Sweet-Tammys.com - Pittsburgh's Finest Bakery!

As the nation's mood continues to be gloomy one way to brighten your day, sweeten your attitude, and uplift your perspective is to order some "sweet goods" from Sweet-Tammys.Com


My favorite remains the macaroons with both plain and chocolate bottoms. They can be placed in your freezer so ordering more than a dozen spreads shipping cost.

If your boss is a grouch, one bite should make him smile and, who knows, it might secure your job as our economy continues to waiver.

Everything is fresh baked and from scratch.

There are those who believe Obama's approach towards N Korea is just the right mixture of allowing N Korea to frighten/irritate China and raise their ire to the point that they will slap Kim down.

Those who embrace this view are of the opinion that Kim is more interested in the matter of succession and N Korea's missile launches are being undertaken to pay homage to their military. Perhaps but I consider that a very long shot. I am more persuaded by the one expressed below. (See 1 below.)

For those who consistently read this memo you will recall this is what I predicted months and months ago. Even 'so-called enemies' can be driven together by a commonality of overriding interests. (See 2 below.)

Wes Pruden wrestles with 'ol stupid' and concludes 'ol stupid' is really not stupid enough to let Obama off the hook. DUH! (See 3 and 3a below.)

Few if any take Sarah Palin at her word. To do so means letting a story, even a made up one, die. The press and media helped destroy her now they want to resurrect her so they can continue to keep punching their Palin Pinata.

I love old Sarah for her brashness, her feisty way and goofiness. However, Sarah is no match even for Obama, as dangerous as I believe him to be. If she tries to go for the big brass ring either she will fail or cause the Republicans to fail. Romney is a far better bet for the nation, assuming Republicans care about winning.

Other articles: 'Once Again, An Enigma Plays It by Her Rules' - Dan Balz, Washington Post, 'Put Yourself In Palin's Shoes' - Mark Steyn, National Review, 'Sarah Palin's Bizarre Bombshell' - James Antle, The Guardian, 'Palin Makes Herself the True Frontrunner' - John Batchelor, Daily Beast and 'The 2012 Campaign Begins' - Jonathan Alter, Newsweek (See 4 and
4a below.)

Finally, the editorial desk at The Washington Post is either getting brave or have lost their collective minds - they are criticizing a powerful Democrat and attacking Democrat hypocrisy! Has something new and strange seeped into the Potomac's water. (See 5 below.)

Hope you had a safe and enjoyable 4th and the upcoming week will be a good one.

Dick


1)Submissiveness to North Korea is also the international model for Iran's first nuclear test


Although the US Navy is purportedly on the ready to intercept any North Korean missiles directed at the Sea of Japan, according to a leak from Washington, the Obama administration let Pongyang's test-launch of 7 missiles on July 4 go by with a mere verbal reproach: The launches were "not helpful," said a State Department spokesman. "North Korea should refrain from actions that aggravate tensions and focus on de-nuclearization talks and the implementation of its commitments from the September 19, 2005 joint statement," he said.

Beijing and Moscow agreed.

But North Korea has refused to go back to those talks and consistently shrugs off the sanctions the UN Security Council imposed unanimously after its long-range ballistic test in April and nuclear test in May.

The seven-missile barrage, deliberately launched Saturday, the Fourth of July, is reported by the Japanese news agency to consist of 6 Scud-type 500-km range missiles, capable of reaching most of South Korea.

The seventh appears to be a Nodong A, with a range of 1,000 km, which brings Japan within striking distance. Yet no official in Washington came forward to explain why the US Navy failed to intercept it.


Military sources report the US, Europe - and even the Binyamin Netanyahu government - appear to have adopted the same strategy for North Korea and Iran. It is a combination of harsh oral rebukes coupled with a refusal to address North Korea's violations and Iran's race for a nuclear bomb in any practical way, even though sanctions are clearly of no effect at all.

A blind eye is equally turned to the close collaboration between Pyongyang and Tehran on their missile and nuclear development programs. The two rogue states are also clearly in tune on their nuclear diplomacy.

According to DEBKAfile's intelligence sources, North Korea shared the results of its missile launches on Saturday with Iran, exactly as it did after its nuclear and ballistic tests. But neither Washington nor Jerusalem has raised a hand. Both nuclear transgressors are getting away with the gross, ongoing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and making a mockery of international law and UN resolutions.

This big-power weakness was conspicuous Friday, July 3, when the Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, shortly after his election to succeed Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei as director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, commented: "I don't see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this." He was answering a question about documents attesting to Iran's development of nuclear weapons.

The US and Israel went to a lot of trouble to get Amano elected, hoping he would deal more strictly with Iran than the easy-going ElBaradai. But neither corrected his first statement.

The Japanese diplomat must have decided to keep his head down too after looking around and seeing the Obama administration still bidding for dialogue with an unresponsive Tehran and Pyongyang, and everyone else looking the other way from their brazen defiance of international norms.

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, instead of putting Amano right on the job he was expected to do, let his dismissive remark go unanswered, just as he let the actions of Iran's nuclear collaborator, North Korea, go by without comment, notwithstanding its dangerous implications for Israel's national security


2) 'Saudis give Israel green light to attack Iran'


Saudi Arabia has indicated to Israel that it would not protest use of its airspace by Israeli fighter jets in the event the government resolves to launch a military assault against Iran, according to a report which appeared in the British Sunday Times.

According to The Sunday Times, Mossad chief Meir Dagan held secret meetings with Saudi officials who gave their tacit approval to Israel's use of the kingdom's airspace.

"The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia," The Sunday Times quoted a diplomatic source as saying last week.


The report also quoted John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as saying that it would be "entirely logical" for Israeli warplanes to fly over Saudi Arabia en route to bombing nuclear targets in Iran.

Though any Israeli attack would be roundly condemned by Mideast leaders at the UN, Bolton said Arab leaders have privately expressed trepidation at the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.

"None of them would say anything about it publicly but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn't trumpet it as a big success," Bolton told The Sunday Times

3) Ol' Stupid begins to notice things
By Wesley Pruden

Too bad for Barack Obama and the Democrats, but George W. Bush is the shrinking man of American politics, growing ever smaller on the far horizon. Merely invoking his name will soon no longer frighten women and horses.


The not-so-new president has treated his predecessor as his training wheels, invoking his presence every time (which is often) the ground trembles, a dog barks, the wind blows, the rain falls and he threatens to topple over. We were promised nirvana, or at least a lollipop, if only we could banish George W. and the inept and evil Republicans. Banish we did, and the messiah from the South Side of Chicago has been practicing miracle-working for five months. Alas, there's no sign of clearing skies.


Five months is not very long, of course, and it's unreasonable to expect nirvana so soon, but that's the nature of the impatient American public. Reason, like love, has nothing to do with it. With every nightfall, the news gets worse, or at least not any better, and growing numbers of Americans are beginning to doubt that he has all the answers he so confidently insisted he did. The public-opinion polls clearly show deteriorating public confidence in the confidence man. Worse than not having the answers is the growing suspicion that Mr. Obama and his wise men even understand the question.


The unemployment numbers, the closely watched benchmark by which presidents are judged, stood at 7.2 percent when Mr. Obama took his oath, and Thursday, it inched up to 9.5 percent. The average workweek subsided in June to 33 hours, lowest since the feds began keeping such records in 1964. Cutting hours and freezing pay has spread even to companies awash in profits, with managers, never wanting to waste a crisis and looking to an uncertain future, are taking advantage now, just in case.


"We are in some very hard and severe economic times," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told an interviewer in the wake of the new bad news. "The president and I are both not happy. I do think the public needs to be patient. We know they are hurting."


The president is saying the things every president says when recession hits and panic and depression threaten. Some of the president's friends insist they see "tiny green shoots" on the landscape, promising prosperity soon. The president himself concedes the economy is in a hole and blames the man who preceded him. His predecessor's policies "have left us in a very deep hole," he says, "and digging our way out of it will take time, patience and some tough choices." The secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, likes the shovel-ready metaphor, too. "You know," she told a television interviewer the other day, "we are in just so many deep holes that everybody had better grab a shovel and start digging out."


What "somebody" should do is hide those shovels from "everybody." If you're in a hole, as any ditch digger could tell you, the only thing you can do with a shovel is dig yourself a little deeper into the hole. Not a good idea. A speechifyer such as Barack Obama is expected to be more careful with his metaphors (Hillary gets a pass), and the president's growing problem is that growing numbers of voters who imagined he was "the one" now think he's in that hole and over his head.


The Democrats diverted attention from shortcomings big and small for a decade of depression by hauling poor old Herbert Hoover out for frequent floggings, and Mr. Obama obviously thinks he can similarly use George W. Bush. But that was then and this is now; no president now can monopolize the microphone as FDR did, with his mastery of press and radio and equipped with a terrified and compliant Congress. Barack Obama once imagined he could make it so by saying it's so, but that only works for a little while. He's learning what presidents before him learned, that the job of president is harder than it looks.


As the effects of the stimulus, such as they are, begin a slow fade, the unemployment number, already the highest in 26 years, is projected to keep rising. Shrinking payrolls naturally restrain growth. A jobless recovery driven by federal spending may improve certain numbers, but "it's the economy, Stupid." Stupid, standing in the rain out there on the street will say, "Where are the jobs?" Stupid is not actually as stupid as presidents sometimes hope he is. He's not so stupid that he can't see who that is in the White House.

3a) Welcome to the "hope" economy
By David Harsanyi


After being asked when the public should begin judging the success of the nearly $800-billion stimulus plan, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answered, "I think we should begin to judge it now."

Let's take his advice.

The administration warned that if we failed to support a stimulus package, unemployment would hit a dire 9 percent by 2010. With the stimulus, unemployment, it claimed, would stay in the 8-percent range.

This week, the Labor Department announced that the jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, higher than any time since August 1983.

It's not as if the administration was close. As the New York Times notes, "the difference between the situation that the Obama advisers predicted and the one that has come to pass is about 2.5 million jobs. It's as if every worker in the city of Los Angeles received an unexpected layoff notice."

Don't get too dejected, though. We still have an economic plan with a heaping dose of hope.

Surely, you'll feel better when the president begins doling out his two-pronged, faith-based explanation — and if we're lucky, he'll do it at a "town hall" meetings with approximately 100 of his closest friends.

First, you should always assume things could have been worse.

This leap of faith involves buying the "save-and-created-jobs" myth the president likes to peddle. And if you're lucky enough to be working on some state-run boondoggle awash in freshly printed money, smile. As for the rest of America, we once again learn that government spending rarely spurs wider economic prosperity.

But let's, for argument's sake, make believe that the stimulus plan has saved or created 150,000 jobs.

By the end of June, $53 billion in stimulus funding has been spent on weatherizing projects, land bridges for rodents and checks for 10,000 formerly living Americans (this administration doesn't only create jobs, it creates life). That puts the cost of each job supposedly saved at about $354,000, or, exactly the sort of efficiency you'd expect from D.C.

The "things-could-have-been worse" argument is nothing new and neither is the second line of defense: Blame capitalism.

So, let's also pretend, for the moment, that an era of widespread deregulation spurred a global recession. What exactly has Obama done to mitigate it?

Instead of exerting his extraordinary political capital to bolster American business, the president was busy targeting the investor class; instead of easing the burden on the middle class, Obama radically increased spending and debt; instead of encouraging market innovation, Washington has bolstered the status quo by bailing out antiquated, poorly run industries and crowding out small businesses.

Obama now urges Americans to be patient on the stimulus package. Yet, at the same time, the president exhibits a decisive lack of patience as he sprints forward with generational tax increases, in both cap-and-trade policy and a trillion dollar-plus health-care "reform."

Not surprisingly, many polls illustrate an increasing skepticism regarding the stimulus package and a growing distrust of Washington's unparalleled meddling in the economy. According to a June Rasmussen poll, a plurality of Americans now want government stimulus spending to be canceled.

This rising unease did not stop White House counselor David Axelrod from recently declaring that a second stimulus might be needed.

Needed to do what, one wonders? "Save and create" another 150,000 imaginary jobs?

One day we will emerge from recession, we always do. And on that day Obama will almost certainly take credit.

But one wonders, when will the glorious "new era of responsibility" actually kick in.

After all, as of right now, judging solely from the administration's very own promises and timeline, we are left with nothing to show for an irresponsible spending binge.

4) Palin decision to resign mystifies some, thrills others: NATIONAL REACTION: Democrats cite "bizarre behavior"; backers rally.
By ERIKA BOLSTAD
If Sarah Palin is stepping down as governor because she has national political ambitions -- and she did not say she intends to run for president -- her move did nothing to shake what GOP pollster Whit Ayers called "the 'lightweight' monkey on her back."


"If you're a serious politician and you're seriously interested in higher office, the best thing you can do is as good a job as possible in the current office," Ayers said. "I suppose it frees her from the responsibility of a full-time job. It does nothing to enhance the image she has that she's not material for the president of the United States."

Nearly rubbing their hands in glee, Democrats said that it "continues a pattern of bizarre behavior."

"Either Sarah Palin is leaving the people of Alaska high and dry to pursue her long-shot national political ambitions, or she simply can't handle the job now that her popularity has dimmed and oil revenues are down," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan.

For elected officials with lengthy records of service, such as former Sen. Bob Dole, devoting their full attention to their presidential bid can be a smart move, said Stuart Roy, a political consultant who has worked for Republican congressional leaders. That argument just doesn't work for Palin, Roy said, adding that he admired Sen. John McCain's decision to pick her as his running mate last year.

"Maybe there is a personal reason of some sort," Roy said. "But barring that, if it's a political move geared at 2012, it's one of the most politically tone-deaf moves in years. Two and a half years as governor doesn't mean you shouldn't be president; look at Barack Obama. But it doesn't set you up for anything, either."

Palin's staunchest supporters in the anti-abortion movement, however, said they were pleased and appreciate continuing to have a high-profile role model who opposes abortion. They firmly believe that whatever she does next will have an "equal and profound impact," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, who co-founded the Team Sarah social networking Web site popular with Palin supporters who oppose abortion.

"Sarah Palin has always been an intensely independent woman -- always true to her faith, her family and call to public service," Dannenfelser said.

And maybe Palin doesn't want to run for president, said Fred Malek, a prominent Republican fundraiser who got to know Palin during the presidential campaign and has been advising her since then.


It was obvious she was dissatisfied with her role as governor, Malek said, although he was not aware she planned to step down and did not suggest she do so.

"I did have the impression she was not happy in the role in she was in," Malek said. "We see her through a political prism, but I think we sometimes forget she's a wife and mother of five kids and has responsibilities that are very dear to her."

No matter what path Palin chooses, Malek said, she has plenty of options, including serving as a powerful fundraiser for other governors and like-minded Republican candidates she believes in. A run at the presidency may not be in her future, he said.

"I take her at her word," he said. "I don't think she's made any plans in that regard."

But Malek noted Palin's star power and the way she can electrify some Republican crowds nationally.

He recently escorted Palin and her husband to the Senate-House dinner, an annual Republican fundraiser in Washington, D.C., for congressional candidates. Despite the controversy over her appearance at the event -- she had been asked to speak at the dinner but was replaced with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich after a mix-up over whether she would attend -- Palin was the star attraction, Malek said.

"Our table was mobbed," he said. "I felt like a celebrity."

William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, told Fox News that Palin's resignation now, three years before the next presidential election, "is real unconventional."

"It's a huge gamble -- but some of her gambles have paid off in the past," he said.

4a) Palin resignation splits GOP
By: Jonathan Martin

Sarah Palin’s jaw-dropping announcement that she is quitting her job as Alaska governor before finishing even her first term has divided Republican ranks and the wider political community in a very familiar fashion.

Many establishment GOP operatives and political commentators of various stripes were withering, both about the decision and the way she announced it — in a jittery, hyperkinetic news conference that rambled between self-congratulation and bitter accusations at the foes she says are eager to destroy her.

The performance, by these lights, adds credence to the claims of some associates that Palin — burned by the intense scrutiny on her and the crossfire that swirls around her — is so fed up that she's ready to get out of elective politics. Even if it's only the small stage of Alaska politics she hopes to escape, skeptics say Friday’s events also diminished and perhaps even demolished what was left of her viability as a 2012 presidential candidate.

But her defenders believed an unorthodox move, even if risky, has a clear logic and may only further increase her standing with conservatives who don’t care what establishment figures in or out of the GOP think. Leaving the governor’s office at the end of this month leaves her free to travel the country, command large speaking fees, and begin the process of rallying her devotees without pesky home-state opponents criticizing every move.

These varied reactions were an echo of the debates that have followed Palin every step since her nomination as John McCain’s running mate 10 months ago — a surprise that turned out to be just the first of many surprises served up by one of the most colorful and polarizing American political figures in a generation.

At the heart of these conflicting interpretations, say people close to Palin, is a woman who is herself deeply conflicted about her brief past in national politics and how to leverage her sudden fame for the future.

Some of her trusted outside advisers were not informed of her plans to suddenly resign from office until today – they thought she was only to announce she would not run for reelection.

Fred Malek, a longtime Republican fundraiser and Palin ally, played host to the governor and her husband, Todd, less than a month again in Washington and said it was “so clear to me that she was terribly unhappy with the position she was in and the role she was playing.”

He didn’t learn of Palin’s decision until he got a phone call from the governor this morning, when she cited the pressures of a job that had become consumed with FOIA requests and ethics investigations and the demands it taken on her family and national political prospects.

Another prominent GOP source who is close to Palin, who also had no inkling of Palin’s decision to quit until today, said: “Things had piled up pretty steep on her.”

Meg Stapleton, Palin’s Alaska-based spokeswoman, called it “a fighting move.”

But even Stapleton acknowledged that the job Palin said she loved during the press conference had become a drag.

“It’s a liberating feeling. ... She can’t get out of there soon enough,” said Stapleton.

But liberation comes at a potentially steep price. These include brutal reviews from many Republicans, who believe that quitting mid-term in the fashion she did amounts to political suicide.

“There is just no good way to say quitting has made her more qualified to run for higher office,” said veteran GOP pollster Glen Bolger.

Until Friday, after all, Stapleton and others close to Palin had been saying for months that the governor would take an Alaska-first approach and eschew national affairs. The hope was to compile more of a record and develop more policy authority.

“I think Sarah Palin is on the verge of becoming the Miami Vice of American politics: Something a lot of people once thought was cool and then 20 years later look back, shake their heads and just kind of laugh,” quipped Republican media consultant Todd Harris.


Even those who were less critical of her choice were taken aback by Palin’s rambling, hard-to-follow news conference by the side of a lake outside her home. The performance had shades of Richard Nixon’s “You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore” news promise in 1962, as well as Mark Sanford’s bizarre exercise in self-revelation just last month.

Palin mixed analogies to herself as a basketball player who knows “when it’s time to pass the ball” with bitter commentary against “political operatives [who] descended on Alaska — digging for dirt” as part of a “superficial, wasteful political bloodsport.”

“Palin is at her best when she’s being folksy but there is no way to be folksy when you’re resigning as governor,” said veteran GOP strategist Dan Schnur.

She portrayed her resignation as a selfless choice done for the good of Alaskans. She said they will now be free of the expensive and distracting — and she said bogus — ethics inquiries generated by her new prominence. “Some Alaskans, maybe they don’t mind wasting public dollars and state time, but I do,” she said.

But some believe Palin, for all the loose and improvisational feel of her news conference, was making a calculated guess that she is now bigger than Alaska’s small and remote political stage can handle.

With a recent book deal and ability for paid speaking engagements giving her great financial freedom, reasoned GOP communications strategist Carl Forti, “If she wants to run for national office it makes sense to get out of Alaska and around the lower 48. Resigning makes that possible.”

Malek and some of her other outside advisers expressed skepticism that she would run for president in 2012, but others saw in the move today the beginnings of a national campaign.

“She’s now made sure that she is entirely a movement candidate,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bob Shrum. “She brings no real experience to the table at all, but now this frees her up to carve out her own Goldwater-like movement.”

And then there is a practical matter, Shrum noted: Palin and her husband, with five children of their own and a new grandson, will likely never have to worry about money again.

“She could make more in two weeks on just speaking fees than in the rest of her time as governor,” said Shrum.

The move may also be pragmatic if Palin really does want to lay the groundwork for a presidential run.

“I don't think you can do a competent job of being a governor of a state next door to Russia and run seriously for president of the United States,” said Charlie Cook. “It's hard enough to do one of those two, let alone both. While Bill Clinton ran while being governor of Arkansas and George W. Bush as governor of Texas, Little Rock and Austin are not that far by Cessna Citation or Gulfstream from New Hampshire or Florida or California.”

And, Cook noted, there is little political upside to being a governor during difficult economic times, when the options usually range from tax or fee increases to budget cuts.

“Bailing out early may avoid making some of those tough decisions,” said Cook.

William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard and an outspoken Palin defender, acknowledged Palin’s move was “an enormous gamble” but said it could prove smart.

“Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others, meet people, get more educated on the issues — and without being criticized for neglecting her duties in Alaska,” said Kristol.

Stapleton cited issues Palin was passionate about – energy, national security and free enterprise – but indicated that the governor was being vague about what she planned to do next for a reason.

“Those blanks need to be filled in,” said Stapleton when asked specifically what Palin planned after turning her office over to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.

5)Hypocrisy on the Hill: Congress's cowardly move to tie the president's hands on detainee

FOR YEARS, Democrats clamored for the closing of the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using the prison to pummel President George W. Bush for abusing his authority, violating domestic and international law, and tarnishing the reputation of the United States. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) felt so strongly about the issue that she sponsored legislation in 2007 to force Mr. Bush to shutter the facility.

Now lawmakers are making it nearly impossible for President Obama to close the notorious prison by year's end, as he promised to do.

Ms. Feinstein, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and 88 other senators -- including every Republican -- voted to attach to a must-pass, supplemental war spending bill several provisions that tie the president's hands. Ms. Feinstein complained that the president lacked a detailed plan to deal with detainees. Facing fear-mongering opponents who essentially accused Mr. Obama of having his heart set on letting hard-core terrorists roam through American backyards, the Senate withered and collapsed, with Maryland Democrats Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin L. Cardin and Virginia Democrats James Webb and Mark Warner joining the pack. Only six senators -- all Democrats -- had the courage to vote against this wrong-headed amendment: Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), Tom Harkin (Iowa), Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), Carl M. Levin (Mich.), and Rhode Island's Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse.

As a result of the vote, the president is prohibited from using taxpayer funds to order the release of any detainee into the United States, including those cleared by the Bush administration and the federal courts; he is likewise forbidden to bring any Guantanamo prisoners to the United States for preventive detention. The president must give lawmakers a 45-day heads up before ordering any detainee prosecuted in a U.S. court proceeding and he must give Congress 15 days' notice of his decision to send a detainee to another country.

It is therefore easy to understand why Mr. Obama may be tempted to circumvent lawmakers: The Post reported that he is considering an executive order to establish a preventive detention regime for those who may be too dangerous to release but against whom there is not enough usable evidence to file formal charges in a traditional courtroom. But he should resist the temptation of acting alone. Mr. Bush often did end runs around lawmakers for fear of being constrained; eventually the courts circumscribed his powers more than they likely would have if he had worked with Congress. Mr. Obama's best course lies in opening discussions with Congress on fashioning a preventive detention regime that will ensure due process and humane treatment of detainees. Let's hope that there will be leaders on the Hill available for thoughtful discussion.