Dan Calabrese

U.S.-based Ketchum PR got Putin’s op-ed published in N.Y. Times

Bet you didn't know this: American public relations firms make bank serving as mouthpieces for foreign governments of all sorts, including the ones who are not particularly friendly toward America.

Taliban attacks U.S. consulate in Afghanistan

We're basically just going to give you a few graphs from the AP report, because that's all we have - and apparently all U.S. personnel are safe - but I do find it curious that the Taliban simply gets on the phone to the AP and says, yeah, we did it. In this part of the world, the AP typically uses regional stringers for reporting in the field - and while it's probably not fair to conclude anything about the stringers from their names (Amir Shah and Nahal Toosi) - I think it's fair to ask if the AP really has any way of knowing the backgrounds or associations of these stringers it hires.

Kerry studies vastly superior Bush Administration to learn how to disarm a dictator

This keeps getting better, in a tragic and dangerous-as-hell but still hilarious sort of way. First, self-styled intellectual John Kerry shoots off his mouth about how this whole Syria thing could go away if Bashar Assad would turn over his weapons to the international community. Then, Vladimir Putin seizes the opportunity to grab the strategic upper-hand, while protecting his buddy Assad, by offering to make it happen. Assad quickly accepts Putin's "proposal" because he knows perfectly well that the whole thing is fake.

D.C. contractor accused of illegal campaign financing spent big bucks for Hillary

Guilt by association? Damn straight. Hillary's campaign is not accused of doing anything wrong, and I'm not making that accusation either. What I am doing is pointing out the kind of people who so badly want Hillary to be president that they will spend this kind of money to want to make it happen.

Classic Obama: Can’t solve the problem, give a predictable speech

There's no point spending a lot of time on President Obama's Syria speech, since it doesn't appear he spent much time on it - either preparing it or delivering it. It was as predictable as it was unremarkable, which makes it pretty much a classic of the Obama speech genre:

Obama seeks Syria vote delay while waiting for loan shark Putin to bail him out

I hope you've never been in this situation, but maybe you have. You've messed up so badly that no one reputable will help you out, and you're forced to turn to, er, unconventional sources of assistance. They'll give you what you need. But boy, will you pay a price.

New video from Sarah Palin: Who got it right on the death panels?

I'd say Sarah Palin has a right to strut a little on this. The liberal attacks on her were so vicious, and so formulaic, when all she did was state an obvious truth: Government health care will inevitably lead to rationing, and that will mean some people face denial of care.

Norman Podhoretz: Obama knows exactly what he’s doing . . . weakening America’s influence

There has always been a strong element on this site and others of folks asserting that Barack Obama's foreign policy is not incompetent at all. Rather, that he's doing exactly what he intends to do, which is to weaken America's standing on the international scene so as to lessen the need, expectation and ability of the United States to assert its power and authority. Why do liberals want this? Because a) they don't really believe in the virtue of America's influence; b) they don't really have that big a problem with the enemies conservatives would want to confront; and c) they want government to be a force for domestic social engineering, and how dare the Pentagon take up money they want to use for this!

ObamaCare ‘navigators’ will have access to your personal data, but don’t worry!

The latest from the ObamaCare implementation train wreck: You know that thing you've never purchased because you a) couldn't afford to; or b) didn't want because it's a complete ripoff? That would be health insurance, and now the law says you have to purchase it whether you want it or not, because all in! Liberals' systems are foolproof as long as you difficult people don't screw the up by choosing not to participate, so we simply won't have that.

Michigan State University actually removes professor who told class Republicans ‘raped this country’

Amazing. A liberal professor uses the platform of his classroom to spout his political agenda, and a public university disciplines him for it. William Penn must be wondering what the heck just happened. You can click the internal box if you really want to hear the whole nine-plus minutes, but the money quotes are here, along with sub-titles because some of it's not that easy to understand:

Kerry claims he backed the Grenada invasion as a senator, but there’s a problem or two

One of the things liars tend to do is respond with overwrought indignation when you call them out as liars. And usually you can detect a pattern. Like, say, a guy claims to be a war hero but a bunch of his contemporaries emerge to say they were there and his claims are without merit. Stop the smears, demands the liar. Or, the president of Russia calls him a liar and he sniffs, why I'm a decorated combat veteran!

What Obama said about ‘direct threats’ then . . . and what he says now

Let's go right to the transcript. First, here is what Obama said in a 2002 speech about Saddam Hussein and whether he posed a direct threat to the United States. Transcript via NPR:

By definition: If you don’t get paid enough, it’s your own fault

The boss, who knows a thing or two about how and why people get paid entry-level wages, touched on this in his post-show video on Friday. I want to expand on the theme a little here, because what I've always believed about people's economic state of affairs is a message that I see as empowering, but that many wrongly see as "blaming the victim."

McCain on Today: Gee, just lobbing a few missiles over there probably won’t change anything

John McCain seems about as gung-ho to attack Syria as anyone in Congress, but even he has realized something about President Obama's proposed "limited" strike that will put "no boots on the ground."

Whose fault is it no one supports Obama on Syria? George W. Bush, of course

We look at facts and see a clear distinction between two situations. When George W. Bush believed it was necessary to invade Iraq, he asked for a congressional resolution authorizing the attack, and he got it. Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Joe Biden were among the senators who voted to authorize Bush's action. He went to the United Nations Security Council and got a 9-7 vote in favor, but that wasn't enough because the French and the Russians used their veto power. Still, he got a majority.

Are you kidding? 64-year-old Diana Nyad completes 103-mile Cuba-to-Florida swim

I did not know until I saw this headline this morning that Diana Nyad was trying this again, and my first thought was, "How old must she be?" Yeah. Sixty-four. The first time she tried was in 1978. She's always wanted to complete this swim but for a variety of reasons - jellyfish, weather, sharks - she's never made it. But she refused to give up. So when she said this would be her last attempt, she obviously did not have in mind to jump in the water and make some obligatory effort before declaring, hey, she was just too old and it wasn't meant to be.

James Rosen source: Obama will attack Syria no matter what Congress does

Rosen is quoted on Gretawire as quoting an unnamed source, and I always caution about unnamed sources although I find Rosen to be trustworthy.

According to St. John’s Anglican Church, God and Joseph . . . ah, we’re not gonna say it

Rachel Maddow loves this, and of course she would, but as for me . . . know what? It's Saturday. I'm going to let you do the analysis. Scriptural ignorance. Cultural wimpiness. Downright blasphemy. They're giving you lots to work with.

Obama: I don’t have to ask Congress to authorize Syria strike, but I will anyway

Speaking just now in the Rose Garden, President Obama insisted he has the authority to launch a military strike on Syria, and informs us he has already decided to do so. But he says he will seek congressional authorization anyway because that's better for our democracy or something.

Slate editor explains: If you send your kids to private school, you’re a bad person

You've probably heard about this by now. Allison Benedikt is managing editor of something Slate calls "Double X" (I'm not sure I want to know), and it's all over the Internet the past day or two that she has declared anyone who sends their kids to a private school is a bad person.