The Peanut Gallery

Statements, comments and forecasts that have no substance, but just might turn out to be relevant.

1. Intelligence sources are now confirming that the Obama administration knew from day one that that the deadly attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was an act of terror. White House officials, including President Obama, have held to the explanation that the attack was a 'spontaneous action.' PG: What does that say about this incumbent president? Clearly his priorities are Obama first, Obama second and Obama third.

2.A chill is wafting over France’s business class as Mr. Hollande, the country’s first Socialist president since François Mitterrand in the 1980s, presses a manifesto of patriotism to “pay extra tax to get the country back on its feet again.” The 75 percent tax proposal, which Parliament plans to take up in September, is ostensibly aimed at bolstering French finances as Europe’s long-running debt crisis intensifies. PG: Another Greece, Spain and Italy. The French will be leaving in droves...or maybe just their money.

3.Al Qaeda is alive and well...even strengthening. The attack on the US embassy in Benghazi is symbolic of this administration's disintegrating foreign policy. Benghazi was the centre of opposition to Ghadaffi and NATO's HQ in the overthrow of Ghadaffi. In spite of Obama's attempt to portray this as a demonstration gone wrong, intelligence sources now say this was a well planned attack. PG: The irony of all this is that Nato created a no-fly zone on the basis of Human rights etc. and Libya has turned into a hotbed of armed gangs, salafist thugs and tribal wars.

4.Daniel Pipes: Fleming Rose, a newspaper editor, created the greatest crisis for Denmark since World War II by publishing twelve Muhammad cartoons. Florida pastor Terry Jones caused panic for American commanders in Afghanistan by threatening to burn a Koran. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and friends prompted a crisis in U.S. relations with Egypt with an amateurish video, Innocence of Muslims. By publishing vulgar pictures of Muhammad, French weekly Charlie Hebdo is causing the French government temporarily to shut down diplomatic missions in twenty countries. Plans by the German satirical magazine Titanic to publish attacks on Muhammad have likewise caused German missions to be closed. PG: US withdrawal from Iraq, withdrawal plans from Afghanistan and western weakness over Iran are creating a vacuum in the area that will bring Islamic Jihad to the shores of Europe, Canada and the US.

5.Tax returns for 2011 set to be released today by Mitt and Ann Romney reveal that they gave away a higher percentage of their income to others than did Barack and Michelle Obama, when both taxes and charity are taken into account. The evidence suggests that Romney not only had nothing to hide, but had been more than generous with his money. 

6. Fouad Ajami: The anti-American protests that broke upon 20 nations this past week must be reckoned a grand personal failure for Barack Obama, and a case of hubris undone.No American president before this one had proclaimed such intimacy with a world that stretches from Morocco to Indonesia. From the start of his administration, Mr. Obama put forth his own biography as a bridge to those aggrieved nations. He would be a "different president," he promised, and the years he lived among Muslims would acquit him—and thus America itself. He was the un-Bush. PG: Fouad Ajami was a CNN analyst and guest during the outbreak of the arab spring. He no longer is called upon. It is an unwelcome scenario to tell the truth on CNN.

7. WSJ: "Unacceptable" is a word the Administration often uses about behavior it doesn't like but isn't prepared to do much to stop: Think massacres in Syria, warfare in Sudan, mob violence against our embassies—or a nuclear Iran. Now add to the list the nonfeasance of an Iraqi government that calculates it has more to lose from confronting the mullahs than it does from rejecting entreaties from erstwhile friends in Washington. PG: Showing B Obama the finger is now a world wide fashion.

8.China is slowly but surely slipping into a recession. This year the Shanghai stock market has given a lower return than the the Greek stock Exchange.  The global village is in danger of sliding into the precipice. This has to be closely watched.

9.A Carson City, Nev., recluse whose body was found in his home at least a month after he died left only $200 in his bank account. But as Walter Samaszko Jr.'s house was being cleared for sale, officials made a surprise discovery: gold bars and coins valued at $7 million. "Nobody had any clue he was hoarding the gold," Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover told the Las Vegas Sun, adding it was found stored in boxes in the house and garage.


There are some people that if they dont know, you cant tell 'em - Louis Armstrong