SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:46 P.M. ET:

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO RAMADAN – Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has put Congress on notice to expect some unpleasant characters passing through Washington.  With changes in the Mideast, Napolitano made it clear that people who have been on watch lists may suddenly find themselves in meetings with American officials, and welcomed.  It's a stunning, disheartening development.  We apparently are going to sanitize some pretty bad types in the interest of "diplomacy."  It is another step forward for extremists, with whom Obama obviously has some sympathy, and a setback for true democracy advocates.

BIG BOMB AVAILABLE – In an apparent warning to both Iran and Syria, the Pentagon has announced that it now has available the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000-pound bomb which contains 5,000 pounds of explosives.  The bomb is capable of penetrating deep underground facilities, but it is not known whether it can penetrate the deepest facilities Iran has constructed for its underground nuclear program.  Leon Panetta said earlier this year that the weapon had deficiencies in this regard.  Still, it is the most powerful conventional weapon we have, and clearly intended to scare the right people.

ANOTHER SETBACK FOR THE WARMER CROWD – Remember the "scientific consensus" on global warming?  Ah yes, I remember it well.  There are still some people who cling to it, including some guys at NASA.  But NASA's claim that the ice of Greenland is experiencing "unprecedented" melting has now been met with a torrent of criticism by real grown-up scientists who note that the episode is actually quite routine in Greenland's history.  As one scientist pointed out, there seem to be precedents for a number of unprecedented events.

ROMNEY RAKED OVER THE COALS – It was not a good day for Mitt Romney.  As we noted earlier, he started his foreign trip with a whopping gaffe, seeming to question whether Britain was really ready to host the Olympics...which start tomorrow.  And Bill Kristol reports that Romney, for some insane reason, has been telling a story about Ronald Reagan ordering that no meetings on national security be held for a particular length of time so he could concentrate on the economy.  Kristol notes that Reagan's White House records plainly contradict the story, and wonders why Romney would continue telling it.  Romney is gaffe-prone.  We thought he'd gotten over it, but more work is needed before he becomes his own worst enemy.

July 26, 2012