A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Senate Passes Ethics Package “Senate Democrats and Republicans broke a difficult stalemate last night and approved 96 to 2 expansive legislation to curtail the influence of lobbyists, tighten congressional ethics rules and prevent the spouses of senators from lobbying senators and their staffs.” (READ MORE)
China Criticized for Anti-Satellite Missile Test “The Chinese military used a ground-based missile to hit and destroy one of its aging satellites orbiting more than 500 miles in space last week -- a high-stakes test demonstrating China's ability to target regions of space that are home to U.S. spy satellites and space-based missile defense systems.” (READ MORE)
Senate passes ethics reform by 96-2 margin “The Senate last night overwhelmingly passed an ethics bill after breaking a day-long stalemate over a Republican proposal on earmarks that had threatened to kill the legislation.” (READ MORE)
House to echo criticism of troop surge “Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that House Democrats will support a Senate resolution denouncing President Bush's proposal to increase the number of troops in Iraq.” (READ MORE)
GOP expects secret ballot “Republican National Committee members think they will get a secret ballot on today's election of a new general chairman, which would protect members opposed to the White House's push to fill the new slot with an advocate of an amnesty for illegal aliens.” (READ MORE)
News From the Front:
Mahdi militia under siege in Sadr City “Mahdi Army fighters said yesterday they were under siege in their Sadr City stronghold as U.S. and Iraqi troops killed or seized key commanders in nighttime raids.” (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston writes Baghdad Report: Tomba kids “Our second patrol from FOB Justice took us to see the after effects of war and economic ruin. Iraq’s economy is booming, but unemployment remains a major problem, and a major wedge for the various insurgencies that plague the country.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio writes High Value Targets “Coalition forces have made some strides in degrading the leadership of the global Islamist movement. Two senior Taliban commanders were captured in Afghanistan, while the Philippine military continues to dismantle Abu Sayyaf's leadership on the island of Jolo.” (READ MORE)
Michael J. Totten writes The Blitzing of Haret Hreik “I have been to Haret Hreik, Hezbollah’s dahiyeh and de-facto “capital” south of Beirut, many times. But I didn’t expect to see it on my most recent trip. Every Lebanese person I know warned me to stay out of there. The destruction from the summer war is severe and Hezbollah’s fear and loathing of visitors, especially Americans, is even more so. The most paranoid party in Lebanon is more paranoid than ever before. Best to steer clear of their base.” (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin writes The immortal words of 2LT Mark Daily “A reader e-mails that 2LT Mark Daily was killed in an IED attack in Mosul along with three other soldiers. He was named the ROTC's outstanding cadet for 2005 and also a Distinguished Military Graduate, the highest ROTC award. The OC Register profiles him here. This was his MySpace post explaining his decision to enter the military.” (READ MORE)
Mohammed writes Mourning the Fallen Angels of Iraq... “Nothing was more painfully clear than this message; they are killing our future by killing students and knowledge. They are killing the flowers who filled the world with laughter, energy and hope since the first school was built thousands of years ago somewhere on this very land.” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed writes Task Force 16 Takes On Iranian Influence “In another indication that the Bush administration has more than just one use for the extra troops going to Iraq, US News and World Report has an exclusive on a heretofore clandestine unit tasked with dismantling Iran's web of influence in Baghdad and greater Iraq. Task Force 16, modeled on the group that eventually took out Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has operated in Iraq for most of the past year, collecting intelligence and now starting covert operations based on their data:” (READ MORE)
Michael Yon writes Walking the Line 2007 Part 3 of 3 “The evening of 30 December, CSM Jeffrey Mellinger talked over dinner with troops about progress and setbacks in Iraq. This was about twelve hours before Saddam was to hang, but that was still a big secret to nearly everyone. American Brigadier General Francis Wiercinksi would later tell me that neither he nor the current governor of Salah al Dinh Province, where Saddam was born, were aware of the impending execution.” (READ MORE)
GWOTdotUS writes Real life Rambo foils VBIED bomber “Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan is the headquarters for the 41st BCT, the unit that is tasked with training the Afghanistan National Army and is the unit that I am currently assigned to. Recently, a would-be suicide bomber driving a vehicle loaded with explosives, crashed into the main gate, intent on detonating his device. Man did he pick the wrong camp….” (READ MORE)
Badger 6 writes Iraq 101 “Bridget Johnson over at National Review Online has a terrific primer on the Iraq Campaign. It pretty much dismantles every single point the conventional wisdom brings against the war. Too bad it is does not come on a 3x5 card for easy reference.” (READ MORE)
Buck Sargent writes Studying Iraq for Dhimmis “December 6, 2006: a date which will live in irrelevancy. Now that four out of five critics have agreed to agree that the President's latest elective surgery is poised to kill the patient on the operating table, I finally made time to digest that redundant monstrosity of pomposity known as the Iraq Study Group Report of the Hamilton-Baker Commission. (Also referred to by anyone who's spent more than four days on the ground as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Iraq).” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Hugh Hewitt writes Losing The (Electronic) War “Want to kill all of the State of the Union’s impact? Tell everyone what is in it. Want to build audience? Tell no one. Don’t even give a copy to the Speaker. Make her listen and react, and all the Congresspeople as well.” (READ MORE)
Matt Margolis & Mark Noonan writes You Don't Know Jack Abramoff. Or Do You? “Last week, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a liberal-leaning ethics watchdog group that calls itself nonpartisan claimed to have ‘proved’ that President Bush and lobbyist Jack Abramoff had a strong relationship - and by extension tar President Bush with the corruption Abramoff is undoubtedly guilty of.” (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh writes The Un-Fairness Doctrine: Unevening the Playing Field, by Law “Beware of liberals using such words as ‘fairness.’ In resurrecting the ‘Fairness Doctrine,’ liberals are trying to kill conservative talk radio and restore their media monopoly.” (READ MORE)
Patrick J. Buchanan writes See the Superpower Run “No sooner had Sens. Hagel and Biden announced their resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the Bush surge of 21,500 troops to Iraq was not in the national interest than the stampede was on.” (READ MORE)
Cliff May writes A Time for Middle East Peace “Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict would be a wonderful thing. But the reality is that for more than a half century, every American president has attempted to find a magic formula that would bring peace to the tiny territories between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. And every American president has seen his efforts come a cropper.” (READ MORE)
Crazy Politico writes Goodbye Art “Art Buchwald died today at 81, in a way I'm sure most of us hope we can go, on our own terms. Art was given weeks to live last February when he decided against dialysis for kidney failure, and instead went home, then to a hospice. Instead, he held out for a year, and even wrote a book about the experience.” (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson writes Global Schizophrenia “When it comes to intervening in international affairs, the United States is damned when it does and damned when it doesn't. Critics of U.S. policy are always quick to pounce — and in this age of globalization, they're only getting more impatient.” (READ MORE)
Kobayashi Maru writes Why MLK, Jr. was in the GOP & why the issue didn't die with him “Everyone knows that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. I must admit, I never knew that Martin Luther King, Jr. was one also. And what I've never fully appreciated is how little 'old' (pre-1970) Democrats differ in their elitist assumptions from their current flag-bearers. One Frances Rice (no relation to Condi that I know of) is chairman of the National Black Republican Association (NBRA). She writes:” (READ MORE)
Jay Tea writes Those no-count illegal aliens... “Politically, Massachusetts is in a bit of a fix. With the next census and reapportioning of Congressional seats, they can fully expect to lose one -- if not two -- members of the House, as the state has been hemorrhaging people for years now. More and more are finding themselves fed up with the high cost (both financially and otherwise) of belonging to the ‘nanny state’ and heading to greener pastures.” (READ MORE)
Tully of Baldilocks writes Apropos of Nothing “I've been to far too many funerals, dozens and dozens at least. Family, acquaintances, my very best friends. Sad to say, you do get used to it. I did not expect that the funeral of a near-stranger would move me very much. I was wrong. I was wrong because once, he was a Marine.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber writes We could use Reagan’s SDI program about now “I’ve said it before: They have a name for advanced civilizations that refuse to defend themselves; they become ‘ancient civilizations.’” (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nut House writes Democrats Say The Darndest Things (Part 5,197) “Most people don’t put much stock in opinion polls – unless you’re a liberal and the majority supports your position. Then the poll takes on all the characteristics of holy writ. Moses and his commandments have less truthiness than a liberal clutching the results of an opinion poll that agrees with one of his positions.” (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped writes Its All Our Fault! “In thinking about the various ‘narratives’ that are offered to explain our dangerous world, one that recurs with regularity and is often a basic unarticulated assumption of many arguments against the War in Iraq and the Global War on Islamic fascism in general, is essentially that it is ultimately the behavior of the West itself that is to blame for the rage and violence coming from the world of Islam. This argument appears in various guises, some more coherent than others.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden writes Why We Hate Us “Important New York Times Editorial: A Spy Program Foiled. Of the many ways that the New York Times has obstructed the United States government, aiding and abetting the enemies of our nation since the 9/11 attacks, one of the most egregious was this newspaper’s decision reveal the wiretapping of terrorism suspects’ international calls and e-mail, one of several secret surveillance programs we have undermined.” (READ MORE)
Curt of Flopping Aces writes Sadr On The Run “Starting to look like those who put on the sad face when the details of the surge became known, specifically those on the right side of the aisle (the left always have a frown when it comes to Iraq, hating victory can do that to a person), may be turning that frown into a smile. Sadr's minions appear to be on the run, for good reason:” (READ MORE)
Michelle writes Pelosi now says they won't block funding “The Democrats really need to pick a position and stick to it. They're lurching around here like Frankenstein's monster, not knowing what they're doing. Now Pelosi is saying that they won't block funding to the troops (this is from an interview with Pelosi that will air this morning on Good Morning America):” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express writes The Blood Will Be on Your Hands From This Point Forward “Lookie Lookie - the Dems are just beside themselves with glee... They've got the fake Senate Resolution all ready to sign so they can drive it like a stake through the heart of my country.” (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl writes Dems Support War ... of Words “Interesting, the New York Times certainly doesn't believe in re-deployment when it comes to its war of words against Bush. And their more than happy to oblige the democrats by acting as cheerleader for the launching of investigations. It isn't as though the President would be better focused on the war of terror, or some such silly thing.” (READ MORE)
Cassandra writes But Don't You Dare Question Our Patriotism... “Month after month the media wring their hands over the escalating violence in Iraq: 70% of which occurs in just 5 neighborhoods in a single city. This, we are told, is a miserable failure on the part of the Bush administration to bring peace to an entire nation. But as Pam Hess recently noted, that's only part of the story: a story the media persist in distorting by omission:” (READ MORE)
Blonde Sagacity writes Muslim Activism...A Tad Frivolous? “Making a show about modern day terrorism without using Muslims extremists would be like making a Mafia show and using Guatemalans. In fact, considering that almost every act of terrorism over the past 20 years was perpetrated by young radical Muslim males, when I see a show that doesn't have the balls to make the terrorist a Muslim I chalk it up to PC tripe.” (READ MORE)
Rightwing Guy writes al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army Are Going Down! “In an unprecedented move Two Shiite militia commanders stated Thursday that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has stopped protecting radical anti- American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army under pressure from Washington, while the fighters described themselves as under siege in their Sadr City stronghold.” (READ MORE)
Most Certainly Not writes Raging Against the Machinery "Katie Couric thinks she's oppressed? Uh, yeah. I'd LOVE for her to trot out her nasally whine in a room full of first-time female voters in any province in Iraq. WHAT a knob. Having a chance to be free and actually choosing to live so are two completely different things and the latter involves a learning process that takes longer than a couple years to effectuate." (READ MORE)
Army Wife Toddler Mom writes This isn't McDonald's, and it is not a Country Club either. "I am sick of people wanting everything NOW! Instant gratification does not work in war, democracy, liberty. Some things are worth the wait. Nation, and government building take time. Oh and lets talk about the picture the media has painted of Iraq. I mean it sort of resembles a Picasso at this point." (READ MORE)
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