Here's what the shootdown of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 means: Russia, with Vladimir Putin at the wheel, just drove off the edge of a cliff. The moment Flight 17 exploded was the moment that Putin's foreign policy officially went over the ledge, and with it his dreams of restored Russian greatness.

Putin is deflecting blame, of course. He has no choice: he armed, paid, and unleashed a ragtag army of goons in eastern Ukraine, under the command of a Russian intelligence officer who was supposed to provide some adult supervision. Now they've betrayed the Kremlin and screwed up.

Putin, a typical and mediocre product of Andropov's KGB, will never again be able to portray himself as a savvy, cool broker in international affairs, nor Russia as just another great power. Now, he's just another Soviet-era thug, a perception that was already growing before the Malaysian airliner plunged out of the sky.

No matter how the current crisis ends, Putin's name will forever be tied to this outrage, and his personal bid to create a more respected Russia through violence and intimidation is permanently defunct.

On this 12^th anniversary of the Moslem Atrocity of 9/11, our problems seem worse than ever.  The federal government has metastasized into a cancer that many consider terminal for our country's existence.  Tens of millions of us have given up hope of ever finding a job again - while millions more just starting out in their twenties have never had a job at all. 

The problems seem so numerous and insuperable that many of us have given up on America's future.  Most horrifying is that this is what Zero wants, the destruction of America's future is his goal.  The more we suffer, the more he gloats, laughing in our faces as he plays another round of golf and Mrs. Zero is treated as royalty, going off on another multi-million dollar vacation.

And all the while, his corrupt corporatist cronies, like those at Solyandra, make hundreds of millions.

So it is only appropriate that we commemorate this day by committing ourselves to creating a new America that will conquer the Curse of Zero, and reclaim our future of optimism.

The good news is that this creation is already well underway.  There's a blueprint for it and the foundation is being laid.  Here it is.

That's where I am this week - not in Denver.  That's where I encourage you to be as well.

When Hussein Nobama gives his ridiculous Greek Temple speech today, I will literally be underwater - scuba diving off a small island in the Caribbean called Saba (say-bah).

It's a funky little place most have never heard of, a mountaintop in the sea, so steep it has no beaches and no rivers.  Saba's population of 1200, many of whom are descended from pirates six and seven generations ago, make do with rainwater.  They live in tiny homes clustered in tiny hamlets in high mountain valleys around the island.

The people are wonderfully friendly and gracious, there's no crime of any kind, the food is great, the beer is cheap, and the diving incredible - one of the best in the world.

What better place to completely ignore whatever craziness there is going on in the world, particularly the Democrat craziness in Denver?

The greatest conspiracy in world history is being carried out by the real-life "Manchurian Candidate": President Barack Hussein Obama.

My definition of a "Manchurian Candidate" is a person who hates everything America stands for and whose goal is to win the presidency for the express purpose of destroying the greatest nation, the greatest economic system, and the greatest middle class in world history. That, my friends, describes Obama. I'm not basing it on rumors or innuendo. I'm basing it on the facts.

I know liberals hate facts, but bear with me. So here are a few, which I lay out more fully in my new book, The Murder of the Middle Class:

For the first time in American history more businesses are closing each day than they are starting.

More Americans now receive entitlements than work full-time.

There are now 70 percent more Americans collecting entitlement checks than working in the private sector (148 million "takers" vs. 86 million "makers").

The average full-time male employee now earns less (adjusted for inflation) than he did forty years ago.

Twenty percent of U.S. families don't have a single member who is employed.