Web Reconnaissance for 03/28/2007

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



In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Democrats' timetable clears Senate “Senate Democrats yesterday thwarted a Republican effort to strip a troop withdrawal timetable from the Iraq war funding bill -- speeding Congress toward a veto showdown with President Bush.” (READ MORE)

Blair warns Tehran of next 'phase' in standoff “British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Iran yesterday of a ‘different phase’ in the standoff over 15 detained British sailors and marines...” (READ MORE)

House GOP seeks to shield 'John Doe' “House Republicans yesterday surprised Democrats with a procedural vote to protect public-transportation passengers from being sued if they report suspicious activity -- the first step by lawmakers to protect ‘John Doe’ airline travelers...” (READ MORE)

Senate Backs Pullout Proposal “Senate Democrats scored a surprise victory yesterday in their bid to force President Bush to end the Iraq war, turning back a Republican amendment that would have struck a troop withdrawal plan from emergency military funding legislation.” (READ MORE)

Failures at FBI Acknowledged “Angry senators accused FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III yesterday of management failures that resulted in the dispatch of hundreds of national security letters and intelligence surveillance warrants based on false information, and Mueller said he accepted that characterization.” (READ MORE)


From the Front:
Michael Yon: Tabula Rasa “From Baghdad - Recent mention of cooperation with FOX News kicked rumor into high gear, leading some long-time readers to lament my “selling-out” to a major outlet. Simultaneously, thousands of new readers via the FOX website have little idea why my work suddenly is featured there. This dispatch will hopefully quell both concerns.” (READ MORE)

Acute Politics: The winds in Al-Anbar are changing “The intra-Sunni fighting in Al-Anbar province is continuing, and the violence is rising. Bill Roggio has done a good job synthesizing the information here, here, here and here. I'll also try my hand at laying out some of the recent events below, and explain a little bit of how the various elements you may hear about in the news are related.” (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Ben Shapiro: Committing Suicide, One Step At A Time “How far will the West be pushed? For decades, Iran has embraced a strategy of carefully feeling its oats, prodding at the West, testing our mettle in inches.” (READ MORE)

Tony Blankley: Hillary on Track for Nomination “With every passing week it becomes more likely that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party nominee for president. This thought, alone, should provide the strongest possible motivation to the Bush administration and the Washington Republicans to get their acts together so that the eventual Republican nominee for president doesn't start the general election campaign in too deep a hole.” (READ MORE)

Bruce Bartlett: Coulter Consequences “One of the reasons why I wish columnist Ann Coulter hadn't used the F-word in a recent speech - the one that is a derogatory term for being gay - is because it gave liberals yet another excuse to label all conservatives as homophobic, racist and sexist, which writer Rick Perlstein did last week in the New Republic.” (READ MORE)

Michelle Malkin: The John Doe Manifesto “I am John Doe. I will never forget the example of the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 who refused to sit back on 9/11 and let themselves be murdered in the name of Islam without a fight.” (READ MORE)

Walter E. Williams: Global Warming Heresy “Among the many findings that dispute environmentalists' claims are: Manmade carbon dioxide emissions are roughly 5 percent of the total; the rest are from natural sources such as volcanoes, dying vegetation and animals. Annually, volcanoes alone produce more carbon dioxide than all of mankind's activities. Oceans are responsible for most greenhouse gases.” (READ MORE)

Paul Weyrich: Earmarks - Another Promise Down The Drain “This January, in an attempt to appeal to the voters of both parties as they basked in the glow of their recent victory, the majority leadership team in the House of Representatives promised many reforms. Among other things, the American people were informed that the new Congress would enforce a one-year moratorium upon certain special projects that often go unnoticed when they are slipped into major legislation. These appropriations are a version of what used to be known as ‘pork’ and a way for a House Member to ‘bring home the bacon’ to his or her constituents.” (READ MORE)

Cal Thomas: Vote Buying “In the scandalous, shortsighted sellout of American troops in Iraq, a slim Democratic House majority passed a measure that speaker and top vote buyer Nancy Pelosi claimed would ‘end the war in Iraq.’ The claim is preposterous because, even if the Senate were to pass such a measure, there are insufficient votes to override a presidential veto.” (READ MORE)

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Policing Terror “Some people think the reason there have been no successful terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11 is because the threat from Islamofascists and others wishing us ill has been overblown. Actually, our enemies have never stopped trying to inflict additional death and destruction here.” (READ MORE)

Pete du Pont: Year of the Donkey “Are the Democrats rising, or just listing to the left?
We do not know who will be the next president, but for now we know the worm has turned: The Democratic Party is gaining and the Republican Party is losing control of the government.” (READ MORE)

Kobayashi Maru: Iranian Machinations: Sun Tzu Would be Pleased “In between starting up two paying projects, traveling cross-country (and back), helping my older daughter sort through college acceptances (and put into perspective the wait-lists and rejections) and running myself into a quivering, physically exhausted heap in preparation for the Boston Marathon, blogging has not been at the top of my priority list.” (READ MORE)

Bryan Preston: Flying imams shot down by Congress “Congress does something that makes sense? And defends average Americans from racial mau mauing? This Congress? I might faint. ‘House Republicans today surprised Democrats with a procedural vote to protect public-transportation passengers from being sued if they report suspicious activity — the first step by lawmakers to protect ‘John Doe’ airline travelers already targeted in a lawsuit by Muslim imams that charges profiling.’” (READ MORE)

William Teach: Lawsuit Against Rummy Dismissed. Take That! “Good to read that there are some judges in this country who aren't complete moonbats. ‘Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cannot be tried on allegations of torture in overseas military prisons, a federal judge said Tuesday.’” (READ MORE)

The Marching Camp: British sailors and Iran “Well, everyone knows the substance of this story, which is that Iran snatched some British sailors, and is accusing them of espionage. Certain elements of the Blogosphere are up in arms about this accusation, claiming that it violates ‘Article 46 of the Geneva Convention’ which specifically excludes from charges of espionage those gathering intelligence data while in military uniform.” (READ MORE)

Dymphna: American Justice for All? No Way! “David Hicks, the Australian convert to Islam currently residing in Guantanamo, has pleaded guilty to ‘providing material support for terrorism.’ The 31-year-old Muslim convert, arrived at Guantanamo in early 2002, a month after being captured in Afghanistan in December 2001.” (READ MORE)

The Augean Stables: Humiliation and Terrorism: Goldhagen’s Analysis “Daniel Goldhagen has an excellent discussion of the problem of ‘humiliation’ and Jihad. While for polemical reasons he may be dismissive of ‘humiliation’ as an explanation of Arab/Muslim ‘rage,’ his overall point — there’s much more to the problem than ‘humiliation,’ is crucial, especially when it comes to policy options. I’ve highlighted particularly significant passages and added some notes.” (READ MORE)

Baron Bodissey: Holger, the Guardian of the West “Regular readers know that I have recently become enamored of Holger Danske. The Islamic threat from al-Andalus meant more to Holger than his quarrels with his Frankish neighbors, and so he became a hero of the Western World at Poitiers in 732. That part of his story is recorded in history, but now we come to the myth.” (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Congress parties first, supports troops later “After looking at the list of items that the 49 Democratic senators (and Chuck Hagel) thought were equal to supporting our troops in Iraq yesterday, I discovered something even more disgusting today, via The Politico:” (READ MORE)

Right Wing Nut House: Astonishing Cynisism Shown by the Democrats “I’ve been following politics for going on 40 years and during that time, I have witnessed the high, the low, the principled and unprincipled, the sheer human drama of democracy’s workings on display in all of its glory and shame. But what has made politics a lifelong fascination for me have been the men and women who perform its rituals, parading across the great national stage in Washington – some making their mark, others going through the motions hoping not to get anyone angry at them lest the voters toss them into the street come election time.” (READ MORE)

ShrinkWrapped: When Will They Ever Learn? “On Sunday, Richard Landes reminded me of an article by Danial Pipes from December of last year which described How the West Could Lose. Pipes noted three major weaknesses that the West has in fighting against the Islamic fascists. Pipes describes pacifism, self-hatred, complacency and elaborates on all three points in his article, which is well worth reviewing. I would concentrate on complacency, since that is the primary danger that arises from the apathy of the majority, especially on the liberal end of the political spectrum. I do not see them as evil, or in league with the enemy, but I do find most liberals to be intellectually lazy and complacent:” (READ MORE)

Jules Crittenden: Surrender Now! “Senate files meaningless squeak-by vote for surrender. WaPo calls it a ‘surprise victory’ though it is not entirely clear to me how it is either a ‘surprise’ or a ‘victory.’” (READ MORE)

McQ: Spinning the Senate Vote “As I tried to explain yesterday in a brief paragraph at the end of this post, the minority leadership in the Senate were attempting to fight, but not too hard, since they knew that the bill in question was going nowhere and the funding deadline was approaching. In essence, as Sen. McConnell has said, they wanted to get the veto out of the way so they could concentrate on getting a bill together the President would and could sign.” (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Fallujah government center struck by chlorine suicide attack “Iraq Police, Army stop bomber short of target; dozens wounded, poisoned - Al Qaeda in Iraq is conducting a full fledged chemical war in Anbar province. Today, Al Qaeda conducted yet another chlorine gas suicide bombing, this time directed at the Fallujah government center, in the very heart of the city of Fallujah.” (READ MORE)

Flopping Aces: The Democrat Bill To Embolden The Enemy Passes “Big surprise here....Chuck Hagel, the man who has doomed his Presidency run even before it began....supported the cut n' run strategy today that he opposed two weeks ago: ‘Senate Democrats scored a surprise victory yesterday in their bid to force President Bush to end the Iraq war, turning back a Republican amendment that would have struck a troop withdrawal plan from emergency military funding legislation.’” (READ MORE)

Reformed Chicks Blabbing: Reid is playing chicken with the safety of our troops “This is so arrogant and unconstitutional, do these people really think they are going to get away with playing chicken with the funds necessary to keep this war going? Do they really want this show down at the expense of the safety of our troops? No president can accept the terms they are offering.” (READ MORE)

Dan Riehl: Blair Gets Tough With Iran “Showing his great resolve, Britain's Tony Blair went from saying ‘Release our hostages’ to Iran, to saying ‘You better release our hostages.’ Sources close to the British PM suggest things could escalate from there, moving to loud talking and possibly almost yelling some day. Naturally Iran saw this war mongering behavior as unhelpful and replied ‘Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah nyah’ - Persian for ‘Ooooo, we're really scared!’”(READ MORE)

Pinch: The Junior Varsity Senator from Virginia “The Senate with its vote today to lose the war just reminded me of how much I hate idiots and Jim Webb, the junior varsity senator from Virginia - but I repeat myself. So, I fired off this email to him from his Senate website (hackneyed useless gesture, I know, but it made me feel better for a moment or two):” (READ MORE)

Cassandra: On Deaf Ears “‘...it is an awful irony of this debate that many of the same people who consistently and correctly call on the United States to do more to stop the bloodshed in Darfur now demand we abandon the Iraqis.’ Senator Lieberman, at least, has the courage of his convictions.” (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: When Liberal Bloggers Start Treating Matthew Yglesias Like They Treat Ann Coulter, Then I'll Stop Calling Them Hypocrites “Isn't this ‘joke’ that prominent liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias told on his blog yesterday remarkably similar to the sort of jokes that liberal bloggers rip Ann Coulter over mercilessly? ‘Why not let Senators pack heat as they roam the corridors? Then, next time Dick Cheney tells Pat Leahy to go f*ck himself, Leahy can pull out his piece and fill Cheney's belly with lead. Even better, if Cheney tries to shoot back, he'll probably wind up missing and taking out half the Republican caucus.’” (READ MORE)

Little Green Footballs: The Beam in the Washington Post's Eye “Yesterday Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post took a slap at LGF, labeling our commenters ‘vile,’ equating them to the lunatics at Huffington Post, and suggesting that blog comments need better policing. So let’s have a look today at the comments section of the Washington Post—one of the largest news organizations in the US—under the article about Tony Snow’s illness, shall we?” (READ MORE)

Jack Army: Recruiter Stomps on Flaming Bag of Poo, Gets Stinky Hot Foot “Well, she did it, there's no doubt about that. Army Recruiter SGT Ramode's fingerprints are all over the 'incriminating' emails, that's for sure. Here's the story: SGT Ramode sent an email to Corey Andrew after finding his resume online. His response indicated that he was gay to which she responded that he was unqualified. Up to this point, only Andrew is rude and sarcastic in his email, but he can't let Ramode's response go ("WELL IF YOU ARE GAY WE DON'T TAKE YOU. YOU ARE UNQUALIFED.").” (READ MORE)

Captain Ed: Tony Blair: Carter Or Thatcher? “Tony Blair seems to grasp the disaster awaiting Britain if it takes the Jimmy Carter strategy on Iranian hostaging of its sailors and Marines. He warned Iran that anything less than an immediate release of British servicemen would move the confrontation to a ‘different phase’, as the US quickly filled the Persian Gulf with warships:” (READ MORE)

Justin Levine: Notes From A Proud Global Warming Skeptic (Part 2) “Remember Carl Sagan? He wasn’t only a famous astronomer, but he was a self-proclaimed ‘skeptic’ who tried to convince himself and others that he was dedicated to scientific principles over ‘pseudoscience and irrationality’. However, that didn’t prevent him from falling into the common trap of using his ‘scientific credentials’ to try and feign credibility on topics well beyond his area of scientific expertise: nuclear war, SDI, environmentalism, etc.” (READ MORE)

Yankee Mom: Minds Wired “I’ve been thinking about the different mindsets of people lately - more so since the latest two large protests in DC. Being a CSPAN junkie, I hear our politicians’ speeches about our war against the Islamic fascists. So many are disconnected from the boots on the ground, even though they visit the troops for a day or two and supposedly have enlightening talks with soldiers (read: photo op).” (READ MORE)

Cool, Calm & Collected: How Sweet. “Today while I was at the cemetery, I went over by the flag pole, and just looked around at the valley below. I saw an elderly man walking along the wall where some who are cremated are... Then he went to the headstones.... This man looked at each and every headstone, marker, brick and plaque there was.” (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.