The mainstream media have been quick to write off the recent Russian spy scandal as an inconsequential matter, a case of the gang that couldn't shoot straight. These were bumbling wannabe spies who didn't obtain anything of value, goes the standard narrative. (See, for instance, here, here, here, and here.) Reporters and commentators seem to see nothing amiss in the snap decision by the Obama administration to send the ring of deep-cover moles back to Russia only 11 days after their arrests, despite the fact that the FBI had sunk thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars into the investigation over the course of a decade.

Why did the United States government spend years — and, undoubtedly millions of dollars — tracking and monitoring a network of Russian deep cover sleeper agents and then release them after only 11 days in custody?

Barack and Dmitry. The photo-op lunch couldn't have been chummier: The U.S. and Russian presidents enjoying cheeseburgers and fries together at Ray's Hell Burger, a local burger joint in Arlington, Virginia. That was June 24, just before Obama and Medvedev headed for the big G8/G20 summits in Canada. Prior to that Medvedev was the toast of the town in Silicon Valley, part of his U.S. tour to bring American capital and technology to Russia.

Federal Judge Martin Feldman issued an injunction on June 22 ordering Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Obama administration not to enforce a federal moratorium on all drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf in water at depths greater than 500 feet.

For weeks MSNBC's Chris Matthews had been hyping and hawking his new soon-to-be-unveiled "documentary" on the Tea Party movement and the "New Right": On his own MSNBC nightly program, Hardball with Chris Matthews; on his NBC weekend program, The Chris Matthews Show; on the MSNBC Hardblogger post; on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show; as well as on left-wing blogs and websites — The Daily Beast, The Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, etc.

On February 12, Dr. Amy Bishop, an associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, pulled out a pistol during a staff meeting and opened fire on her fellow faculty members, killing three and wounding three others. Chances are you heard or read about the case. And you may have read or heard in some of the follow-up reporting about other bizarre incidents earlier in her life, such as her 1986 “accidental” shooting of her brother (after which the shotgun-wielding Bishop took hostages) and her being a suspect in the 1993 case of a pipe bomb that had been mailed to a Harvard professor with whom she had had a dispute. But, most likely, you didn’t read or hear that the 44-year-old, Harvard-educated Bishop was a fanatical “Obama Girl.”

On August 9 Hal Turner is scheduled to go on trial in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, for allegedly threatening three federal appeals court judges in an Internet blog post. For the past several years, Turner, an Internet radio shock jock, has been one of the top purveyors of incendiary racist bombast. He has been dubbed the “Host of Hate” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and has provided the SPLC and other left-wing activist groups with a handy image to use in smearing conservatives.

Anthony Lake, the controversial adviser on foreign policy and national security for Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, is scheduled to take over as executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on May 1, replacing Ann Veneman, who has held the post since 2005.

It may have been that the Good Lord was telling America something recently when He called hence the soul of Alger Hiss. It may be that that call to judgment on November 15th of one of our country's most notorious traitors was providentially timed as a reminder of the terrible cost of betrayal and a grim portent concerning high national security appointments soon to follow.

The arrests on March 28 and 29 of nine people associated with the so-called Hutaree Militia in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio have provided media commentators and reporters with an opportunity to broadly smear all political conservatives, constitutionalists, Tea Party activists, and opponents of President Obama's health care as "extremist" and "anti-government."