I didn’t cover the first few because North Korea launching a couple of missiles isn’t really major news anymore. But we’re already on our fifth — yes, fifth — missile launch of the night. Clearly these are developments out of the ordinary.

Each and every one of the middle-range missile tests violate United Nations resolutions and international law. So we can basically expect the response from the international community to be UN resolutions and condemnations. In other words, the cycle of stupidity continues unabated.

Update: BNO News confirms a sixth missile launch from the DPRK. Gee, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Kim Jong-Il simply doesn’t take the international community and the United States that seriously anymore. It’s almost as if he knows he can do what he wants and they’ll do nothing other than send an angry letter in respose.

According to Fox News, CNN, BNO News, and other outets.

Why is she limiting herself to one term? Many, including myself, believe it has something to do with her presidential aspirations. She’s likely taking the next three years off to raise money, read-up on policy stances, and build a national apparatus. Judging by her performance over the 2008 campaign, she has quite a bit to read-up on.

Another potential factor in her decision is that her re-election was no longer a guarantee. She still has a respectable amount of support in the state, but her approval rating has fallen quite a bit since the days when her favorables were famous.

Recent polls put Governor Palin’s in-state approval rating in the low or mid-50s, respectable but a far cry from one-time ratings near 90 percent. Some tie the drop to what they say is her newfound proclivity for “red meat” conservative issues over pragmatic Alaskan interests. Others cringe at the family melodramas that have become tabloid fodder. Either way, the loss of support for “Sarah-dise” – the nickname used for Palin’s smooth-running early tenure – includes some notable figures.

Anyway, the decision can turn out to be a big gamble. It can either help to build her support and provide time to become a more viable candidate, or it can lead her to drop out of the public spotlight and become that also-ran from the last election. Only time will tell.

One thing is sure: The timing of this announcement is odd. The Friday before the Fourth of July? Most Americans outside the political class won’t be paying attention. As I said over at Hot Air, Barack Obama could climb the Empire State Building with a Stratocaster and it would largely be buried this weekend

Via Hot Air.

MAJOR UPDATE: She’s not just going to be a one-term governor. She’s going to be a part-term governor. According to MSNBC, BNO, and other outlets, Palin has confirmed that she’s resigning within weeks.

Update X2: Alaskan television station KTUU is also reporting that she announced her resignation during the press conference. Supposedly she’ll be out by the end of July.

I’m hearing from a few friends in the immigration community that Congressional Democrats are looking at a push for amnesty. While you should probably take that for a grain of salt, it would seem to match-up with rhetoric from the administration and earlier reports that high-ranking Democrats sought an immigration bill by the end of this year.

Typically the argument has been that the 12 to 20 million illegal aliens in this nation are doing the jobs Americans won’t do. Well, that argument doesn’t fly as well during a period approaching double-digit unemployment, when millions of Americans are looking for jobs to pay their bills. Americans simply aren’t going to buy that Joe Smith, unemployed and trying to pay his mortgage, wouldn’t work in a factory.

President Obama, when addressing the issue earlier this year, mentioned the taxes the the millions of illegal aliens fail to generate by being categorized as illegal. That seems to be the argument that proponents of amnesty will look towards this time: That, considering we’re in a recession and spending has gotten out of control, we need their tax dollars to help cover the nation’s tab. How to acquire those tax dollars? Why, legalize them all immediately, you see. It’s a matter of the nation’s economy and helping to fix the massive national debt Americans are concerned about, in other words.

In which the boy king once again exposes his complete naivete when it comes to foreign policy. There was a time when Russia and China were the biggest roadblocks to pushing Iran into submission; now it appears to be the administration in Washington.

The United States is opposed to enacting a new set of financial sanctions against Iran that are due to be discussed in the G8 summit next week, diplomatic officials in New York reported Friday.

According to officials, sanctions against Iran are expected to top the G8’s agenda. Sources are also predicting a pointed debate between the heads of the industrialized nations over an appropriate response to Iranian authorities’ suppression of reformist demonstrations in Iran led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and other Iranian opposition leaders.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hinted in a newspaper interview earlier in the week that the G8 is due to decide on new financial sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Berlusconi disclosed that he had spoken with the heads of the G8 nations and has discussed such steps with them.

According to the Italian prime minister, “the general leaning [among G8 leaders] is toward sanctions.”

However, diplomatic sources in New York reported that American officials are working behind the scenes to prevent new sanctions from being imposed against Iran.

Why would President Obama oppose sanctions against an illegitimate government that sponsors terrorism and seeks the nuclear bomb? The administration is telling other members of G-8 that the sanctions could “backfire”, driving Iran away from the negotiating table it has repeatedly stressed it will never join.

In other words, Obama and his allies are still living their fantasy world where a repetitive and unambiguous “no” means “yes”. They’re still testing out their college campus theories that the Mullahs and civilian leadership in Iran have already rejected time and time again. The Islamic Republic has stressed that it won’t negotiate on its nuclear program, yet here’s the Obama Administration thinking that the way to get the country to the table is by rewarding it.

Christ. It’s like we’ve elected a 20-something philosophy student who lives in an alternative universe. France, Germany, Italy, and other major nations that have held discussions with Iran even agree that now is the time for tougher sanctions. But the Boy King at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue doesn’t live in the world of reality; he’s still residing in a textbook of theories.

Democrats in Washington have discussed the removal of President Ronald Reagan’s name from Reagan National Airport, the Washington Examiner reports. Apparently they wish to return the airport to its previous name, National Airport.

At Wednesday’s Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Board meeting, chairman H.R. Crawford – a former District Council member and Marion Barry confidante – told fellow Board members that he has heard talk on Capitol Hill about yanking former President Ronald Reagan’s name off the local airport and returning it to its previous generic moniker: National Airport.

“It was just a discussion. We’re not aware of anything specific,” MWAA spokeswoman Tara Hamilton later told The Examiner.

It’s clear that the current crop of congressional leaders want no part of Reagan’s grand conservative vision for America, but erasing all trace of his memory from an airport that’s already been named in his honor is about as petty as you can get.

Why would anybody on Capitol Hill even consider such a patently partisan move, which is guaranteed to make Democrats look small and ridiculous? Do they so fear the inevitable comparisons between the Great Communicator and his teleprompted successor in the White House?

Sure they would. Nothing from the Democratic Party would surprise me anymore, including a push to rename the airport after Barack Obama. Many in the party would love nothing more than to wipe away the successful two terms of the small government, strong-defense president.

H/t Hot Air Headlines.

If President Obama’s response to the Honduran coup is any indication of his future foreign policy goals, we should all be very concerned. According to Bloomberg, Washington has suspended some of its aide to Honduras following the recent removal of leftist thug Manuel Zelaya from power.

Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said he’s plotting his return to the Central American nation and called for “strong” action from the U.S. to help restore him to power.

“Their words are strong,” Zelaya said today during an interview in the lobby of the Sheraton hotel in Panama. “We’re going to see now if their actions are strong.”…

The U.S. has suspended some aid to Honduras while it evaluates whether the removal of Zelaya meets the definition of a military coup under American law.

“We’ve taken some actions to hit the pause button on assistance programs which we would be legally required to terminate” if it is found to have been a military coup, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters today in Washington…

Supreme Court Justice Rosalinda Cruz said in an interview yesterday that the military acted under judicial orders when it deposed Zelaya, rejecting the view of President Barack Obama and other leaders that he was toppled in a coup.

Just to be clear, Zelaya was violating his nation’s constitution at the time of his removal. As the report notes, the military only acted on court order after Zelaya moved forward with an illegal referendum and ignored his nation’s system of checks-and-balances. He was attempting to utilize the military to become president for life, ala his friend Hugo Chavez, at the time.

And yet here we are supporting his return and suspending aide to punish the Honduran officials who dared to protect their nation’s constitution and rule of law. We’re actually punishing Honduras for following its constitution and legally removing Zelaya for breaking the law. Unbelievable.

Remember the days when Congressional Democrats were promising that putting them in power would bring about a new era of honest, open, and ethical government? Yeah, you can pretty much forget about all of that.

Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.

The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That’s a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.

The cost of so-called congressional delegations, known among lawmakers as “codels,” has risen nearly 70% since 2005, when an influence-peddling scandal led to a ban on travel funded by lobbyists, according to the data.

Look, trips to nations such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and other hotspots can be justified. But that’s not where our Congressional leaders went:

Although complete travel records aren’t yet available for 2009, it appears that such costs continue to rise. The Journal analysis shows that the government has picked up the tab for travel to destinations such as Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Lawmakers frequently bring along spouses on congressional trips. If they take commercial flights, they have to buy tickets for spouses. If they fly on government planes — as they usually do — their spouses can fly free…

In mid-June, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii) led a group of a half-dozen senators and their spouses on a four-day trip to France for the biennial Paris Air Show. An itinerary for the event shows that lawmakers flew on the Air Force’s version of the Boeing 737, which costs $5,700 an hour to operate. They stayed at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand Hotel, which advertises rooms from $460 a night.

The lawmakers were invited to a dinner party at the U.S. Embassy and had cocktails at a private party at the Eiffel Tower. Mr. Inouye attended a dinner sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association, a U.S. trade group. Another senator on the trip, Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, took a cruise on the River Seine with defense-industry executives and elected officials from Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

So while Americans are losing their jobs, trying to pay their bills, and worry about the massive spending from Washington, our Congressional leaders are taking taxpayer-funded vacations to exotic locales. Craptastic.

Thanks to Ed Morrissey.

Thank God for that Obama stimulus package, huh? We were warned that unemployment could hit 9% if we didn’t pass it immediately and without reading the contents. Now the national unemployment is only, er, 9.5% and growing. *launch confetti cannons*

WASHINGTON – Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate climbed to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent. Workers also saw weekly wages fall, suggesting Americans will have little appetite to spend and the economy’s road to recovery will be bumpy.

The Labor Department report, released Thursday, showed that even as the recession flashes signs of easing, companies likely will want to keep a lid on costs and be wary of hiring until they feel certain the economy is on solid ground.

You’ll be comforted to know that President Obama is “deeply concerned” that he won’t get re-elected that the unemployment percentage isn’t going down anytime soon, with many economists predicting a double-digit figure by the end of summer. We’ll add this to the other events Obama is “deeply concerned” about, including but not limited to the Iranian election violence, the ongoing missile tests in North Korea, and the coup in Honduras.

June’s payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected and average weekly earnings dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.

However, the rise in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent in May wasn’t as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent. Still, many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.

All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.

The good news is that the chance of amnesty passing this year dwindles as the unemployment figure rises. It’s kind of hard to sell Americans on the idea that million of illegal aliens are doing the jobs Americans won’t when, you know, millions of Americans are looking for jobs.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.

“We were on the road of things getting less bad in the jobs market, and that has been temporarily waylaid,” said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. “But this doesn’t change my view that the recession will end later this year. We’re probably two months away.”

The Dow Jones is down 177 points as I post this.

The Washington Post has cancelled a service it planned on providing to offer lobbyists face time with Obama Administration officials for a fee. Here’s what the legendary paper would’ve done for the price:

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health-care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”

The offer—which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters—is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

Just how brazen was this flier in offering the paper’s pimping services?

“Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate,” says the one-page flier. “Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth … Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders …

“Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it.["]

Wow. Spirited and relaxed bought time with high-ranking government officials. Lovely.

Following public and even media pressure, the paper has decided not to go ahead with the program. Apparently the response wasn’t as pleasant as the publisher had hoped, as Weymouth is distancing herself from the flier and idea altogether.

Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.

“Absolutely, I’m disappointed,” Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, said in an interview. “This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren’t vetted. They didn’t represent at all what we were attempting to do. We’re not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom.”

Moments earlier, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said in a separate interview that he was “appalled” by the plan and had insisted before the cancellation that the newsroom would not participate.

“It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase,” Brauchli said. The proposal “promises we would suspend our usual skeptical questioning because it appears to offer, in exchange for sponsorships, the good name of The Washington Post.”

“suggests”? No, it basically comes out and shouts that WaPo journalists were available for purchase.

Via Hot Air.

The Obama Administration continues its reckless policy of supporting a deposed leftist leader with dictatorial visions this evening, suspending military relations with Honduras after the government there removed Manuel Zelaya from power by court order.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration said Wednesday it has suspended joint military operations with Honduras to protest a coup that forced President Manuel Zelaya into exile. The U.S. withheld stronger action in hopes of negotiating a peaceful return of the country’s elected leader.

Let’s review the type of man that the Obama Administration seeks to return to power in Honduras, shall we?

Manuel Zelaya is a crony of Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez, has a radical far-left agenda, and has been accused of permitting the flow of tons of cocaine into his nation illegally. He attempted to hold a referendum removing the term limit for his presidency in the first step towards a Chavez-like scenario which permits a presidency for life. The Supreme Court ruled it illegal, but he pushed forward with it anyway, ordering the military to hand out the ballots. When the armed forces refused to be complicit in the crime, he replaced their chief.

Zelaya was moving forward with an illegal referendum to keep himself in power, ignored his nation’s laws, and wiped his posterior with the Honduran constitution. The Supreme Court ordered him removed from power, the military peacefully carried out the order, and he was replaced with the next civilian constitutionally in line for the presidency.

And yet here President Obama is demanding the return of Zelaya to power, apparently so that he can continue trampling on the constitution, ignoring the system of laws, and holding an illegal referendum. All while the president claims to be standing up for democratic values. Fantastic.