These are my links for May 19th from 10:50 to 12:53:

• Mitch Daniels: Israeli-Palestinian conflict not central in Arab Spring – Mitch Daniels made a rare foray into foreign policy Thursday, arguing that the current climate in the Arab world has "little or nothing to do" with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

  Daniels, who is close to deciding on a White House campaign and recently said he's "probably not" ready to debate President Barack Obama on foreign policy, made the comments on Michael Smerconish's radio show, the same day that Obama gave a major address on Middle East policy.

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  Asked what approach he'd bring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Daniels said: “I think that the — this may sound funny — but, the Arab-Israeli dispute, which has gone on for generations now and may go on for future generations, is not nearly so central to the events in that part of the world as sometime we treat is as.

  "I’m not saying it’s not worth continuing to work on," the Indiana governor added, "but what is going on in the Arab world these days has little or nothing to do with Israel or Palestine, it has to do with tyrannical regimes which have really stifled prospects for their people who are now restless for a better life. I think that should be encouraged. I think that tyrants who suppressing this human urge to greater freedom and prosperity ought to be sanctioned at a minimum. … I don’t think right now it pays very much of a dividend to try to cut the Gordian Knot of Israel and Palestine."

• President 2012: Revving His Engines? Mitch Daniels Jump-Starts His Fundraising – While he has been publicly noncommittal about running for president next year, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has quietly reignited his fundraising machine.

  Beginning late last year, the two-term Republican flipped the switch on a long-dormant political committee, Aiming Higher, that is qualified to accept donations in unlimited amounts. Since late last year, he has raked in more than $675,000 in contributions from individuals and organizations across the country, including $250,000 from the American Federation for Children, a group that promotes school vouchers. Meanwhile, Daniels's better-known political fundraising arm, the Aiming Higher PAC, raised $2.2 million last year, when the term-limited Daniels was not on the ballot.

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  Daniels is gearing up

• The Colbert Super-PAC – Colbert is right on target with his satire.  Free speech is such a headache when everyone gets to participate!  Especially evil corporations, which spend huge amounts of money to manipulate politics for their own interests… in sharp contrast to noble left-wing organizations, which spend huge amounts of money to manipulate politics for the good of all mankind. 

  What chance does an innocent mind have against that ocean of corporate political cash?  How can we tolerate such distractions from the vital messages conveyed by important left-wing campaigns filled with millionaire celebrities?  The messages built directly into the popular entertainment that spills from millions of theater screens, television sets, magazine pages, and music downloads are not enough to raise public awareness to the level of true enlightenment. 

  We should absolutely have draconian laws to prohibit corporations from influencing public opinion.  Except for media corporations.  They should be the only corporations allowed to have any influence, and theirs should be unlimited.  Why not?  They don’t have agendas or anything. 

  Well, most of them don’t.  There are just too darned many media corporations influencing opinion these days.  You’ve got sinister operations like Fox, and then you’ve got virtuous White House-approved truth tellers, like Comedy Central and al-Jazeera.  Fox routinely crushes its competition in the ratings, so its influence is obviously an unfair and dangerous exercise of evil corporate power.  Look at how many helpless viewers wander into their clutches, night after night, to be exposed to all those dangerous ideas!

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  ZING….