Current Events - regular post this evening

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/2012/09/24/botched-response-lies-found-in-port-authority-response-to-jfk-terror-scare/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NationalTerrorAlertResourceCenter+%28National+Terror+Alert+Response+Center%29

In a monumental screw-up, Port Authority security at Kennedy Airport last week allowed a plane suspected of carrying terrorists and explosives to taxi right to the gate — while diverting a second aircraft that had nothing to do with the scare to an isolated area, a Post investigation has revealed. Making matters worse, those allegedly responsible lied to agency officials and tried to cover up their incompetence by blaming the blunder on the Federal Aviation Administration, a source said.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/israel-walks-out-while-us-stays-listen-irans-ahmadinejad_653025.html

While Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at the United Nations, "Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor walked out of the General Assembly hall," according to the Associated Press. The American delegation, however, remained in the hall to listen to Ahmadinejad. "The U.S. delegation did not walk out of Monday's meeting, as it has in the past when Iran attacked Israel directly," reports the AP.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/greghengler/2012/09/25/un_president_introduces_his_excellency_barack_obama

Somehow the United Nations General Assembly President, Vuk Jeremic manages to say "his excellency" three times in forty seconds There's got to be some appreciation felt by our president when he is finally asked to sit on his excellent throne and speak to his worldly subjects.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-adviser-if-he-met-one-leader-he-would-have-meet-10_653033.html

The reason why President Obama is not meeting with any foreign leaders during this week's United Nations General Assembly in New York is, as one aide to the president explained, because "If he met with one leader, he would have to meet with 10."Former deputy national security advisor Elliott Abrams says this is unprecedented: “I cannot recall an occasion when a president went to speak at the General Assembly and simply refused to meet anyone. Perhaps this is the product of Mr. Obama’s fight with Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, for having refused a meeting with him Mr. Obama must now pretend (for obvious political reasons) that it isn’t personal and he simply has no time for these unimportant personal meetings. So dozens of foreign leaders–presidents, prime ministers, sheiks, kings–are in New York, have serious things to say to us, want to hear about our policies, and will not be able to see the president. This is a serious failure by Mr. Obama and limits the effectiveness of American diplomacy. One can only hope that if he is re-elected, Mr. Obama will somehow recognize the costs this failure have imposed. Or perhaps in her exit interview secretary Clinton can explain it to him. Someone should.”

Meanwhile, President Obama sat down with the ladies of The View yesterday for a chat.

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/09/24/rubin-the-president-can-do-that-pesky-foreign-policy-stuff-after-the-campaign/

RUBIN: “I think you’ve probably hit the nail on the head that the overall approach in these months before the election is do no harm, is get through this period of time and then, you know, there’s time in a second term to do the business of the United States. But again as a foreign policy professional, I’d prefer the campaign didn’t interfere. Obviously it has.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/hillary-clinton-pushes-global-tax-elites_653011.html

In remarks this morning to the Clinton Global Initiative, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed a radical idea: a global tax on elites around the world. "One of the issues that I have been preaching about around the world is collecting taxes in an equitable manner, especially from the elites in every country," Clinton said to laughter from the audience. "You know I’m out of American politics, but – (applause) – it is a fact that around the world, the elites of every country are making money."
Clinton continued her rift on the rich. "There are rich people everywhere. And yet they do not contribute to the growth of their own countries." The secretary of state suggested that the rich around the world do not give back to their communities. "They don’t invest in public schools, in public hospitals, in other kinds of development internally," said Clinton.
She continued, saying that it is up to foreign leaders to make the change. "And so it means for leaders telling powerful people things they don’t want to hear," Clinton said. "It means being transparent about budgets and revenues and bringing corruption to light. And when that happens, we shouldn’t punish countries for uncovering corruption. We should reward them for doing so. And it means putting in place regulations designed to attract and protect investment."
Clinton's boss, Barack Obama, has made raising taxes on the rich--at least, raising taxes on wealthy Americans--a centerpiece of his reelection campaign.

From the Heritage Foundation:

Time for a True Opportunity Agenda

Occupy Wall Street's pathetic first birthday last week confirmed that the longstanding reports of the movement's death have not, in fact, been exaggerated. So why are we keeping it alive by talking incessantly about income inequality instead of focusing on what really matters -- opportunity and upward mobility?

All this huffing and puffing about widening income gaps -- coupled with strident calls for wealth redistribution -- detracts from the urgent need to shore up our threatened American Dream and develop an opportunity agenda. The nation's attention should be squarely focused on expanding everyone's prospects -- especially those at the bottom who most need a hand up and a way out.

What matters is not how much more those at the top earn in relation to those at the bottom -- they are, after all, not in competition with one another -- but rather the real needs of those at the bottom and the opportunities for advancement available to all Americans. And while government "spreading the wealth around" would surely equalize outcomes -- the Left's Dream -- it would neither address the real causes of poverty nor expand the real opportunities and earned successes that define the American Dream.

A new Heritage report defends the American Dream from liberalism's misguided attempts to redefine it along statist and egalitarian lines and explains why income inequality is not an obstacle to advancement in the United States. What really matters -- and continues by and large to thrive -- is upward mobility.

Rather than focus on those at the top of the ladder we should be concerned about the hurdles that threaten those struggling to achieve the American Dream. "Defending the Dream" draws attention to six factors that most threaten upward mobility:

1. Statism: The modern administrative state entangles businesses in a suffocating web of regulations and laws. All of this red tape takes a toll on the economy, which in turn leads to fewer jobs being created. And fewer jobs means fewer opportunities for those most in need of jobs.
2. The Collapse of the Family: The decline of marriage, especially among the poor, has devastating, long-lasting consequences on children and their prospects for success. When it comes to the American Dream, the family is not a tangential social or religious issue; it is a crucial economic one that is deeply intertwined with mobility.
3. The Dependency Fostered by the Welfare State: Far from eradicating poverty, the welfare state traps people in poverty by discouraging work and undermining the family.
4. The Erosion of our Culture of Work: By legitimizing indolence and devaluing hard work, our culture decreases the likelihood that the poor, who are most in need of sound cultural indicators, will take advantage of the opportunities America continues to offer.
5. The Failures of Public Education: Our failing public schools deny countless children the rudimentary skills they need to move ahead in the life.
6. The Looming Fiscal Crisis: Unless we change course, continued massive government spending and the surging public debt will destroy the foundations of our economy and put the American Dream beyond the reach of our children and grandchildren.

The rise in income inequality in recent decades has in no way contributed to these problems. They grow out of ill-conceived government policies, point to the complete failure of government to address some of our social problems and, in the case of the collapse of the family, are deep-seated cultural problems encouraged and made worse by governmental policies.

The United States must remain what it has always been: the Land of Opportunity. Misguided efforts to use government to transform it instead into the Land of Income Equality will inevitably leave us all worse off. Our first priority must therefore be to refocus the national conversation and our nation's policies on the promise of upward mobility that is at the heart of the American Dream.