IS AMERICA ROME?

An economist looks at Rome's economic system and compares it to what is happening in America today.

PUTIN & AMERICAN LIBERALS

Putin was criticized by liberals for his recent Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, but he was really saying what American liberals have been saying about American exceptionalism for decades.  What Obama was considering doing in Syria violated all of the principles of American liberalism.

There is an unspoken sub-text at play here: what President Putin said in his column is pretty much what American liberals and leftists have been saying about the United States since the 1960s. From the standpoint of American liberals, there is nothing the least bit new or controversial in anything Mr. Putin wrote in his column. He is merely hoisting President Obama and his liberal friends by their own ideological petard.

Andrew Klavan's view.

KERRY MOCKED

A Russian minister said he talked too much.  I like the Russian minister's gentle put-down:  Sometimes diplomacy demands silence.

RUSSIANS GLOATING!

The Russians feel they have won one over Obama and Kerry.

Watching one administration bungle after another unfurl, Alexi Pushkov , the chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, is publicly mocking Obama. Via Twitter, Pushkov wrote that this mess “knocks the ground out from under Obama’s plans for a military strike.”  

 Syria Backs Russia. I like Instapundits' comment on this article:  If the problem was minor enough that this solution is acceptable, then it wasn’t worth getting all heated-up about with bombing threats and Holocaust analogies to begin with.

From the liberal New Republic:  Obama got played by Putin and Assad.

There are two clear winners in this slow-motion train wreck, and they are not Obama or Kerry. They are Assad and Putin. Both wanted, for their own reasons, to avert a military strike, and a military strike was averted. Putin insisted on a diplomatic solution while doing everything to make a diplomatic solution impossible, and now he gets his phony, unenforceable diplomatic solution. Assad wanted to go on killing his opposition, and he will continue to do so.

From the Weekly Standard:   Putin didn't save Obama, he beat him.

In fact, it is the sound of American allies around the world—the Poles and Czechs, the Japanese and the South Koreans, the Saudis, Jordanians and Israelis, among others—gnashing their teeth. They now see that they are on their own, and that  he word of the United States means nothing. 

Norman Podhoretz.  A neocon writes:  The president may look incompetent on Syria.  But his behavior fits his strategy to weaken America abroad.

Israel is "laughing," too. 

9 Key Blunders. 

EVALUATING US PROSPECTS IN SYRIA

From Victor Davis Hanson.  He evaluates 7 issues that should be considered in US Syrian policy.  US policy has been marked by previous empty threats; support from Congress, the American people, etc. is minimal; the US military has some qualms about the implications of intervention; its the Middle East (!); the lessons of failure in Iraq; politics; and possible outcomes.

SYRIA: PRO & CON

Here is a list of articles that cover the gamut of positions on what to do in Syria (prepared by a professor at Liberty University.                    

Borchgrave, Arnaud de. Americans Favor Pivot Back Home over Syria

Chivers, C. J. Brutality of Syrian Rebels Posing Dilemma in West

Coren, Courtney, and John Bachman. US Cannot be Indifferent to Syrian Conflict

Hanson, Victor Davis. Recommended Reading

Ibrahim, Raymond. Islam Translated (website with numerous postings)

Kahlili, Reza. Iran Threatens Brutal Attacks on Americans, Obama Family if US Hits Syria

Kurtz, Stanley. The Frightening Truth about Syria's WMDs

Lord, Jeffrey. Reagan's Rules for Military Action

Stratfor. Iran: Managing US Military Action in Syria

KERRY, A HYPOCRITE

Here is an old interview of Kerry denouncing humanitarian invasions.  He is against American "moralism." Now he is supporting a humanitarian intervention in Syria. (Look at his hair!)

ROMNEY REASSESSED

From Buzzfeed.  "Was Romney Right about Everything?"

“I think about the campaign every single day, and what a shame it is who we have in the White House,” said Spencer Zwick, who worked as Romney’s finance director and is a close friend to his family. “I look at things happening and I say, you know what? Mitt was actually right when he talked about Russia, and he was actually right when he talked about how hard it was going to be to implement Obamacare, and he was actually right when he talked about the economy. I think there are a lot of everyday Americans who are now feeling the effects of what [Romney] said was going to happen, unfortunately.”

EGYPTIAN MEDIA ON OBAMA

President Obama is being portrayed as Satan in Egyptian media and it is going the rounds on Facebook.  This is not a good sign for the President's Middle East policy.

ISRAEL VIEW OF US POLICY ON SYRIA

Israel is supporting Obama publicly but are very concerned with his conduct of policy on the Syrian question.  He is regarded as a weak leader (a view held by some other world leaders).

Well-placed Israeli sources told Fox News they "get it" as to why the president felt the need to cloak his planned military strikes in congressional legitimacy. But they regard the way he went about his decision-making in this instance as erratic, unnerving to them, and a bad omen for what the Israelis regard as the sine qua non of their foreign policy: the looming showdown with Iran over its nuclear program.

QUESTIONS ABOUT SYRIAN POLICY

Yossef Bodansky raises questions about whether Syrian rebels were behind the gas attack.

There is a growing volume of new evidence from numerous sources in the Middle East — mostly affiliated with the Syrian opposition and its sponsors and supporters — which makes a very strong case, based on solid circumstantial evidence, that the Aug. 21 chemical strike in the Damascus suburbs was indeed a premeditated provocation by the Syrian opposition.

In another column he raises the issue of why Assad would do this based on the consequences he potentially face.

From a strategic point of view, why would he take action that invites — almost demands — Obama to take military action against him when he is in the middle of a violent civil war? 

And there is the issue of why aren't we going after Assad's arms supplier, North Korea, if all of this is true.

Pyongyang is also providing “after-sales services” to Assad, even putting its personnel close to the front lines. North Korean officers, for instance, have been spotted around Aleppo. The location is significant because in mid-March allegations of chemical weapons use near that northern city surfaced.

Pyongyang has been sending chemical weapons experts to Syria since the mid-1990s.
  

REZA ASLAN'S BOOK

Reza Aslan is a Muslim who has written a popular book debunking Christianity.  Here is a response from Robert Spencer noting the errors in his writings.

REPUBLICANS ON SYRIA ATTACK

Reasons why Republicans won't support Obama on his proposed Syria attack.  One reason is that he did nothing when thousands were killed in conventional attacks so why do it now, especially when many of the rebels are al-Qaeda.

A libertarian view. Bush's support in the Iraq war dwarfs the support Obama is getting around the world for US action in Syria.

One of the things we were promised back in the 2008 election campaign was that under a Democratic administration America would be better liked and more influential in the world. Forget those dumb cowboys in the Bush/Cheney administration whose brash style grated on foreign sensibilities: Smooth, Europhile Democrats would win over the world, ushering in an era of peace and good feeling.

So, as Sarah Palin might say, how's that hopey-changey stuff workin' out for ya?

Say what you will about George W. Bush's diplomacy, but he nurtured relationships with our most important allies -- like Britain -- and managed to put together a huge multinational coalition for his own foray against an Arab dictator suspected of having chemical weapons. Obama's diplomatic efforts -- championed by Hillary Clinton and, now, John Kerry -- are looking more and more inept by comparison: So far, our only ally in the proposed Syria venture is France, maybe.

OBAMA & G2 SUMMIT

When Obama goes to St. Petersburg, Russia for the G2 Summit, he won't meet with Putin but he will meet with Russian homosexual activists.  Another nail in the coffin with Putin.

More analysis from The Hill.

DEMOCRATS UPSET WITH OBAMA

It remains to be seen what the final vote will be but a number of Democrats are upset with Obama's decisions on Syria.

Representative Charles Rangel (D, New York):

Speaking on MSNBC, Rangel said "I love Obama" and you'll "never find a truer Democrat than me."

But he said the idea that a president could draw a red line and push the nation into war was "unheard of.

"So of course it's embarrassing, I wish it didn't happen. I guess Secretary Kerry is even more embarrassed than me after making his emotional speech that this was urgent."

From Politico:
“This could be the biggest miscalculation of his presidency,” a senior House Democrat told POLITICO Sunday. “Not only is his credibility on the line but the country’s credibility is on the line, so he is rolling the dice by taking this to Congress.”

The prospects for passage of Obama’s war resolution are dim. Prominent Democratic allies of the president have said they won’t vote for it in its current form. Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) said Sunday that his aides are working on new language. But even a resolution that circumscribes the president’s authority to strike Syria more than the relatively open-ended version he sent to the Hill Saturday would face a tough vote in both chambers.

Another Democrat congressman with concerns. 

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said Monday that the administration's argument that letting Syria's use of sarin gas last month go unchecked would hurt U.S. security was "not logical" and did not "make any sense."

NSA SPYING ON "FRIENDS"

The NSA has been spying on Brazil and Mexico.  Brazil has been particularly upset with the Obama administration for allowing this to occur.  If you spy on friends, don't get caught. . .but historically this is not something new in espionage.

"I feel a mixture of amazement and indignation. It seems like there are no limits. When the phone of the president of the republic is monitored, it's hard to imagine what else might be happening," Ferraco told reporters in Brasilia. "It's unacceptable that in a country like ours, where there is absolutely no climate of terrorism, that there is this type of spying."

Brazilian Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo told the newspaper O Globo that "if the facts of the report are confirmed, they would be considered very serious and would constitute a clear violation of Brazil's sovereignty."

"This is completely outside the standard of confidence expected of a strategic partnership, as the U.S. and Brazil have," he added.

The BBC report on the spying. 

OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY LEADERSHIP

The liberal foreign policy elite appears to be deserting Obama. . .or at the very least they feel his foreign policy is a mess.

TRANSLATION ERRORS?

This is hard to believe.  A UN inspector says the Bush administration made the decision to go to war in Iraq on a mistranslation. . .using Google Translate from Arabic to English!

According to Kay, who headed up the Iraq Survey Group and acted as a weapons inspector in Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion, mistranslations of Arabic to English is what went wrong in 2003 when then Secretary of State Colin Powell on behalf of the Bush administration made the case to go into Iraq at the United Nations.

REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE PLAN

According to liberals and Democrats, Republicans have no health care plan(s).  But they do, although evidently the media does not cover Republican alternatives.  I don't know if Republican proposals are good or bad, but I think the debate should move beyond just one on Obamacare.  Even George W. Bush had a proposal on the table and it looks better (simpler) than what Obama has on the table.

It’s arguably the favorite myth of progressives, the oft-repeated claim that Republicans have no health plan. Hence, President Obama was fully justified in ignoring them and proceeding to enact a comprehensive health reform law on a strict party line vote—something completely unprecedented in American political history. Karl Rove last week did an excellent job of countering that myth in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. For those who may have missed that piece, or those who want further details and links not feasible to include within the constraints of a printed op-ed, this post is intended to fill in some blanks.

CONTRASTING OBAMA STATEMENTS

Listen to what President Obama says about Muslims and what he doesn't say about Christians persecuted in Egypt. 

AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT LOOKS AT AMERICA

A student from India describes his observations of life in America.  He discusses how university life is different but also notes how "equal" everyone appears to be in society. . .except that poor people seem to be fat while rich people seem to be slim!

CLIMATE CHANGE

It is almost impossible to follow the climate change issue unless you are an expert, because news reports keep changing.  And then one reads German and Russian articles that say it is not the crisis Al Gore and the left are making it out to be.  But the World Federation of Scientists  has come out and said it is "not a planetary emergency." I presume this is a more credible group than Al Gore. On the other hand, I don't think this report should be used to ignore issues such as pollution.

FOREIGN POLICY LEADERSHIP: OBAMA vs. BUSH

From The Telegraph.  The British don't seem very happy with Obama's leadership.

Barack Obama is proving an embarrassing amateur on the world stage compared to George W. Bush.

I wonder if they have been listening to conservative Charles Krauthammer?

Krauthammer said on Fox News that the inability to draw together allies to take military action against Syrian President Bashar Assad marked a major diplomatic failure for President Barack Obama.

ATTACK SYRIA?

Anthony Cordesman always has thought out his positions and in this column analyzes the military issues involved in attacking Syria. He does not think this is the best time to attack and also raises the issue that more human costs can result from traditional artillery or air strikes than from chemical weapons.

The chances of such negotiations succeeding are now extremely limited, but the U.S. has waited so long that so are the chances of a clear rebel victory based on moderate movements. Moreover, an active, high profile U.S.-led effort towards national conciliation can lay the groundwork for some form of eventual agreed national conciliation even if it cannot end or even pause the fighting in the short-term. Above all, the U.S. needs to focus on collective action, and finding a workable compromise among Syrian factions that has some chance of a long-term solution that offers stability and security to Syrians. There is no point in fighting a war against chemical weapons. There is no point in U.S. military symbolism or massive unilateral military action. There is a point in trying to use force to end the suffering, the fighting, and repression - and serve our national interest while we meet the needs of the Syrian people and our allies.

PJ Media has a variety of different commentators assessing the pros and cons of an attack. One commentator, Victor Davis Hanson concludes:

In short, from what we’ve seen from this administration with its withdrawal dates in Afghanistan, its boasts about getting every single soldier out of Iraq, its deadlines to Iran, its red lines to Syria, its reset with Vladimir Putin, and its euphemistic war on terror, it is simply not up to a sustained air war over Syria, or anything much other than a day or two of lobbying cruise missiles. To think that it is will sorely disappoint present supporters of bombing Assad.

U.S. military officers are less than enthusiastic about an attack on Syria.

Former and current officers, many with the painful lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan on their minds, said the main reservations concern the potential unintended consequences of launching cruise missiles against Syria.

FBI INVESTIGATION OF NIDAL HASAN

From Mother Jones.  The FBI investigation blew it.  It had information at least one year in advance regarding what kind of person he was.  I am sure no one will be held accountable for the lives that could have been saved by being less "politically correct."

BECOMING A GENTLEMAN

Is the word "gentleman" an oxymoron in today's culture? 

A gentlemen is, first of all, a cultural achievement. No boy is born opening doors or laying his jacket across puddles for his sisters and girlfriends. A boy doesn’t naturally keep his word or forbear a slight when an excuse or a score settled is within easy reach. All those things we might call virtues, and good manners must be learned. But to be learned they must be taught, and that requires first of all that they are esteemed. So you’ll immediately see our predicament: Mr. Darcy is not born, ladies, he is made.

 A plea for women not to lower the bar in relationships with men.  These reflections come out just as we are ready about Miley Cyrus' recent performance.

MALAYSIA BANS CHRISTIAN USE OF "ALLAH"

From Andrea Ryan. The links in the article deal with the legal case as well as the issue that the generic word for "God" in many Islamic cultures is Allah. 

… from the very beginning, the word ‘Allah’ has been used in the liturgy, prayers and worship of those Christians who speak Bahasa Malaysia.  But for centuries, there has been no opposition or uproar about their use of ‘Allah’.
As stated earlier, the word ‘Allah’ pre-dates Islam. It is not a creation of the Muslims and its existence does not begin in the Al-Quran. …
- See more at: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/08/malaysia-bans-christians-from-using-word-allah/#sthash.mhUgeOyA.dpuf

… from the very beginning, the word ‘Allah’ has been used in the liturgy, prayers and worship of those Christians who speak Bahasa Malaysia.  But for centuries, there has been no opposition or uproar about their use of ‘Allah’.
As stated earlier, the word ‘Allah’ pre-dates Islam. It is not a creation of the Muslims and its existence does not begin in the Al-Quran. …
- See more at: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/08/malaysia-bans-christians-from-using-word-allah/#sthash.mhUgeOyA.dpuf

… from the very beginning, the word ‘Allah’ has been used in the liturgy, prayers and worship of those Christians who speak Bahasa Malaysia.  But for centuries, there has been no opposition or uproar about their use of ‘Allah’.
As stated earlier, the word ‘Allah’ pre-dates Islam. It is not a creation of the Muslims and its existence does not begin in the Al-Quran. …
- See more at: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/08/malaysia-bans-christians-from-using-word-allah/#sthash.mhUgeOyA.dpuf

OBAMA REMARKS RAISE RACIAL TENSIONS

From WAPO.


From the John Lott.  Deals with black revenge for the verdict of the Zimmerman trial.

Black congressmen also see a rise in racial tension under the first black president.

NSA SPYING

Well, some at the NSA were spying on the love interests of fellow workers! Washington is a mess.

The employees even had a code name for the practice – "Love-int" – meaning the gathering of intelligence on their partners.

FAILURE OF US HIGH SCHOOLS

From CNBC. The big headline of the week everyone is missing.  I am afraid the American public continues to live in la-la land with regard to the quality of public education.  But I think some of this blame also rests on our culture which affirms irresponsibility and prolonged immaturity.

It was this one: "Three-quarters of high school grads are failing".

That's right. According to ACT, one of the big college testing companies, only a quarter of this year's high school grads have the combined reading, math, English and science skills necessary to succeed in college or a career.

Left Winger Says Sarah Palin was Right

Noam Chomsky, noted leftist, says Sarah Palin was right on charging Obama on his "hope-change" rhetoric.  Obama was using a rhetorical gimmick.

“I don’t usually admire Sarah Palin, but when she was making fun of this ‘hopey-changey’ stuff, she was right,” Chomsky said. “There was nothing there. And it was understood by the people who run the political system.”

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

Various sources on the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood's "General Strategic Goal" for North America.

Obama's Strange Love Affair with The Muslim Brotherhood. 

Media Distortion and the Muslim Brotherhood's "Peaceful" Activists.  “Never has Egypt lived a darker period,” this good friend writes. “Nothing is worse than a so-called religious dictator.”

White House spokesman jokes about Islamic attacks on Christian churches.

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ATTACKS CHRISTIANS IN EGYPT

From the Center for Law and Religion Forum.

“The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party has been inciting the anti-Christian pogroms on its web and Facebook pages. One such page, posted on August 14, lists a bill of particulars against the Christian Coptic minority, blaming it, and only it, for the military’s crackdown against the Brotherhood, alleging that the Church has declared a “war against Islam and Muslims.” It concludes with the threat, “For every action there is a reaction.” This builds on statements in the article “The Military Republic of [Coptic Pope] Tawadros,” carried on the MB website in July, about the Coptic Church wanting to “humiliate” Muslims and eradicate Islam….

Another report from the New York Times.

Hundreds of Islamists poured into the street, torching, looting and smashing the village’s two churches and a nearby monastery, lashing out so ferociously that marble altars were left in broken heaps on the floor.

 

CONGRESSWOMAN ASKS FOR BRIBE????

A voicemail to a lobbyist from Congresswoman Norton asks for a contribution and she leaves a voicemail!  Is it legalized bribery or just typical politics?

OBAMA AND EGYPT

Protest signs attacking President Obama are popping up in Egypt.

NSA & PRESIDENT OBAMA

This is pretty strong language coming from a liberal publication like Slate. 

With the latest major revelation about National Security Agency surveillance, there’s a huge taboo question that needs to be put out on the table: Has President Obama been deliberately lying about the NSA, or have his statements just been repeatedly “wrong”?

CURRENT KNOWLEDGE OF GEOGRAPHY

Using President Obama's geographic references, Victor Davis Hanson, points out the ignorance Americans have of basic geography.

Even our best and brightest — or rather our elites especially — are not too familiar with history or geography.

Both disciplines are the building blocks of learning. Without awareness of natural and human geography, we are reduced to a self-contained void without accurate awareness of the space around us. An ignorance of history creates the same sort of self-imposed exile, leaving us ignorant of both what came before us and what is likely to follow.

CLINTONS & MONEY

For Maureen Dowd (liberal progressive) all the Clintons are about is money, money, money.  They certainly do not have Jimmy Carter's "heart" to help people or even George W. Bush's humanitarian concerns.

If Americans are worried about money in politics, there is no larger concern than the Clintons, who are cosseted in a world where rich people endlessly scratch the backs of rich people.

As George Packer wrote in The New Yorker, Bill Clinton earned $17 million last year giving speeches, including one to a Lagos company for $700,000. Hillary gets $200,000 a speech.

PRESIDENTS PORTRAYED AS MONKEYS

President Obama was recently portrayed as a monkey which created quite a negative reaction among progressives.  No Pasarani has a historical analysis on how presidents have been portrayed as monkeys.

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD PERSECUTE CHRISTIANS

I was trying to find major media coverage (CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR) on the recent church burnings and persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt (Roman Catholics have also been persecuted).  I could not find any search engine turn up information that the US media is dealing with that issue with specificity.  However, this is what I found:

Al Jazeera has an excellent story. (But then I see a story of an Al Jazeera commentator calling Al-Sisi a Jew and you have to question its commitment to truth).

An Amnesty International story on FoxNews.

Another FoxNews story.

USA Today.

A June video on the issue at NBC news.  And a more recent clip on the Muslim Brotherhood denying it has burned churches.

The last story from NPR when I did a search was from May, 2011.

So it is a bit ironic that the most complete news source was an Arabic source.

BEATING A POLYGRAPH TEST

Lessons from an NSA whistleblower!  Trick the tester on test questions to evaluate whether a person is lying by biting your tongue and then daydream when later asked a question about which you have to lie.

GROPING DEMOCRAT MAYOR OF SAN DIEGO

From the Atlantic.  Evidently the Democrat Party knew about may Bob Filner's groping and abuse of women in 2011, but it did nothing about it because they wanted to keep the mayor's seat Democrat.  I thought the Democrat Party was the party that supported women?  Hypocrisy is wonderful. 

The Democratic Party of San Diego needs better lawyers. Or rather, it should have used the lawyers it has.

In 2011, at least three women warned the head of the San Diego County Democratic Party of stories in the community about then-Rep. Bob Filner making inappropriate advances toward professional women with whom he'd come in contact through his political position.

What happened next illustrates the enormous challenge the situation presented to local Democrats, who were looking to Filner as their best shot at retaking the mayor's seat in the heavily Republican community for the first time since 1992. It also reveals the party's short-sighted and ultimately self-destructive failure to do due diligence on the accusations, which were presented to the party secondhand and yet failed to trigger any kind of substantive investigation, or even an intra-party conversation with a lawyer.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN EGYPT?

Michael Totten is one of the best reporters on the Middle East.  He calls it like it is.  The mainstream media has treated the Muslim Brotherhood as some kind of moderate Islamic force (ignoring the attacks on Christians and the destruction of Christian churches.  Unfortunately US policy toward Egypt has failed miserably under the Obama administration.

Here are some excerpts with his interview with Eric Trager (Washington Institute for Near East Policy):  I think Washington’s fascination with the Brotherhood is the product of a search for an Islamist organization that reflects the “culture” of the Middle East and isn’t violent. There is a lack of appreciation for the fact that just because an organization doesn’t lead with violence doesn’t mean it’s going to be moderate or democratic or capable of governing.

And too many analysts took the Brotherhood’s claim of moderation at face value. The Brotherhood says it views shura, an Islamic concept that means consultation, as democracy. Many analysts said the Brotherhood is not only adopting democracy, it’s finding an Islamic justification for it. My view is that far from finding an Islamic justification for democracy, they were simply redefining democracy in a way that wasn’t democratic but sounded good to the West. 

One other thing: the Brotherhood has a five-part motto. The last two components of that motto are “Jihad is our way” and “Death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.”

THE FAMILY & ECONOMIC GROWTH

MereOrthodoxy discusses the importance of the family to economic growth.  Unfortunately the media does not discuss this issue because it is politically incorrect in an age of when marriage commitments are not applauded and children are seen as interfering with one's life style hopes.

As Jason DeParle wrote last year in The New York Times that “changes in marriage patterns — as opposed to changes in individual earnings — may account for as much as 40% of the growth in certain measures of inequality.” David Leonhardt, also of the Times, noted a recent finding that “family structure was one of the four factors with a clear relationship to upward mobility.” As Schulz himself found, only 5% of married families were poor at any point this year, while 30% of single-parent households felt the blow of poverty. These data points paint a bleak portrait; those being raised without a mother and a father will face immense social and economic barriers.

BURKA AVENGER

Well, this is very interesting.  I assume little girls will be watching this.  At the same time female lawyers in Libya are losing their jobs.

 

 



 

 

PUTIN & OBAMA

I think this Reuter's article goes a long way in explaining why Obama and Putin have not been able to relate to each other in the same way as Bush did with Putin.  Obama was never able to establish a personal connection with Putin which if Obama acted this way with Putin it may explain why he has not connected with other world leaders in a more personal way. 

While Putin stakes a lot on personal relationships, Obama likes to focus more on the business at hand, diplomats say.

Diplomacy is not always about "business."

But also there is that issue of Putin's opposite position on homosexual issues, which Obama has embraced so strongly in recent months.

US TERROR WARNING

An Israeli analysis of the Obama administration's current warning about a possible terrorist act is interesting for its implied criticism of the decision.  It has been  reported in a number of places  that terrorists could be now implanting explosive devices in their bodies--as this report points out there may have already been experiments on animals.

But there are at least 6 elements that don't add up.  For example, "if the threat is specific, why are so many countries on the list?"  And also the administration says the information came from electronic intelligence, but al-Qaeda has avoided electronic communication.

The article concludes:

Finally, the sweeping warnnings from the Obama administration dramatically refute its own oft-heard claims that al Qaeda is no longer a force to be reckoned with, because it has lost its compact central command and control of its component branches, which have split up into regional franchises operating autonomously. Al Qaeda, they have been saying, is no longer capable of large-scale terrorist attacks on a global scale.

American criticism of the decision from Professor Angelo Codevilla.

On the technical side, while on the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I witnessed NSA’s (deplorably) successful effort to continue to use a communications intelligence satellite after its existence and function had been revealed by a combination of a British spy and a New York Times article.

The embassy shutdowns and the traveler warnings resulted from intercepts of terrorist communications devices – phones and computer links that the terrorists surely knew are being monitored. That knowledge long predates the recent publicity – revelation is the wrong term – about NSA’s reach into the electronic spectrum.

The attacks were known of for months--why is it coming out at this time?

The timing of the administration’s announced closure of numerous U.S. embassies in the Middle East has raised concerns among some U.S. officials that the Obama administration is politicizing intelligence to distract attention from the Benghazi and other scandals.

“Why is this coming out now?” asked one official with access to terrorist threat data. “Is the administration trying to suck up news coverage with the embassy threats to distract attention from what the CIA was doing in Benghazi?”

CLOSING EMBASSIES AUGUST 4th

Daniel Pipes basically implies the US is a wimp for looking scared under the threat of terrorism by closing down its embassies.

Don't know about you, but I find this pre-emptive cringing unworthy of a great country, even humiliating. Why do we allow a bunch of extremist thugs to close us down, rather than the reverse? For what purpose do we pay for the world's best military and largest intelligence services if not to protect ourselves from this sort of threat?

ANTI-OBAMA SATIRE IN EGYPT

An Egyptian belly dancer has produced an anti-Obama rant and also ridiculed the US ambassador.  The situation in Egypt is complicated but the Obama tilt toward Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood regime has created enemies among other Egyptians.

JAKE TAPPER'S DATE WITH MONICA LEWINSKY

A bit of history.  Jake Tapper, NBC reporter, discusses his date with Monica Lewinsky.  It gives some insight into the Washington theater and the social atmosphere of the press corps and "politicos."

I write, clearly, because I want a piece of this story just like everybody else. That imperative distinguishes me not at all from every other journalist in Washington. But perhaps even more, I also want to point out that behind this particular bimbo eruption sits a young woman who is not a bimbo, who is a fairly sensible sort from what I saw, who was never going to be the one holding a press conference alongside a posterboard blowup of the Star with a back pocket full of the cash she got from selling out. She may be guilty of poor judgment, but she never asked for this.

RUSSIA'S ANTI-HOMOSEXUAL POLICY

Russia has taken a strong stand against homosexuality.  Buzzfeed discusses the factors which include a demographic disaster unless Russians start having babies.  I wonder how Obama is going to deal with Putin on this issue since Obama has been pushing same-sex marriage laws in Africa on his recent trip.

“Analyzing all the circumstances, and the particularity of territorial Russia and her survival…I came to the conclusion that if today we want to resolve the demographic crisis, we need to, excuse me, tighten the belt on certain moral values and information, so that giving birth and raising children become fully valued,” lawmaker Yelena Mizulina told Vladimir Posner, Russia’s Charlie Rose.

TEXT FOUND IN JERUSALEM

A 3,000 year old shard of pottery with text on it was found in Jerusalem.  It will be interesting to see how the debate on this shard evolves.  If it is Hebrew writing that is quite significant.

LYNCHINGS IN THE US

An interesting historical fact:  Oprah Winfrey in a recent interview said there were millions of lynchings in the United States from 1882 to 1968.  The Tuskegee Institute says that there were only 4,743 and one in four lynched was a white person.

OBAMA AND IRS AUDITS

Obama joked about auditing "enemies" in 2009 but now it doesn't seem like a joke.  Was it a Freudian slip?

At his Arizona State University commencement speech last Wednesday, Mr. Obama noted that ASU had refused to grant him an honorary degree, citing his lack of experience, and the controversy this had caused. He then demonstrated ASU's point by remarking, "I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. . . . President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS."

Just a joke about the power of the presidency. Made by Jay Leno it might have been funny. But as told by Mr. Obama, the actual president of the United States, it's hard to see the humor. Surely he's aware that other presidents, most notably Richard Nixon, have abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service to harass their political opponents. But that abuse generated a powerful backlash and with good reason. Should the IRS come to be seen as just a bunch of enforcers for whoever is in political power, the result would be an enormous loss of legitimacy for the tax system.

THE MILITARY IN EGYPT

Foreign Affairs argues that Al-Sisi, the Egyptian general leading the anti-Morsi Muslim Brotherhood movement, is really an Islamist.

Given the details of Sisi’s biography and the content of his only published work, a thesis he wrote in 2006 while studying at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania, it seems possible that he might have something altogether different in mind: a hybrid regime that would combine Islamism with militarism. To judge from the ideas about governance that he put forward in his thesis, Sisi might see himself less as a custodian of Egypt’s democratic future than as an Egyptian version of Muhammed Zia ul-Haq, the Pakistani general who seized power in 1977 and set about to “Islamicize” state and society in Pakistan.

This is something to watch for.

AP WORLD HISTORY TEXTBOOK

A world history textbook used by the Advanced Placement Program contains one chapter on Islam and barely mentions Christianity and Judaism.  And I presume it does not deal with Hinduism or Buddhism to the extent they deserve either.

“If you don’t see it from the eyes of a parent, kids are going to take this book as gospel and believe that Christians and Jews were murderous barbarians and thank God the Muslims came along and the world is great,” he said.

For example, Workman said a reference to Mohammed and his armies taking over Medina states, “people happily accepted Islam as their way of life.”

IRS EMPLOYEES UNION REJECTS OBAMACARE

Crazy.  The IRS is supposed to enforce Obamacare, yet the employees don't want to be under it.

National Treasury Employees Union officials are urging members to write their congressional representatives in opposition to receiving coverage through President Obama’s health care law.

TERRORISM IN THE UK & THE USA

World Affairs compares the data on British and US terrorists.  There are some similarities, but also many differences on who is committing terrorist acts.  For example, in America more converts to Islam commit terrorism than in the UK.

THE OLD TESTAMENT AND US MILITIA LAW

A blog post on how America's founding fathers incorporated Old Testament laws into how militia were to organize.

The American Founders were assiduous students of history. While the well-educated among them read Roman and Greek history in the original languages, some history was well-known by almost everyone, namely the Bible. New Englanders intensely self-identified with ancient Israel—from the first days of settlement in early 17th century (Israel in the wilderness) to the days of the American Revolution, when New England’s “black regiment” of clergymen incited the Revolution as a religious duty, and described the thirteen American colonies as the modern version of the twelve confederate tribes of Israel.[1] Thus, ancient Hebrew militia law is part of the intellectual background of the American militia system, and of the Second Amendment.

ASSESSING THE ZIMMERMAN TRIAL 7/20/2013

From Walter Olson at CNN:

People upset at George Zimmerman's acquittal are calling for awarding various new powers to prosecutors at the expense of protections for criminal defendants.

Maybe this would make it easier to hang a rap on some future Zimmerman. But it also would have an effect that its backers probably don't intend: increasing the number of persons convicted and sent to prison. As part of that effect, more young black men -- as well as more members of other groups -- will end up behind bars

 

From TalkLeft:  Criticism of Obama's reaction.

 

From National Review: 

 

Honesty about disproportionate rates of black crime requires acknowledging another truth as well: Trayvon Martin’s race could well have been a factor in Zimmerman’s initial suspicion of him. But that is because the known suspects in the recent pattern of burglaries in his neighborhood were black. Had Asians been breaking into homes, consistently with an elevated rate of Asian crime, an unknown Asian teen wandering the neighborhood could also have drawn the attention of a neighborhood-watch volunteer

 

The Hill on Florida:  Florida voted for Obama in 2012 but now it is "cesspool" of racism.

 

Reason on Florida's "stand your ground" law:  It seems to help both blacks and whites equally.

From the Faculty Lounge blog.

I have been struck by the frequency with which many commenting on this case, including the public on social media — but also journalists, scholars, and lawyers, all of whom should prize fidelity to facts — have made bald, confident assertions, often without citing any evidence, and sometimes in direct contradiction to the available evidence. This is all the more startling in light of the egregious editing of Zimmerman’s call to police the night of the shooting made early on in the reporting of the case by NBC, which is the subject of a defamation lawsuit by Zimmerman.

 

 

 

 

IRS LEAKED TEA PARTY CANDIDATE'S TAX RETURN

I always wondered what happened in this Delaware race in 2010.  Christine O'Donnell was doing very well against her Democrat opponent when suddenly an issue of a tax lien arose and she was forced to drop out.  Democrats win another one. . .interesting.

“Ms. O'Donnell, this is Dennis Martel, special agent with the U.S. Department of Treasury in Baltimore, Md. … We received information that your personal federal tax info may have been compromised and may have been misused by an individual,” he said in the January message left on her cellphone.

For Ms. O'Donnell, the message immediately raised red flags.

On March 9, 2010, the day she revealed her plan to run for the Senate in a press release, a tax lien was placed on a house purported to be hers and publicized. The problem was she no longer owned the house. The IRS eventually blamed the lien on a computer glitch and withdrew it.

DEMOCRACY DEAD IN AMERICA?

Different individuals have raised the issue of whether democracy is dead in America.  This is a quite serious charge especially coming from such respected persons.

Justices Souter and O'Connor.

President Jimmy Carter in Der Spiegel.  America has no functioning democracy.

ZIMMERMAN TRIAL IN REVERSE

A black man with a pistol permit in Rochester, New York shoots and kills a white teenager who threatened him when he caught them stealing from neighbors' cars. . .the jury finds that he shot the white youth in self-defense.  I don't think I will see this on the evening news.

ZIMMERMAN JURY

This trial is getting stranger and stranger.  A black male juror was evidently eliminated from the jury pool because he watched FOX news!

ZIMMERMAN'S RACE

An interesting picture allegedly showing Zimmerman's great-grandfather--he was black-skinned.

More on race at Gateway Pundit.

William Saletan:  Trayon Martin--His death wasn’t about race, guns, or your pet issue. It was about misjudgment and overreaction—exactly what we’re doing now to the verdict.

ANGEL GABRIEL APPEARS TO PRO-MORSI GATHERING

From al-Arabiya.  A number of visions are being seen.

Protesters in Cairo’s Rabia al-Adawiya Square believe they have seen the light.

In a show of support for Egypt’s ousted president Mohammed Mursi, a preacher giving a sermon at the Square this week told the crowds of a miracle.

In the speech, broadcast on Egyptian satellite channels, the preacher said the Angel Gabriel had been spotted among the crowds at the pro-Mursi Square.

TRAYON MARTIN PROSECUTOR

Alan Dershowitz, liberal Harvard law professor, criticizes the prosecutor in the case in very strong language.

She submitted an affidavit that was, if not perjurious, completely misleading. She violated all kinds of rules of the profession, and her conduct bordered on criminal conduct. She, by the way, has a horrible reputation in Florida. She's known for overcharging, she's known for being highly political. And in this case, of course she overcharged. Halfway through the trial she realized she wasn't going to get a second degree murder verdict, so she asked for a compromised verdict, for manslaughter. And then, she went even further and said that she was going to charge him with child abuse and felony murder. That was such a stretch that it goes beyond anything professionally responsible. She was among the most irresponsible prosecutors I've seen in 50 years of litigating cases, and believe me, I've seen good prosecutors, bad prosecutors, but rarely have I seen one as bad as this prosecutor, [Angela] Cory.

THE END OF HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS?

Daniel Johnson writes in Standpoint about the decline in historical consciousness and the impact it has on society and culture.

What has become problematic is the assumption that general historical knowledge, an informed consciousness of our past, is the essential framework for Western civilisation. It is the decline of history in this sense that lies behind the heated debates about the teaching of history at school and university. The loss of such a temporal dimension has brought about a profound change in the outlook of the West: a loss of organic connection, not only with those who came before us, but with our place in the world. Clive James memorably described this phenomenon as "cultural amnesia", and Eric Voegelin adopted the theological concept of "anamnesis" to describe our attempts to preserve transcendent memories.

OBAMA FOREIGN POLICY IN TROUBLE

David Francis, Fiscal Times.  Obama's problems:  Poor crisis management, lack of preparedness, reactive and not-proactive and the list could go on.

Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to needle Washington over Snowden

European allies have taken the lead in Syria and Libya 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai humiliated the White House by pulling out of peace talks unexpectedly

Even Obama’s Africa trip was eclipsed by the health of Nelson Mandela and the return of George W. Bush to the public eye

Quinnipiac Poll:  People think Obama is trustworthy, honest, etc., but on foreign policy his numbers drop.

American voters give President Barack Obama a negative 40 - 52 percent approval for the way he is handling foreign policy, his worst grade ever on that score. The president's overall job approval is a negative 44 - 48 percent, little changed from a 45 - 49 percent rating May 30.

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN EGYPT

An excellent essay from Michael Totten recognizing the academics, journalists, and he, himself, got things wrong in Egypt regarding the Muslim Brotherhood.  Unfortunately Washington got it wrong as well and is now facing serious policy ramifications.

I think it’s safe to say everyone, regardless of their political orientation and what they got right and wrong a year ago, was surprised by how quickly Egypt rejected the Brotherhood. The United States government has sound reasons for not describing what happened as a military coup, but that’s what it was. The rest of us shouldn’t kid ourselves. Yet it’s clear that the coup was a popular one. Morsi ended up more hated than Hosni Mubarak, and he achieved that dubious honor in one year instead of in thirty.

That ought to make American liberals rethink the notion that the Brotherhood is democratic and moderate. And it ought to show American conservatives that Muslims are perfectly capable of rejecting political Islam whether or not they’re secular Jeffersonian democrats. The Muslim Brotherhood might recover somewhat if the next government fails as badly as Morsi’s, but then again it might not.

IRS: USE OF INTIMIDATION

Patterico reports on an interesting quote from Lois Lerner--the IRS administrator taking a lot of heat for going after the Tea Party.   The quote indicates how the IRS was going to intimidate universities .

Lois Lerner, the IRS’s director of tax-exempt organizations who is overseeing the investigation, says many schools are rethinking how and what they report to the government. Receiving a thick questionnaire from the IRS, she says, is a “behavior changer.”

NSA SPYING

While many countries condemned the NSA spying, many were cooperating with it to gather information on people.

Snowden’s recently quoted remarks on the NSA—“They are in bed with the Germans just like with most other Western states,” he told Der Spiegel—has brutally undermined Chancellor Merkel’s posturing. But far more devastating, I think, is this from Snowden:  If the NSA is ordered to target an individual, it sucks up every bit of his data, he said, “So the target’s computer no longer belongs to him. It more or less belongs to the US government.”

OBAMACARE PROBLEMS

One just needs to look at the flowchart to wonder how in the world Obamacare is going to work. For other looming problems in its administration, read the summary at Hotair. I don't recall any piece of legislation ever having these kinds of looming issues--of course it was passed with congressmen reading it.  And in 3 years they still have not figured out how to deal with smokers.   Hotair asks:  If the Obama administration is this incompetent at running its highest priority, just how badly are they bungling everything else?

OBAMA'S LEADERSHIP

From the Hill:  Both Democrats and Republicans are not impressed with Obama's presidential leadership.

WATERGATE?

From Foreign Policy:

The offices of a Dallas law firm representing a high-profile State Department whistleblower were broken into last weekend. Burglars stole three computers and broke into the firm's file cabinets. But silver bars, video equipment and other valuables were left untouched, according to local Fox affiliate KDFW, which aired security camera footage of the suspected burglars entering and leaving the offices around the time of the incident.

With everything happening with Benghazi, the NSA, and other intrigues in Washington, this does look very suspicious.

Last month, her lawyers told The Cable that the department tried to intimidate her into silence. "They had law enforcement officers camp out in front of her house, harass her children and attempt to incriminate herself," claimed Schulman.

FEMALE INMATES STERILIZED WITHOUT APPROVAL

From the Sacramento Bee:

Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals, the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

At least 148 women received tubal ligations in violation of prison rules during those five years – and there are perhaps 100 more dating back to the late 1990s, according to state documents and interviews.

This happened in "liberal" California which supposedly stands for all things progressive. The South had a history of this in the last 100 years and was heavily criticized (and rightly so).  I wonder if California will be held up to the same criticism as southern states were?

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/07/5549696/female-inmates-sterilized-in-california.html#storylink=cpy

SNOWDEN A WHISTLEBLOWER, NOT A SPY

From the Guardian.  

When asked directly if there was any evidence that Snowden had cooperated with any intelligence service or American adversary, the administration and Congress declined to provide any. The office of the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, declined to comment for this story. The Justice Department and the House intelligence committee didn't even respond to inquiries.

By all means, consider Snowden a hero, a traitor or a complex individual with a mixture of motives and interests. Lots of opinions about Snowden are valid. He is a necessarily polarizing figure. The information he revealed speaks to some of the most basic questions about the boundaries between the citizen and the state, as well as persistent and real anxieties about terrorism.

ABORTION LAWS

A chart from the BBC detailing European abortion laws.  Many of them look stricter than those in  the United States.  The Texas legislature is currently battling over an abortion bill, but the law supported by pro-life activists in Texas does not seem any more restrictive than those in Europe.

Here is a clip of pro-abortion activists chanting "Hail Satan" as they try to drown out "Amazing Grace" being sung by pro-life activists in Texas.

IGNORING THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROCESS OF RULE BY LAW

Obama has been deciding what laws he wants to enforce and what ones he chooses not to enforce.  This may give him a lot of influence over policy now, but what happens in the future when future presidents decide to do this?  America will no longer be ruled by law (and certainly Congress) but by a "dictatorial" president.  And would Democrats want a Republican president doing this?

Mickey Kaus who lost in a Democrat Senate Primary in California a few years ago writes that Obama may just as easily ignore the "E-verify" clause in the new immigration bill the Senate is considering.

Obama has unilaterally decided to suspend Obamacare’s mandate for employers after receiving business complaints;Don’t you think he’ll also decide to suspend the Senate Gang of 8′s mandate that employers use “E-Verify” (to screen new employees for legal status) when he receives similar business complaints?

And Mario Loyola at the National Review writes about Obama's disregard for enforcing laws he does not like from a more theoretical perspective.

During the presidency of Barack Obama, we’ve learned something about our Constitution that we did not know: The president can simply refuse to enforce whatever laws he doesn’t like. Not as a matter of prosecutorial discretion, mind you, but in general, as to whole categories of people.

First it was DOMA, in a sop to the gay lobby. Then it was the immigration laws, which the president has decided not to enforce against young illegal immigrants. Now it’s the crucial employer-insurance mandate in Obamacare, which is “suspended” for a year, because the president feels like it. I say “crucial” because, absent the employer mandate, the official estimate of how much Obamacare is going to cost, and how it’s going to affect the number of uninsured, is no longer valid

TOP TEN OBAMACARE FUMBLES

From The Hill -- a non-partisan newspaper on Capitol Hill.  If a non-partisan newspaper finds this many problems, it is legislation that was very poorly thought out.  Unfortunately it will probably be the "little guy" who pays the price.

WHAT WENT WRONG IN EGYPT?

From Foreign Policy.  A discussion of the problems Egypt faces and will face and also a critique of the failures of Obama's foreign policy in Egypt.  The critique can also apply to other situations and even other administrations.  U.S. foreign policy is in serious trouble in the Middle East.

WHERE IS THE SECRETARY OF STATE?

July 3, 2013 and there is revolution in Egypt.  Where is Secretary of State John Kerry?  . . .on his yacht!  I am presuming he is on is telephone of skyping to stay up with events.

Update 7/5/2013:  The State Department reverses its early denial--Kerry only on boat for a brief period of time.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION BACKED MORSI TO THE END

From Debkafile: 

Middle East sources report that the army chiefs led by Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi rejected the American proposal.

 Obama promised to back steps taken by President Morsi to show he is “responsive to the opposition’s concerns,” while Gen. Dempsey asked Egyptian generals to moderate their stand against the Muslim Brotherhood. The underlying message was that if they failed to do so, Washington might reconsider its $1.3 billion annual military assistance package which is the main source of income for the armed forces.

Heartened by the US president’s vote of support, Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamic allies, rejected the army’s ultimatum for resolving the country’s deadly crisis, saying it would sow confusion and ran contrary to the Egyptian constitution.

From Foreign Policy: 

The tip of the spear for U.S.-Egypt diplomacy, Patterson's June 18 speech discouraging street protests has come to symbolize the administration's inability to recognize the potency of Egypt's liberal opposition. "Some say that street action will produce better results than elections," Patterson said. "To be honest, my government and I are deeply skeptical."

It is hard to understand why the administration supported the Muslim Brotherhood's rule in Egypt (it certainly doesn't support Christian rule in America) when so many Egyptians of all stripes were opposed to it.  And if one googles Egyptian protest signs, there were a number of anti-Obama signs appearing in the streets of Cairo.  But I am afraid the worse is to come.

It is interesting that Wednesday's coverage on CNN ignored the situation until noon and Al-Jazeera ignored events until 1 PM.  This was a significant international crisis.  Fox was on it.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN LEARN FROM PHONE CALLS

This is an interesting study of a German politician who sued T-Mobile for 6 months of the metadata that was stored on his phone.  You can follow the politician's movements around the country.  It raises a lot of issues of what the NSA is able to find from all of the phone data that it has collected on people and politicians.  And as the article points out it doesn't include the internet data which the NSA was also collecting.

SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN

This is not the best way to build a stable country.  A "vicious patronage" system exists. It is not a pretty picture.

Just about any American who’s spent much time in Afghanistan will tell you that the biggest challenge we faced there wasn’t the insurgency, but the culture, specifically the “old boy” patronage networks and expectations of bribery that have wasted untold millions of American taxpayers’ money.

Afghanistan often looks like a vicious circle: we haven’t succeeded in establishing a reasonably stable democracy because of corruption and patronage networks, which are fed by American contracts, which are necessary to set up the institutions for a democracy.

BUSH, OBAMA & AFRICA

Powerline:  They miss Bush in Africa.  Bush spent more fighting HIV/AIDS than Obama has.  I am not sure the media will bring this out.

HOLLYWOOD HELPED ADOLF HITLER

An historian argues that Hollywood helped Adolf Hitler with his propaganda efforts.  This is a subject that I will be watching to see how Urwand's book is reviewed. The New York Times quotes some critics, but it also indicates there are documents supporting Urwand.  Harvard Press did publish it and it is not noted for publishing "conspiracy" literature.

But now a young historian says that in the years before the war, Tinseltown was marching to a very different tune. Ben Urwand, 35 has written a book, The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact With Hitler, in which he cites documents that prove, he says, US studios acquiesced to Nazi censorship of their films actively cooperated with the regime's world propaganda effort.

PAULA DEEN vs. ALEC BALDWIN

I have not followed this controversy in detail, but Paula Deen was skewered by Matt Lauer on the Today Show (NBC) for her racial comments and corporations like Walmart and the Food Network began dropping her products from store shelves.  But the media does not seem to be as upset with Alec Baldwin's presumably homophobic rant. I was wondering if Matt Lauer would skewer Baldwin just as he had Deen? I can think of a number of reasons the Lauer and the media might be treating them differently:  1) Deen is a "Southern" woman and presumably is part of "redneck" culture or 2) Baldwin is part of the Hollywood elite and one of "them."

Will CapitolOne drop Alec Baldwin as other corporations have dropped Deene?  Baldwin has apologized, but so did Deen with Matt Lauer on the Today Show. ABC raises the issue of is it fair that Baldwin dodges the backlash that in my opinion Deene faced.

Update 7/2/2013.  Article from the Daily Beast.

On a surface level, an old white woman from Georgia who looks like someone who could be racist admitted to saying something racist, and a hot-tempered, middle-aged man who looks like someone's homophobic father said some incredibly homophobic things about a man. Dig a little deeper, however, and things aren’t that cut-and-dry. Or, as Benjamin Franklin famously put it, “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain—and most fools do.”

IMPEACH OBAMA?

This is a bit of a shock.  The leftist Nation wants to impeach Obama because of all of the NSA and other government agencies looking into the lives of private citizens. But the conservative Daily Caller is not ready to call for impeachment.  One would have  thought it would be just the opposite.