Nuts With Nukes 

The tension keeps rising on the Korean peninsula. In a bizarre message today North Korea's Stalinist regime warned that Tokyo would likely be its first target in the event of military action. The warning comes as Japan has moved to rapidly deploy Patriot missile batteries around Tokyo and at other strategic locations in advance of an anticipated North Korean missile test. 

Japanese defense officials have stated that they are prepared to shoot down any North Korean missile that strays into its territory. The North Korean regime said that any attempt to shoot down its missile would see Tokyo "consumed in nuclear flames." Its statement added that the "outbreak of nuclear war" in the region was "unavoidable."

This chilling warning comes on the heels of congressional testimony yesterday revealing a bombshell report from the Defense Intelligence Agency. During a hearing on the Defense budget, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) asked General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, if he agreed with the DIA's assessment that North Korea "currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles." General Dempsey twice refused to comment. 

Hours later, the Pentagon tried to downplay the report with a statement saying that North Korea had not yet "demonstrated the kinds of nuclear capabilities referenced in the passage." So we'll just have to wait for the mushroom cloud over Tokyo or Honolulu or Los Angeles and maybe then we can confirm it. 

Obama To Kim: Cool It 

The mixed messages from the administration are not very reassuring. But everybody agrees on this much: North Korea has a robust nuclear program. It possesses nuclear weapons. It possesses ballistic missile technology. Every test and every day brings it one step closer to having the ability to lob nuclear weapons at us or our allies, if they can't do so now. 

Barack Obama has been president for four years, and North Korea may be closer than ever to launching a nuclear missile. 

The president must have known about the DIA's assessment, yet he sent a budget to Capitol Hill that cuts Defense spending by $120 billion. Not surprisingly, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation are not happy about Obama's cuts to missile defense. 

But don't worry -- Secretary of State John Kerry has been dispatched to the region. President Obama said yesterday, "We will continue to try to work to resolve some of those issues diplomatically," and he called on North Korea to "try to lower the temperature." 

Big Media and the American left may swoon over Obama's words, but Kim Jong Un and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be laughing at us. Diplomacy does not have a very good track record of stopping dictators. (See Neville Chamberlain.) 

And while we have been downplaying North Korea's abilities, we have been attempting to reassure our allies by deploying missile defense systems to protect them and our troops in the region. A prudent move to be sure, but I don't recall any of these liberals thanking Ronald Reagan for the fact that we even have some ability to defend ourselves. 

In fact, Kerry once referred to Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative as a "dream based on an illusion" and he called it a "cancer on our nation's defense." As a candidate in 2008 then-Senator Obama pledged to cancel funding for "unproven missile defense." 

Media Ignore Gosnell Abortion Trial 

A number of our loyal readers recently emailed to tell me that they had never heard of Dr. Gosnell until they read about him in this daily report. The media have conspired to spike the story and the effort is a glaring example of the media's anti-life bias. 

Here's proof. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and the picture shows three rows of reserved seating inside the courtroom for interested journalists -- completely empty. 

One blogger attempted to hold members of the press accountable for their dereliction of duty and the responses she got back were unbelievable. She asked Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post, who wrote dozens of stories about Todd Akin and Sandra Fluke, why she has not reported on Gosnell. Kliff responded, "I cover policy for the Washington Post, not local crime." 

So "local crime" stories (like the Newtown shootings) never have implications for public policy, right? It was the same with other news outlets. For example: 

Democrats Block Resolution Honoring Thatcher? 

Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Senate has not yet done so. Why not? Our friends at Heritage Action are reporting that Senate Democrats are blocking it.

I hope the report is wrong. It's not as bad as the reaction of leftists in England, but it would be incredibly petty of liberals in the Senate to refuse to acknowledge one of America's greatest friends and allies.