Goodness me. Today's headline stories make for some very bleak reading.But, of course, for those Americans who only receive their news from the mainstream media, they won't have to endure the trauma. No, those Americans will be reading such things as a puff piece on President Obama, complete with a cover shot of of his shirtless torso (“Our New Neighbor is Hot,” Washingtonian Magazine) and several attack stories on a Miss America contestant who dared...gasp!...to tell a television audience she believed marriage was a union between a man and a woman.
But for those curious Americans who are looking for broader, fairer new coverage and are therefore plugged in to the alternative media, they'll be looking at such stories as these:
* Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein caught in another big money scandal. ("Senator's Husband Cashes In On Crisis: Feinstein Sought $25 billion for Agency That Awarded Contract to Spouse," Chuck Neubauer's story for the Washington Times.)
* "Obama's Czars Spark Concerns Among Some Lawmakers," Brian Wilson's story for Fox News.
* "Obama Proposes $100 billion U.S. Loan for International Monetary Fund," Reuters News Service.
* "Inexcusable Lapse," an editorial from Investor's Business Daily that begins, "War On Terror: Imagine a president of the United States, within his first hundred days, revealing secrets that help terrorists kill. The secret memos on enhanced interrogation, now made public, do exactly that."
* "DHS Issued Report on Extremism Despite Concerns," Eileen Sullivan's story for the AP.
* And, finally, Ralph Peters hard-hitting column from the New York Post, "O's Foreign Follies," an excerpt of which I print below.
The world has rabies and our swooning media deliver headlines about the new Obama family dog. Yeah, the puppy's cute. But must journalists be lapdogs?
The week kicked off with gushing media declarations that President Obama had "passed his first test" in a foreign "crisis." Three pirates held an American hostage far too long. It was an embarrassment, not a crisis. Our president was reluctant to authorize deadly force. Against pirates, for God's sake. Then, 24 hours after the Obama White House declared "Mission Accomplished," Somali pirates attacked another US-flagged ship. This time, the pirates used rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns -- serious firepower.
Our response? The White House didn't send our Navy after the pirates. We're content that the attack was unsuccessful, with just some combat damage to our ship. Live and let live, folks.
Then, on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced her solution to piracy: Send your tax dollars to Somalia in foreign aid. That's rewarding criminality. It's tribute money. We're not asking for trouble. We're on our knees begging for it.
Since the new administration took office, our enemies have surged to challenge us, from northern Mexico through the Middle East to Asia. They sense weakness. And their instincts may be right...
Like I said...it's bleak reading today.