It was a great slogan at the Democratic National Convention in August that seemed to sum it up and say it all.  “General Motors is alive and Osama bin Laden is Dead.” But last week a revised or reworking of that intriguing slogan emerged and it goes like this: “GM is alive, Osama is dead and so it our ambassador to Libya.”

World leaders were gathered in New York this week at the UN annual General Assembly meetings.  Garnering the most attention, of course, is the Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmidinajad whose party of some 140 Iranians is staying at the Warwick Hotel in the City.  It’s something between a quirk of fate and Divine intervention but the Iranian leader ended up spewing his anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatefulness on Yom Kippur afternoon.  At least the Israeli delegation at the UN did not have to walk out when Ahmidinajad rose to the rostrum to speak—they weren’t there to begin with.

Most of the diplomats will be in New York through the weekend to perhaps catch a Broadway show and take in some of the cities better restaurants.  Everyone needs some down time and an opportunity to take a break.  Listen, threatening to blow up most of the world with nuclear bombs can be tiring, even exhausting and pressure filled work.

President Obama was in town too earlier in the week.  He spoke at the UN on Tuesday.  After that following last week’s appearance on Late Night with David Letterman on CBS-TV, the president appeared on “The View” on NBC-TV where he was interviewed by comedian Whoopi Goldberg amongst other TV land notables.  The White House though announced that due to the presidents busy schedule he would not have time to meet with any world leaders.   His campaign aid, Robert Gibbs, said on Fox News on Sunday that the president really did not have to meet with any of the world leaders in New York and that he can always talk to them over the phone.  And that’s a great idea.  Why not scuttle this whole UN General Assembly enterprise and just have the world leaders talk to one another on their phones?   That’s just what we need at this point in time, a president that phones it in.

Also in New York this week, the Palestinian Finance Minister said that the two state solution is in serious jeopardy.  He said that if the Palestinian Authority does not get an immediate infusion of $400 million, the Authority would go broke and that would be the end of the peace process.  I’m not sure what the connection is between the two.  Maybe he meant that if they can’t pay their employees that don’t too much to begin with, they will have nothing to do but to go out in their spare time and resort to terrorism.  Is that the threat?  Do I understand this correctly?

And yes, also last week, the head of the political wing of Hamas, Khalid Mashaal announced that he was retiring as the Chief Executive Officer of the organization bent on Israel’s destruction with a particular focus on murdering Jews and gloating about it.  What does it really mean when a chief international terrorist retires? Does this mean that he goes out on the speaking circuit?  Or does he become a terror consultant to smaller and more inept radical governments or terror groups or does he cash in by writing a “tell all” book?

These are exciting times. The elections are just a little over five weeks away.  The Democrats seem to have an edge because they are maneuvering the idea of this presidential election away from the real life and death situation that it really is and turning it into just another reality TV show. More in this weeks 5TJT.

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