopped by our creditors, or simply by reality. Reality always wins. Andrea Mitchell was on this morning and she said our most dangerous problem is Pakistan. It wouldn't be if we left that region. Pat Buchanan said the most dangerous situation is Greece, Ireland, Spain, etc, and this is right -- our problem is that we are following these countries, and the IMF is making sure that American money is wasted in these failed countries, too. Bob Woodward said the most dangerous situation is the Arab Spring --- we don't know what's really going on and who has the power. Yes, we know. Islamist radicals have the power, and they will control the region. But we don't have to be in the middle of it.

America needs to come home and show the world and ourselves how to peacefully create prosperity for the most people -- how to allow a free market to operate -- how to limit State power -- how to inspire people to create and innovate -- and how to defend it all. But, instead, we fiddle, intervene, spend, posture, manipulate and cry like babies when our entitlements are threatened by a small reduction. Collapse is the biggest threat, and crying will then do no good.