SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 6:02 P.M. ET:

LIBERAL SHRINKAGE – From NewsBusters:  "Less than a week after Air America Radio refugee Randi Rhodes signed off with her last broadcast, libtalker Ed Schultz announced that he too is ending his radio show.  Schultz began his decade-old radio program today by saying he will air his last three-hour weekday broadcast on Friday and start an hour-long weekday show accessible from the Internet on May 27, the day after Memorial Day."  And MSNBC is wobbly, at best.  If our side can turn our success in broadcasting into votes, we'd have little to worry about.  We'll see in November.

UNBELIEVABLE – From USA Today:  "ISLA VISTA, Calif. — A Hollywood director and his family say they warned police about disturbing videos weeks before a shooting rampage that they believe their son committed near a Santa Barbara university. Seven people died, including the attacker.  Alan Shifman, attorney for Peter Rodger, assistant director of The Hunger Games series, said the family was told their son is dead after killing six people late Friday night. The family had not yet seen his body.  Shifman said family members called authorities several weeks ago after being alarmed by YouTube videos 'regarding suicide and the killing of people.'  Police interviewed Elliot Rodger and found him to be a 'perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human,' Shifman said. Authorities did not find a history of guns, but did say the 22-year-old had trouble making friends, he added. Authorities had not yet confirmed the identity of the shooter."  If that was the police reaction, that police department needs substantial retraining in dealing with mentally disturbed people.  The police had the videos, the threats.  And they depended on their view of the kid's personality?  That is amateurism, and it has cost lives.

I CAN'T WAIT – From The New York Times:  "WASHINGTON — President Obama, seeking to answer criticism that he has forsaken America’s leadership role, plans to lay out a retooled foreign-policy agenda on Wednesday that could deepen the nation’s involvement in Syria but would still steer clear of major military conflicts.  In a commencement address at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Mr. Obama will seek, yet again, to articulate his view of the proper American response to a cascade of crises, from Syria’s civil war to Russia’s incursions in Ukraine, according to a senior administration official who is helping draft the speech.  Sketching familiar arguments but on a broader canvas, Mr. Obama will emphasize his determination to chart a middle course between isolationism and military intervention. The United States, he said, should be at the fulcrum of efforts to curb aggression by Russia and China, though not at the price of 'fighting in eight or nine proxy wars.'"  It's embarrassing.  No one has ever suggested fighting eight or nine proxy wars.  But this president has so weakened our foreign and defense policies that he's actually inviting the wars he wants to avoid. 

May 24, 2014