One year in and Obama doesn't have any foreign leader friends

Rick Moran, AT "I recently asked several senior administration officials, separately, to name a foreign leader with whom Barack Obama has forged a strong personal relationship during his first year in office. A lot of hemming and hawing ensued."...." As I said, this is not an earth shattering revelation. But as one more indication that we have a dangerously naive, arrogant, and perhaps even megalomaniac for a president, it should worry us."

End of the road for Obama?

American Thinker "It's common knowledge that the American mainstream media have collectively had a thrill going up their leg from the time Obama announced his run for the presidency. Even now they find it difficult to report the truth as the Obama presidency falls apart. The UK press on the other hand seems to have a more realistic view of our troubles and this story in the UK's Telegraph highlights Obama's problems with devastating clarity."

Apology Tours and Terrorists' Rights: A Losing Combination

Powerline "• "Keeping America safe": Democrats now trail by 13 points (34 percent to 47 percent.) The gap was just 5 points in July 2008. • "Ensuring a strong military": Democrats trail by 31 points (27 percent to 58 percent.)"

Voters Say Don't Mess With Texas The Way They Did With California

MICHAEL BARONE "Texas is a different story. Texas has low taxes — and no state income taxes — and a much smaller government. Its legislature meets for only 90 days every two years, compared with California's year-round legislature. Its fiscal condition is sound. Public employee unions are weak or nonexistent."

Mike Ramirez cartoon

Investors.com

Jesse Jackson Leads Bingo Rights March in Alabama (Video)

FirstThings "Hey, times are tough. You gotta pick up odd jobs every now and then.The Bingo protesters sang “We Shall Overcome” as they marched to the state capitol." Has it come to this?

The Sickness of the West

Forbes "Trust is missing. We do not trust--and with good reason--either our elected leaders or the corporate elite who constitute the top echelons of society. Seldom in modern history has the lack of trust, now verging on contempt, been so deep, universal and comprehensive. At the very top we have a sad bunch of flawed mediocrities."

Rather: Obama Couldn’t Sell Watermelons

Sweetness&Light "Notice how quickly Mr. Matthews jumps in to stop Mr. Rather. Apparently, he no longer has forgotten that Mr. Obama is black."

The GOP lacks a standard-bearer for 2012—but the list of contenders will be growing in the fall.

Fred Barnes "Texas governor Rick Perry’s impressive primary victory over Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is a signal. After the midterm election this November, the field of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 (or later) is going to get bigger and possibly better. The list is long..."

The ‘I Am Not George Bush’ Policy

Victor Davis Hanson "The apparent subtext is that the Left in the past really had no problems with renditions, targeted assassinations, Guantanamo, tribunals, Predators, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — only that George Bush presided over them. Take the latter away, and so too vanishes criticism of the former.".... "Is it a brilliant effort by the U.S. military that removed Saddam, defeated an insurrection, helped to wipe out thousands of al-Qaeda terrorists, and birthed a viable consensual government? Or is it still “Bush’s war,” which somehow morphed into Obama’s “greatest achievement” by some mysterious and yet unspoken process?"Emphasis added.

We Have Race on the Brain

Victor Davis Hanson "I remembered also that the Rev. Wright tapes were disturbing not just because of his lunacy, but due to the standing ovations from his congregation who were ecstatic in praise of his racist and anti-American hatred. This week the Internet is alive with a tape of an elderly white Vietnam veteran duking it out with an African-American bully on an Oakland bus — with plenty of commentary and racial epithets from the observers on the bus."

Homeschooling vs. Howard Zinn

Pajamas Media "If my child were in a public school, what would they be learning from? One of the more popular texts is The People’s History of the United States by the late Howard Zinn, a radical Marxist. As noted on Big Hollywood, Zinn not only admitted his text is biased, he said he wanted it to be “part of the social struggle”...."While the untrained homeschool dad is teaching his children about American history from two authors who focus on facts, the trained teacher is busy educating students about how terrible America has been from its creation, because the author of their text “wanted to be a part of history.”"