† Don’t Know Much About History, Don’t Know Much Foreign Policy: The Washington Post’s Stephen Stromberg points out this honking ЛОЖНЫЙ ШАГ (gaffe) President Barack Hussein Obama made in Moscow:

The president joked to a group of Russian businessmen about how Czar Alexander II gave America “a pretty good deal on Alaska,” which the United States bought from Imperial Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million in gold.

It’s still a sore subject. …

Instead of inadvertently irritating the sensitivities of foreign leaders and the nations they represent, Obama should be careful to save whatever good will he has banked with them to use in disagreements of substance. Of which he should have many with Russia.

BTW, it was a cash-strapped Tsar Aleksandr II who made the deal to sell AK. Given the size of our deficit, it is not unreasonable for some Russians to harbor hope that we will sell AK back to them to pay down our national debt - especially after a few rounds of водка (vodka).

Editorial Note: Yet another wake-up call to Obama supporters who thought the world would prostrate itself before a president who’s not another middle-aged white guy with an easily spelled name: During a TV interview Enrique Ortez, the post-coup foreign relations minister of Honduras, derided our president as “a little black man who doesn't know where Tegucigalpa is located.” He has since sent Obama a letter of apology for his “unfortunate comment.”

† Who’s Sarah Now?: Anchorage Daily News columnist Sheila Toomey (AKA “Alaska Ear”) knows why Sarah Palin is hanging up her snowshoes halfway into her term:

It's the Runner's World curse. Spawn of the infamous Sports Illustrated curse wherein the team or athlete featured in a cover story about how great they are inevitably tanks.

Sarah stars in the "I'm a Runner" feature in the August issue of Runner's World, which rarely profiles politicians. Previous starring politicos include N.Y. Gov. David Paterson, former N.Y. Gov. Elliot Spitzer and would-be president John Edwards. [Emphasis in the original.]

See? A curse.

[Hat Tip: Reader Pam Siegfried, a Palin supporter who lives in AK.]

† "Little Eichmanns" Professor Prevails In Court Case (second item): Though a jury determined that University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill should not have been fired after writing an essay calling World Trade Center victims "little Eichmanns," Denver District Court Judge Larry J. Naves refused to reinstate him, reports The Associated Press:

Naves ruled Tuesday that the decision by the university's governing Board of Regents "occurred with sufficient procedural protections." He also noted that jurors awarded Churchill only $1 in damages. He said the low figure meant that the jury concluded Churchill did not incur any damages.

Naves explained his ruling by saying that the same judicial immunity that applies to judges applies to CU because they were acting in a "quasi-judicial capacity" when they decided to fire Churchill and that reinstatement would undermine the university's findings of research misconduct.

Churchill's attorney, David Lane, said he will appeal to the Colorado Court of Appeals. Lane said the judge's ruling means the regents could fire Churchill if they don't like what he says, or even because of his race or religion. …

The university vigorously opposed Churchill's reinstatement, saying his firing was justified and that if he did return, the relationship between him and the university "would not be an amicable one."

† Empire State Repubs Rise Again: New York Law Journal notes that since June 8^th “[n]o fewer than six suits have been filed in Albany County Supreme Court” to break the stalemate between Dems and Repubs in the state Senate:

[T]he newest court action was filed Tuesday by Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy seeking declaratory judgment on whether the June 8 "coup" was valid. Levy v. New York State Senate asks a judge to decide who legally holds the title of Senate president pro tem.

Levy said the ruling by a judge would not break the 31-31 deadlock between the two factions. But by designating who can "legally hold the gavel," the court would remove questions about who can set the agenda in the Senate and, if the chamber manages to approve bills with a quorum, who can legally pass those bills on to the governor for his consideration. …

After delaying a decision for days while pleading with the parties to negotiate a settlement themselves, Supreme Court Justice Thomas S. McNamara ruled that his intervention in the battle would be an "improvident intrusion into the internal workings of a co-equal branch of government"

Normally, a lieutenant governor would cast the deciding vote when the Senate is deadlocked 31-31, but the position has been vacant since David Paterson was elevated to the governorship after his boss, Client 9, resigned. Under the NY state Constitution, the office will remain unfilled until the next election.

† Updates To Previous Posts (sixth item, Dead Men Write No Wills): Allentown, PA, attorney John P. Karoly Jr. pleaded guilty to charges of evading $1.9 million in federal income taxes in exchange for prosecutors dropping all charges relating to accusations that he faked his brother’s and sister-in-law’s wills after they died in a plane crash in order to “seize proceeds of the estates from the rightful heirs,” reports The Legal Intelligencer:

[U]nder the terms of the guilty plea, Karoly also promised that he would drop his claims in the state court battle over the couple's estates and renounce any share in those estates.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Weber said Karoly has also agreed to a non-jury trial to resolve a third category of charges in which Karoly is accused of scheming to get a $500,000 tax deduction for charity by laundering money through a church. …

U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel said Monday that he will hold a non-jury trial in September to resolve the three fraud charges and six money laundering charges stemming from the alleged charity scheme.

Weber said that John Karoly Jr. already faces a recommended prison term of 51 to 63 months for the tax charges and that a conviction on the fraud and money laundering charges could add about a year to the recommended guidelines range.

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, 10 Reasons Michelle Obama Should Be Proud – Really Proud – Of America): This latest installment in The Stiletto Blog’s ongoing series meant to help instill the necessary pride of country in Michelle Obama’s consciousness to enable her to serve as an unofficial ambassador focuses on college chemistry professor John Schupp, who is promoting creation of veterans-only classes to ease soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq back into civilian life. The Associated Press reports:

In 1945, veterans outnumbered everyone else on campus.

“They succeeded as a group, as a unit," he says excitedly, as if sharing a secret. He leans forward, gripping his coffee mug. "So I'm recreating the same thing that happened then."

What he needed to do seemed simple: Form a military unit within the classroom. He needed to disguise counseling sessions as English and Math 101. The unit would survive together, no soldier left behind. …

He campaigned like a politician, donning a suit and tie for visits to the Capitol, asking lawmakers to fork over $100,000 for a program that didn't exist.

And they did.

So it happened that on a cold December afternoon in 2007, administrators at Cleveland State University found themselves in the curious position of having public funding available for an academic program they hadn't yet approved. …

The program, christened Supportive Education for the Returning Veteran, or SERV, would consist of four core classes - history, math, biology and chemistry - taught by volunteer teachers. It would have an office squeezed between Women's' Studies and Disability Services. …

Veterans are sprawled around the program's office typing up papers, lounging on the bench they swiped from the hallway. It's a safe haven, this place. Here they don't have to absorb the curious looks from other students. They don't have to hear the questions: "Have you ever killed anyone?" They don't have to dwell on the things they've seen that they would prefer to forget.