After last night’s Republican debate over national security and foreign policy, CNN called upon Tom Foreman to check some of the facts asserted by the candidates, in a segment entitled “Keeping Them Honest.”

It soon became clear that Foreman and CNN were not interested in checking the candidates’ facts–which were correct in each case–but in checking their opinions, while misleading viewers about the candidates’ honesty.

First, Foreman checked Mitt Romney’s list of the Obama administration’s proposed defense cuts. Foreman had to admit that “He’s got all the numbers right. All of those cuts are correct, the ones he named.” Yet he objected to Romney’s alleged exclusion of “context” such as the fact that the U.S. spent $700 billion on defense, “more than the next 17 nations combined.” Hence he rated Romney’s statement “true, but incomplete.”

That’s not fact–that’s Foreman’s own apparent opinion that Obama’s defense cuts are irrelevant as long as the U.S. remains the world’s pre-eminent military power. Foreman begged the question of whether we are spending as much as our potential enemies, rather than considering America’s existing commitments and unique leadership role. It was, essentially, an anti-war critique of Romney’s view–not an analysis of his facts. (more…)

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

September 23, 2010

Press Conference by President Obama

8:03 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening.  I have several announcements.

Today, federal marshals delivered George W. Bush to The Hague for his war crimes trial next month. Attorney General Holder will cooperate fully with the tribunal.  My message to the world: even American presidents are not above international law.

Next, I will sign the “Voting Booth Transparency Act” when it reaches my desk on Tuesday.

Beginning in November, this long-overdue amendment to the “Freedom of Information Act” (FOIA) will rip away the veil of secrecy surrounding the act of voting.  Citizens will mark and sign their ballots before witnesses, and this information will become part of the public record.

Your friends, relatives, neighbors, union bosses, and SEIU thugs have a right to know if you voted the way they wanted you to or the way you said you would.  The days of isolated cubicles and anonymous marks on generic ballots are over.

At this time, I’d like to recognize Prince Nouria El-Aziz, my new White House Counselor on U. S.-Islamic relations.  [pointing] He’s the fellow in traditional Saudi dress standing against the wall next to Rahm Emanuel.  [El-Aziz bows to the president; Obama bows back]

His Majesty, King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz, honors me by assigning one of his 403 nephews to be his eyes and ears in the West Wing.

Now, uh, normally, I’d take two planted questions, ramble aimlessly in response, then call it quits. (more…)

A debate about the President’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) on Fox and Friends this week turned into a smackdown when Big Journalism contributor Richard Grenell, formerly the spokesman for the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Joseph Cirincione, the President of the Ploughshares Fund, staked out their positions on the right and the left.

We’ve seen examples of name-calling on too many fronts in recent days, but the war of rhetoric went nuclear after Cirincione resorted to cursing at Grenell.

The interview quickly veered off course when Cirincione threw out arguments like, “Who the hell do you think you are?” in response to Grenell’s accusations that it’s a “left wing fantasy” to think that the Obama administration’s strategy will successfully deter nuclear threats from non-state actors. By the end of the interview, Cirincione concluded the discussion by calling it simply, “insulting.” (more…)

The U.S. is the great enemy of mankind! Against those hyenas there is no option but extermination!… If the nuclear missiles had remained (in Cuba) we would have fired them against the heart of the U.S. including New York City!…. We will bring the war to the (U.S.) imperialists enemies’ very home,   to his places of work and recreation. The imperialist enemy (the U.S.) must feel like a hunted animal wherever he moves! Thus we’ll destroy (the U.S.!)  The solutions to the world’s problems lie behind the Iron Curtain. The victory of socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims! We must keep our hatred against them (the U.S.) alive and fan it to paroxysms!

That was Ernesto “Che” Guevara , in his message to the Tri-Continental Conference, Havana 1966.

“I’m like Che Guevara with a bling on!”

That was Rapper Jay-Z,  whom President  Obama  recently invited to sit under the U.S. Presidential Seal in the same White House that Jay-Z’s hero  craved to incinerate with nuclear missiles.

OK, fine, Obamabots and MSM……? Perhaps you don’t object to having, as an honored guest of our White House, and sitting under your nation’s very Presidential Seal, a sympathizer with a Stalinist who craved to incinerate your nation? That’s one thing.

But how about having, by special invitation to the White House by your president, and sitting under your presidential seal — a “useful idiot?” (more…)

Not so long ago, writers, editors, concerned world citizens and deep thinkers of all kinds were consumed with the idea of a coming global catastrophe that seemed implacable and virtually unavoidable. When it comes to covering today’s debates on global warming, we might want to take a step back and recall this earlier, somewhat chillier 1980s obsession with the fate of the earth – that is, of course, The Fate of the Earth, the title of a three-part series by Jonathan Schell first published in The New Yorker, then republished as a popular book by Alfred A. Knopf in 1982.

Jonathan Schell

This influential series was all about the unstoppable, world-ending consequences of nations (especially the United States) clinging to their nuclear weapons. The fate of the earth, according to Schell, was to be nuclear annihilation, human extinction, the end of all life. Game over. You’re dead. We’re all dead. Your children are dead. Your dog’s dead. Your children’s children won’t exist. Finito.  It was a very popular idea at the time, much discussed at cocktail parties, sidewalk reefer breaks, and editorial meetings. Schell had caught the ear of the culture.

(To judge by this piece in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times by Schell’s older brother, Orville, pessimism seems to run in the family.) (more…)