Clinton: Don’t Be Surprised If We Botch Syria

Geneva, Switzerland (CNN) — There is no guarantee that a sweeping new international agreement on Syria will succeed in ending the conflict there, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conceded, as opposition activists said the number of dead had skyrocketed in recent months.

“There is no guarantee that we are going to be successful. I just hate to say that,” Clinton told CNN.

But she expressed optimism that a new agreement hammered out Saturday would help ease President Bashar al-Assad out of power.

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Quick Syrians, ignore the madmen who’ve been butchering you, “mysterious, outside forces” are coming to get you…

Istanbul (CNN) — Turkey scrambled fighter jets three separate times Saturday as Syrian helicopters neared the border between the two countries, Turkey’s military said Sunday.

The helicopters were in Syrian airspace, but were getting close to the border, the armed forces statement said.

The jets were scrambled twice out of Incirlik, and once out of Batman, it said.

The incident underscores rising tensions between the two nations in the wake of Syria’s downing a Turkish F-4 Phantom jet on June 22.

Both Syria and Turkey acknowledged the plane strayed into Syrian airspace, but Turkey said the incursion was accidental and quickly corrected.

Turkey’s National Security Council said last week the nation would act against “hostile action” by Syria. Turkey also bolstered its forces along the border.

Also, Turkish Prime Minister Recept Tayyip Erdogan said his country was changing its military rules of engagement and would treat a military approach toward its borders by Syria as a potential threat that “will be dealt with accordingly.”

The downing of the jet drew sharp condemnation from NATO, but the alliance did not promise any action in response to the incident. Turkey did not invoke the NATO article calling for collective defense of members, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh has said.

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That’s funny, because according to the majority opinion, if it’s not a tax, then the mandate isn’t constitutional.

The White House insisted Sunday the consequence for Americans not having health insurance is a penalty fee, despite the Supreme Court ruling that it is a tax and said the debate on the Affordable Care Act should finally end.

White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said on Fox News Sunday that “when the Supreme Court rules” the country “has a final decision” and that the presidential campaigns should focus on the economy and jobs.

“What we need to do is go forward with the implementation” of the law, Lew said.

He also argued the health care law will not result in a tax increase on the middle class, despite a Congressional Budget Office report that it would result in a roughly $27 million increase over the next 10 years.

Lew’s remarks were met with strong opposition from GOP congressional leaders.

“He’s doing the best he can with a tough situation,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “It’s a middle class tax increase.

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Thank God law enforcement is there to protect us…

Border Patrol agents in Arizona are blasting their bosses for telling them, along with all other Department of Homeland Security employees, to run and hide if they encounter an “active shooter.”

It’s one thing to tell civilian employees to cower under a desk if a gunman starts spraying fire in a confined area, say members of Tucson Local 2544/National Border Patrol Council, but to give armed law enforcement professionals the same advice is downright insulting. The instructions from DHS come in the form of pamphlets and a mandatory computer tutorial.

“We are now taught in an ‘Active Shooter’ course that if we encounter a shooter in a public place we are to ‘run away’ and ‘hide’” union leader Brandon Judd wrote on the website of 3,300-member union local. “If we are cornered by such a shooter we are to (only as a last resort) become ‘aggressive’ and ‘throw things’ at him or her. We are then advised to ‘call law enforcement’ and wait for their arrival (presumably, while more innocent victims are slaughtered).”

The FEMA-administered computer course, entitled “IS-907- Active Shooter: What You Can Do,” is a 45-minute tutorial that provides guidance to all employees on how to recognize indicators of possible workplace violence and what to do should their office be invaded by gunmen and focuses around three main options; either evacuate, hide out, or in dire circumstances, take action.

Main Points of the “Active Shooter” training course

Evacuate: If there is an accessible escape path, attempt to evacuate the premises.
Hide out: If evacuation is not possible, find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find
you.
Take action: As a last resort, and only when your life is in imminent danger, attempt to disrupt and/or
incapacitate the active shooter.

Once the course is completed, employees are urged to download additional materials including a summary booklet and pocket-sized card outlining protocol, which was also handed out to employees two months ago.

One DHS employee told FoxNews.com the instruction cards were handed out to employees six weeks ago. At the time, he assumed they were only for civilian employees, not armed law enforcement officers within the department, which oversees the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“Requiring BP agents to follow the same steps is egregious,” he said.

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WASHINGTON – Utility crews untangled downed power lines and tree limbs Sunday, working to get the electricity turned back on for millions of people facing a second day of 100-degree temperatures without modern conveniences like air conditioning and refrigeration.

On Saturday, many people flocked to places like malls and movie theaters in the hope the lights would be on again when they returned home. Utilities were slowly making progress, but more than 3 million people still had no electricity and could only watch their thermostats climb. It could be several days before all the power outages are restored.

Strong winds from the storms late Friday toppled massive trees onto cars and blocked roads, and officials asked residents not to drive until they could clear debris from the streets. When a hurricane is lumbering their way, state officials have time to get extra personnel in place so they can immediately start on cleanup. That wasn’t the case with this storm, known as a derecho — a straight-line wind storm that sweeps over a large area at high speed.

“Unlike a polite hurricane that gives you three days of warning, this storm gave us all the impact of a hurricane without any of the warning of a hurricane,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said.

With the power out, authorities also warned people to be careful when using generators and candles to help light darkened homes.

The bulk of the storm damage was in West Virginia, Washington and the capital’s Virginia and Maryland suburbs. At least six of the dead were killed in Virginia, including a 90-year-old woman asleep in her bed when a tree slammed into her home. Two young cousins in New Jersey were killed when a tree fell on their tent while camping. Two were killed in Maryland, one in Ohio, one in Kentucky and one in Washington.

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The GOP-led House voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to provide key information pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious, making Holder the first sitting Cabinet member to be held in contempt.

The vote was 255-67, with 17 Democrats breaking ranks to side with Republicans in favor of contempt.

The vote follows a roughly 16-month investigation by the chamber’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee into the failed gun-running sting known as Fast and Furious — run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a division of the Justice Department led by Holder.

Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., filed two subpoenas over that period requesting additional information. But he has more recently focused on information related to a February 2011 letter to Congress that falsely claimed the ATF was unaware the operation involved the underground sale of the assault weapons.

“Today, a bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for his continued refusal to produce relevant documents,” Issa said after the vote. “This was not the outcome I had sought and it could have been avoided had Attorney General Holder actually produced the subpoenaed documents he said he could provide.”

Congressional sources tell Fox News that House GOP leaders will now meet to decide the next steps, but the investigation is expected to go forward with more subpoenas being issued.

“Today’s vote is the regrettable culmination of what became a misguided and politically motivated investigation during an election year,” Holder said afterward. “By advancing it over the past year and a half, Congressman Issa and others have focused on politics over public safety.”

The vote, which holds the attorney general in criminal contempt, was followed by a second vote that held Holder in civil contempt of Congress. The civil contempt vote allows Congress to go to court to seek additional documents.

The criminal-contempt vote is supposed to direct a U.S. attorney to convene a grand jury to review the case and decide whether to indict Holder.

However, considering Holder would be investigated by his own employees, some analysts have said it’s unlikely that would happen. If the case proceeds, though, Holder could face a maximum one year in jail if convicted.

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Watch the video. Ignore for a minute that it’s horseshit and Delta is just booking tax offsetting losses (I know, I know. This isn’t a loss at all. They’re just cherrypicking a gross data point in a net world…). Or that Delta can now try and lock in lower prices along the entire length of the futures curve, more than compensating the “loss”.

At around 50 to 55 seconds in, Kate Kelly tries to argue that “analysts” thought losses related to hedging would be worse for Delta.

Pardon me, but a move from $100 a barrel – which had been there for 6 months – back to a price of around the $70s, or roughly where it was last September, would have destroyed ALL hedges. At least, any that weren’t on the books from before 2010 when oil could still be purchased for $40 a barrel.

What “open” positions is she talking about?

Delta Air Lines, which Tuesday morning announced that busted fuel hedges had resulted in a $155 million second-quarter loss, became the first in what could be a series of major carriers to take pain from an unexpected plunge in crude prices.

WTI crude futures have fallen more than 27 percent since their February high, taking the market by surprise and rendering airline hedges – originally intended to ease the economic pain of higher fuel prices – largely ineffective.

At Delta (DAL), the gyrations in crude not only created a loss related to fuel hedges that settled during the June quarter, which ends Saturday, but also contributed to what the company estimates will be an $800 million charge for its open hedging positions, which run through 2013.

United Continental Holdings (UAL), the nation’s largest carrier by available seat mile, is in a parallel position – though probably with smaller absolute losses, according to information from filings and people familiar with the matter. The airline has hedged between 31 and 36 percent of its expected consumption through options and collars on diesel, jet fuel, and other energy markets, according to securities filings, and was originally positioning for higher crude prices.

In keeping with its usual practice, United will issue second-quarter investor guidance in the coming days to reflect how sales and costs have impacted its performance over the past three months. That release, which could come as early as Wednesday, is likely to include new estimates for United’s overall seating capacity, how expensive jet fuel has been, and how revenue has held up, say the people familiar with the matter – all of which will impact overall results.

You must give Phil this; that was a courageous move. I wish it had worked for him.

Naturally, the US government will have adopted his company’s technology for itself inside of 10 years…

(Reuters) – Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone’s dream of bringing another wireless network to the United States likely came to an end on Monday, when LightSquared Inc, the ailing telecommunications company he bankrolled, filed for bankruptcy protection.

LightSquared and many affiliates, as widely expected, filed for protection from creditors with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan. Falcone, once one of the hedge fund industry’s most powerful figures, and LightSquared’s creditors failed to reach an agreement.

Still Falcone, who dramatically overhauled his portfolio in the last two years by putting nearly all assets into LightSquared, is not giving up on his dream of building a network to compete with AT&T, Verizon and others. He put a positive spin on the bankruptcy filing by saying it would give the company much needed breathing room and protect it from creditors who he said are looking for a quick profit.

The future of LightSquared, 96 percent-owned by Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners, has been in doubt since February when the U.S. government effectively told the company to stop building its network.

Falcone’s dream rested largely on the U.S. government’s permission for LightSquared to build out the wireless network. When tests showed that LightSquared’s network would interfere with global positioning systems used by the military and various industries, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said it would revoke permission to build out a new high-speed wireless network.

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Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., on Tuesday will face the toughest challenge of his career over the seat he has held for the past 41 years.

The results of the New York Democratic primary could spell the end of Rangel’s storied and controversial career in the House of Representatives. While Rangel, 82, campaigned hard in the remaining weeks of the race, he fought questions of whether past ethics issues and a three-month absence due to a back injury impede his ability to serve in Congress.

State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, 57, poses the biggest threat to Rangel’s bid for a 22nd term with a campaign mantra of “it is time for a change.”

If he wins the primary, Espaillat would likely have a shot at becoming the first Dominican-American member of Congress in history. His campaign also notes this potential milestone in the newly redrawn Harlem district that now holds a majority of Hispanic voters.

But it’s possible the vote will ultimately split several ways as four candidates vie to replace Rangel, potentially handing Rangel a win.

The second most competitive challenger is Clyde Williams, 50, a former national political director for the Democratic National Committee. Williams also received boosts after The New York Times and The New York Daily News endorsed him. The incumbent later called the Times endorsement “ridiculous.”

Rangel also tried to cast his campaign as a way to enact President Obama’s agenda — but the White House declined to link itself to the race.

Asked last month if Obama would endorse Rangel, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters he would “have to get back to you on that.” He didn’t.

It’s not the first time Obama has declined to back Rangel. Shortly before the 2010 censure vote against Rangel over ethics allegations, Obama said Rangel was “somebody who’s at the end of his career.” He went on to say, “I’m sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity.”

Rangel made history in 2007 when he became the first African-American chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. But he relinquished the gavel three years later after a series of ethics allegations put him under pressure to resign.

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This is going to go down in history as one of the biggest military blunders of all time. Why the hell did Syria attack their neighbor? They were going to be left free to essentially commit genocide with zero consequences. Now, they’re going to get carpet bombed.

It makes no sense…no?

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey said Monday it would push NATO to consider Syria’s downing of a Turkish jet as an attack on the whole military alliance.

The announcement came on the eve of a meeting by NATO’s governing body to discuss the incident. Despite deep frustration among many NATO countries over the conflict in Syria, where the opposition says President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on an increasingly armed popular uprising has killed 14,000 people, it’s highly unlikely the military alliance will take armed action against the Arab state.

The unarmed RF-4E reconnaissance jet was shot down a mile inside international airspace on Friday, and two Turkish pilots are still missing, the Turkish government says. It has insisted the plane was not spying on Syria.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc also said for the first time Monday that Syrian forces had opened ground fire on a CASA search and rescue plane shortly after the downing, but did not say if that plane was hit.

Arinc said Turkey retained its right to “retaliate” against what he called a “hostile act,” but he added, “We have no intention of going at war with anyone.”

Still, he added that Turkey will push NATO to consider the jet’s downing under Article 5 in a key alliance treaty. Article 5 states that an attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against all members.

The North Atlantic Council — which includes ambassadors of the 28 NATO countries — works by consensus and all members must approve any action. The meeting Tuesday comes after Turkey requested it under Article 4 of the treaty, which allows a NATO ally to request such a consultation if it feels its territorial integrity or security has been threatened.

Asked if Turkey will insist on the activation of Article 5 of NATO, Arinc said, “No doubt, Turkey has made necessary applications with NATO regarding Article 4 and Article 5.”

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(CNN) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military may have more cracks in its armor as dozens more soldiers, including a general and two colonels, have defected across the border, Turkish media reported Monday.

The 33 army defectors entered Turkey and were sent to a camp in southern Hatay province, the Anadolu news agency said, citing authorities.

Malik el Kurdi, the deputy commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, speaking to CNN by telephone from the Apaydin refugee camp, said that within the past week a general and three colonels had arrived, but he had not seen a group of more than 30 new deserters.

The refugee camp houses the proclaimed leadership and other members of the FSA, the opposition force made up of Syrian army defectors.

“I receive soldiers daily,” el Kurdi added. “There are rumors, but I haven’t received anyone in that number.”

The defections included a Syrian general and at least four other officers, according to a Turkish Foreign Ministry official and a commander in the Free Syrian Army camp in Turkey.

All were from the Syrian city of Homs, the commander said.

Both officials spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity.

More than 33,000 Syrians have fled to Turkey to escape the violence in their country, Anadolu reported.

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Cairo (CNN) — Egypt’s military rulers said they won’t reverse their widely deplored constitutional and judicial changes and warned politicians to keep a lid on election-related unrest on Friday.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a stern statement as citizens awaited the results of last week’s run-off election between Ahmed Shafik, the last prime minister to serve under former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak, and Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate. Thousands of those civilians gathered in Tahrir Square, the center of last year’s revolution that led to the toppling of Mubarak.

“We will face anyone who will pose a challenge to the public and private sectors with an iron fist,” SCAF’s statement said.

Military rulers dissolved the lower house of parliament last week, extending their power and sparking accusations of a coup.

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Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — Taliban militants attacked a hotel near Kabul on Friday and seized dozens of hostages, sparking a fierce gunbattle with Afghan and NATO troops that left 26 people dead, authorities said.

The standoff, which lasted 11 hours, ended with the deaths of all seven militants, police said. The militants killed 15 civilians, a police officer and three security guards, Kabul police Chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said.

By the end of the siege, police had rescued all the remaining 50 civilians held hostage in the hotel, according to Salangi.

Earlier, he had said there were five militants but revised the number as more details emerged.

Police said they found burqas in the vehicle the attackers used to bring in explosives to the hotel, an indication that some were dressed as women. A burqa is an outer garment worn by Muslim women to cover their bodies.

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It’s very important, sometimes, to remind N Korea just who it is that can’t grow enough food to sustain their own population…

U.S. and South Korean forces on Friday conducted what they called their largest live-fire military exercise since the end of the Korean War, according to reports from South Korea.

More than 2,000 troops plus fighter jets, helicopters and armor from both nations participated in the hourlong exercise, conducted as about 4,000 spectators looked on, according to a report from Stars and Stripes.

The exercise took place in Pocheon, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of the Demilitarized Zone that marks the border between North and South Korea.

Enemy territory during the exercise was marked by a large North Korean flag unfurled on a hillside, according to the report. After it was obscured by smoke during the U.S. and South Korean attacks, the North Korean flag was replaced by one from the South to signal victory.

“We train together to ensure we are ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our (South Korean) army partners if called upon,” said Lt. Col. Joe Scrocca, a spokesman for the U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Division. “We are a more lethal force together than we would ever be separate.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. aircraft carrier George Washington was to lead a large naval drill off South Korea beginning Saturday, according to a report from the Yonhap News Agency. About 8,000 military personnel, along with about 10 ships and submarines, were to participate.

“Throughout the joint military exercises, South Korean and U.S. forces will show off their resolute capabilities,” Yonhap quoted South Korean Navy Brig. Gen. Park Seong-bae as saying.

He warned North Korea not to react in a hostile manner.

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Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has spent much of the political capital he won seven months ago in the biggest landslide in 30 years, floundering against a crisis that risks making Spain the first $1 trillion economy to need a sovereign bailout, investors and analysts say.

Rajoy, singled out by leaders at the Group of 20 summit, has been taunted by opposition lawmakers and commentators as borrowing costs soared to a euro-era record even after Spain’s banks received a 100 billion-euro ($127 billion) lifeline. Rajoy called the rescue a victory that solved lenders’ problems.

“He clearly doesn’t get it,” said Gary Jenkins, founder of Swordfish Research Ltd. near London, who has tracked bond markets for more than 15 years. “Spain needs someone who can come in and grasp the seriousness of the situation and react to that, not just pretend everything’s okay.”

The Spanish-bank bailout made Italy the next potential investor target. Together, they could overwhelm the sums committed to safeguard the 17-nation currency bloc. Southern Europe’s two major economies have 2.8 trillion euros of government debt, four times the total of Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

“A rescue for Italy is pretty much impossible without a major change in German borrowing costs, a major change in overall euro-zone levels of inflation, a major change in the level of the euro, or a major change in the structure of the euro zone,” Jamie Stuttard, Fidelity Investments’s head of international bond portfolio management in London, said in a telephone interview on June 19.

Rome Summit
Rajoy, 57, who was told by Germany’s Angela Merkel at the G-20 in Mexico June 19 to spell out the depth of his banks’ needs “as soon as possible,” will be under scrutiny today when he faces Merkel and French President Francois Hollande at a meeting in Rome hosted by Italy’s Mario Monti.

MADRID (AP) — Spain says the size of the bank bailout it requests from the other eurozone countries will be determined and published July 9.

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos says that on that day Spain and its single currency partners will reach agreement on the terms of the loan, such as the interest rate. He estimated the rate would be around 3-4 percent.

De Guindos spoke in Luxembourg after a meeting with other eurozone ministers. He said a letter formally requesting the loan will be delivered Monday but it will be only two paragraphs long, with no mention of terms or amount.

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Oil fell to its lowest levels in a year and a half on Thursday as a glut in supply and weak demand weighed on prices. But while Brent crude recovered some of those losses on Friday, the outlook for oil remains weak and sanctions imposed on Iran are likely to make matters worse, Dan Yergin, co-founder and chairman of energy research consultancy Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS CERA) told CNBC.

Speaking to CNBC from St Petersburg’s International Economic Forum, Yergin said that crude oil prices had dropped sharply because of a large build-up of supply and a lack of demand for the commodity, despite the oil security threat from Iran.

“Basically the Iranian security bid is gone from the price…and what’s dominating the market right now is this very large build-up of supply that’s occurred. Partly from Saudi Arabia very consistently putting oil out into the market, a build-up in Iraq and Libya and an astonishing increase in U.S. oil production which is up 25 percent since 2008” he said.

The U.S. believes that Iran is using funds from oil sales to fund its nuclear program and is leading a total of 18 countries that are cutting down or phasing out crude oil contracts from Iran in an attempt to stymie the Iranian oil economy and to force a change of policy. The EU is phasing out contracts by July 1 and similar measures go into force in June in the U.S at the end of June.

“Set all of that against the weak economic situation, weak demand on a global basis, worry about China and Europe and all of that means you have an oil price that is basically showing weakness and shrugging off the sanctions- even though we are only 2 weeks away from [the U.S putting into force] these very powerful sanctions on Iran.”

But Yergin told CNBC that producers would respond to the drop in oil price by cutting back and taking oil off the market. “It doesn’t work overnight, there’s skepticism” he said. “But then eventually it does work.”

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House Republicans appear to be charging ahead with a high-drama contempt vote against Eric Holder, after GOP Rep. Darrell Issa said the attorney generally failed to produce the documents he requested for the probe into the Justice Department’s botched Fast and Furious operation.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Barring a last-minute document dump from Holder, lawmakers are poised to vote on a contempt resolution following debate this morning.

If the vote proceeds, Republicans have more than enough votes on committee to pass the resolution. However, Holder would not be considered to be held in contempt of Congress unless and until the full House approves the measure.

Issa and Holder have been going back and forth since last week over Issa’s request for documents. Issa, R-Calif., indicated a willingness to postpone the vote after Holder indicated a willingness to make compromises and supply some documents in response to House Republicans’ subpoena.

But Issa told reporters after a roughly 20-minute meeting with Holder Tuesday that the attorney general instead briefed them on the documents in lieu of delivering them.

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They’ve been talking about this for some time. It’s been sheer lunacy, as proponents of the bridge have assured us that its construction will bring millions of new jobs, zillions in revenue, cure cancer, and fulfill the prophesies.

In reality, their main goal seems to be bankrupting the current bridge’s owner, Matty Maroun (who is, uncontestedly, a real dick). The Detroit/Windsor span is the only privately held bridge in the US; a fact that infuriates liberal Democrats to no end. Thus, they MUST construct a second bridge downriver, with the purpose of sending Maroun into bankruptcy.

I’m skeptical the bridge brings much added good at all, short of alleviating some traffic congestation. If fixing economies was as simple as building bridges, we could just spend the next thousand years backfilling Lake St. Clair. However, the real selling point of this bridge was that Canada was willing to pay for Michigan’s half of its construction, while still giving Michigan an equal say in construction and a half share of all toll revenue.

Um, okay…?

Leaders from both sides of the U.S.-Canada border today announced “a visionary project” to build a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor.

“This is quite a large project, even for countries as big as the United States and Canada,” said Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper in Windsor in the first of two appearances today to announce the deal. “It’s an investment in the future … of the North American economy,” and “a celebration of the deep friendship that exists between Canada and the United States.”

“This is a glorious day. It’s a magnificent day.”

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called the project “a particularly big deal for people who want to go to work…for people who need a job.”

Gov. Rick Snyder thanked the Canadians for fronting Michigan its $550 million share of the project costs.

“This is more than a traditional partnership,” said Snyder.

Read more here.

(CNN) — In 2008, President Obama campaigned on a message of “Hope and Change.” Thursday, speaking in Ohio, the president announced his re-election campaign message of “Divide and Blame.”

The president had to give another economic speech, nearly an hour long, because he has not given us economic results. America does not need excuses; we need leadership.

The president’s speech was a speech of excuses, basically blaming President Bush and tax cuts for all that ails the American economy. The president announced his intention to run against George Bush, but he is a little late — he missed that election by eight years. By the way, even that is not a campaign he can win; I recommend that he should try to run against Nixon instead.

President Obama cannot ask Americans if they are better off than they were four years ago, and so is trying to blame others for his record. Over half a million fewer Americans have jobs today than when he took office.

After his advisers projected that his $800 billion stimulus bill would keep unemployment below 8%, it has remained above that benchmark for a record 40 months and counting. Median family net worth has hit a two-decade low, median household income has declined, more than 30% of borrowers are underwater on their mortgage, 23 million Americans remain unemployed or underemployed, and half of college graduates this year come out of school unemployed or underemployed.

Being president is a hard job. One of the hardest parts is that you can’t just make excuses. Harry Truman understood this. It’s just not allowed from the president of the United States. Excuses make the president look small and weak. It is frankly a little embarrassing.

Read more here.