President Bush Talks Tough on North Korea

Yesterday, North Korea set off some kind of nuclear device in violation of the spirit of international law. Today, the president said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The North Korean regime remains one of the world's leading proliferator of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria. The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now the reason North Korea is causing trouble is that it wants to influence the November election. As we discussed last week, Iran's doing the same thing in Iraq — ramping up the violence so Americans will turn against the Bush administration.

That is not a partisan statement. It is a fact. America's enemies are emboldened by the stalemate in Iraq and feel they can do anything they want to do. They also hate Mr. Bush and want to weaken him as much as possible.

In the face of that, the president has only one choice: tough, aggressive action against the anti-American forces. The problem is many Americans here are not on board with that. They want to compromise with our enemies.

Talking Points believes the USA should negotiate with Iran and North Korea, but only from a position of strength. If Iran wants to chat, it should suspend its nuclear activities. If North Korea wants to negotiate, it has to give us something. Otherwise it looks like America is being intimidated by these outlaw nations.

Remember, these are the bad people. America is not causing the problem. North Korea and Iran are causing the problem.

Now if you don't get that, there's nothing you can take from this broadcast. If you feel the USA is the problem in the world, you are firmly in the secular progressive camp.

Now it's interesting to see that the polls say most Americans right now are against the war in Iraq. And I believe that's true. But not because we removed Saddam. They're against the war because we're not winning the war. It has nothing to do with morality. It has everything to do with performance.

The bottom line here is that we can expect America's enemies to cause as much trouble as possible in the next four weeks. And Mr. Bush must remain strong in the face of this assault. There's really no other choice.

And that's The Memo.

Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

As you may know photographers are getting more and more aggressive trying to take pictures of famous people. So famous people are hiring bodyguards to try to protect themselves from photographers.

This shooter ran into Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's guy, and he was rouged roughed up. Ridiculous? I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened. But I do know that famous people in America are in danger, and enough is enough with these intrusive photographers.

The right to privacy is a basic constitutional tenet. And that is not ridiculous at all. Leave those people alone, you piranhas.