The Pope is . . . doing the right things

Pope Benedict XVI lamented that the Vatican acted "slowly and late" in a scandal surrounding the Legionaries of Christ, and a Vatican official called Tuesday for an investigation into who covered up for the conservative order's disgraced founder.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4NChAsC9XtUxxsSVt2oMrmqQAxw?docId=09ce50ae43884916890753a841a631bd

The Pope is openly and honestly addressing the various church sex scandals that occurred under his predecessors, and appears to be loosening up on restrictions regarding the use condoms for disease prevention. He is confounding his critics by apparently doing the right things.

In other words, nothing

That's how you can accurately describe the U.S.'s response to North Korea's attack on our ally and news of its advancing nuclear missile program.

U.S. officials Tuesday condemned North Korea's deadly attack on South Korea, pledged to protect an ally and urged China to take a more punitive stance toward Kim Jong Il's regime than it has in the past.

Still, they also said it's "too soon" to know how to formally respond.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/23/1940773/korean-showdown-puts-unity-to.html

North Korea has the nuclear material, the missiles, and the technology. Soon, they'll have nuclear armed intercontinental missiles. At that point, sternly worded protests will be ineffective.

The problem with having dictators and absolute monarchs for allies . . .

is that they die. What happens next?

Saudi Arabia's elderly King Abdullah flies to the US today for checks for a back ailment, and Crown Prince Sultan is returning from holiday. Political stability in the monarchy is of global concern. The Gulf Arab state controls more than a fifth of the world's crude reserves, is a vital US ally in the region, a major holder of dollar assets and home to the biggest Arab bourse.

Diplomats said the king's departure and the prince's sudden return indicate the kingdom, which has no elected parliament, is trying to prevent a power vacuum and reassure Washington and other allies.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-king-will-travel-to-us-for-treatment-2140325.html

King Abdullah is 86. His younger brother and heir, Prince Sultan, is 85.

Believe them

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says he believes Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula's boast that it will try to carry out more cheap, small-scale attacks.

Adm. Mike Mullen says the terrorist group in Yemen has grown and is dangerous, and that counterterrorism efforts should focus on its activities.

In an online magazine, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula boasts that it's using cheap and easy methods to attack U.S. targets, pointing to a failed plot to bomb two U.S.-bound cargo planes.

The group says it can "bring down America" with smaller attacks that play on what it calls the "security phobia that is sweeping America."

Mullen told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday he considers the threat to be serious.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/21/1936569/mullen-says-al-qaida-threat-from.html

We ignored them when they said they would fly airplanes into skyscrapers.

We shouldn't ignore them now.

If that means a TSA inspector touches the inner thigh of less than 5% of all air travellers, so be it.

The Obama effect

Last year, Obama famously declared that his personal popularity and awesome political skills would inspire voter turnout and thereby save endangered Democratic incumbents in the 2010 mid term election - - "Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0110/Berry_Obama_said_big_difference_between_10_and_94_is_me.html

In fact, Obama did inspire record voter turnout - - of his opponents.

The 2010 elections turned into a rout of the Democrats because the elderly and wealthy surged to the polls to help sweep the Republicans back into power, and the balance of women's votes shifted to the GOP as well, according to a new report.

The study released Monday by Project Vote, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group, also found that turnout by pro-Democratic blocs such as African-Americans, young people and Latinos dropped sharply from 2008 levels, leaving a lopsided pro-Republican electorate to dominate the national landscape.

. . . Perhaps the most significant point about voter turnout in 2010 is how many voters didn't vote. Some 38 percent of eligible voters didn't vote in 2008 and this November and this year that figure rose to 61 percent.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/23/1939055/2010-electorate-elderly-wealthy.html


The "enthusiasm gap" wasn't a theory. It was a fact.

Hate crimes declined in 2009

According to the mainstream media, Muslims are constantly attacked by vicious American Islamophobes; all gay teens are being driven to suicide by a bullying and homophobic education system; and, the 50+% of Americans who do not approve of Obama's job performance are inspired by racist fear and loathing.

Of course, the media grossly exaggerates the facts, and wrongfully slanders the citizens of our tolerant nation.

The number of hate crime incidents and victims declined in 2009 compared to the previous year, the FBI reported Monday.

Of more than 6,000 hate crime offenders, over six in 10 were white while nearly two in 10 were black.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2032548,00.html

Iraqi democracy

Iraq's president declared on Wednesday that he will not sign off on the hanging of Tariq Aziz, joining the Vatican and others in objecting to the death sentence for a man who for years was the international face of Saddam Hussein's regime. . . .

However, Talabani's opposition does not necessarily mean Aziz, 74, will escape the noose. Aziz was sentenced in October for his alleged role in a campaign of persecuting, killing and torturing members of Shiite opposition and religious parties that now dominate Iraq.

The Iraqi constitution says death sentences must be ratified by the president before they can be carried out. But there are mechanisms to bypass the president - such as an act of parliament or the approval of one of Talabani's deputies.

Justice Ministry spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar told The Associated Press that death penalties can be carried out regardless of the president's refusal to sign an execution order.

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/11/17/1528742/iraqi-president-i-wont-sign-aziz.html

That's some "democracy" we established in Iraq - - "The Iraqi constitution says death sentences must be ratified by the president before they can be carried out", but there are "mechanisms to bypass the president".