So yesterday I Tweeted the question: Think Bill Clinton will get any NK strange while he's there? Well .. he may not have gotten any strange, but he did manage to get Kim Jong Il to issue a "special pardon" for OwlGore's jailed journalists. At first, we were told that Clinton went on a personal trip. We all knew that was horsesqueeze. It turns out that the Obama administration did in fact ask Clinton to go and negotiate with the Gargoyle.

The ransom was paid. What was the ransom? The legitimization of Kim John Ill through a visit by a former U.S. President. Next up? Iran?

While we are on the subject of loony dictators, let's talk about North Korea.  Last week, the UN drafted up harsher sanctions against North Korea in the wake of its latest missile launch.  As a result, North Korea says that it plans to "weaponize" all of its plutonium.  By the way, it has enough plutonium to make at least half a dozen atomic bombs.  Not only that, but the Foreign Ministry of North Korea threatened any country that stopped its ships on the high seas, which is part of the latest UN sanctions.

Tough spot.  I'm not pleased with the man we have in office who's job it is to deal with this mess ... but I am empathetic.  There are some tough decisions to be made in the coming weeks and months.  Those decisions will either strengthen or weaken our country.  The world wants a weaker America.  Let's hope Barack Obama soon remembers that he's the President of the United States first, and a citizen of the world second. 

The Gargoyle in North Korea is apparently preparing to launch new missiles. Here we go .... again. What new stern language will the UN come up with this time to castigate Kim Jong Il?

Aren't you glad you aren't Barack Obama right now? Remember the last time this dangerous fool launched a missile? The very next day Obama announced that we were going to curtail work on a missile defense system. Now that's showing strength, isn't it? This menace test a missile that could carry a nuclear warhead, and our defender, our President, stands up and says "Oh, by the way, we're not going to spend all that money on missiles launched by midget menaces from North Korea."

In light of Obama's stance, it's rather odd that Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that the United States can shoot down any missile that is fired our way. With what? That program Obama is eliminating? Gee, that is comforting. How about China ... does it have the "high probability" of being able to defend itself?

This Kim Jong Il character is a loon, folks. He's a loon with nukes. This is not the type of guy you want with his finger on the trigger. He is training his son to take his place. I assume that the nut doesn't fall far from the tree.

Clearly, our concerted effort to crack down on North Korea has done wonders ... the Gargoyle launched a second nuclear test, which is said to improve North Korea's ability to make a more compact nuclear bomb. Then it proceeded to launch several short-range missiles. The test is, again, in violation of a UN Security Council resolution. After the UN sent its stern letter to North Korea back in April, the Gargoyle demanded an apology from the Security Council. I wonder what he is going to want this time ... a dozen roses?

What is clear is that love letters from the United Nations isn't going to do a darn thing to stop the Gargoyle launching more missiles or conducting more nuclear tests.

After North Korea launched a test missile a few weeks ago, it took a while before any president or world body said anything about it. But finally, the United Nations did get around to sending a stern letter to North Korea. You know how those are taken seriously.

So now the country has decided to respond to the UN Security Council. The response is probably what you would expect: To hell with you, we are going to conduct a nuclear test and fire more ballistic missiles.

Great. That seemed to work out real well.

Not only that, but North Korea is demanding that the UN apologize for having "infringed the sovereignty of [North Korea] and withdraw all its unreasonable and discriminative 'resolutions' and decisions adopted against [North Korea]."

North Korea's response is, I believe, a direct result of the weakness the United States showed when they launched their missile. Not only did we not shoot the thing out of the sky ... orders came from somewhere to our military that the Navy was forbidden from using its most sophisticated radar technology in tracking the missile.

I can't shake that poll of Europeans last year where we learned that 58% of Europeans wanted a weaker America. Barack Obama is giving Europe exactly what it asked for. The North Korean gargoyle is taking advantage.

The United States tells them not to do it. The useless United Nations tells them not to do it. They do it. It has been five days since North Korea launched a missile capable of reaching Hawaii. What is America's response? What is the international response? The silence is deafening. What are we showing here? Weakness or strength?

The mad man that runs Iran is bragging that they now have 7000 centrifuges up and running making enriched nuclear weapons-grade fuel. He also brags that they have developed a technology that enhances the enrichment progress. At the same time the Iranian president continues to say that Israel's days are limited. In the meantime Vice President Joe Biden warns Israel that they had better not even think about attacking Iran. No strong warning to Iran. What are we projecting here, strength or weakness?

The Islamic pirates continue to hold an American hostage off the coast of Somalia. We're talking, not acting. So far I have not heard about any search for the pirate mother ship and there's no talk of blockading Somalian ports. The pirates may well end up with millions of dollars and safe passage to Somalia where they will release their American hostage. Strength or weakness?

The American the ragtag Islamic pirates are holding tried to escape. He dove out of the boat and into the water and tried to get away. Our Navy was standing off and not close enough to help him. The Islamic pirates overtook him and took him into custody again. This man tried to escape in full view of American forces. They were either unable or unwilling to help him. Perhaps the American Captain thought that when he was out of the pirate's boat the Navy would blow them away. Didn't happen. Strength or Weakness?

America - once strong, now cowering.

Change you can believe in?

Joe Biden had some harsh words for his predecessor Dick Cheney. Not only was Cheney wrong when he said that Barack Obama's policies were making America less safe ... but he was "dead wrong."

Okay, Joe. Tell me how. Tell me what policies Obama has put in place or a decision he has made that has made our country a safer place. Judging by Obama's response - or lack thereof - to North Korea's missile launch ... or the plan to cut military funding ... and his latest apology tour in Europe ... tell me how our country is more safe.

Biden said, "I don't think he is out of line, but he is dead wrong. ... The last administration left us in a weaker posture than we've been any time since World War II: less regarded in the world, stretched more thinly than we ever have been in the past, two wars under way, virtually no respect in entire parts of the world ... And so we've been about the business of repairing and strengthening those. I guarantee you we are safer today, our interests are more secure today than they were any time during the eight years" of the Bush administration.

Biden certainly hasn't lost his penchant for BS. We've gone over this. North Korea says they're going to launch a missile in violation of international sanctions. We tell North Korea not to do it, but if they do we aren't going to do anything about it. North Korea launches the missile .. and true to our word we do nothing. Oh ... we do ask the United Nations to act, but that's it. The very next day we announce huge cutbacks in military spending, including, amazingly enough, cutbacks in spending on a missile defense system. Then BS Biden says we're safer now than we ever were under Bush?

Only the illogical mind of a liberal could buy this.

Yesterday I asked the question, how do you think Obama handled this North Korean missile launch. And with the exception of one candyass moonbat who exhibited an intense hatred of the U.S. military, most of you agreed that he failed the test.

Newt Gingrich compared Obama's weak response to that of the Carter years. He says, "This is beginning to resemble the Carter administration's weakness in foreign policy."

So who does look Newt to? Ronald Reagan. He says, "Reagan ... would have been much more skeptical about a plan in an age of North Korean, Iranian and Pakistani nuclear developments. How do you apply his slogan of 'trust but verify' in dictatorships you can't trust and can't verify? ... Reagan felt that keeping a defensive shield alive was more important than a paper deal. The Obama administration is rapidly undermining our missile defense system while describing a fantasy world of trust and cooperation."

And yesterday, just after North Korea launched a missile, our Secretary of Defense stands up and announces cuts to our military weapons program.

Every action an administration takes sends a message. The unmistakable message here is that the United States is weakening. On the very day after North Korea test-fires a missile with intercontinental range, Obama announces a cutback in military spending. He is expanding spending in virtually every segment of government - except defense. The one true absolute function of the federal government is getting shorted while social welfare programs are being doubled in size. Yeah .. we really showed those North Koreans who the boss was, didn't we? Not just the Gargoyle ... but every other country out there that would like to take advantage of American weakness. We are, whether Obama cares to admit it or not, at war with radical Islam. Nations like Russia and China are vying to become the world's dominant military power. The No. 4 military power test fires a missile after we told them to stand down ... and Obama announces a $534 billion cut our defense budget.

There's your change you can believe in, folks. A weakened America in a very dangerous world.

Well ... the deranged Gargoyle kept his promise. North Korea has been warning for weeks of its intentions to test fire a missile. And they did just that. And no one in the international community -- most assuredly not Barack Obama -- did anything to stop him.

Aren't you glad you aren't walking around in Obama's slippers right now?

The missile has a range of 4,100 miles. North Korea claims that it launched a communications satellite used to transmit data and .. I love this .. patriotic songs. Horsesqueeze. Every other nation in the world knows that this missile was a flub and crashed into the Pacific .. but this maniac insists that Korea now has a satellite circling the earth playing the Oompa Loompa song. Did you really think that Kim Jong Ill was going to admit that this missile is really designed to carry a nuclear warhead? Yeah, I didn't think so.

So what we have here is a clear violation of a UN resolution. Ooooooh, I know. That carries a lot of weight nowadays. But this resolution, which was adopted back in 2006, says that North Korea should refrain from any further nuclear tests or launching another ballistic missile.

Step #2 here would be our response. Just the other day, I weighed the consequences of our response to a North Korean missile launch. Option number one was shooting the thing down, but then risk that being considered an act of war. Or option number two was to do nothing. This is the option that Barack Obama has chosen. And what will be the ultimate consequence of this action? I believe it makes the world a more dangerous place for America. The Gargoyle tested Obama, and Obama didn't meet the challenge. You can react and defend - you can appease - or you can just talk. It would seem to me that Obama's response is to appease and to talk. He wants the U.N. to do something. It is our security that is being threatened here, and Obama turns to the U.N. Some say that Bush outsourced jobs. Is Obama now outsourcing our national security?

Question: Both before and after the missile launch, can you point to one thing that Obama has done that could possibly cause anyone, let alone Kim, to believe that he will step forward unilaterally to defend this country when the threat gets severe enough?

Speaking of responses. Newt Gingrich had his say on what he would have done to handle this situation had he been in the White House. He would have disabled the darn thing before North Korea had the chance to launch it. Clearly, Newt is not living in a fantasy world, built on a fantasy foreign policy based on a world without nuclear weapons. (That would be Barack Obama's world.) Newt recognizes the issues at stake and the pieces of the puzzle that are moving into action: North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Russia.

Barack Obama's response? Call for a Global Summit on Nuclear Security. Obama actually thinks that we can achieve a world without nuclear weapons. Please tell me this man is not that naïve. This can never be. Instead of living with this completely unrealistic pipe dream, we need to create a world where rogue nations and Islamic terrorist groups know that to seek one of these weapons is to guarantee their own destruction.

Here's how Newt would have handled things: "There are three or four techniques that could have been used, from unconventional forces to standoff capabilities, to say: 'We're not going to tolerate a North Korean missile launch, period.' I mean, the world's either got to decide that North Korea is utterly dangerous ... I'd recommend, look at electromagnetic pulse, which changes every ... equation about how risky these weapons are."

Here's the bottom line. Somewhere on this globe some nation or some organization is going to be more powerful than all of the others. Who is going to carry the big stick? Right now the choices seem to be between the United States, Russia, China or the United Nations. Go ahead ... chose one. One of these four entities will be the world's most powerful ... who do you want it to be? Today both Russia and China are making excuses for North Korea's actions. Neither seems willing to do much about it. We know the United Nations isn't going to act. We have to wait for Israel to attack Hamas for the U.N. to get into gear. That leaves - at least among the world's truly powerful nations - the United States. What are we doing? We're asking the U.N. to do something, we're talking about talking, and we're promoting some fantasy about a world free of nuclear weapons.

Do you think this being president thing is easy? Consider just one bothersome little problem President Obama is having to deal with this week while he's (not too deftly) trying to solve our economic woes.

North Korea is said to be preparing a missile launch. This missile is capable of reaching Hawaii. The missile is on the launch pad, and the Gargoyle says he is going to launch the thing before April 8th. North Korea says that the missile is designed to carry a communications satellite. Well, what would you expect? Are they actually going to announce that it is designed to carry a nuclear warhead?

The North Korean launch would be in violation of international law - not that I'm all that high on international law. If we shoot it down it would be a clear signal to Kim Jong Ill that the United States is not a weakened power and that we are going to do what is necessary to neutralize the North Korean threat. On the other hand, if we or one of our allies shots that thing down North Koreas has said that they will consider that to be an act of war. North Korea could retaliate in some way .. perhaps against Seoul.

Then, of course, there is the decision not to do anything. Just let the North Koreans test-fire their missile and, in the process, realize some advances in their missile and weapons delivery technology. Some nations not exactly friendly to us might look at this as a demonstration of America's increasing weakness and our willingness to appease. This would make the entire world a more dangerous place for America.

Easy to criticize, isn't it? Shoot the missile down and make your point, and risk an escalation of the situation with North Korea. Let them play with their new toy and America appears weak. Aren't you glad you don't need to make this call?

The Obama administration, by the way, says that they won't do anything to interfere with the launch.