U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Oklahoma native few Oklahomans want to claim, leaked thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. He’s now among 259 nominees for a Nobel Prize, as is Malala Yousufzai, a 15-year old Pakistani girl nearly killed by the Taliban.

These nominations show an astounding level of moral equivalence.

Yousufzai was shot in the head because she was attending school, which the Taliban consider heinous and worthy of a death sentence. In comparison, Manning put the lives of his fellow soldiers at risk, as well as individuals in nations like Afghanistan who cooperated with U.S. forces. He now faces charges of aiding the enemy and espionage.

Yousufzai risked her life to stand up to violent oppressors; Manning’s actions put others’ lives in danger while aiding the cause of oppressors. Yousufzai is a worthy nominee, but Manning’s nomination (the second in two years) further diminishes the Nobel Prize.

That takes some gumption, suggesting it doesn’t matter what triggered the attack — our ambassador and three others were killed — or what the administration knew and told the American people about it.

Clinton spent much of her time at Wednesday’s hearing suggesting breakdowns in security and other areas were the fault of others within the State Department. It was five hours of tap dancing.

Soon she’ll be leaving the job at State and may very well set her sights on the White House in 2016. If so, opponents are sure to bring Benghazi up again, and they should.

Her opponent promised to hold a summit meeting with North Korea; Park said she would not unless North Korea apologized for its recent military provocations. She is also expected to reaffirm South Korea’s ties with the United States.

In the United States, attitudes toward female candidates are also changing and, as in South Korea, most prominent female candidates who’ve won in recent years have been conservatives. Oklahoma’s 2010 gubernatorial race was actually only the fourth such race in U.S. history to offer a choice between two female candidates.

Here and across the globe, voters clearly are less concerned about gender than a candidate’s platform.

In his remarks that day in the Rose Garden, he referred to 9/11 and other terror attacks and said, “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation …” But he certainly did not call the Benghazi attack the work of terrorists.

Indeed for two weeks afterward, the administration tried to sell the idea that the attack that claimed our ambassador and three other Americans sprang suddenly from an Internet video that was critical of Islam.

We understand that spin is part of the game in politics, but Obama and his team are treating the American people like fools with their continued bobbing and weaving on this issue.

How refreshing it would be to see the president stand up and say of Benghazi, “We failed.” If that happens, it surely won’t be until after Election Day.

Sadly, the United States has become complicit in the horrendous crime of modern-day slavery through the actions of subcontractors working for the State Department to supply workers to embassies in global trouble spots. Those subcontractors are known to lure foreign workers with false promises and then trap them into servitude at American facilities.

The order is based on legislation authored by U.S. Rep. James Lankford, R-Edmond, which has already passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support and awaits a vote in the Senate.

While Obama’s actions are a nice gesture, Lankford said the problem “can’t be solved through an executive order.” In a meeting with The Oklahoman editorial board, he noted roughly 20 previous executive orders on the topic haven’t ended the problem. By nature, those orders are temporary; statutory changes have more effect. Lankford’s bill would require that U.S. government contracting include worker protections provided even in some Third World countries to prevent human trafficking.

If Obama had pressured Senate leadership to schedule a vote on his bill, Lankford noted, the president “could have had a big bill signing today” instead of announcing a mere order. Lankford’s bill is tentatively scheduled for a Senate vote in a November lame-duck session. Here’s hoping the president’s dedication to this issue extends beyond the desire for one day’s headline.

Rachel, a 9-year-old from Bellevue, Wash., died last year in an automobile accident. At the time, she was trying to raise $300 to help bring clean water to Africa.

As her 10th birthday approached, she asked friends and family to forgo buying her presents and instead donate to a New York-based group called charity: water. News of Rachel’s quest spread following her death, and it resulted in nearly 32,000 people giving a total of $1.27 million.

This week, the girl’s mother, grandparents and others were in Ethiopia visiting the wells built with Rachel’s gift. That money will go a long way. Charity: water says a $20 donation can provide one person with clean drinking water for decades.

“There’s something about Rachel and her story that has touched people and inspired them,” her mother told The Associated Press. “She was such a special girl.”

Citizens of Ethiopia knew about the Oklahoma standard long before the 1990s even though their neighborhood is far, far from Oklahoma. A new documentary highlights that fact, focusing on efforts by Oklahoma professors and students to share agriculture knowledge with the people of Ethiopia decades ago.

The project was conceived in 1949 and resulted in development of a rich coffee industry in Ethiopia at that time. Mel Tewahade, whose father was governor of Harer in Ethiopia in the 1960s, recalls how his dad “used to tell me how beautiful these people are.” Until that time, Tewahade “didn’t know what Oklahoma was.”

Oklahomans should take pride in that legacy.

The Wall Street Journal reports that oil production in Brazil has also been hampered by short-sighted regulations. Brazil has been ranked fourth in the world in terms of ability to boost oil output over the next decade, yet the country isn’t living up to its potential.

In Brazil, the red tape is created by regulations to benefit local business and discourage foreign capital. The result is development efforts have been slowed and inefficiencies are embedded, driving up production costs.

In Colombia, policies have been relaxed to encourage foreign investment. It’s ranked third in “ease of doing business” in Latin American (Brazil is 26th). Surprise, surprise: Columbia production is growing 6.5 percent annually.

Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman

]]> http://blog.newsok.com/scissortales/2012/05/16/how-bazaar/feed/ 0 http://blog.newsok.com/scissortales/2012/05/09/another-copout/ http://blog.newsok.com/scissortales/2012/05/09/another-copout/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 19:30:27 +0000 J.E. McReynolds http://blog.newsok.com/scissortales/?p=3461 Remember Barack Obama’s remark in 2008 about when human rights begin, before or after birth?

Remember Barack Obama’s remark in 2008 about when human rights begin, before or after birth? He said the question was “above my pay grade.” We all know this was a copout and that Obama doesn’t believe human rights begin before birth. Then the man who won the 2008 presidential election said his views on gay marriage were “evolving.” Another copout. Either he was for it or against it. A day after the landslide victory in North Carolina of an amendment banning gay marriage, Obama said he likes gay marriage. This tale of two stances is typical of liberal Democrats who want to appear sympathetic without expressing outright support for an unpopular position. That’s what Bill Clinton did. He was among those campaigning against the North Carolina initiative. Obama was a no-show. At least Obama was consistently consistent in his opposition to the war in Iraq — unlike the previous Democratic nominee, who was for it until he was against it.

(May 8, 2012 AP File Photo)

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Western Hemisphere leaders will gather for the sixth Summit of the Americas this weekend at the Convention Center in Cartagena, Colombia. (AP Photo)

Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman

As we celebrate the return of the 45th Infantry Brigade from Afghanistan and Kuwait, the leader of the Oklahoma National Guard offers his thoughts on their work. “Because of the 45th’s successes in southern and southeastern Afghanistan, the United States is another step closer to ensuring that terrorists will never again use that country as a staging base to attack us,” said Maj. Gen. Myles Deering, the adjutant general for Oklahoma. “The brigade was able to reduce the level of insurgent activities in multiple provinces and history will show they played a key role in setting the conditions that will give the Afghan people a chance to live better lives.” Oklahomans can be proud of and grateful for these men and women, who, as Deering put it, “answered the nation’s call, many of them for their second, third, or even fourth deployment to ensure that their friends and neighbors back here at home remain safe and secure.”

(AP Photo/The Canadian Press)

Right: Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki prepares for a batting practice during the team’s training for the season-opening game against Oakland Athletics, at Tokyo Dome ball stadium in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Left: A man rides his cycle past elephant statues, political symbol of the Bahujan Samaj Party, at Ambedkar Park in Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India. (AP Photo)

AP File Photo

His supporters might see President Obama’s newfound love of hydrocarbons as a Nixon-in-China event. Hardly. Obama has no serious interest in upping domestic oil and gas production — other than getting him to what he hopes is a post-re-election frenzy for alternative fuels. If you want a real Nixon-in-China event, look to Washington State, where enough Republicans and conservative Democrats joined liberals to get a gay marriage bill passed. What really turned the page in Washington was key support from the business community. Large corporations have taken the lead on benefits for same-sex couples and are helping getting gay marriage laws enacted. Corporations may want lower taxes and reduced federal debt, but they can be quite progressive on social issues. They’re not the Great Wall of Reactionaries that the “Occupy” crowd claims.

NATE BEELER/THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER