Web Reconnaissance for 10/02/2006

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.


Victor Davis Hanson writes The New Anti-Semitism “Hating Jews, on racial as well as religious grounds, is as old as the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Later in Europe, pogroms and the Holocaust were the natural devolution of that elemental venom. Anti-Semitism, after World War II, often avoided the burning crosses and Nazi ranting. It often appeared as a more subtle animosity, fueled by envy of successful Jews in the West. "The good people, the nice people" often were the culprits, according to a character in the 1947 film "Gentleman's Agreement," which dealt with the American aristocracy's social shunning of Jews.” (READ MORE)

Hugh Hewitt writes Election Projection: No Speaker Pelosi; No Chairman Leahy “The Blogging Caeasar's latest has the GOP losing a net two in the Senate and 12 in the House. But routs are developing in California and Florida governors races where lightweight Democratic nominees may help GOP Congressmen far more than the RNC. (Phil Angelides may get the 2006 award for worst statewide candidate in what had been expected to be a competitive race.) Would-be Speaker Pelosi spent the weekend telling a disbelief-suspending MSM that the country was disgusted with Mark Foley (true and appropriate) and that the House GOP leadership had failed to act (not true on the evidence thus far.)” (READ MORE)

The Hatemonger’s Quarterly writing at Wizbang writes A Curiously Selective Commitment to Democracy “Amongst all the feckless arguments offered by those adamantly opposed to the liberation of Iraq, one in particular most rankles. Sundry leftists offer a version of the following query: ‘Why not let the people of Iraq vote to determine if there should be a continued American military presence in their country?’ This always struck us as a strange way to go about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the War on Terrorism. In fact, we, the crack young staff of ‘The Hatemonger's Quarterly,’ find it sufficiently strange that we wonder if it is actually proposed in good faith.” (READ MORE)

William Teach writes Why Extremist Muslims Are Not Extremist “Interestingly, with the whole Dean "whoring for traffic" Esmay kerfuffle going on, I caught the tail end of an interview with some gentleman on WPTF-680 in Raleigh who is an Islamic scholar discussing what Islam wants to do. To paraphrase him, he said that the "extremist" Muslims believe in the Koran to the letter, and that it says that people can either convert to Islam, live as 2nd class citizens (dihmmi's), or be killed.” (READ MORE)

American Soldier writes And It’s Here “The first installation of many new things to come. I want all my viewers to know that I am not moving from the text form of Soldierlife. I am merely evolving to bring you a different type of media to experience from. Some plans with this new content is to resurrect the book and put it into a picture/video format. I hope you enjoy the ride.” (READ MORE)
Atlas writes Schemer's War on the American People “Quoth General Schumer: ‘This is a war.’ He 's not talking Iraq or militant Islam, he is talking November elections.Chuckee Schumer is a dangerous man. He abandons country, faith and any morality in the quest for power. This editorial in the Sun speaks volumes to the low opinion the Dems have of the American people. Always invoking their name while attempting to circumvent them at every turn. ‘His metaphor was a dagger aimed at the heart of those many moderate and independent-minded Americans who want to fight a war on Islamic extremist terrorists, a war on cancer, a war on poverty — but not a war on Republicans.’” (READ MORE)

Dafydd writes The New Tora Bora Bazora “I'm listening to Hugh Hewitt, who (after a completely inaudible "interview" with Mark Steyn via bad cellphone) is now broadcasting the Senate blathering of Sen. Patrick "Leaky" Leahy (D-VT, 100%) about the military tribunals bill. And this is what Leahy just said, word for word, near as I can recollect (and it is seared, seared in my memory): ‘Even though they [the Bush administration] had him [Osama bin Laden] cornered at Tora Bora, they yanked the special forces out of there to send them into Iraq.’ Is it just me? I was evidently misinformed that the Battle of Tora Bora took place sometime in December of 2001. There was not even a resolution on the table to invade Iraq at that time... the resolution was not even introduced into the Senate until October 2nd, 2002; it passed the Senate without amendment on October 11th, and was signed by the president on the 16th. And we did not send troops there until March of 2003.” (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio writes Pakistan's Problems in Waziristan and Beyond “The results of the Waziristan Accord, Pakistan's 'truce' with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the tribal agency of North Waziristan, reverberate throughout the Afghan-Pakistani border region and beyond. The Taliban continue to violate the truce. A Pakistani military base in South Waziristan was struck with a rocket attack. A "Pakistani militia" and Afghan security forces battled at a border crossing point between North Waziristan and Paktia.” (READ MORE)

Master Gunner of Tanker Brothers writes The C Word, or Setting The Conditions... “On reflecting on the outcome of the Vietnam War, I recognized many things that are similar with this conflict that we find ourselves in: a virulent Anti-War movement, a press that is hostile to the US military, and an economic situation that is so positive that it takes attention away from the reasons we are fighting and instead on materialism. That being said, there are certain key factors that are radically different from that War: an all-volunteer force, more broad-spectrum operations, and better equipped and better trained Soldiers, as well as the tactics and doctrine that we use. All the bullets and all the armor in the world, however, does not change the fact that we are surrendering the right to set the conditions of the conflict. In order to appease the media, we have allowed terrorist organizations and Radical Muslim Fundamentalists to set the conditions.” (READ MORE)

Stop the ACLU has The NAACP is taking a page from the ACLU playbook “Cross Posted from Revealing the ACLU: The NAACP has filed a complaint against a Spring Valley dentist, who happens to be Jewish, because he closes on Saturdays – the Jewish Sabbath. The NAACP is actually claiming religious discrimination. From The Journal News: ‘SPRING VALLEY — The village chapter of the NAACP has filed a complaint accusing the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Clinic of religious discrimination for closing on Saturdays. The complaint, filed Sept. 6 with the state’s Division of Human Rights, alleges that the clinic’s practice of remaining closed Saturdays in observance of operators’ Jewish Sabbath unlawfully imposes their religious beliefs on others.’” (READ MORE)