CPRoundup: Failure to Launch

North Korea’s Failure to Launch

Last Thursday, in an act of defiance, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), despite international warnings not to do so, launched a rocket which they claimed to be a satellite, but which everyone else knew to be a long-range missile test. Rather, they tried to launch a rocket. More with a fizzle than with a bang, the rocket broke apart less than two minutes after launch. As a result of their defiance, the United States promised to withdraw food aid to the country, and the DPRK has promised retaliation — although after displaying how spectacularly bad the North Korean military is at building rockets, the president can only hope they’re as bad at following through with their threats.

 Colombian Eye Candy

Currently, 11 Secret Service agents are being investigated for allegedly hiring prostitutes in their downtime before President Obama arrived in the country for the Summit of the Americas. The alleged misconduct was found out when there was a payment dispute and one of the prostitutes complained to the hotel manager, according to the New York Times. All of the agents were suspended and are currently being investigated. According to the same Times article, all of them have a different account of what happened, raising questions as to whether they’re lying or just have horrible memories (my bet is on the former). At any rate, the president was nowhere near involved, but if this stresses him out, he should take a cue from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and chill out.

Mitt Romney and the Working Mother

On Thursday, Hilary Rosen, a Democratic lobbyist, made a jab at Ann Romney for never having held a job, choosing instead to be a stay-at-home mom. This set off a media firestorm that the Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz thinks may have just been the result of how much the media enjoy being angry. The fact of the matter is that Ann’s husband, one Willard “Mitt” Romney attacked stay-at-home moms on welfare and said that “even if you have a child two years of age, you have to go to work,” adding that he “wants individuals to have the dignity of work.” This was in January, and in that time, Mitt may have changed his opinion (as he is wont to do), but the fact is that Ann Romney is far from being on welfare, and there’s definitely dignity in her work, because she’s her husband’s ticket to the women vote.