America's place in the world | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    In case you haven't noticed, the Tonight Show has changed. Long time host Jay Leno is gone. He has been replaced by Jimmie Fallon whose late - late night show used to follow the Leno Tonight Show on NBC.. Fallon seems to be off to a better start than Conan O'Brien who stepped in (briefly) as a Leno replacement several years ago. O'Brien didn't last long; and Leno was rehired. How Fallon will do over time, remains to be seen.

    But now, even if Fallon "stumbles", Jay Leno may not return. We have another comedian primed and beginning to look like a potentially viable backup candidate. That would be John Kerry - and he's backed up by Joe Biden.. At least, if what they keep telling us wasn't so serious it would be funny.

    In the face of the Kiev Ukraine riots, President Vladimir Putin orders a show of Russian Army strength along the Russian - Ukraine border. Surely that move was not intended to intimidate any of the Ukranian rebels. Of course not. That is simply not the sort of thing a peace loving, benevolent president of Russia like Vladimir Putin would do especially after Hil did the "reset" trick with the Russians. Hmmm...

    It is embarrassing when our highest ranking representatives accept what is clearly a hostile act against freedom loving folks with no more than mild rhetoric. They seem to be at a loss as to what else they should be doing (if anything). Of course every country in the world knows that even when they do draw a "red line" in the sand they don't have the stomach to do anything serious when the line is crossed - even when it is by a pipsqueak murderer like Bashar al Assad. They didn't seem to have the stomach to take on al-Assad. Why would anyone believe they would take on the wily (and macho) Russian President.

    We keep hearing that Putin is engaging in a high stakes game of chess. It's unfortunate that the Anointed One is only barely adept at checkers - and none of his spear carriers seem to be any better at it than he is....

    Add Syria to the ever lengthening list of countries who feel free to ignore (with great impunity) what we say. It's a long list and it's getting longer. In includes places like Venezuela, North Korea. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and maybe even Israel to name a few. After the world saw what we did to Poland several years ago when we pulled back from the missile defense system that was being planned - seemingly because Vladimir Putin took a dim view of it, it is no wonder Heads of State the world over hardly bother to listen when our Prez speaks.

    It's bad enough when Vladimir Putin sticks his finger in our eye with great impunity but even pipsqueaks like Hamid Karzai the Afghan President and the boy despot of N. Korea and others do it and get away with it. And we don't dare do anything that might come even close to displeasing any of them other than asking the U.N. for a resolution expressing our displeasure.

    Of course, it is well within the realm of possibility that all the US bluster is for internal consumption. Undoubtably a lot of low information voters will think the anointed is taking a firm and decisive position in support of Ukraine.

    Reducing American influence around the globe seems to be one promise that the Anointed One kept.... Unfortunately...

    D'ya think??