Web Reconnaissance for 10/17/2006

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


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
U.S. verifies Korean test was nuclear “U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed yesterday that the blast detected in North Korea last week was a smaller-than-expected nuclear detonation, based on the presence of radioactive particles collected near the test site.” (READ MORE)

Ban still aims to visit North as U.N. leader “U.N. Secretary-General-designate Ban Ki-moon said yesterday that he remained ready to travel to North Korea as U.N. chief next year but lamented that Pyongyang had taken the "wrong path" in spite of numerous generous offers from the international community.” (READ MORE)

Reid used campaign funds to pay bonuses to staff “Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has been using campaign donations instead of his personal money to pay Christmas bonuses for the support staff at the Ritz-Carlton, where he lives in an upscale condominium.” (READ MORE)

Senate hopes to hinge on corruption charges in N.J. “The same Democratic leaders who have long hoped to regain control of Congress by blasting a Republican "culture of corruption" are in danger of losing their shot at the Senate because of accusations of corruption against Sen. Robert Menendez.” (READ MORE)

Most Va. Voters Back Gay Marriage Ban “Only the north opposes measure, further evidence that the DC. suburbs have become a political, social world apart from the rest of the state.” (READ MORE)

Race vs. Party “Elected officials supporting Cardin concede that Steele is an attractive candidate who is forcing black Democrats to pause and at least consider his candidacy. Even the most high-profile party leaders have acknowledged the potential of Steele's entreaty. ‘We've got a fight on our hands,’ said Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D-Md.). ‘This is a serious challenge.’” (READ MORE)


News from the Front:
Afghans need shovels, not guns “Local officials, village elders and clerics armed with gold-tipped shovels gathered earlier this month to start work on an asphalt road out of a rugged valley ringed by Taliban hide-outs.” (READ MORE)

Michael Fumento writes COPs and Criminals “Combat Operation Post (COP) Anvil – Ramadi: Last night we went on a terrorist-grabbing raid. Terror suspects fall into two categories, single source and double source. That means: Did one person rat on them or two? The idea behind the distinction is that any vindictive neighbor can accuse somebody of something he didn't do. But with two sources of information, especially if both give specifics rather than just saying the suspect is an insurgent or terrorist, then there's a much higher probability he really is ‘dirty.’” (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Crazy Politico writes An Unread Scholar? “Today's LA Times has an interesting, though totally pointless Op/Ed piece "Our Broken Constitution" by Sanford Levinson. The author has decided that the founding fathers were completely screwed up in how they set up our country. But he's got a few problems in his logic. First and foremost, he believes the US was founded as a democracy, which it wasn't, it's a federal republic. There is a major difference in those two types of government.” (READ MORE)

Kobayashi Maru writes It's All About Oil “I've lost track of the number of times I've heard repeated the easy canard that U.S. involvement in Iraq can be attributed to some darkly nefarious Texas corporate imperialist money-grubbing cabal and its demonic lust for oil and money at all costs and above all else. Watching the last half of Syriana yesterday afternoon didn't help matters any. The directors made that ‘argument’ as clear in pretty pictures as the MSM does in words, which is to say, very effectively if one enjoys being led by the nose into a counter-factual fantasy world.” (READ MORE)

Dafydd writes A Whopper a Day “As I have said to several folks in e-mail this week last, we must expect that every day, every media source that is elite (or wishes it were) will print yet another story whose only purpose is to demoralize Republicans. Expect it. Gird your loins. Prepare like a Boy Sprout. Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics appears to have caught Adam Nagourney of the New York (Democratic) Times in just such a whopper. It all starts out believably enough:” (READ MORE)

Captain Ed writes March 2001: Iraqi IIS Wants To Attack American Assets “Joseph Shahda has continued his excellent work at the Free Republic forum in translating captured documents from the Iraqi government. He has taken a close look at document CMPC-2003-006758, translating it from the Arabic and revealing the intent of Iraq to attack American interests. The memo from the IIS complains about the election of "Bush the Son" and talks about the need to exhort terrorists to attack America:” (READ MORE)

Michelle Malkin writes The Lamont Campaign Fizzles “The big buzz out of the Lieberman-Lamont debate today was generated by......GOP candidate Alan Schlesinger.
Yup. Greg at The Political Pit Bull thinks he was a bit over the top, but agrees Schlesinger made the most of the debate. He's got video highlights. The New York Times notes that nobody talked much at the debate about the one issue that was supposed to guarantee Ned Lamont his Senate seat--Iraq:” (READ MORE)

Neptunus Lex writes Counterpoint “As a memo to those who couldn’t get behind Mr. Bush’s Middle Eastern Adventure because 1) they couldn’t grok this whole preventative war concept, or 2) or because that, notwithstanding all of those solid-gold toilets being installed atop the bones of tens of thousands of dead Iraqi children in Saddam’s “Palaces for Me” program, they thought it would be better to “give sanctions a chance” some more, or maybe because 3) Cowboy George was being all butch and unilateral and everything, there is this:” (READ MORE)

Andi of Andi’s World writes The Future of MilBlogs “At the MilBlog Conference, Matt threw a shot across the bow to the Department of Defense. It went something like this: If you place unduly harsh restrictions on milbloggers, or worse -- shut them down altogether -- you're going to be left with those who don't play by the rules. OPSEC is a big concern for the Department of Defense, as well it should be, and those who place it in jeopardy should be shut down. However, the overwhelming majority of milbloggers are responsible with the information they release. Noah Shachtman tells us about a Virginia National Guard unit which will be monitoring the web.” (READ MORE)