THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Obama – Not McCain - Will Be Bush III: Toby Harnden of The Telegraph finds it ironic that President Barack Hussein Obama “shares some of the worst traits” of his predecessor's administration … insularity and a blinkered arrogance”:
The young Texans who seemed genetically incapable of viewing any criticism of George W Bush as less than treason may have gone but a similar cult has replaced them. The Obamatrons who now populate Washington have iPads under their arms and greet each other with fist bumps. Earnest, geeky types, they look upon anyone who does not worship Obama with pity – such a being must be too stupid or bigoted to know better.
Obama has never been wracked by self-doubt and he is unusually self-contained for a politician. He seems not to need people or reassurance. In office, this is dangerous – he sometimes seems to be living in a cocoon.
† Obama Administration’s Tactless Diplomatic Debut: The Telegraph of London reports that the Obama administration committed another diplomatic gaffe involving the Queen of England:
An official statement from the US foreign policy chief paid tribute to the "Queen’s life and legacy,” despite the fact that the Monarch does not celebrate her official birthday until next weekend.
The diplomatic faux pas, sent on behalf of President Barack Obama and the American people on Friday, also celebrated the "special relationship" between the British and US governments. …
A spokesman for Mrs Clinton attemped [sic] to make light of the gaffe.
"We were a week early," Philip Crowley joked to reporters in Washington.
"As always, it is better to give a greeting a week early than a week late.”
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said that the Queen had not taken any offense at what was “obviously a genuine mistake.”
† In Times Of Trouble, The U.S. Finds Out Who Its Real Friends Are (second item): In an appearance on ABC's "This Week," Liz Cheney, a former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bush administration, said:
[Israel's enemies] want to destroy the state of Israel, and they are supported in that by the countries Iran, Syria and, now, it looks like Turkey as well," she said. The prime minister of Turkey has stood up and said Hamas is not a terrorist organization. The Turks themselves have allied themselves with Iran and Syria.
"President Obama is contributing to the isolation of Israel, and sending a clear signal to the Turkish-Syrian-Iranian axis that their methods for ostracizing Israel will succeed, and will be met by no resistance from America," Cheney said in a statement this weekend.
It’s true that President Barack Hussein Obama has been typically weak and diffident in handling this crisis, but it was the Bush administration that taught Turkey that bullying and bellicosity are effective means of achieving its objectives. Bush immediately caved and lobbied vigorously against the symbolic H.Res. 106/S.Res. 106 (AKA "the Armenian Genocide Resolution") when Turkey threatened to close the border with Iraq and to cut off access to the Incirlik Air Base to make it impossible to get supplies to our soldiers. At the time, The Stiletto warned (last item):
[Y]ou can be sure that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, too, understands that the Turks have unmanned Bush. No amount of Viagra can counteract U.S. impotence in the Middle East now.
The Turks met with no resistance from America back then - and Bush was supposed to be "a tough guy" – so they have absolutely no reason to fear they will be met with resistance now, even as they collude with Iran against Israel.
† Updates To Previous Posts (penultimate item, Employers Hiring Forged Documented Aliens Are Lawbreakers In Other Ways, Too): Former Agriprocessors manager Sholom Rubashkin, who has already been convicted of bank fraud and money laundering, was acquitted by a jury of allowing minors to work at the IA meatpacking plant, reports The Associated Press:
Rubashkin still faces sentencing June 22 in federal court, where he was convicted earlier of financial fraud. Prosecutors have asked for a 25-year sentence in that case, much more than Rubashkin would have faced if convicted on all 67 misdemeanor counts of child labor violations in state court. Rubashkin's attorney has asked for a six-year sentence in the federal case.
Rubashkin was charged in both cases following a May 2008 immigration raid at the former Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, where 389 workers, including children, were arrested on immigration charges. …
Twenty-six former Agriprocessors employees from Guatemala and Mexico testified they had worked at the plant as teenagers in 2007 and 2008 and that they were hired after providing false documents showing they were older. …
Jury foreman Quentin Hart, a Waterloo City Councilman, said he and the other the panelists tended to distrust the accounts of the alleged child laborers because they testified to lying about their ages to law enforcement officials and presented false documents to Agriprocessors.
Black Hawk County Associate Judge Nathan Callahan tells AP that the case “never came down to a simple question of whether children worked in the plant” but whether Rubashkin "intentionally, deliberately and knowingly" allowed children to work at Agriprocessors.
† Updates To Previous Posts (seventh item, Prediction: Christians Will Be “Extinct” In The Holy Land Within 60 Years): The Vatican is raising the alarm that as with the spread of “political Islam” (AKA Islamofascism) Christians are being driven from their ancestral homes throughout the Middle East while the international community is ignoring their plight, reports The Associated Press:
A working paper released during Pope Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to Cyprus to prepare for a crisis summit of Middle East bishops in Rome in October also cites the "extremist current" unleashed by the rise of "political Islam" as a threat to Christians.
The paper said that the line between religion and politics is blurred in Muslim countries, "relegating Christians to the precarious position of being considered non-citizens, despite the fact that they were citizens of their countries long before the rise of Islam." …
The document said the rise of "political Islam" in Arab, Turkish and Iranian societies and its extremist currents are "clearly a threat to everyone, Christians and Muslims alike."
No doubt in an effort to be “fair and balanced,” Israel was criticized for denying access to holy places on security grounds, as were Christian fundamentalists, who “use biblical texts to justify Israel's occupation,” thus further imperiling the precarious situation of Christian Arabs.
† 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 Michelle Pientka, 21, and her 16-year-old sister, Jessica, who found a duffel bag containing more cash than she had ever seen in her life in a shopping cart at the Macey's Food and Drug Store in Spanish Fork, NV, and turned it in to the police. Deseret News reports:
Michelle Pientka often finds lost wallets and purses. She picks them up and contacts the owner, hoping other people would do the same for her.
Inside the leather duffel, Michelle and her sister found a man's gym clothes, his wallet - and $17,811.
"It was all in cash with rubber bands around it in $100s and $50s," Michelle said. "They were big bills." …
Michelle and her sister said they never dreamed of keeping any of his money. They only went through it to count it, mostly out of curiosity, and look for a wallet to identify the owner.
"I would feel guilty if I kept it," Michelle Pientka said. "Besides, I hope if I lost something someday, someone would return it to me."
Because of the amount of the money, Michelle Pientka called the police, who came, counted the money and took it with them.
The bag belonged to car salesman Ben Hunstman, who gave each of the girls a $250 reward. He tells Deseret News: “[Y]ou watch the news and you don't think there's good people anymore. But people surprise you. There's still good people.”
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