A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
House Passes Bill to Implement More of 9/11 Panel's Suggestions “In a lopsided vote that masked underlying divisions, House Democrats approved legislation yesterday to implement many of the remaining recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission even as portions of the sprawling package faced immediate problems in the Senate.” (READ MORE)
U.S. Airstrikes Back Troops in Baghdad Clash “BAGHDAD, Jan. 9 -- With F-15 fighter jets and Apache helicopter gunships providing cover, U.S. and Iraqi troops on Tuesday battled hundreds of Sunni Arab insurgents firing from apartment buildings and houses in downtown Baghdad in one of the fiercest clashes in the capital in recent memory.” (READ MORE)
Hezbollah Widens Anti-Government Campaign “Hezbollah and its allies widened their campaign Tuesday to force the Lebanese government's resignation, backing what they vowed would be a series of daily protests scattered across the capital.” (READ MORE)
Kennedy proposal uncovers party rift “Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's proposal yesterday to require congressional approval for a troop surge was generally dismissed by fellow Democrats, revealing the deep divisions within the party over how to handle the war in Iraq.” (READ MORE)
Time's ticking on Democrats' goals “Underneath the clack of the speaker's gavel and the steady hum of political machinery, there was a faint ticktock heard throughout Capitol Hill yesterday.” (READ MORE)
House OKs reforms urged by 9/11 panel “House Democrats yesterday passed a bill that strengthens the homeland security reforms recommended by the September 11 commission, but Republicans said the legislation could undermine a program designed to slow the proliferation of technology used to make weapons of mass destruction.” (READ MORE)
Democrats Plan Symbolic Votes Against Bush’s Iraq Troop Plan “Democrats hope to isolate the president politically over his handling of the war by forcing Republicans to take a stand on the issue.” (READ MORE)
Venezuelan Plan Shakes Investors “Investors reacted with alarm to a plan by President Hugo Chávez to nationalize crucial areas of the economy.” (READ MORE)
Bush’s Troop-Increase Plan Is Expected to Draw Six Guard Brigades to Iraq “President Bush’s plan to increase troop levels in Iraq is expected to require the Army eventually to send as many as six National Guard combat brigades to Iraq, beginning in 2008.” (READ MORE)
News From the Front:
Bill Ardolino writes Putting out fires in Fallujah “It was 11:30 a.m. on Friday in Fallujah’s Joint Coordination Center — the Marine-manned control room which monitors everything from insurgent attacks to traffic jams in the city — when a large boom reverberated from two blocks away.” (READ MORE)
Acute Politics writes Warning: War May Be Hazardous “The modern military combines part big brother society with part warfighter. We soldiers are considered almost mature enough to understand that war is dangerous, and the weapons we fight it with are just as dangerous as the enemies. The military seems to trust that we will understand that we can't be running around post like cowboys with loaded weapons or explosives.” (READ MORE)
Badger 6 writes First Mission “Ar Ramadi, Iraq. 0300. We left the FOB at 2130, and we have been winding our way through the city since then. We are nearing the end of our route. It is one of our first patrols on the ground in Iraq on our own. No trainers, no unit we were replacing. Just us. Many of the Soldiers in our unit have spent years training to do something like this. Wondering what it would be like. Wondering if we would measure up.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Jules Crittenden writes On Reflection “Just a month ago, the Iraq Study Group issued its recommendations, of which I have been dismissive. Particularly of the ‘Talk to Syria and Iran’ part. But on reflection, I've thought better of that. The ISG correctly recognized that the attitudes of Iran and Syria are key to achieving stability and peace in Iraq. We need to talk to Iran, most immediately. The conversation starts like this:” (READ MORE)
Don Surber writes Ted Kennedy needs help “Ted Kennedy continues to embarrass his big brother. On Tuesday he called for waving the White Flag Over Baghdad. The Boston Herald’s Jules Crittenden took Ted to the woodshed. Crittenden applied his history lesson:” (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nut House writes The Time For Evasion is Over “After three years of carping, harping, caterwauling, criticizing, not to mention spinning ever more outrageous and fantastical conspiracy theories about the war, it is time for the Democrats to stand up and do what they say they’ve been sent to Washington to do; get us out of Iraq.” (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped writes Danger and Defense “On Saturday, I made the mistake of engaging someone in an attempted discussion of Human Generated Global Warming. This woman was absolutely convinced that we are heading for disaster; our children will all be inhabiting a dying planet; Florida will be underwater and everyone there will drown. (She presented this as a serious fear, not as a joke. I mentioned that people could move if her worst fears come to pass and she dismissed the possibility; maybe she's right about her children.)” (READ MORE)
Scott Johnson of Power Line writes The Bureaucratic War On The Bush Administration “In today's New York Sun Josh Gerstein reports on the government's reponse to his Freedom of Information Act request regarding the Justice Department's leak investigations: ‘Leak probes stymied, FBI memos show.’ The story is mystifying. As I read it I wondered why no grand jury has been convened and evidence gathered the old-fashioned way. Then Joe DiGenova expresses the same mystification at the conclusion of the ariticle:” (READ MORE)
Curt of Flopping Aces writes Berger's Slap On The Wrist “Joel Mowbray writes at Townhall on how our MSM has decided to be quite nonchalant about the huge story of a National Security Advisor stealing classified documents, hiding them behind trailers, and then getting a slap on the wrist:” (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl writes It's Senator Kennedy's Vietnam That Matters Most “I should preface this post, as you read below, imagine if we followed the Kennedy line on Iraq and pulled out leaving sectarian and terrorist groups behind to slaughter large numbers of people. THAT would be our fault, as we invaded Iraq. It would convince our enemies we are weak, it would tell any moderate friends in the middle-East we weren't to be trusted ... and, most importantly, it would give the so-called Arab street a justifiable reason to become even more hostile to America. In short, Kennedy's fecklessness would do precisely the opposite of what we need to do as regards the Middle East and the global war on terror.” (READ MORE)
John Hawkins writes There Is No "Trickle Up" Effect Caused By The Minimum Wage “Over at the Huffington Post, Steven Hill has written a backwards and ill-informed economic argument for the minimum wage. Here are the lowlights: ‘Recent proposals call for increasing the current federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour -- the lowest minimum wage in inflation-adjusted dollars in more than 50 years -- to $7.25 an hour.’” (READ MORE)
See-Dubya writing at Michelle Malkin writes Triumph des Caliphs “Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 film ‘Triumph des Willens’ (Triumph of the Will) went a long way toward making the Nazis look cool, or at least, rather less like a bunch of pasty sausage-gobbling dorkozoids. Now, consider this ‘promotional’ film for the radical Muslim group Hizb-ut-Tahrir.” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed writes The Last Best Chance “President Bush will take to the airwaves tonight to unveil his new strategy in Iraq, attempting to build enough support to shift more troops for at least a limited engagement against sectarian militias that threaten to undermine the Iraqi government. In preparation, Bush spent hours polishing his speech and meeting with lawmakers of both parties to ensure he strikes the right tone:” (READ MORE)
Froggy writing at Blackfive writes Lies, Damned Lies from the Anti-War Left “I have a Google Alert switched on for ‘Navy SEAL,’ so every day I get a couple of emails with links to articles mentioning those words. The other day, I got a doozy. As it turns out, there is a pack of degenerate lefty scumbags who put together a website called antiwar.com where they showcase all manner of moonbattery and psychotic conspiratorial ravings.” (READ MORE)
Pam writes Somalia and the Jihad Loving Media “Ben points to the obvious bias in covering the dead in the continuing war on the global jihad. We know first hand how far AP and al-Reuters will go to advance their agenda here.” (READ MORE)
Ian of HotAir writes Video: Ted Kennedy says Iraq is Bush’s Vietnam “Sen. Ted Kennedy handed an irresistible sound bite to the media in his speech to the National Press Club this afternoon, some 32 hours before the president announces his new strategy for Iraq. Christopher Hitchens, an ardent opponent of the Vietnam War, has addressed this subject several times, most memorably in 2004:” (READ MORE)
JonJayRay writing at Stop the ACLU writes Backlash Against Ban on Use of Indian References in Sport “The number of white Americans who harbor ill-will towards American Indians these days must be so small that you would need a microscope to find them. But that does not suit the Left at all — who need to see racism in others so badly that they even make up instances of racism and ‘homophobia’ from time to time.” (READ MORE)
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