IT'S STILL A DANGEROUS WORLD OUT THERE DEPT:
Even with Obama and his minions singing kum-by-yahs, and even without George W. Bush as president:
"Suicide bombers posing as guests attacked American luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital and set off a pair of blasts Friday that killed eight people and wounded more than 50, authorities said. The bombings, which came two minutes apart, ended a four-year lull in terror attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation. At least eight Americans were among the wounded."
Maybe our liberal friends can explain to us again just why it was so important that we utter the liberal platitudes that friend Obama has been uttering for months now, and why it was so horrible that Mr. Bush failed to utter them...
OBAMA UPDATE:
Well, he said he wanted to "own" the economy, and now he does...and he might wish he didn't:
"An average of five national polls conducted in July indicates that President Barack Obama's approval rating has slipped under 60 percent. Fifty-seven percent of Americans surveyed approve of the job Obama's doing as president, according to a CNN Poll of Polls compiled and released Friday, with 36 percent disapproving. In early June, Obama's average approval rating was 62 percent. It dropped a point to 61 percent by mid-June and stayed at that level through the rest of the month. "Recent polls indicate that Obama's lowest ratings — and biggest losses — come on the public's perception of how he is handling the economy," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "And the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows a double-digit drop in the number of Americans who think that the President has a clear plan for solving the country's problems. The public may not be as willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt after six months on the job as they did when he first took office."
BIG GOVERNMENT ALERT:
President Obama has suggested that the federal government doesn't want to "run" the auto companies day to day, despite the bailouts. But Democratic Senator Tom Harkin seems to say otherwise today:
"Sen. Tom Harkin said he wants Congress to use a climate bill to force auto companies to make new cars and trucks capable of running on 85 percent ethanol as well as conventional gasoline.
"We own the automobile companies. Why not? I think that will be an easy one," Harkin said Thursday, referring to the government interests in Chrysler and General Motors."
And meanwhile, red tape (surprise!) slows down the rebuilding of a road in Elkhart, IN for which "stimulus" money is supposed to pay:
"Traffic along this major thoroughfare heads south from the Interstate, bypasses downtown and then stops dead just outside of Goshen, the next town over. The plan to extend the road is approved and ready to go to bid within 60 days, according to county highway manager Jeff Taylor. But instead of digging new bridge foundations, Taylor said his department is digging through a deluge of government forms. “I’ve got an engineer full time and that’s just about all he’s doing is red tape every day — filling out forms, filling out forms,” he said. “You will not see stimulus used until next year because this year is going to be all red tape."
IRANIAN PROTESTS:
They continue, and that's got to make the Iranian regime nervous. It's been a while now since the crackdown, and the government still hasn't eliminated the opposition:
"Tens of thousands of opposition supporters packed Iran's main Islamic prayer service Friday, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top clerical supporter, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, delivered a sermon sharply criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election protests."
BASEBALL UPDATE: my favorite teams get back into action tonight; Tiger fans I trust were as proud as I was that, in the All-Star game Tuesday night, it was Curtis Granderson's triple that allowed the AL to score the winning run and win yet again...
