A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Insurgent Activity Spurs Cheney Trip to Pakistan “The White House signaled its growing impatience with Pakistan's failure to crack down on Islamic extremists, dispatching Vice President Cheney for an unannounced visit yesterday to pressure President Pervez Musharraf to do more against a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.” (READ MORE)
Majority in Poll Favor Deadline For Iraq Pullout “With Congress preparing for renewed debate over President Bush's Iraq policies, a majority of Americans now support setting a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces from the war-torn nation and support putting new conditions on the military that could limit the number of personnel available for duty there, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll...” (READ MORE)
Diplomats Seek Way to 'Reengage' Iran “Representatives of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany said after meeting in London on Monday that they were committed to seeking a negotiated solution with Iran, which has defied a U.N. order to halt its uranium enrichment program.” (READ MORE)
CDC doctor opposes law for vaccine “The chairman of the federal panel that recommended the new cervical-cancer vaccine for pre-teen girls says lawmakers should not make the inoculation mandatory, as the District and more than 20 states, including Virginia, are considering.” (READ MORE)
Ex-CIA official urges silence after spy 'sting' “A former high-ranking CIA official refused FBI appeals for help in tracking Chinese spies and urged others via e-mail not to cooperate because of the recent prosecution of former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ron Montaperto.” (READ MORE)
Iranian leader's rhetoric criticized “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced a new round of sharp criticism at home yesterday after he said Iran's nuclear program is an unstoppable train without brakes, language opponents say only inflames the West as it considers further sanctions.” (READ MORE)
McCain strategy courts middle “Sen. John McCain is playing both sides against the middle as he supports sending more than 21,500 additional troops to Iraq while trying to distance himself from President Bush by labeling the war a ‘train wreck.’” (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Bill Roggio: Pakistan: A Debate at the Council on Foreign Relations “The Council on Foreign Relations has invited me to participate in a debate on Pakistan. The topic is: Is Pakistan Doing All It Should to Secure Its Afghan Border? I am debating Council on Foreign Relations Fellow Kathy Gannon, author of I is for Infidel and a longtime AP correspondent currently living in Pakistan.” (READ MORE)
Jack Army: Troop Support "I have to get this off my chest.I am so tired of reading about folks that claim to support the troops but not the war. They think my commander in chief preemtively, on his own, without a shred of real evidence or reason, decided to start a war on Iraq and while they don't support his decision, they do support me. Bullshit." (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Anne Applebaum: The Gall To Speak Her Mind “Clearly, there is something about Ayaan Hirsi Ali that annoys, rankles, irritates. I am speaking as one who does not know Hirsi Ali -- the outspoken Dutch-Somali critic of Islam -- but as one who, while living in Europe, cannot seem to avoid meeting her detractors. Most recently I met a Dutch diplomat who positively glowered when her name was mentioned.” (READ MORE)
Douglas MacKinnon: Our Very Politicians Ensure That Al Qaeda Destroys Us…Unless “With each passing day, I’m finding it more and more plausible to believe that Al Qaeda or its imitators, will inflict catastrophic and lasting damage upon our republic. The evidence is everywhere, but most of us choose to ignore that which enables the evil intent on killing us all.” (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: Ending Democrats' Free Ride on Iraq “For liberals like Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, it is far worse for Vice President Dick Cheney to accuse congressional Democrats of playing into Al Qaeda's hands on Iraq than for Democrats actually to play into Al Qaeda's hands on Iraq.” (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: High Court and Low Politics “The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said that you are entitled to your own opinion but not to your own facts. However, many on the political left act as if they are entitled to their own facts -- and especially the ‘fact’ that those who oppose their ideas are either intellectually or morally inferior.” (READ MORE)
Mark M. Alexander: Global Warming: Fact, Fiction and Political Endgame “’There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.’ --James Madison” (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson: Democrats Disingenuous in Their Anti-war Rhetoric “Why did a majority of Democratic Senators — such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Harry Reid, Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer — vote to authorize a war with Iraq on Oct. 11, 2002? And why is this war now supposedly George Bush's misfortune and not theirs?” (READ MORE)
Ian: Video: 60 Minutes Interviews Astroturfing Anti-War Soldier “Mudville Gazette has the low down on Lara Logan’s 60 Minutes report. The CBS correspondent interviewed several anti-Iraq War soldiers, including Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto. (h/t Michelle) Who is Jonathan Hutto? Media Lies has a great background on him. Here’s a little gem:” (READ MORE)
Dean Barnett: The Nutroots' Frustration “Markos Moulitsas is perplexed. The polls are all breaking the Democrats’ way. In response to the question, “Who do you trust to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq?” 34% said the President and 54% said the Democrats. And yet the Democrats still have yet to surrender in Iraq and begin formulating a plan for offering government-subsidized prayer rugs. Markos wonders, What gives? Why, he asks, are the Democrats “being so timid” in pulling the plug on Iraq?” (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: The cowards of the country “A little while ago, I ripped Congress for their appallingly craven approach to the ‘surge’ plans in Iraq. They hemmed and hawed and bleated, and finally decided on the ‘appropriate’ course of action: a ‘non-binding resolution’ opposing it. It was mealy-mouthed, half-assed, utterly pointless, and without a single redeeming feature.” (READ MORE)
Kim Priestap: Al Gore's Own Inconvenient Truth “Al Gore's mansion uses more than twice the electricity in one month than the average household does in an entire year. From the Tennessee Center for Policy Research: ‘Last night, Al Gore's global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.’” (READ MORE)
The Anchoress: Laughing at The Jesus Tomb “Last Friday - the first Friday of Lent, actually - I posted this story about the so-called ‘Tomb of Jesus’ being ‘found,’ and then forgot about it. So, I was surprised today to find the post getting eleventy billion hits.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Cohen rewrites Gore’s history “Richard Cohen of the Washington Post wrote a tribute to Al Gore, ‘An Oscar For His Second Act,’ which showed the fact-checker at the Post had an off day. I like the Post. Home newspaper of Dr. Charles Krauthammer, George Will and Anne Applebaum. Cohen?” (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nut House: Musharref Thumbs His Nose at Us “With Vice President Cheney’s ‘nannounced’ visit to Islamabad, the Bush Administration appears to be finally waking up to the fact that the situation in Pakistan has deteriorated to the point that it threatens not only Musharraf’s status as our primary ally in the region in fighting the War on Terror but also the safety and viability of the government of Afghanistan.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Apologism Rules “Eli Lake at the New York Sun on the growing Iraq apology trend and (a couple of the reasons) why the apologists are full of it: ‘What the apologists are asking for, if only by default, is a return to the amorality of détente and Realpolitik. Again, Iraq demonstrates this.’” (READ MORE)
McQ: On Iraq, Carl Levin Can’t Win, nor can the Democrats (Update) “Matt Stoller of MyDD demonstrates the box that Democrats have put themselves in. Talking about Sen. Carl Levin's appearance that I discussed below, Stoller is quite upset with what Levin had to say. You remember that Levin said: ‘Things have changed in Iraq. We don't believe that it's going to be possible to remove all of our troops from Iraq because there's going to be a limited purpose that they're going to need to serve, including a training, continued training of the Iraqi army, support for logistics in the Iraqi army, a counterterrorism purpose or a mission because there's about 5,000 al-Qaida in Iraq.’” (READ MORE)
Reformed Chicks Blabbing: Democrats backing down? “Wouldn't you think that now, when the war is at it's lowest ebb of support that the Democrats would strike and do something decisive to put a stop to the surge? That's what they have been promising to do ever since Bush announced he would be sending additional troops months ago. But now they are taking about postponing legislation:” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express: Appeal for Redress Member Admits to War Crimes “Boy the 60 Minutes piece on Appeal for Redress is getting the star treatment from Yahoo.com. They have a whole section devoted to it - and to stoke the anti-war fire they titled it simply ‘Dissension’. If you missed the broadcast you can literally watch the entire thing in video clips on the website. I took some Phenergan so I could keep my supper down before watching some of the clips. At least we finally get some names to go with those ‘nonymous’signatures...” (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl: Jumping Jihadist “I can imagine the response to this video below, I give CAIR about ten seconds to jump all over it. It's just one video from www.ourcountry.com, created by Lee Troxler, Writer/Producer of FarenHYPE 911 and Floyd G. Brown of the Young America’s Foundation. OurCountry touts itself as sort of a YouTube meets MySpace meets Internet Comedy Central for Conservatives.” (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: The Democratic Underground Post Of The Day: Wow! The Bushies Missed (Cheney)! “When I heard a suicide bomber had attacked a US base in Afghanistan while Dick Cheney was there (he's ok, although an American soldier and contractor, among others, were killed), the first place I went to was the Democratic Underground to look around for libs who wished Cheney was killed or were spinning conspiracy theories about the incident. Sadly, they did not disappoint.” (READ MORE)
Little Green Footballs: Muslim Girl Ejected from Canadian Soccer Tournament “Someone pushed an 11-year old Muslim girl into trying to play in a soccer tournament wearing the symbol of radical Islam’s suppression of women—the hijab. She was ejected, according to the rules. And now the second-guessing starts.” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed: Democrats Hit Reverse On Hitting Reverse “Democrats have delayed further consideration to restrict or cripple the Iraq war deployments, apparently stunned by the lack of cohesion among their own caucuses and fearful of the backlash their efforts might produce. Harry Reid has delayed the progress of a Joe Biden bill to revoke the 2002 AUMF, and Nancy Pelosi has started to distance herself from John Murtha (via Memeorandum):” (READ MORE)
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