The Wall Street Journal makes the case that President Barack Obama’s Plan A - direct, high-level talks with Iran’s mullahs – is no longer an option:

[I]t turns out that the rate at which Iran's nuclear programs are advancing may render even negotiations moot. …

[T]he U.S. believes Iran has enough fissile material to make a bomb. …

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned last week that "time is slipping through our fingers" when it comes to stopping Tehran. …

[A]n Israeli strike, however necessary and justified, could put the U.S. in the middle of a broader Middle East war.

Not to worry. Obama has a Plan B – selling out Poland and the Czech Republic in return for Russia’s help in curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Oops, no he doesn’t: Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev dismissed an overture by Obama made in the form of a confidential letter hand delivered three weeks ago by Under Secretary of State William J. Burns.  

The New York Times reports that the letter – a response to one he received from his Russian counterpart shortly after Inauguration Day - indicated that if Iran stopped its efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles the U.S. would not proceed with a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic proposed by the Bush administration that Russia opposed. The paper quotes anonymous sources saying that the letter did not offer “a direct quid pro quo,” but was “intended to give Moscow an incentive to join the United States in a common front against Iran.”

Medvedev said that "haggling” over the missile defense system was "not productive."

The Associated Press reports that when Obama was asked about the letter during British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s visit, Obama clarified:

"What I said in the letter is the same thing I've said publicly, which is that the missile defense that we have talked about deploying is directed towards not Russia, but Iran. That has always been the concern - that you have potentially a missile from Iran that threatened either the United States or Europe."

Obama was also forced to reassure Poland and the Czech Republic that the U.S. will honor its commitments to defend their security – the missiles the Iranians are testing can reach parts of Russia, Eastern Europe and Western Europe.

For her part, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the missile defense system "has always been intended to deter any missile that might come from Iran," adding, “[w]e have explained that to the Russians before." she said, adding she would discuss the issue at length with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when the two meet for talks in Geneva on Friday.

In case the Obama administration did not understand the import of Medvedev’s response, The Washington Post explains:

Vice President Biden's call for a "reset" in U.S.-Russian relations and long-standing questions about the efficacy and cost of missile defense may have encouraged Russian expectations that the new administration could be bluffed into retreating from the deals struck by the Bush administration with Poland and the Czech Republic to deploy missile interceptors and a radar station. If undertaken as a concession to Russia, any such move would have the effect of undermining the bonds between former Soviet bloc members and the United States and NATO - which, of course, is Moscow's aim. …

Perhaps the Kremlin leadership believes that "reset" is another way of saying "capitulate."

The Journal warns “If Mr. Obama wants to avoid a security crisis in the first year of his watch, he will have to get serious about Iran now.”

Poll: U.S. Muslims Isolated, Angry

A yearlong Gallup study (.pdf) of 941 Muslim Americans within a larger survey of more than 300,000 Americans during 2008 finds that they are “integrated socio-economically but culturally alienated,” reports the Los Angeles Times:

Ahmed Younis, a senior analyst for the [Gallup Center for Muslim Studies], said some Muslim Americans feel a sense of "otherness" created by outside perceptions of their religion and a lack of involvement in their larger community.

Three-quarters of Muslim Americans polled said they were satisfied with their community, as opposed to nearly 90% among respondents from other religions. They also were less optimistic about the future of their communities. Muslim Americans ranked highest among American religious groups who believed their communities were getting worse.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim elected to Congress, tells The Times that U.S. Muslims feel “a certain sense of isolation and alienation” – in part because Muslim communities revolve around the mosque, and he thinks Muslims would be better integrated if they made mosques more welcoming for non-Muslims.

Leaving aside the fact that it’s difficult for a Christian or Jew to feel “welcome” in a mosque knowing that (s)he is considered an infidel, the “otherness,” “isolation” and “alienation” Muslims feel is largely self-imposed. Of all the groups surveyed in the Gallup study (Muslims, Protestants, Mormons, Catholics, Jews), Muslims are the least likely to have Internet access in their homes; the least likely to report doing or learning something interesting; the most likely to report feeling angry for “a lot of the day”; and the least likely to be registered to vote.

When you hold yourself apart from the larger community around you – even going so far as to physically wall yourself off by wearing a niqab – you make yourself into the “other.”

Vatican Can Be Sued For Sex Abuse By Priests

On the grounds that there are exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests can sue the Vatican, even though it is considered a sovereign nation, reports The Associated Press. The appellate court decision affirms a 2006 ruling by a Portland, OR, judge that the Vatican can be held responsible for the actions of priests. 
 

Queen Elizabeth II To Bestow Honorary Knighthood On Ted Kennedy

The British Foreign Office announced that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) has been chosen to receive an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, reports The Washington Post:

The honor was formally announced in Washington Wednesday by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, during his address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress. ... Brown praised Kennedy's role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland after generations of civil strife, and his decades of work to strengthen health care and education opportunities in the United States and around the globe. …

The senior senator from Massachusetts is one of the best-known American politicians in Britain, and the patriarch of the U.S. family that most closely resembles political royalty. …

According to Buckingham Palace, fewer than 100 U.S. citizens have received honorary knighthoods since the queen took the throne in 1952.  …

Kennedy will not be able to officially use the title "Sir," according to a spokesman for Britain's Cabinet Office, which oversees the honors system. Brits who are knighted by the queen are entitled to that moniker, but people given honorary knighthoods are not, the spokesman said.

Mary Jo Kopechne’s family is not likely to consider Kennedy a knight in shining armor.

Another Obama Nominee, Another Tax Issue

His major mistake was in not treating as taxable income $37,500 in speaking fees. Kirk asked that the fees be paid directly to his alma mater for a scholarship fund he had created, and his accountant did not think the donated fees were taxable income, the [Senate Finance Committee] said. …

Kirk's failure to pay taxes on the honoraria amounted to a $5,800 underpayment, according to the committee, which concluded that he should have accepted the payments, paid taxes on them and then made his charitable contributions.

Unlike former senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Timothy Geithner, Kirk’s really were honest mistakes that any taxpayer could make and are not expected to derail his confirmation.