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Perhaps President Obama should have stayed in Washington so he could go to Arlington National Cemetery.

Instead, he was in Elmwood, Illinois at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery so he could spend the weekend in Chicago. Today, he appeared at the podium to begin his speech and a downpour started almost immediately. Obama stayed just briefly to tell everyone the fear of “lightning” was forcing them to ask everyone to go back to their cars.

Obama appeared, umbrella in hand, and told people he would “stick around for 15 or 20 minutes” in case the stormy weather passed.

MSNBC: Obama had readied a similar message of gratitude for his appearance at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Illinois, and actually had taken the podium to give the address when the skies opened up with a quintessentially midwestern late-spring downpour — thunder, lightning and high winds.

Under the cover of a large umbrella, he told thousands gathered before him that while “a little rain never hurt anybody,” nobody wanted “anybody struck by lightning.” He asked people to return to their cars for their safety, and he retreated briefly to an administration building on the cemetery’s grounds. Obama a few minutes later boarded a pair of buses to greet military families that came for the event.

Within the hour, reporters who accompanied Obama to the cemetery in Elwood, Ill., were told the speech had been called off. The White House had released copies of Obama’s prepared remarks in advance of his talk, but they were pulled back when the event had to be canceled. . . Read More

Here is video via Israel Matzav of the supposedly “peaceful activists” on the Turkish Flotilla ship boarded by Israeli troops. The video shows one of the passengers beating an Israeli soldier with a metal rod, and the person who posted the video to YouTube bragged:

“See how we attacked them as soon as they landed on deck!!!! Look closely, we decked one of them with a crowbar!!!”

Claims have been made that Israeli Soldiers made unprovoked attacks on the passengers on the ship. This video looks like the Israeli soldiers took some real abuse before they retaliated.

Here is a breaking news report from Fox News on the decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel his planned meeting at the White House with President Obama tomorrow.

Netanyahu was in Canada when the Israeli Raid on a Turkish Flotilla took place. He is heading back to Israel to deal with the crisis.

Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas is calling the Israeli Raid on a Turkish Flotilla carrying supplies for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip a “massacre,” while Turkey is saying it will result in “irreparable consequences for Israel.

This report seems slanted in the Palestinians favor, but it does clearly state that Israel had warned the flotilla it would not be allowed to pass through the blockade which has been in place.

Israel has the right to defend herself. If Israel had simply let this convoy of ships pass, it would have sent a signal to the rest of the Arab/Muslim world that they could send similar convoys carrying whatever they pleased in the same manner.

The United States needs to stand by our ally while the rest of the world beats up on Israel. But with Obama in the White House, I have my doubts.

Here is raw video from the Israeli Raid on a Turkish Flotilla of ships taking aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

I believe this video is from Al-Jazeera, so understand that the reporter on board the ship is trying to cast the flotilla in the best possible light. But there is a lot of raw video here from during the raid, and a good deal of it with no commentary, or with commentary in a language other than English.

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Here is raw video of protests in Turkey that erupted following news that Israeli Forces stopped a Flotilla of Turkish ships carrying aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. At least 10 people are believed dead in the attack.

At least 10 people are dead and dozens wounded after Israeli Forces boarded a Turkish flotilla of ships carrying supplies for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel had warned the flotilla it would not be allowed to pass. Turkish officials claim the ships were only carrying humanitarian aid, while Israel was suspicious it might be carrying weapons as well.

Los Angeles Times: Israeli naval ships seized control of a protest flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 10 people and injuring several dozen, the Israeli military said.

Israeli television, citing foreign media reports, said the death toll could be as high as 16.

“The images are certainly not pleasant. I can only voice regret at all the fatalities,” Trade and Industry Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel’s Army Radio. . . .Read More

Below is a CNN video report on reaction to the Israeli attack, which is being condemned in the Arab/Muslim world, and by many Governments in Europe: