U.S. AIR FORCE mulls Air Force One replacement options. Why? Is Obama planning to take it with him?

FERGUSON, UNVISITED:

Does anyone remember Detective Melvin Santiago? He was a Jersey City police officer who was shot to death just a month ago, on July 13th. Santiago was white. His killer, Lawrence Campbell, was black. Does anyone recall Obama appearing before national television and calling for justice for Officer Santiagos family? Does anyone recall Eric Holder rushing to Jersey City to see that justice was done?

How about Officer Jeffrey Westerfield. He was a Gary, Indiana police officer who was shot to death last month on July 6th. Westerfield was white. His killer, Carl LeEllis Blount, Jr. was black. Where was Obama? Where was Holder?

Or Officer Perry Renn? He was an Indianapolis, Indiana police officer who was shot to death just last month on July 5th, the day before Officer Westerfield was killed. Officer Renn was white. His killer, Major Davis, was black. I don't recall any mention by Obama about the untimely death of Officer Renn. And, I doubt that Eric Holder rushed to Indianapolis to make sure justice was done. Or, maybe I just missed it.

Vermillion Parish Deputy Sheriff Allen Bares was gunned down by two men just last June 23rd in Louisiana. Deputy Bares was white. His two killers, Quintlan Richard and Baylon Taylor, were black. Was Obama outraged? Did Eric Holder rush to Louisiana to make sure that the family of Deputy Bares found justice?

Right here in our own state, Detective Charles Dinwiddie of the Killeen (Texas) Police Department was murdered by Marvin Lewis Guy, a black male. Officer Dinwiddie was white. This happened on May 11th, just over two months ago. I don't even recall seeing anything about that on the news. Certainly, the white citizens in Killeen didn't take to the streets to loot and burn businesses. Again, I don't recall any mention by Obama or Holder.

Then, there is Officer Kevin Jordan of the Griffin, Georgia Police Department. He was gunned down just two months ago on May 31st. Officer Jordan was black. His killer, Michael Bowman, was white. This was a white man murdering a black police officer. Where was Jesse Jackson? Where was "The Reverend" Al Sharpton? Was there looting and burning on the streets of Griffin, Georgia? No. In fact, I don't recall hearing about this one in the news, as well. Why? You can draw your own conclusions.

Over the past 60 days, there have been five reported deaths of police officers by gunshot in the US. Of those, four were white officers who were murdered by black men. Blacks complain that white officers threat black men more aggressively on the street. You can draw your own conclusions on that one, as well.

This came from my email. I haven't tried to verify the incidents, but assuming all are true, it's a scathing indictment of government (and media) pandering.

SO WHO NEEDS A WELFARE STATE? It’s amazing what people can do together.

OBAMA: I don't have a strategy (or a clue).

IT'S COME TO THIS: Washington D.C. resident represents Louisana in Senate.

I'm sure Louisana isn't the only state....

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: Closing arguments are about to begin in the McDonnell corruption trial, and it occurred to me that (paraphrasing Robert Heinlein) while not all politicians are crooks, that's the way to bet.

OBAMA TRIES, but he cannot avoid evil.

Ever since Ronald Reagan the warmonger landed in Washington (or since George McGovern said "Come home, America") liberals longed for a foreign policy president who was up to their standards, was as "thoughtful" as they were, and understood all their dreams.

Someone who knew that talk of evil and good was always sophomoric, that the resort to force always was counterproductive, and that the crazy idea that this country was special — promoted by yahoos like Abraham Lincoln — was better described by their own Michael Kinsley as just another excuse to break rules.

Came the dawn and they got him, and we went in six years from a stable Iraq with al Qaeda contained to a Middle East both in flames and in pieces, with civil wars raging in three or more countries and an Islamist movement too bloody for even al Qaeda to stomach, and Russia, having swallowed the Crimea, hovering over Ukraine. Key to all this is a smaller American footprint, a refusal to use force or the threat thereof when it would have been useful, and a failure to rally the world against evil. In short, all the things the liberals called for. We hope they like the results.

Burying one's head in the sand leaves one wide open for an ass-kicking.

"THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS when you run out of other people’s money: thieves fall out among themselves on how to divide up the dwindling spoils."

FUNDING DEMOCRATS: the role of public employee unions.

Surprised?

THE SOLUTION TO LIBERALISM.

MASTEN SPACE SYSTEMS developing VTVL [vertical takeoff-vertical landing] vehicle for DARPA XS-1 program. But if it's VTVL, why does it have wings?

JEFF JACOBY: Your strategy was wrong, Mr. President. Obama may be forced by events to reverse course, but admit he was wrong? Never.

WHO NEEDS A REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY when you've got Obama?

A TALE OF TWO KINGS.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Paradigms Lost.

His [Obama's] foreign policy isn’t in need a tweak or a tuneup; in fact the question now is whether any parts of it can still be salvaged. He can’t drive it to the used car lot and sell it to someone else. The best he can do is tow it to the junkyard.

Perhaps he can sell it to some failed state as sort of a foreign policy 'cash for clunkers' program....

BILL & MELINDA GATES take a side in the gun control debate. You can guess which side -- they have bodyguards.

THE SKUNK: The Israelis should consider spraying it for, say, 1/4 mile inside the entire perimeter of Gaza....

NEW YORK TIMES: The growing blue-state diaspora. That's the problem, isn't it? They bring the very culture they're fleeing from with them.

IS ENVIRONMENTALISM an obsessive-compulsive disorder?

NO. NEXT QUESTION. Is there no end to the Obama administration's duplicity in the IRS scandal?