QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 9:37 A.M. ET:  From Ralph Peters, writing in the New York Post:

on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced her solution to piracy: Send your tax dollars to Somalia in foreign aid.

That's rewarding criminality. It's tribute money. We're not asking for trouble. We're on our knees begging for it.

Since the new administration took office, our enemies have surged to challenge us, from northern Mexico through the Middle East to Asia. They sense weakness. And their instincts may be right.

Oh, we're huffing and puffing on North Korea -- which really isn't an immediate problem for the United States. (If China wants a nutty neighbor with nukes, hey, let's give General Tso's chickens a chance to come home to roost.) But we won't do anything hard.

COMMENT:  Peters is correct.  We have to start measuring Obama's policies against their effect on the United States and our own safety.  We're not against negotiations here.  Reagan negotiated.  We're against negotiations in which we lose.  And we fear that there are people around Obama who have no problem with losing.

April 18, 2009