Category Archives: Foreign
Internet Control
Al Gore invented the internet and Barack Obama is giving it away.
Who Controls the Internet
Brendan Greeley in Bloomberg Businessweek explains how it works. The system that assigns names to web servers, the Internet domain name system (DNS), is run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann). Icann is under the control of the U.S. Commerce Department. The government announced in a news dump last Friday it’s giving up that control.
Countries like China and Russia want that power to go the U.N. Then they would have influence over which websites get domain names. Without a domain name you’re nobody. As Greeley puts it:
It’s a bad sign that the U.S. has chosen to give up this power. It means that the administration doesn’t feel that it can get away with holding onto it, diplomatically, which means that on this issue, we no longer enjoy the support of countries such as Germany. Perhaps it was that time we tapped Angela Merkel’s cell phone.
Obama Phone Prank
Vladimir Putin’s answering machine explained he couldn’t come to the phone because he was digesting Crimea, python style. President Obama left a long message explaining “might doesn’t make right“. He promised not to send troops, not that anyone was asking.
Phone Prank
After he hung up, the president slapped sanctions on a few cronies (Putin’s not Obama’s). This gambit drew laughter. The Russians farted in our general direction, calling the sanctions a “prank“.
President Obama thinks our biggest geopolitical foe is income inequality. No – wait – climate change. Mitt Romney thinks it’s Russia.
Missing Airplane
Why does the media give insane wall to wall coverage of a missing airplane when nobody knows what happened? I’ve been watching nonstop while doing this cartoon! Oh that’s why.
Sharyl Attkisson Resigns
Sharyl Attkisson has resigned from CBS. She had been negotiating with CBS News President David Rhodes since last April for release from her contract.
Sharyl Attkisson Background
Attkisson’s tenacious reporting on the Fast and Furious Scandal won an Edward R. Murrow award in 2012. The Justice Department tried to intimidate her for her efforts. She was also losing airtime for her reporting at the network. It could be her reporting just wasn’t up to CBS standards.
Sharyl Attkisson is now working on a book called “Stonewalled: One Reporter’s Fight for Truth in Obama’s Washington”.
David Rhodes got his start with Fox News. His brother, Ben Rhodes, is a deputy national security advisor in the Obama administration. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Reset to the 19th Century
Secretary of State Kerry feels President Putin’s “19th century” behavior is not up to G-8 elite standards.
This isn’t Putin’s first rodeo when it comes to dropping in uninvited on his neighbors. He invaded Georgia on President Bush’s watch in August 2008. Like the current Crimea crises, Bush didn’t do much to stop it.
Then came Hillary’s “Reset”, or Overcharge.
Reset
Michael Gerson in the Washington Post thinks the reset may have contributed to Putins feelings of grandeur:
President Obama’s “reset” with Russia was designed to end the economic, political and military isolation of Putin’s Russia after the invasion of Georgia in 2008. The Kremlin did not keep the terms of the cease-fire ending that conflict. But Obama was determined to unfreeze the post-Georgia relationship, particularly since cooperation was needed on issues of mutual concern such as Iran and Syria.
