“A few months ago, when you were asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia. Not Al Qaeda. You said Russia. And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because, you know, the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”

It’s OK, because Obama is taking Russia seriously now. How seriously? He is thinking about canceling his latest vacation. That seriously, OK?

UPDATE: Crisis averted. The vacation is back on.

Local media reports indicate the Obamas will stay at the Ocean Reef Club, a private compound that still enforces a dress code “designed to complement today’s more casual lifestyles while still respecting the Club’s longstanding traditions.” It boasts 36 holes of golf for the President to enjoy and spas and restaurants for his family.

Earlier this year Obama tacked a weekend of golf in California onto a meeting with the king of Jordan at the Sunnyland’s estate near Palm Springs, California. And he golfed regularly on his annual Christmas vacation in Hawaii.

We dodged a bullet there.

UPDATE x2: Thanks very much to Instapundit for the link. What a nice surprise.

L.A. Times:

Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a 64-year-old Temple City resident, has denied being the founder of Bitcoin.

Nakamoto’s home was staked out by journalists Thursday after Newsweek published a report alleging he was the man behind Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that gained widespread use in 2013.

After a chase around Los Angeles involving several reporters, Nakamoto told the Los Angeles Times’ Andrea Chang that he did not create Bitcoin.

Follow live updates of the chase below. Or if you’re on a mobile device, click here.

I know I just bolded that, but I feel like repeating it:

“Follow live updates of the chase below. Or if you’re on a mobile device, click here.”

Really.

The Newsweek article appears to be pretty thin on evidence. I think their biggest point is that, like the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto is really into secrecy.

Oh, and also, the creator of Bitcoin goes by the name “Satoshi Nakamoto.” Which is pretty much the name you would use if you are a genius who is really into secrecy. Whose actual name is . . . “Satoshi Nakamoto.”

Nakamoto is denying he is the creator, by the way. Which is what he would say! I guess the Big Media plan is to chase him around for a few weeks and see if his story changes.

UPDATE: Get prepared to swell with pride at the very thought of our wonderful media:

hey @hunterschwarz pic.twitter.com/SQgRx1aoyU

— Adrian Carrasquillo (@RealAdrianC) March 6, 2014

UPDATE x2: If this quote from the article truly is accurate, it’s some evidence that he’s the guy: “I’m no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it.” It’s just that it could so easily be “not involved” as opposed to “no longer involved.” Coming from a reporter who really wants a big story, it seemed suspect to me. The fact that deputies corroborate the quote is the most convincing evidence I have seen yet.

Still doesn’t justify the BIG CHASE!!!!!

Walkback:

Hillary Clinton on Wednesday pulled back from comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine to those of Hitler.

She said comments made the night before at a private event were meant only to bring “a little historical perspective” to Russia’s claim that it entered the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in order to protect ethnic-Russians.

“That is reminiscent of claims that were made back in the 1930s, when Germany under the Nazis, kept talking about how they had to protect German minorities in Poland and Czechoslovakia and elsewhere throughout Europe,” she said. “So I just want everybody to have a little historic perspective. I am not making a comparison, but I am recommending that we can perhaps learn from this tactic that has been used before.”

Meanwhile, we have this:

She seems surprised to find herself as a propaganda tool for a nasty regime, but she’s doing something about it, so kudos for that.

Allahpundit:

Wait a sec. Didn’t Harry Reid nuke the filibuster for presidential appointees a few months ago? Why, indeed he did, which means Republicans had no hope of stopping this confirmation by themselves. They’d need at least six Democrats to cross the aisle to get to 51 no’s. And given how humiliating that would be for The One, no one expected it to happen. Joe Biden was apparently standing by in the chamber today to provide the 51st yes, just in case five Dems got cold feet and the final tally ended up 50/50.

Eight Democrats voted no, although Reid was among them only to preserve his ability to move to reconsider the nomination later if need be. Nomination defeated.

If the beef against him was simply that he represented a cop killer, I think that’s unfair. Representing unpopular criminal defendants must be done in our society.

That being said, this somehow doesn’t feel just like a lawyer doing his job. Probably a lot of that has to do with the bogus Ed Asnerish claims that “Mumia” was mistreated because of his race, together with the fact that this nominee worked for the NAACP and volunteered for the gig, together with the fact that other lawyers working with him were constantly playing the race card.

Let’s go Godwin for a second. If Hitler had been arrested and had a trial, he would need a lawyer. It would be wrong to vilify that lawyer simply for representing Hitler. But if Hitler already had a good legal team and then some Stormfront lawyer came riding in to help, with a team of other lawyers who were all vilifying “the Jews” as part of their defense . . . well, it would be hard to see the Stormfront lawyer as a guy you want going to DoJ.

That example is unfair to the NAACP, but only a little. It is still the group that applauded Shirley Sherrod before the section of her speech that supposedly (but not really) showed she wasn’t a racist.

My guess is that this Adegbile fella thought he was going to be applauded everywhere he went for doing this noble good deed. Now he ran into some people who don’t think it’s much of a good deed at all. Oh well. They’ll find some other hack for a position that is, after all, best suited to a hack. If it’s not this guy, it’ll be some other race hustler.

UPDATE: Pat Toomey at CPAC:

“This is not at all about the principle that every defendant deserves a competent attorney,” he said. “This was always about the principle that no one should be able to make a mockery of the criminal justice system, fan the flames of racial strife in America, join a dishonest international anti-American campaign, along the way drag the family of a fallen police officer through three decades of hell and then be confirmed to a high post of the Justice Department.”

Well said.