A Naval Academy professor and former admissions official has blown the whistle on the Navy’s diversity admissions program. He contends there is one set of academic standards for white applicants and another one for minorities. He says,“First of all, we’re dumbing down the Naval Academy. . . Second of all, we’re dumbing down the officer corps.” And he’s got some data on his side: “The share of plebes who scored less than 600 on the SAT math test was 22 percent this year, up from 12 percent in the Class of 2008. The number of freshmen coming from the academy’s one-year preparatory program, designed for remedial studies, was 244 this year, the highest figure in at least 10 years.”

Some careful non-denial denials by the Navy raise further suspicions. When the Navy’s defenders say they still think the admissions process would pass “constitutional muster,” that is diversity-speak for “We do it, but not so blatantly that we couldn’t defend ourselves in court.”

Truth be told, the constitutional standard is very “weak.” Public schools can employ race preferences so long as they hide it in a fog of flowery language. They “look at the whole student.” Race and ethnicity are only “one of many factors.” So I have no doubt the Navy employs lawyers smart enough to keep the Academy out of legal peril. But the professor’s observations also ring true and suggest that even in the Navel Academy “merit” isn’t what it used to be — and isn’t the same for all the midshipmen.

On the eve of the holiday weekend, the Treasury Department issues a news release on a significant action by the U.S. government regarding Iranian terror directed at U.S. and Iraqi interests:

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today targeted Iran-based individual Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iraq-based Shia extremist group Kata’ib Hizballah for threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and the Government of Iraq. Al-Muhandis and Kata’ib Hizballah have committed, directed, supported, or posed a significant risk of committing acts of violence against Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces and as a result are designated today under Executive Order (E.O.) 13438, which targets insurgent and militia groups and their supporters.
“These designations play a critical role in our efforts to protect Coalition troops, Iraqi security forces, and civilians from those who use violence against innocents to intimidate and to undermine a free and prosperous Iraq,” said Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis is an advisor to Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Qods Force, the arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for providing material support to Lebanon-based Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.  Further, the IRGC-Qods Force provides lethal support to Kata’ib Hizballah and other Iraqi Shia militia groups who target and kill Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces.  The IRGC-Qods Force was named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the Treasury Department on October 25, 2007.
The U.S. Department of State also today designated Kata’ib Hizballah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and under section 1(b) of E.O. 13224 for committing or posing a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism.  Designations under E.O. 13438 and E.O. 13224 are administered by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and prohibit all transactions between the designees and any U.S. person and freeze any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

Sources following these news indicated to me this is a significant development that required those supporting the designation to overcome considerable resistance from certain officials in the Obama administration. Was the compromise then to bury the news, releasing it when no one would notice we are targeting Iranians who seek to do harm to Americans and Iraqis? The U.S. troops and the Iraqis maimed and killed by Iranian terror groups deserve a bit more publicity than this, I would think. If we go to the trouble to move the bureaucracy, overcome concerns about revealing previously classified information, and show we do not take kindly to the Iranian war against Americans — and that is most certainly what it is — it would be nice if the whole thing were not shoved under the media radar screen.

When Sarah Palin announced her resignation, one of the factors she cited was the relentless scrutiny that fell on her and her family. It can be argued that, as an elected official, she has to live with it—but does that have to extend to her family?

Consider this. Over the past year, she’s had to tolerate incredibly harsh treatment not only of herself, but of three of her five children.

Her oldest daughter had her pregnancy and her relationship with the father plastered all over TV, newspapers, and the internet, even to the point of him and his mother appearing on tabloid TV shows. This newly single mother has become a punchline of a thousand jokes.

Her second daughter recently also became the butt of national jokes when she committed the unforgivable sin of accompanying her mother on a trip to New York City, including a trip to a baseball game.

And her infant son, who has Down Syndrome, is already the subject of the most appalling rumors and innuendo—Andrew Sullivan’s fixation with digging up the baby’s birth certificate and every detail of Palin’s obstetric history has become almost a joke. A disgusting joke.

In the back of her mind, Palin must be looking at that, and wondering when the attacks will fall on her oldest son, currently serving in Iraq.

The treatment of the Palin family is reminiscent of another “innocent bystander” whose life also fell under a microscope for the offense of being in the wrong place in the wrong time.

“Joe the Plumber” was outside his own home, playing with his son, when then-candidate Barack Obama made an unscheduled campaign stop. Joe asked an awkward question of the candidate, which was caught on camera.

That, too, was an unforgivable act. Within days, every detail of Joe’s life was plastered across the media. Soon, we all knew that “Joe” was not a licensed plumber, that he had a history of tax liens (almost enough to qualify for a position in the Obama cabinet), and—most astonishing—his name wasn’t even “Joe,” but “Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.”

Oddly enough, another person managed to dodge the bullet, for the most part, was Debby Smith.

Smith attended President Obama’s recent “town hall forum” on health care, where she was singled out as “exhibit A” for his reforms. It turns out there is a lot more behind this unemployed cancer sufferer without insurance, as Michelle Malkin and Dan Riehl discovered.

Did any of the mainstream media note that, instead of looking for a paying job that includes benefits, Smith has been an unemployed volunteer for a health care reform advocacy group? Of course not. Did the media discuss some of the other participants in the forum—the representative from the Service Employees International Union, which boasts of having spent $61 milllion electing president Obama, or the lobbyist from the group advocating for national health care coverage? Of course not.

But we do know that Bristol Palin’s former fiance claims to have spent several nights in the governor’s home with her daughter, and that Joe The Plumber had a tax lien on his house.

Nice to know our media have their  priorities straight.

Sarah Palin is not running for reelection and is resigning to boot. Those who think her flakiness quotient has always been too high are having a spasm of I-told-you-so’s. But I can’t help but think after watching that rambling, odd presser on a Friday afternoon before the 4th of July that (as some are reporting) she just wants to pack it in for good. (Did Mark Sanford inspire others to cast off the shackles of public responsibility?) None of this—the speech, the timing—strikes me as part of a well-designed long-term strategy.

Dana Perino, I think, gets it right: “While we all speculate about this, it could be that she’d just had enough and wants her life back. Who could blame her?” Whatever you think of Palin and however unfairly she has been treated, no one can make a political career out of being a media victim. And if you want to lead a party or the country you have to get your own act together first. Maybe at some level she realized this.

Some are debating whether her critics “won” by chasing her off the stage. Well, she chased herself off the stage and chose not to even fulfill her responsibilities to the state that elected her and put her on the stage. (Really, you mean she couldn’t have finished her term and refused national appearances for the balance of her term to lessen the media scrutiny? Hmmm.) She made a series of choices and appearances since Election Day that simply played into the psycho-drama.

But as for her critics, some of them have no excuse and should claim no justification from her exit. On this score, Jonah Goldberg certainly nails it in discussing McCain campaign honcho Steve Schmidt:

Schmidt’s leaking and self-aggrandizing during the campaign and after reflects poorly on him, and needlessly embarrassed the candidate — regardless of the merits of his complaints. The man is not a journalist, he’s not a priest, he’s not Thomas More. He’s a very, very partisan campaign functionary and his behavior has been tacky, his judgment questionable and his loyalty beyond dubious.

For now, the public, the conservative movement, her critics, her family, and Palin herself are all better off taking a timeout

Bill Kristol catches Obama doing absolutely nothing to help the Iranian people: “‘The political situation in Iran is for the Iranians to work out internally,’ said Obama’s U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice. So much for standing with the Iranian people who are fighting to vindicate (Jefferson again) ‘the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god.’ Hillary Clinton–remember her? Barack Obama’s increasingly marginalized secretary of state–said a couple of months ago, ‘Let’s put ideology aside; that is so yesterday.’ Well, it’s increasingly clear that John F. Kennedy’s Democratic party–the one that stood for freedom, that acted on behalf of freedom–is so yesterday, too.”

In a similar vein — Oh, no! The dreaded “explain the situation” gambit: “Iran’s top legislative body announced today that British embassy staff accused of inciting post-election violence will be forced to stand trial in Tehran. The surprise move by the Guardian Council caused relations between London and the Iranian regime to sink still further after the two countries engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions last week. Downing Street said the Government was concerned and seeking urgent clarification. In a co-ordinated diplomatic move, EU nations responded by simultaneously summoning Europe’s Iranian ambassadors to explain the situation.”

By a 45-27% margin, voters favor divided government. Well, when you think the ruling party is too liberal, that is the one way to slow down the train.

Rep. Tom Perriello and other House Democrats who voted for cap-and-trade, discover that their vote may threaten their careers. Well, so long as all those jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs come pouring in, they should have nothing to worry about.

On a related note, Mona Charen on cap-and-trade quackery: “The House of Representatives has passed a massive, complex, special-interest-pocked bill that will ‘invest’ in green energy and according to Obama and Pelosi, create ‘millions’ of green jobs. Over and above the jobs that are lost due to higher energy prices? This is not empiricism. This is fantasy. Mayor Bloomberg talked of seeding New York with windmills. Huber cites data. ‘Windmills are now 50-story skyscrapers. Yet one windmill produces a piddling 2 to 3 megawatts. A jumbo jet needs 100 megawatts to get off the ground. . . . Meeting New York City’s total energy demand would require 13,000 of those skyscrapers spinning at top speed, which would require scattering about 50,000 of them across the state.’”

Now Colin Powell tells us he is “concerned” about all the debt and government programs coming out of Obama. Was he unclear this is what was planned all along?

Even Chris Dodd doesn’t think the stimulus is working. The solution? Do it again! Honest: “We did not get these dollars into the job producing sectors. A lot of it wasn’t targeted as it should have been. If we go back and do it again we have to do more of it.” Thanks for wasting $787B, Senator.

Howard Kurtz does a credible job of reporting on the Post’s access scandal. But the Post management seems convinced this was just a marketing problem. He observes that “precisely what would be acceptable remains unclear.”

The Wall Street Journal editors remind us that OMB chief Peter Orszag declared earlier in the year that with regard to the carbon permits in cap-and-trade,” If you didn’t auction the permit, it would represent the largest corporate-welfare program that has ever been enacted in the history of the United States.” That is what we got — along with “a Smoot-Hawley green tariff.”