These guys... they are like highschoolers with their bravado and putting some form of dominance into handshakes and stares.

Rouhani has said publicly he wants to work with the US, IMO there isn't one GD good reason for Obama not to meet with him beyond some idiotic sense of posturing.

"Friendly governments and societies that seek to build a true strategic partnership, as in our case, cannot allow recurring illegal actions to take place as if they were normal. They are unacceptable," she said.

"The arguments that the illegal interception of information and data aims at protecting nations against terrorism cannot be sustained. Brazil, Mr President, knows how to protect itself. We reject, fight and do not harbour terrorist groups," Rousseff said.

"As many other Latin Americans, I fought against authoritarianism and censorship and I cannot but defend, in an uncompromising fashion, the right to privacy of individuals and the sovereignty of my country," the Brazilian president said. She was imprisoned and tortured for her role in a guerilla movement opposed to Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1970s.

"In the absence of the right to privacy, there can be no true freedom of expression and opinion, and therefore no effective democracy. In the absence of the respect for sovereignty, there is no basis for the relationship among nations."

Brazil is not very happy about all these NSA revelations. ... Brazil hates it so much that it wants to disconnect itself from the U.S. internet altogether.

This will not a simple task, but there is a real plan in place. And to be frank, it's a pretty aggressive move in the direction of the government taking control of how the internet works. President Dilma Rousseff seems bullish about it, though, and has ordered several specific--and potentially impossible--measures to break away from the U.S. internet:

Force Internet companies like Google and Facebook to build servers inside Brazil's borders so that they would be subject to Brazilian privacy laws.
Build more internet exchange points in order to route Brazilian traffic around potential spyware.
Launch a state-run email service through the postal service to act as an alternative to Gmail, Yahoo Mail and others.
Laying a new underwater cable to Europe so that Brazil can connect with those countries directly

Gizmodo

"Ted Cruz is no Joe McCarthy, as so many liberals bizarrely claim. But he might be the conservative Barack Obama. It says something about today's political climate that both liberals and conservatives may find that latter comparison more offensive. Bear with me."

Uh, no. Politics aside for the moment, people across the ideological spectrum tend to not like Ted Cruz because time and again, he's proven himself to be a pompous, sanctimonious, and totally self-absorbed jackass with a reckless and arrogant contempt for anyone and anything standing in his way. And in that regard, he's very much like the late Sen. Joe McCarthy.

Why the Los Angeles Times continues to keep Jonah Goldberg on its payroll, I honestly don't know.

Desperation is a stinky cologne Joe.

Volume 136
Volume 135

According to FEMA, starting on Oct. 1, people in homes 4 feet below the agency's base-flood elevation would have premiums of $9,500 a year. For individuals with homes at FEMA's base-elevation levels, the rates would be $1,410 a year. Those with homes 3 feet above base-flood elevation would pay only $427 a year.

But in high-risk areas, FEMA says on its website, premiums could reach in "excess of $20,000 a year" in some cases.

Volume 137
Volume 136

"I listened carefully to the statement made by President Obama today at the GA. .. [I'm] hoping that they will refrain from following the short-sighted interests of warmongering pressure groups and we can arrive at a framework to managing our differences."

Then he outlined what has been the official Iranian position: "Talks can happen; equal footing and mutual respect should govern the talks."

Then the expectation (actually, the world's): "Of course, we expect to hear a consistent voice from Washington. The dominant voice in recent years has been for a military option."

But he has another idea. So he sets the stage for the punch line:

It's WAVE time.

Wave as in World Against Violence and Extremism.

"I propose as a starting step... I invite all states... to undertake a new effort to guide the world in this direction... we should start thinking about a coalition for peace all across the globe instead of the ineffective coalitions for war."

Mr. Rouhani has just invited the whole planet to join the WAVE.