| Today on NRO THE EDITORS: The truth is as follows: The Russian state is responsible for shooting down a civilian airliner. Impose Sanctions on Russia. QUIN HILLYER: RNC committeeman Henry Barbour deserves serious rebuke for wooing black voters with nasty, dishonest racial appeals. Barbour's Mississippi Mud. IMPROMPTUS: Jay Nordlinger on Dinesh D'Souza and his latest flick. D'Souza Nation, Part I. RAND SIMBERG: Leave human spaceflight largely to the private sector, and create a quasi-military Space Guard. Time to Rethink NASA. SLIDESHOW: Apollo 11. | Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty July 21, 2014 The Russia Situation Just Went from Bad to Worse I like how our government is laying out the MH 17 evidence . . . the question is, what are we going to do about it? Citing an "enormous amount of evidence," Secretary of State John F. Kerry accused Russia of providing SA-11 antiaircraft missiles to the pro-Russian rebels and training them on how to fire the advanced weapons. He also said U.S. intelligence agencies "saw the launch" of a missile from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine and recorded its trajectory at the moment the passenger plane vanished from radar. Late last week, I asked on Twitter if anyone had seen a good reason to be skeptical of those audio intercepts released by the Ukrainian government. I heard a lot of "I'd never trust the Ukrainian government!" responses, but nothing specific -- i.e., odd word choice or accents, sounds or signs of audio editing, etc. Looks like our intelligence community thinks they're the real deal: Meanwhile, in Kiev, the U.S. Embassy said American intelligence analysts had confirmed the authenticity of recorded conversations in which rebel leaders bragged about shooting down what they thought was a Ukrainian military transport plane moments after the Malaysian jetliner was blown apart. The Ukrainian government had previously aired the audio excerpts, but the U.S. statement vouching for their reliability buttressed the charges against the rebels. Mm-hmm. The rebels had come under withering criticism from officials in Kiev, Washington, Kuala Lumpur, The Hague and European capitals who claimed they had failed to show respect for the dead -- most of whom were Dutch citizens, flying from Amsterdam to Malaysia -- and failed to preserve the integrity of the crime scene. The separatists have denied shooting down the plane, suggesting that the Ukrainian government was instead probably responsible. I would note that Russian-backed separatists whose day job is killing people are probably not all that worried about international condemnation. Still, it looks like some corners of Europe are ready to take a much tougher stance with Russia: Almost five days after a missile attack downed the Malaysia Airlines jet, the Dutch prime minister said "all political, economic and financial options" were on the table if access did not improve to the area in eastern Ukraine. Mark Rutte told parliament his government's priority was to recover and identify the bodies of the passengers, 193 of whom were Dutch. "It is clear that Russia must use her influence on the separatists to improve the situation on the ground," Rutte added. Forget Talk of Ceasefire; Israel's Aiming to Demilitarize the Gaza Strip Think the fighting between the IDF and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is nearing its end? Probably not: Security Cabinet members said Thursday that the IDF may need to re-conquer all or part of Gaza to ensure Hamas does not continue to attack Israel. Communications Minister Gilad Erdan said during a visit to Ashkelon Monday that the IDF must continue fighting until it ensures long-term calm. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday that the IDF will call up reservists and continue fighting until quiet is returned. Overnight Sunday, more forces entered Gaza to find terrorist tunnels in new areas of the Strip, Ya'alon told MKs, saying it is unfortunate that Hamas terrorists harmed IDF soldiers. "We are prepared to continue the operation as long as necessary, and, if necessary, to enlist more combat forces from the reserves until we bring quiet to the Gaza Strip," Ya'alon stated. Fighting intensified last night: Israel repelled two underground infiltrations by Hamas militants into its territory from the Gaza Strip on Monday following a night of Israeli attacks that left a heavy toll of casualties in the Palestinian territory. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll in the two-week-old Israeli offensive, aimed at destroying Hamas's cross-border tunnel network, rose by more than 80 during the night and now exceeds 500. Many were killed in heavy Israeli shelling and airstrikes in southern Gaza, the ministry said. Naturally, our Secretary of State John Kerry is headed to Cairo this morning, aiming to persuade both sides to agree to a ceasefire -- even though Hamas already rejected one and Israel certainly doesn't sound like they're willing to accept a ceasefire if it lets Hamas regroup and re-arm. Great. Now We've Got Presidential Attention Deficit Disorder. Here's one big question: Will we still be talking about Ukraine and Israel/Hamas at the end of the week? Or will some other part of the world -- or perhaps our own border -- blow up then, pushing Ukraine and everything else back to the inside pages? Remember those kidnapped schoolgirls? Remember how releasing the Taliban Five was an ominous indicator for Afghanistan? Remember ISIS taking over Iraq? Remember the Syrian civil war? Aren't there still oodles of Central American kids coming over our border? Does our media lose interest in these crises because the president isn't interested in them? Or does the president feel like he's doing fine because the media stops covering them? Take a look at the president's schedule for the coming week, as laid out in Mike Allen's other morning newsletter . . . On Monday morning, the President will sign an Executive Order to protect LGBT employees from workplace discrimination. In the afternoon the President will award Ryan M. Pitts, a former active duty Army Staff Sergeant, the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry. On Tuesday, the President will deliver remarks and sign H.R. 803, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, at an event at the White House; the Vice President will also attend. "Afterward, the President will travel to Seattle, WA to attend a DNC event. Later in the day, the President will travel to San Francisco, CA, where he will remain overnight. On Wednesday, the President will attend a DCCC event in the San Francisco area, and later in the day will travel to the Los Angeles area, where he will remain overnight. On Thursday, the President will visit a community college in Los Angeles to deliver remarks on the importance of job-driven skills training, particularly for fast-growing sectors such as health care. Later, he will attend a DNC event . . . That's three days of fundraisers! Two feel-good ceremonies on touchy-feely domestic issues! It's like Obama has decided he's governing in the late 1990s. If you mention an Obama fundraiser, inevitably some snotty lefty will respond, "Sure, because Obama's the first president to ever attend a campaign fundraiser." No, but he's the first one to ever do so many: In his first term, Obama attended more fundraising events than any other president in recent history. According to author Brendan J. Doherty, from 2008 to 2012 Obama went to 321 events, compared to just 80 for Ronald Reagan. And . . . he's done 72 events in his second term -- 34 this year alone. So far, he's ahead of the pace of George W. Bush, who had been to 30 events at this point in 2006. In his two presidential terms combined, Bush hosted 318 fundraisers. Obama has already smashed that number with 393 events to date. I wonder if the big theme in the second half of 2014 is going to be increasingly open questions about Obama's connection to reality, or whether he's locking himself in an ever-thicker psychological and scheduling cocoon, behaving as if he's enjoying a fabulously successful presidency and that the world is getting better, more tranquil, and more prosperous on his watch. 
Newt Gingrich: From his perch in the amazingly Obama-centric world in which our President lives, look again at what the rest of us think of as serious problems. Have any of the 1,000-plus Hamas rockets been aimed at Obama? No. That is why Obama is tranquil. Have any of the thousands who are crossing the border tried to move into the White House? No. That is why Obama is tranquil. Is ISIS an immediate threat to the United States that is likely to blow up the next golf course the President is playing at? No. That is why Obama is tranquil. If you can reduce your presidency to a Starbucks visit, a man with a horse-head mask, shooting pool and visiting Joe Biden's burger joint for lunch, you can have a successful presidency as you have defined it, even if the world is disintegrating. The Comstock Campaign, a Useful Test Case of GOP Minority Outreach An interesting test case for a GOP candidate's outreach to minorities comes in a Congressional race just outside the Beltway with GOP state delegate Barbara Comstock, a longtime friend of NRO. The Washington Post describes her campaign's efforts: The "Comstock Connection," her newsletter, is rife with blurbs describing her attendance at events such as the Punjabi Mela Festival, a celebration of Indian and Pakistani culture; and the 50th anniversary celebration of the Organization of Korean American Women. The newsletter also highlighted the first celebration of the Korean Bell Garden in Vienna, a new attraction she said she was "thrilled" to have in her district when she spoke to the gathering of Korean Americans in Tysons earlier this month. Sponsored by the RNC, the event -- held at Woo Lae Oak, a restaurant that is a pillar of Northern Virginia's Korean community -- is the kind of grass-roots affair the party is seeking to host around the country. "Good to see you," Comstock said repeatedly as she visited tables while an aide shot photos of her with Korean guests that were later posted on Twitter and Facebook. At one point, the candidate conferred with Harold Pyon, a Korean civic leader who could be heard teaching Comstock to say "How are you?" in Korean. Whether Comstock's efforts add up to votes is unknown. Can't hurt, right? Would you rather the party ran candidates who said, "I'm going to win votes in that community!" or one who said, "Eh, what's the use, they're all Democrats over there anyway"? ADDENDA: I haven't nagged you about buying the book in a couple days. Was it refreshing? The Weed Agency is . . . $9.97 on Amazon, $7.99 on Kindle, $9.97 at Barnes and Noble, $9.99 on Nook, and IndieBound can steer you to an independent bookseller near you. Jon Gabriel reports from the progressive blogger conference, Netroots Nation: "The crowd was most pleased with Russia Today's Lee Camp, whose video mocked America's regressive attitude on gays and oil drilling without noting he gets his paychecks from Vladimir Putin." Write about politics, and you'll get a couple comments and Facebook "likes." Write about Marvel Comics' decision to turn Thor into a woman, and you'll get 300+ comments and a couple hundred shares. I see how it works. Don't tell me you're not into comic books, readers!
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