A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Al-Maliki turns on Shi'ite militia “Iraq's prime minister has stopped protecting Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia because U.S. intelligence convinced him that the group was infiltrated by death squads whose actions were leaving him isolated, two officials said yesterday.” (READ MORE)
Support grows to make English official “The push to make English the nation's official language is building momentum, with a congressional bill on the horizon and seven states pushing legislation to make English the official language or to strengthen laws already in place.” (READ MORE)
GOP seizes on dissent in majority “House Republicans have been quoting some unlikely allies when complaining about the methods used by the new Democratic majority -- Democratic leaders.” (READ MORE)
Disguises Used in Attack on Troops “The armored sport-utility vehicles whisked into a government compound in the city of Karbala with speed and urgency, the way most Americans and foreign dignitaries travel along Iraq's treacherous roads these days.” (READ MORE)
For the Clinton Candidacy, a Soft Launch “One day after declaring for president, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) gave her first public glimpse of how she will run: as the mother of a daughter, as a serious student of policy and as a two-term senator from New York.” (READ MORE)
War's Arab Supporters Bitter Over Its Results “With a certain satisfaction, Lebanese journalist Michael Young watched a local station broadcast images seen across the world on April 9, 2003: the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Firdaus Square, its reverberations rumbling across a stunned Middle East.” (READ MORE)
News From the Front:
The Online Chaplin writes Two Principles for Handling Disappointment “Principle # 1 Realize You Are In Good Company: The rich and the poor, the common and the famous, presidents and paupers all deal with disappointment. No matter who you are the mountain of expectation can tumble down. Principle #2 Whine like Crazy.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio writes Patrolling with the Snake Eaters - On the streets with the Iraqi soldiers of the 3/3-1 “The Snake Eaters of the 3/3-1 are held in high esteem by the Marine and Army trainers at ASP Outpost. As with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division in Fallujah, the logistics and pay issues, along with a lack of heavy weapons, are what is holding the battalion back from operating without Coalition support.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio writes The Iraqi Army and the MTT in Khalidiya “The shift from partnering with Iraqi battalions to the implementation of the transition teams in one year is dramatic, and there are both surprising developments and disappointing setbacks.” (READ MORE)
Jack Army writes Going AWOL “For those of you who aren't familiar with the military acronym AWOL (Absent With Out Leave), it refers to military members who have left their units and are not present for duty. Not a good thing. The two pictured in the link below have decided that they will not return from mid-tour leave. They have made this announcement loud and often in the last two weeks.” (READ MORE)
Mohammed of Iraq The Model writes A last chance or a new beginning? “The last chance…I hear these words a lot these days that it became the common description or question by the media for/about the new security plan—last chance for Maliki, last chance for Bush, last chance for Iraq…as if the new plan was a coin that can be flipped only once carrying victory on the one face and doom on the other.” (READ MORE)
Badger 6 writes It is critical that we take advantage of this opportunity to win. "In December posted about SEN John McCain's visit here to Ramadi, I praised the Senator for coming here and returning to stand up for, not just the service members, but for the mission. He was joined by several other Senator's including SEN Joe Lieberman. SEN Lieberman has continued to support the mission at a tremendous political cost. It is of no moment that he won reelection to the Senate in that analysis. He burned bridges in getting back there." (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Dinesh D'Souza writes What They Know That Isn't So “As I debate the topics covered in my new book The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11 I find myself arguing with a whole bunch of people on the left who ‘know’ things that aren’t true.” (READ MORE)
Kevin McCullough writes Why We Need Not CAIR “All one needs to know about CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) is that when they have the opportunity to defend America to terrorists they always fail.” (READ MORE)
Some Soldiers Mom writes Absolutely True... and Absolutely OUTRAGEOUS! “SGT Hess, We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq. Bargain Suppliers Discount-Mats.com” (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson writes Did Iraq Really Ruin the U.S.? “Writing of the decline of the West — and the United States in particular — has been a parlor game from the time of doomsayers Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee to Paul Kennedy’s pessimism of the 1980s. Now the most recent serial epitaphs center on the Anglo-American experience in Iraq that will soon end, it is foretold, in defeat and a global loss of American prestige to the detriment of the West at large.” (READ MORE)
Kobayashi Maru writes Climate Change Money Trails and Orwellisms “For those who haven't heard about the Weather Channel flap or Heidi Cullen, it might be a good idea to first brush up on the plot of George Orwell's ‘1984.’ Here's the gist: Wonya Lucas, Exec. VP and GM of The Weather Channel Networks came from CNN where she helped to shift that network from straight news reporting to ‘personality-driven’ programming. Never mind that CNN's ratings fell as a result of its leftward lurch.” (READ MORE)
Hugh Hewitt writes Will The GOP Break The Trust? “From an active duty office with 26 years in, including combat experience: ‘Can the Republicans Still be Trusted?’ Two months prior to the mid-term election I composed a piece that argued Democrats could not be trusted with American national security.” (READ MORE)
Jay Tea writes Know Your Enemy “Saturday night, Fox News ran a special investigation into the discovery and breaking up of a Hezballah terrorist cell in the United States. Hezballah operatives were raising money by smuggling cigarettes from North Carolina into Michigan, evading Michigan's very high taxes on tobacco. The money raised was partly sent straight to Hezballah in Lebanon and Syria, the rest was used to buy weapons and paramilitary gear both here and in Canada for export to Hezballah.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber writes Kristol to the left: Quit rooting on the enemy “William Kristol pissed off the left this morning on Fox News by telling the simple truth: Rooting for an American debacle in the final surge is not helpful.” (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nut House writes The CAIR Whine “CAIR spokesperson complaining about portrayal of Muslims on 24 The sound is grating to the ears. Whenever there is the slightest opportunity to piggyback a grievance – either real or imagined – on a story that will guarantee a few precious lines of copy in newspapers or a few seconds of face time on television, the Council on American Islamic Relations will turn on the whine and, like a fingernail being drawn slowly across the surface of a blackboard, draw attention to themselves in the most excruciating manner possible.” (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped writes An American Scandal “During the 2004 Presidential election campaign, there were vigorous efforts made to depict anyone who questioned the wisdom of the Democratic position as, in reality, unfairly questioning the Democrat's patriotism. This became a heavily weighted meme that has continued to be bandied about; to oppose the anti-war position has been declared tantamount to questioning people's patriotism (along with trying to limit free speech and, for those most afflicted with BDS, usher in fascism.)” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden writes The Next Holocaust Will be Different “As the United States Congress prepares its attempt to hamstring a president in time of war, there are certain issues of law and history the Democratic majority may want to consider. Let’s start with the Constitution. Section 2, clause 1: The President shall be the commander in chief …” (READ MORE)
Paul Mirengoff writes How much can we count on Hillary's ruthlessness? “Mark Steyn addresses an argument one hears a lot these days -- that Hillary Clinton will be tough on terrorists because she's been tough on political opponents and others (think White House travel office) who stand in her way. Steyn disagrees:” (READ MORE)
Texas Rainmaker writes The State of the Union: Suffering From Political Fatigue “I finally realized it this morning. After seeing the flurry of news activity surrounding Hillary Clinton’s announcement that she’s forming an exploratory committee, it finally hit me. I’m tired of politics. I’m tired of it because our current political system has become nothing more than a series of campaigns.” (READ MORE)
Rob of Flopping Aces writes Heroism, Politics, and Middle Earth “Saying the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong,” Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express writes Is the Media Waking Up to the Islamofascist Threat? “The media has repeatedly turned a blind eye to the threat posed by Islamofascists. Many media organizations refused to call the killers "terrorists" opting for the more PC term "insurgents". The Danish cartoons were conspicuously absent from media publication in the US. Some pundits actually blamed America for the terrorism instead of pointing the finger at those actually committing terrorist acts.” (READ MORE)
Andi writes Who Speaks For Them? “We interrupt our regularly scheduled milblogging to challenge yet another off-base female. Yesterday it was Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer, today it's Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Debra Pickett. Read her column. In short, Pickett seems to believe that the flap over the Boxer/Rice exchange was an orchestrated distraction from the real issue.” (READ MORE)
Cassandra writes AP "Stands By" Erroneous Report Of Destroyed Mosques “In a series of lurid and constantly changing stories spanning several days in November, the Associated Press quoted one Captain Jamil Hussein as their source. The details were horrifying: six Sunnis dragged from worship services, doused with kerosene and burned alive, their bodies then taken to a nearby morgue. Or was it a cemetery?” (READ MORE)
John Hawkins writes Bush Should Forget The White House Correspondents' Association Annual Dinner “You have the President of the United States showing up at an event where he'll be mocked for the amusement of the jackals in the press. These are the people who are undercutting the war on terrorism, rooting for Republicans to fail, and doing everything they can to push the Democrats in 2008 and bury the GOP. So, why bother with the White House Correspondents' dinner and these other gag dinners that the White House attends?” (READ MORE)
Greyhawk writes A Beginner's Guide To Getting Your Surge On “’Lawmakers were introducing Iraq legislation at a mad pace yesterday, at one point in the afternoon scheduling news conferences in half-hour intervals.’ With poll results in, they wanted to confirm their own opposition to the plan. But what is it they oppose? By the same token, what is it that others are supporting? What exactly is this plan that most Americans ‘want to work?’ You might think you know.”(READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin writes The self-importance of speechwriters “I have worked with, known, and continue to admire many lovely, talented speechwriters. In general, I have nothing against speechwriters. But some of them really need to get a little more outside-the-Beltway perspective. Their tone-deafness makes their boss look bad. The New York Times spotlights White House scribes toiling away on the State of the Union address:” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed writes A Bigger Mistake By Maliki “The Iraqi government appeared to be taking the fight against the Mahdi Army and Moqtada al-Sadr seriously ... for a week or so. Yesterday, they took one gigantic step backwards when they announced that Sadr would rejoin the government, having cut yet another deal to keep from paying the price for his sectarian warfare:” (READ MORE)
Belmont Club writes What did Lieberman's victory really augur? “Two pundits read the tea leaves at the in the wake of Joe Lieberman's senate victory. (Hat tip: Roger Simon) Just what does it suggest for the Presidential race in 2008? The first pundit, Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute writing in Real Clear Politics, thinks it augurs well for John McCain.” (READ MORE)
Rightwing Guy writes Is WWIII Upon Us? “Some of you are a little apprehensive when it comes to this subject, I however am not, I see what’s going on all over the world and realize that if something does not happen soon, regardless of what we want, a future global war is a very real and serious threat.” (READ MORE)
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