SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE:

WELL, IT WAS PROBABLY A MEMORY LAPSE (CHOKE) –  During the 2008 campaign Obama emotionally related how his mother, in her last year, spent time fighting insurance companies trying to deny her the coverage she'd paid for.  Now a new book, "A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother," by a former New York Times writer, destroys that myth.  Obama's mother got the coverage required by her health plan.  What she didn't get was disability coverage, for which she was apparently ineligible.  Wonder if the press will give as much attention to this as it does to every misplaced comma by Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann.

CONGRESS STRIKES OUT IN NEW POLL – A new Gallup poll has the approval rating of Congress at 18 percent, confirming that the glow around the GOP victory last November hasn't lasted very long.  Even approval of the mainstream media is higher.  This tends to reinforce other polls showing that, although Obama's numbers are weak, the GOP isn't really very popular.  It cannot depend on Obama's lessening popularity for victory in 2012, but I'm afraid I see that attitude in too many Republican circles. 

SYRIAN IMPASSE – A government-sponsored mob assaulted the U.S. embassy in Damascus earlier today (Monday).  Secretary of State Clinton declared later that Syria's President Assad has now lost all legitimacy.  But Assad is looking at similar statements the U.S. has made about Gadaffi of Libya...and Gadaffi is still there.  Assad is also looking at a general American military withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq.  There is no indication that U.S. jawboning is having any real effect on the Assad regime.  If Obama was Bush, probably a different story.

P.C. IN THE WORST PLACE FOR IT – There's growing outrage, even in parts of liberal New York, over plans for the 9-11 memorial at Ground Zero in Manhattan.  According to reports, including a TV report by the father of a fire captain killed in the 9-11 attacks, the memorial has been stripped of any meaningful remembrance of the awful day.  Parts of the former World Trade Center, such as the famous sphere that stood outside, will not be displayed, despite many requests that it be there.  And, get this, police and fire officers will not be distinguished in any way from their civilian counterparts in a plaque bearing victims' names.  Only names will be listed, no ranks or affiliations.  The heroism of the police and fire departments, many of whose members rushed into the burning buildings, will therefore not be recognized.  Apparently, the explanation for all this is that the memorial is to be a place of peace.  Yeah, right.   

July 11, 2011