A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Blast Kills 8 at Iraqi Parliament Building - A suicide bomber detonated a vest packed with explosives inside Iraq's parliament building Thursday, killing at least eight people in the worst-ever breach of security in the heavily guarded Green Zone. (READ MORE)
Nephew of 9/11 Mastermind Denies Involvement in the Attacks - An alleged high-level al-Qaeda operative who is the nephew of the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States told a military tribunal that he had no ties to the plot and is being held because of his family connection, according to a transcript released yesterday. (READ MORE)
In White House Plan, War 'Czar' Would Cut Through Bureaucracy - When the commanding general in Iraq needed people for a rule-of-law initiative, he had to send a memo to the U.S. Central Command. That command forwarded it to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Joint Chiefs forwarded it to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Only then was it passed along to the White House to find the people. (READ MORE)
Bomber hits Green Zone - A bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria yesterday, killing at least eight other persons -- including at least two lawmakers -- and wounding about 30 in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified Green Zone. (READ MORE)
Imus flap likely to open debate - Don Imus' now-notorious "nappy-headed hos" remark is a "teachable moment," says syndicated columnist Jabiri Asim, who recently published "The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why," a historical study of the slur. (READ MORE)
Attorney makes many enemies - U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, a longtime ally of President Bush, is being targeted by lawmakers and others across the country because of his successful prosecution of three U.S. Border Patrol agents and a deputy sheriff... (READ MORE)
British troops take aim at sailors' payouts - Fellow servicemen and women have turned their fury on the British sailors and marines who sold the stories of their 13 days in captivity in Iran, saying the crew had "embarrassed the nation" and in lining their own pockets had "trampled on the graves of the fallen." (READ MORE)
From the Front:
The Online Chaplin: God's Message is in the Timing “I just got back from the United States. I was at a school. So, for the second year in a row I flew into Iraq on Easter. Wow. Now, I learned long ago that God seldom shows up and gives me a spiritual neon news flash. I don’t often have visions or prophetic words. Words of knowledge and divine intervention in my life are things I dream about, but rarely encounter. By in large, the things I have learned about God have come to me by the sweat of my brow. However, I have noticed…. God is often in the timing of things.” (READ MORE)
Omar: Jisr al-Hadeed “This morning Baghdad lost one of its historic icons when the terrorists blew up the Sarrafiya Bridge. This was an attack on both a vital infrastructure of the city and our morale, let alone the innocent lives that were lost in this vicious attack. What we lost today was not just a bridge, it was a piece of the Baghdad history.” (READ MORE)
Slab - OPFOR: Imagine “II MEF(Fwd)'s Public Affairs team put together an excellent video about a small group of Marines (to include their Navy corpsman) who are living with and advising a company of Iraqi jundi. Enjoy. In my four deployments to the CentCom AOR, the time that I've spent with Afghan Security Forces and the Iraqi Army rank up there as some of my favorite experiences. To say that the average Afghan or Iraqi soldier is gregarious would be putting it mildly.” (READ MORE)
Tully Mars: First Week is Done! “I think I messed up posting this earlier, rough nights sleep and feeling ½ lousy didn't help I think I sent it to the wrong Blog address. Anyways, I have been here a little over a week and am settling into the groundhog day routine. With only 30 days here I have nothing to complain about. I truly feel for the guys and girls who have it much worse than I do, some of the FOB's are nasty places to spend time and others don't even have a FOB, they are out on patrol for a few days at a time. I feel fortunate that I have a bed to sleep on in a tent w/ good A/C and I for the most part work in a tent w/ A/C.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Peggy Noonan: The Incredible Shrinking Candidates “Why is there so little dignity in the presidential campaign? On Wednesday John McCain distinguished himself with a closely argued and eloquent address in which he spoke seriously and at length of his position on Iraq. He said America faces ‘an historic choice’ with ‘ramifications for Americans not yet even born.’” (READ MORE)
WSJ Opinion Journal: Kim's $25 Million “The State Department yields (again) to North Korea. Tomorrow is the 60-day deadline for North Korea to come clean about its nuclear program, and it will be fascinating to see how much it admits. On the evidence of the last week, however, don't be surprised if Kim Jong Il concludes that the Bush Administration will accept whatever he declares. The U.S. has sent precisely that signal by succumbing to the dictator's demands that the U.S. release $25 million gained by North Korea's criminal enterprises.” (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: American Heroes Of Mine “When you're a columnist, you tend to spend most of your time covering the hot issues of the day. While there's nothing wrong with that, it's not a bad idea to do something a little out of the ordinary every once in a while. So, with that in mind, I decided to write about some of the Americans that I've found inspirational. Not all of these people are saints and more than a few of them have feet of clay, but I've come to admire each and every one of them.” (READ MORE)
Lawrence Kudlow: Four Dead Bodies “In my book ‘American Abundance,’ published in 1998, I talked about the Four Dead Bodies theorem of inflation. Just as you should strongly suspect murder if you discover four dead bodies in an alley, you should be very wary of future inflation if four key market-price indicators are acting in unison. These include rising gold, a soft dollar, expanding bond spreads, and strong commodities. Right now, all point to inflationary money from the Fed.” (READ MORE)
Charles Krauthammer: Forcing U.S. to quit in Iraq “By the day, the debate at home about Iraq becomes increasingly disconnected from the realities of the actual war on the ground. The Democrats in Congress are so consumed with negotiating among their factions the most clever linguistic device to legislatively ensure the failure of the administration's current military strategy -- while not appearing to do so -- that they speak almost not at all about the first visible results of that strategy.” (READ MORE)
Patrick J. Buchanan: The Imus Lynch Party “Are we really a better country because, after he was publicly whipped for 10 days as the worst kind of racist, with whom no decent person could associate, he was thrown off the air?” (READ MORE)
Lorie Byrd: How Long will Democrats and the Media continue to enable Sharpton and Jackson “What a strange confluence of news stories this week. The strong statement of NC Attorney General Roy Cooper declaring the Duke Lacrosse players accused of rape "innocent" appeared alongside news that MSNBC dropped the Don Imus show for racist comments, due at least in part to pressure brought by Al Sharpton. Is it too much for me to hope that one day the truth about Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will be revealed as prominently as the truth about those phony rape charges was this week?” (READ MORE)
Rebecca Hagelin: Imus, Males and the "PC" Discrimination “Don Imus could have saved himself a lot of trouble. Instead of insulting the superstar black women's basketball players at Rutgers University, he should have told his listeners that white males are idiots who do nothing but drink beer, ogle women and scratch themselves. That way, rather than hearing himself rightly denounced for his rude, discriminatory remarks, he would have heard - nothing.” (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: Iraq Burns While Dems Fiddle “It is hard to overstate the arrogance and bellicosity of the congressional Democratic leadership. When they're not playing footsie with our enemies, they're savaging President Bush, gleefully naysaying every aspect of the Iraq war and harming the troops they pretend to protect.” (READ MORE)
Michael McBride: Extending tours is an admission of force mismanagement “Army leadership is failing to manage its part of the war, as today's announcement, coupled with rocketing re-enlistment costs, highlight. It is the abject responsibility of Pentagon leaders to develop an overall strategy for manning their service in such a way that promotes not only accomplishing the near-term mission, but the sustaining of that mission over time.” (READ MORE)
Burt Prelutsky: The nonsense liberals believe “Liberals, for instance, will all sing the same tune when it comes to gun ownership, global warming, bi-lingual education, same sex marriages, open borders, amnesty for illegal aliens, abortion on demand and dual-citizenship.” (READ MORE)
Austin Bay: A Quiet Step Forward for the Rule of Law “Arguably, Col. Mark Martins runs the most multifaceted, pressure-packed and press-scrutinized law practice in the Middle East. Martins serves as staff judge advocate for Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I), which makes him Gen. David Petraeus' top legal adviser.” (READ MORE)
Steve Chapman: Mistakes to Avoid in the Global Warming Fight “You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and the wind is blowing hard in favor of action on climate change. The Bush administration now agrees that human activities are warming the planet, the Supreme Court says the Environmental Protection Agency has violated the law by not regulating auto emissions, and Democrats in Congress are demanding new measures to cut greenhouse gases.” (READ MORE)
Debra J. Saunders: Pelosi's Syriana “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently is willing to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad -- even though Syria has supported terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah and allowed terrorists to cross the Syrian border with Iraq to attack U.S. troops -- but until late Wednesday, she would not accept an invitation from the president of the United States to discuss legislation to continue funding for the Iraq war.” (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: We Lied “The Scotsman reports that tribesmen in South Waziristan have killed 300 foreign, al-Qaeda-linked militants they had previously sheltered in early March after the foreigners tried to kill a tribal leader. ‘"The people in South Waziristan have now risen against the foreigners. They have killed about 300 of them," Mr Musharraf told a military conference on counter-terrorism. "And they get support from the Pakistan army, they asked for support," Mr Musharraf said, in a first public admission that troops were involved.’” (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Vaporware “It seems as though the firing of eight federal prosecutors and the bumbling manner in which the administration handled the fallout has no bottom in sight. Like a thread that, once pulled, continues unraveling an entire garment, the situation continues to generate embarrassment and expose poor management -- at best. The latest form that the scandal has taken is the acknowledgement from the White House that some political aides may have used the Republican National Committee e-mail servers for official government business, and that some of the missing e-mails may have pertained to the termination of the US Attorneys:” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Make room for Malkin “I’ve said for some time that Michelle Malkin should have her own TV show. Her “Hot Air” vents are good training. (The site is liveblogged her show.) Filling in for Bill O’Reilly on Thursday night, she proved her mettle. She interviewed the head of that Black Panther Party clan down in Durham, N.C., that tried to railroad those Duke lacrosse players. Malkin was firm, polite and asked some tough questions.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Islamic Army of Iraq splits from Al-Qaeda “The largest Sunni insurgent group has severed ties with al Qaeda and its Islamic State of Iraq; Sunni religious leaders oppose al Qaeda The Sunni civil war in Iraq continues to gather steam. The Islamic Army in Iraq, the largest Sunni insurgent group which has previously operated closely with al Qaeda in Iraq, has severed ties with the terror group after several months of infighting, Al Jazeera reported today. Ibrahim al-Shammari, an Islamic Army in Iraq spokesman, ‘told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the Islamic Army in Iraq had decided to disunite from al-Qaeda in Iraq after its members were threatened.’” (READ MORE)
Major Z: Just an Observation... “I am not defending Don Imus. I, as usual have a very different take on this whole stupid ‘scandal.’ 1. Since when do people get fired for (get this) doing what they are hired to do? Imus was hired and rose to popularity as a shock jock--a Howard Sternite who can speak (sometimes intelligently) about things other than boobies, lesbians, naughty bits, farts, semen, whores, and poop. (Unless, of course, he was talking about the Clintons.) He was hired to shock. He shocked. He got fired for it.” (READ MORE)
Gribbit's Word: Is Imus Any Worse Than Rosie? I Say No! “Over the past few days there has been a big hoopla over the insensitive comments made by radio and television talk show host Don Imus in referring to the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team as ‘Nappy headed hos.’ Do I agree that he should probably be put into the unemployment line for stupidity like that? Of course I do.” (READ MORE)
Kat in MO: Broken Windows Theory: Crime, Small Wars and Trash “I discussed Crime and Small Wars previously. It is important to understand how this works in guerilla warfare (small wars). Crime fuels the insurgency. It provides it cover. It provides it money. It gives the illusion, along with the over all bombs and firefights (that do not represent the whole of Iraq) of insecurity. In reality, common crimes are as egregious as any acts of terrorism for these same reasons. If we do not combat the crime, then we cannot combat the insurgency. Insurgents and terrorists are self-sustaining through these acts.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: AQCLU “ACLU expresses concern about the human cost of war, but neglects to mention nearly 3,000 American civilians whose civil rights were denied them in a purposeful war crime. It quickly becomes clear ACLU is less concerned with protecting civilians than it is with bashing the troops. ACLU also may have some factual problems:” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: (Open thread) Fireworks on the Factor with Michelle hosting? Update: Video added “The show’s starting now; comment below if you’re watching. I’m reliably informed that one guest lobs a sexist insult at Michelle — but a ‘good,’ progressive kind of sexist insult, not a retrograde conservative one. So look out for that. Video coming as it happens.” (READ MORE)
Most Certainly Not: I Missed the Memo... “For the past 8 years, I have been a parent of a daughter. Nearly half that time, I've been the mother of two daughters. And, I have been raising them to be good people who think before they speak and also to recognize when they are wrong and to take responsibility for it. Additionally, I have been raising them to have enough worth in themselves and respect for themselves (that is NOT self esteem either) that they will have a strong self-identity. This identity will allow them to know when they should be ashamed of their behavior, when they are wrong and also when they are being treated unjustly. I am teaching them to check inside to see if what is being said about/to them or being done to them is valid and if not, what they will do about that.” (READ MORE)
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