These are the victims of Western apathy and silence, and it’s only getting worse. … Our silence, and in effect complicity, has consequences. Honor killings in the West are on the rise.

† Is Biden Qualified To Be A Heartbeat Away From The Presidency?: The Washington Times notes that “The Obama White House's vaunted message machine has been thrown off-track with increasing regularity by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.” and that his repeated gaffes have “created obstacles at home and abroad” and have “become an increasing distraction” for President Barack Hussein Obama:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was forced Sunday to correct publicly Mr. Biden's characterization of Russia as a crumbling country, a description that infuriated Russian officials and contradicted President Obama's efforts to "reset" relations with the world power. …

On Sunday, Mrs. Clinton made clear that the United States sees Russia as "a great power" after Mr. Biden, during a visit to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, said that Russia has "a shrinking population base."

"They have a withering economy," the vice president said. "They have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years." …

Sergei Prikhodko, an aide to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, said he was "perplexed" by Mr. Biden's comments after what the Russian government considered a successful visit by Mr. Obama at the beginning of July.

"The question is, who is shaping the U.S. foreign policy - the president or the respectable members of his team?" he said.

The New York Times reports that the administration attempted to portray Biden as a loose cannon who shouldn’t be taken seriously, but the Russians saw sinister forces at work:

Within hours, a top Kremlin aide had released a barbed statement comparing Mr. Biden to Dick Cheney. Commentators announced Mr. Biden’s emergence as Washington’s new “gray cardinal” - the figure who, from the shadows, makes all the decisions that matter. Others said Washington’s mask had been torn off, revealing Mr. Obama’s “reset” as at best insubstantial and at worst duplicitous. …

Russians have spent months searching for clues to Mr. Obama’s true intentions; when Mr. Obama killed a fly during a television interview shortly before traveling to Moscow, for example, several analysts here interpreted it as a message to Russia.

Mr. Biden has now supplied evidence for two plotlines - a deep rift within the administration, or a “sophisticated game,” said Andrei V. Ryabov, a political analyst at Moscow’s Carnegie Center. This ambiguity, he said, plays into the conviction of Mr. Putin and his team that real events take place far from view, among a handful of powerful individuals, and that public politics are “no more than puppetry, decoration in the theater.”

“Nothing accidental can happen in this system,” Mr. Ryabov said. “Everything has a hidden meaning.” Even accidental words from officials are likely to be read closely; as a Russian proverb has it, “What a sober man has on his mind, a drunk puts on his tongue.”

Of course, Clinton has had her own problems with gaffes, reports The Washington Times, and was corrected by her State Department underlings and by arms control experts when she erroneously told a reporter at a press conference in New Delhi that the U.S. has a nuclear deal with India that permits the country to transfer reprocessing and enrichment technology to other countries:  

Mrs. Clinton "either misspoke or was badly advised about the United States' policy regarding the transfer of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technology," Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, wrote in an e-mail the following day, providing a detailed history of the U.S. position on the issue.

Later that week, during a visit to Thailand, Mrs. Clinton said in a BBC interview that the United States has "no relations" with Myanmar, a longtime U.S. adversary also known as Burma. She was describing efforts by U.S. allies in Southeast Asia to get the country's ruling military regime to allow at least some political openness. …

In fact, unlike the situation with Iran and North Korea, there is a U.S. Embassy in Myanmar. Despite the strained relations between the two countries, they have maintained formal diplomatic ties. State Department officials said Mrs. Clinton meant they do not have "full" diplomatic relations, meaning that the embassy is headed not by an ambassador, but a lower ranking charge d'affaires. …

Kim Holmes, vice president of the Heritage Foundation and former assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, attributed Mrs. Clinton's performance to a "combination of being new to the nuance and details of diplomacy and the old habit of the politician of being able to wiggle out of saying any number of things that may be questionable."

"It is fine to elaborate and explain policy in new and interesting ways, but you really have to have a strong background and knowledge to do it right," he said. "She's not there yet."

Meanwhile, on the subject of gaffes, Washington Post columnist Michael Kinsley asks: “Isn't it great to have a president who says something foolish or impolitic from time to time?” For the past eight years the MSM and liberal pundits and bloggers did not seem to think so, but Kinsley wants to measure Obama with a different yardstick than the one used to thrash Bush 43 mercilessly:  

Obama's rhetorical goofs usually are different from Joe Biden's momentum-mouth, just as they are different from the empty-headed nonsense of George W. Bush and the bizarre country-club-bar chatter of Bush's father. They are also different from the standard political "gaffe," which, as we know, is when a politician accidentally tells the truth. Obama's goofs are generally not a result of speaking the truth. They come from thinking things through incompletely. …

The media, in their ill-fitting role as guardians of civility, now lecture the president on the special responsibilities of his office. His own aides no doubt shake their heads and tell one another that this is what happens when the man goes "off the reservation" - that is, when he fails to follow the script they have written for him. …

We complain about politicians who talk in pre-tested and rehearsed sound bites, but we punish anyone who strays too far into his or her own thinking.

So putting this all together, we have a president who speaks without thinking things through, a vice president who doesn’t know when to shut up, and a secretary of state who is not conversant with the language of diplomacy. Abraham Lincoln could have had a crew like this in mind when he observed, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.”

† When A Patient’s Rights Stop Where A Healthcare Provider’s Rights Begin: Roman Catholic nurse Catherina Lorena Cenzon-DeCarlo, 35, claims she felt "violated and betrayed” and felt "extreme emotional, psychological and spiritual suffering," after she was forced to assist in a second-trimester abortion. Likening the experience to “rape,” DeCarlo has filed suit against NYC’s Mount Sinai Hospital for violating the 1974 Public Health Service Act that forbids workplace retaliation or discrimination against healthcare workers who refuse to perform abortions on religious grounds, reports The Washington Times:  

According to the 26-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court for New York's Eastern District, the lawsuit says when Mrs. DeCarlo was hired in August 2004, she told hospital officials outright that she would not participate in abortions. … [H]er uncle is Bishop Carlito J. Cenzon, who leads the Roman Catholic diocese of Baguio in the northern Philippines.

The hospital did not object to this and gave her a form to complete that indicated her refusal to take part in the procedure. During the nearly five years from her hiring date until this May, the lawsuit said, the hospital had avoided asking her to assist on abortions, as it has a cadre of other nurses who have indicated their unwillingness to do so. ...

When asked why she didn't simply walk out of the building, one of her attorneys, Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, said the plaintiff "strenuously protested to the point of tears. Employees should not be forced to choose between their jobs and their beliefs." …

Mount Sinai Hospital ranks 29th in the country among hospitals receiving federal funds, having received more than $211 million in 2007 alone, the lawsuit says.

By receiving federal dollars, the hospital must adhere to the "Church Amendment" in the 1974 Public Health Service Act that forbids discrimination against employees who refuse to perform abortions.

Citing the pending litigation Mount Sinai refused comment. The New York State Nurses Association, the union that represents nurses at Mount Sinai, also declined an interview request, as did the Department of Health and Human Services, through which the hospital receives its federal funding.

† Liberian President Speaks Out In Support Of 8-Year Old Rape Victim In AZ (third item):  James Nyemah of Africa Faith Expressions, the pastor of the Liberian family whose 8-year-old daughter was gang-raped by four Liberian boys in Phoenix blames a language barrier for statements the family made to police investigators and the media that resulted in her being put in protective custody, reports The Associated Press:

The girl's father presumed she had not been raped after a doctor said she was OK, referring to her psychological state, said

The father, who speaks limited English, later told police and childcare workers that he was ashamed of the girl and didn't want her back out of frustration with hearing a doctor say she was OK and investigators saying she had been sexually assaulted, the pastor said.

The misunderstanding also led the family to make statements to members of the media that nothing had happened to the girl, "which would imply they're denying the child was raped," Nyemah said.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – who was herself the victim of attempted rape during the country's civil war – is trying to change cultural attitudes about rape, including blaming women for “enticing” men, or for “being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” In particular, Sirleaf denounces the stigma that compels families to shun daughters who have been raped, and publicly criticized the family for saying they did not want the girl back.

Meanwhile, AP also reports that Edwin Sele, Liberia's deputy ambassador, is going to Phoenix to meet with the rape victim and her alleged attackers, in part because it is “not normal” in Liberian society to disown a child who was raped and he wants to look into the matter himself:

"It's important to go to Phoenix and see for myself and get to understand the situation," he said. "Liberians all over the world are very much outraged and don't want to be stigmatized by this."

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf requested the nation's embassy in the U.S. send someone to look into the situation, Sele said. …

In addition to being concerned about the girl, Sele said government officials are worried about how Liberia is being portrayed in news reports that describe rape as being condoned there.

Liberia has some of the strictest laws against rape in all of Africa, although Sele noted it was a common practice during 14 years of the country's civil war.

"But before the war and after the war that is not the case," he said. "That is no different from civil uprisings in Bosnia, Iraq and other places of lawlessness during conflict."

† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times): Art Capital Group - a sort of pawn shop for the well-heeled - filed a breach of contract lawsuit against photographer Annie Leibovitz, claiming that she has failed to live up to the agreement under which she was loaned $24 million after putting up her entire life’s work and her homes in Manhattan and Rhinebeck, NY as collateral, reports The New York Times:

Among other demands in the suit, the company … is asking the court to order Ms. Leibovitz to allow real estate agents access to her town houses in Greenwich Village so the property can be appraised and prepared for sale to pay back the loans.

The suit charges that Ms. Leibovitz has engaged in “boldly deceptive conduct” and has failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars due under the agreement. …

Since drawing down the $22 million plus an additional $2 million in a further agreement with Art Capital, Ms. Leibovitz has refused to cooperate with Art Capital’s efforts to sell her photographs and her property, the suit charges.

Ms. Leibovitz has refused to allow real estate experts engaged by Art Capital to access her homes and appraise their value, according to the suit.

Art Capital is asking the court for a declaratory judgment confirming their agreements with Ms. Leibovitz are in effect, compelling the photographer to provide access to her homes, and ruling that she is in breach of contract.

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, Restorative Capital Punishment): Columnist Debra J. Saunders has long been sounding the alarm that once death penalty opponents have struck down capital punishment throughout the land, their next target will be life without parole (LWOP):

As if to prove my point, the Sentencing Project just released a report, "No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America," which advocated for - you guessed it - the elimination of LWOP. The report also lamented that governors and parole boards are not paroling more prisoners serving life (with parole) sentences. …

The Sentencing Project is a national organization that works to promote alternatives to incarceration. Ashley Nellis, one of the authors, told me that the Sentencing Project opposes both the death penalty and LWOP.

She is aware that getting rid of LWOP would remove a common argument in favor of ending capital punishment. But: "Both of those sentences are problematic because they offer no hope for release - and basically say that certain people are unredeemable. They have no incentive to try to turn their lives around."

Clearly there is a schism between how the Sentencing Project and your average juror looks at felony murder. Juries sentence violent criminals to death or life behind bars because they see certain crimes as so brutal that they must be punished severely. …

Given their objections to life sentences, if California or the federal government ever discards the death penalty, all the money that gets sucked into fueling bogus death-penalty appeals simply will move to bankroll anti-LWOP appeals.