Scratch Rubio Off Your Romney Veep Lists

Fallows reports that Rubio committed a cardinal conservative sin... admitting that the Obama administration might have gotten something right:

In this new century, more than ever before, America should work with our capable allies in finding solutions to global problems. Not because America has gotten weaker, but because our partners have grown stronger. It's worth pointing out, that is not a new idea for us. Our greatest successes have always occurred in partnership with other like-minded nations. America has acted unilaterally in the past - and I believe it should continue to do so in the future -- when necessity requires. But our preferred option since the U.S. became a global leader has been to work with others to achieve our goals. So yes, global problems do require international coalitions. On that point this administration is correct.

Romney's going to have enough trouble keeping the peons rabble GOP rank and file in line without having a running mate prone to saying non-inflammatory things about the Kenyan-in-Chief. Of course Rubio might be just smart enough to realize that, and decided to sabotage his chances of being asked rather than having to officially turn down the opportunity to wear Romney's doomed run like an albatross around his neck for the rest of his career.

We Protect Our Own

So a couple of days ago, a story did the rounds about a couple who were held at gunpoint by their new neighbours in Georgia after purchasing a foreclosed home:

The Kalonji family had just closed on a foreclosed home and were told by their real estate agent they should go over to the house and change the locks.
But when Jean Kalonji and his wife, Angelica, started working at the home, an armed man and another person who appeared to be the man’s son allegedly confronted them.
“He say to put the hands up and get out from the house, otherwise he would shoot us,” the husband told Channel 2.
The neighbors didn’t believe the couple when they told them they had bought the home and called the Newton County Sheriff’s Office. The Kalonjis didn’t have the closing papers with them, so deputies arrested them, charged them with loitering and prowling and took them to jail.

Jean Kalonji came over to America from the Congo. The local George Zimmerman wannabes, of course, didn't.

The Newton County Sheriff's Office has apparently come to their senses on this one, though:

A Newton County man and his son who authorities said held a gun on the new owners of a neighboring home were arrested Monday night and charged with aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal trespass.Porterdale resident Robert Canoles said he has no second thoughts about interrupting what he thought was a robbery in progress Thursday night at his neighbor's house -- though he is now facing criminal charges just days after deputies lauded his armed response.
Canoles said he and his teenage son heard noises from the once-foreclosed home next door, vacant for seven months. They grabbed their AR-15s and snuck up behind a man and woman fiddling with the front door lock.

Hooray, I guess? It's hard to get too excited when the armed folk were allowed to walk while the unarmed folk were arrested by the officers on the scene, especially given the pictures of each couple at that second AJC link, but at least someone eventually made the right call. This is the part that made me sick to my stomach though:

"I don't know what they can charge me with," Canoles said late Monday afternoon, before the interview with authorities. "This is my Second Amendment right. Look, this is the country out here, and we protect our own."

You can try to read that as neighbours watching out for neighbours. You can try to assume that if Jean Kalonji had actually been Jan Kruger, a white middle-aged immigrant from South Africa, he would have gotten the same reception from Canoles. But it's a very difficult assumption to make.