Category Archives: Symbols
Cyber War
NSA may have cut back on stealing your data but China hasn’t. Chinese government operatives continue to hack U.S. government, university, and corporate networks. A WSJ editorial titled The Chinese Have Your Numbers claims they made off with the personnel files of 2.1 million fed employees. Could be you’ve earned a purple heart in a cyber war and don’t know it.
Half Baked Near Treachery
Forty-six Republican senators have signed a letter written by freshman Senator Tom Cotton to the leaders of Iran. The letter explains that the nuclear deal President Obama is negotiating is non-binding and won’t survive after he leaves office.
For that breech of etiquette foreign policy expert Leslie Gelb, in a Daily Beast column, says “Republicans hate Obama more than a nuclear Iran”. He calls the letter an act of “near treachery”. (On the other hand, in January he demanded that Obama fire his staff and meet with Senate leaders.)
Fellow foreign policy expert, David Ignatius, says the Senators’ letter is “Grossly irresponsible”.
Michael Gerson thinks the letter is a “half baked” scheme brought on by Obama cutting the Senate out of the process.
Mark Thiessen says it’s not a big deal because it’s all happened before – and he was part of it.
Carl M. Cannon thinks calling the Senators traitors is “beyond Orwellian”.
And Molly Hemingway, in The Federalist, complete with a photo of veteran Tom Cotton holding a kitten while on military duty, calls the whole over-reaction a “media smear”.
Enemy of Your Enemy
Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces are fighting in Iraq against ISIS. That would be the Islamic Republic vs the Islamic State. President Obama is negotiating a secret nuke deal with the Islamic Republic. Not that this has anything to do with Islam.
In his speech before Congress, Bemjamin Netanyahu reminded his audience that in this case the enemy of your enemy is still your enemy. Many Democrats saw Bibi and Boehner as the enemy and boycotted the speech. Here’s a list of no-shows from IBD.
Charles Krauthammer points out that Netanyahu hinted Israel could live with an agreement if Iran changes is aggressive ways. President Obama, another no-show, dismissed the speech as “nothing new”.
Amnesty
Senate Democrats filibustered a bill that would withhold funding from Homeland Security until the president pulls back his executive order on amnesty for illegal immigrants. Not gonna happen.
Besides, a federal judge in Texas already suspended the Obama order. Republicans must have got the news yesterday. Mitch McConnell caved.
Jeb and Hillary Soaking up Cash
Jeb and Hillary, the consultant class favorites for 2016, are soaking up the cash. The idea being to bleed dry any upstarts like Scott Walker.
David Brock, the gun toting left wing political hit man who runs Media Matters, resigned in a huff from the board of the PAC, Priorities USA Action. Brock claims his enemies leaked this story to the New York Times revealing that he paid a 12.5% commission to Mary Pat Bonner to raise funds for Hillary. So far Bonner has taken a $6 million cut of Hillary’s action.
Apparently commissions are frowned upon in political knife fights.
Update: The Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Foundation now welcomes foreign contributions.
