Obama Makes A Mistake

++The United States has danced around the Armenian genocide for years, fearing alienating Turkey. Every year there is a new excuse.

++This year the Washington correspondent for Haaretz said he had it from a good source who had it from another good source that President Obama would use the G word in commemorating the death of 1.5 million Armenians 100 years ago.

++Yesterday President Obama commemorated the occasion and whiffed. He did not use the G word. A terrible disappointment.

++ Mean while Rand Paul caught people's attention when he referred to John McCain and Lindsey Graham as being "Obama's Lapdogs" backing his every move. He said they support Hillary Clinton's War in Libya ( something else to hang on Hillary) and Obama's bombing of Syria. 

++Ed Kilgore was intrigued whether Paul is gong to advocate a more anti-interventionist policy abroad. I doubt it. He just wanted to get his licks in on McCain and Graham. Graham said that Paul would be worse than Obama on foreign policy.

++Jeb Bush made some intriguing statements. He said he wouldn't do anything different on the Iraq invasion of his brother and he said the "best thing Obama has done" is to expand NSA data-gathering ability.

++Senator Corker doubts the Authorization to use Military Force can get very far with this administration. McCain fears that it unduly restricts the Commander-in-Chief. But somehow the Iran bill doesn't.

++Former Mossad Director Efraim Haley told Bibi to bug out of interfering with the Iran nuke talks. He criticized Bibi for abandoning diplomacy for a "pure military approach." He called the situation "regrettable". He said that consequences of de-railing the talks would be untold. 

++He called on Israel to heal whatever needs to be healed in its relationship with the United States.

++The wars over TPP have intensified. President Obama criticized Elizabeth Warren over misconstruing the content of the trade agreement. 

++This is an argument that will run through the primaries.

++Gina McCarthy of EPA said the new rules for the ozone will be done by October. The question is at what level the scientists put the mark.

++Rick Scott is suing President obama in order to get the Medicaid extension money without actually extending Medicaid. It seems he has a huge budget shortfall and his tax cuts for the wealthy are in jeopardy. And lo and behold,the missing hole in the budget can be filled with the Medicaid money. Presto Change-o.

++At the Daily Beast,Mike Tomasky takes a peek at Clinton Cash and says Hillary isn't a crook. He takes the case of a contribution from a Colombian businessman to the Clinton Foundation and finds out that the author has his timeline all wrong. Hillary hadn't even started running for President in the 2008 election yet and she ran across the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia. Then fast forward she's defeated and hadn't become Secretary of State yet. President Obama wants to use the Colombia Free Trade agreement as a test case for strings labor and environmental requirements. Then Hillary supports it. That's beyond a stretch that she was influenced by the donation some years before.

++Expect alot of these things with this book. Remember his great revelation that Al Gore, while he campaigned against climate change,he received royalties from a zinc mine on his property. Actually years before he did but the mine had closed. 

++Mother Jones has a piece entitled "Raiders of the Lost Archives" by Tim Murphy about the GOP opposition team descending on Little Rock Arkansas to find of what remains from the series of bogus scandals from the past. Murphy writes about meeting some of Clinton's old adversaries and finds out they are either bored with the subject or enthusiastically endorse Hillary.

++Josh Marshall seems to be challenging Steve Benen for this year's champion at finding out how GOP candidates lie. Remember Steven earlier on in 2012 discovered that Mitt Romney lied about everything and he detailed this to great credit to his work. Josh has zeroed in on Ted Cruz as a "Stone Cold Liar" pointing out that Ted Cruz never contacted John McCain about holding hearings on guns at military bases. McCain later had fun with this. Remember John thinks Cruz and Paul are a bunch of "whacko birds". Go for it, Josh.