A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Massacre at Virginia Tech - A gunman yesterday killed 30 persons in a Virginia Tech classroom building before killing himself about two hours after two persons were found fatally shot in a school dormitory. (READ MORE)
Bush, Democrats at loggerheads on Iraq timeline - President Bush and Democratic congressional leaders yesterday drew lines in the sand, saying they won't back down from their positions at a meeting tomorrow about a Democrat-backed deadline for withdrawal from Iraq in an emergency war-funding bill. (READ MORE)
McCain promises halt to profligate spending - Sen. John McCain yesterday lashed out at fellow Republicans for wasting taxpayers' money, blaming last November's congressional losses on their failure to control federal spending and pledging to end pork-barrel politics if he is elected president. (READ MORE)
Deal allows U.N. forces to enter Darfur - Sudan agreed yesterday to allow the deployment of U.N. attack helicopters and 3,000 peacekeepers to its Darfur region, but the United States criticized the decision for allowing limits on the number of non-African troops in the U.N. force. (READ MORE)
New Loyalties for Old Fundraising Networks - The two most dominant political fundraising networks of the past quarter-century have splintered during the wide-open 2008 presidential race, newly released campaign finance records show. (READ MORE)
Shock, Sympathy And Denunciation Of U.S. Gun Laws - The Virginia Tech shootings received extensive news coverage around the world Monday, leading many to question how such violence could keep happening in the United States. (READ MORE)
Final War Funding Bill in Works - Congress and the White House will move this week toward a final showdown over a contested war funding bill, with most Americans trusting Democrats over President Bush to set Iraq policy but with sentiment deeply divided over Congress's push to set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Acute Politics: Venting Steam “The new Transformers movie is coming out on July 4th. I saw a teaser for it a few days ago, and got a big surprise. One of the Transformers, Bonecrusher, masquerades as a BUFFALO. Yes, the big IED-hunting truck that we drive. My first thought was "Hey, he's a BUFFALO! That's awesome!". After that initial reaction, I got to thinking.” (READ MORE)
GWOTdotUS: Back Online “It’s Official. GWOT dot US is back online. It was determined that my poetry did not pose a threat to the security and welfare of my fellow soldiers in theatre and I was given the go-ahead to resume blogging. Gotta love the Army. There are a lot of things that I want to say about the whole “fiasco”, but in the interest of continuing to blog, I will leave well enough alone. Just know that a) GWOT dot US was never in violation of OPSEC and b) Was never in violation of any Army regulation that is of my own fault.” (READ MORE)
LTC Rich Phillips: Week 13--The Beginning of a Long, Hot Summer “Well, another week has flown by. At this rate, I’ll be home before you know it! Well, maybe not. If the Army keeps extending tours they’ll eventually have to make this a PCS move! I wonder when they will start to build the family housing? This week went fast, but it ended on a sad note. One of the best things about a deployment is the friendships you make; friendships forged in shared suffering. One of the worst things is when those friends leave. This week my friend and comrade-in-arms, COL Don Sawyer, departed, on his way back home.” (READ MORE)
Badger 6: SITREP Army speak for a Situation Report. One of the the most challenging things about blogging, is not only do I need to do all of the writing but I am compelled to be the daily assignment editor as well. Mrs. Badger 6 does the serious editing for me as well. The novelty of Iraq has more than worn off. Camp life is camp life. The more things change, well you get it. Most missions are more the same than different and even on missions where we find a number of bombs, most of the time is spent riding down the backstreets of Iraq.” (READ MORE)
Omar: Sadr ministers out, now what? "Some thoughts on the implications of the withdrawal of Sadr movement ministers from Maliki's cabinet:In a sudden move, Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has pulled his ministers out of the Iraqi cabinet. Many people are asking me why. It’s a good question, and I’ve being thinking about the reasons and implications. They aren’t very easy to determine because of the jumpy, and often illogical, way that this political faction thinks and behaves." (READ MORE)
On the Web:
David Strom: Progressive Taxes Aimed Squarely at the Middle Class “Every time a tax cut is proposed, liberals go apoplectic about the supposed injustice of it all. It's as if conservatives were suggesting sending out the Sheriff of Nottingham to shake down the peasants to subsidize the lavish lifestyles of the rich and famous. Well, I have news for you: it's the liberals who are shaking down the peasants, and their ‘socially just’ policy of progressive income taxation is aimed squarely at middle-class people working their way up the economic ladder, not at the ‘rich’ who supposedly pay the most under this system.” (READ MORE)
Paul Weyrich: Free Speech at Risk: A Free Congress Forum on the Fairness Doctrine “Conservatism survives and continues to evolve no matter who holds the majority in Congress or lives in the White House. Our essays and panel discussions on ‘The New Conservatism’ have been honing the finer points of theory and practice for several years. However, if the current Congress gets its way over the next few months or if the President in the next term is a Democrat it will be nearly impossible for us to get the word out on radio anymore.” (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: Imus and the Wonderful People “I've grown suspicious of the sanctimonious types -- in the media and elsewhere -- who slobber all over themselves in self-congratulation when they publicly condemn statements or actions as racist.” (READ MORE)
Paul Greenberg: Kill this monster “Ronald Reagan said it back in 1983: ‘Our federal tax system is, in short, utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive [it] reeks with injustice and is fundamentally un-American it has earned a rebellion and it's time we rebelled.’” (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: A Gutless Lynch Mob “Just before the Attorney General of North Carolina appeared on television to announce his decision on the Duke University ‘rape’ case, one of the many expert TV legal commentators said that Attorney General Roy Cooper would probably use the words ‘insufficient evidence’ but not the word ‘innocent’ in dismissing the case. As it turned out, the Attorney General did use the word ‘innocent,’ saying that he and his staff considered the accused students innocent. It was the only decent thing to do.” (READ MORE)
Tom DeLay: Are Democrats Overstepping Their Bounds? “The Democrats' overstepping of their electoral mandate began on election night, when they misinterpreted the election as a broad affirmation of liberalism instead of a protest against the lack of progress in Iraq.” (READ MORE)
Congressman Jim McCrery: Democrats all wet on Tax Day “The differences between America's two major political parties are never clearer than they are on Tax Day. As the deadline passes for completing the complicated forms required to turn over your hard-earned money to the federal government, it is worth examining those differences, and what they mean for our nation's future.” (READ MORE)
Rich Galen: Global warming “Here's what I think about Global Warming: In my experience, any time every ‘expert’ has agreed on anything, that anything later turns out not just to be wrong, but 180°wrong.” (READ MORE)
Randy E. Barnett: Three Cheers for Lawyers “Don't think a good defense attorney matters? Think again. Years ago, I appeared on "The Ricki Lake Show" in an episode about persons who had been freed on appeal after being wrongfully convicted of crimes. As a former criminal prosecutor with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office in Chicago, I was there to represent the ‘prosecution viewpoint’ (whatever that might be), along with the leader of New York's Guardian Angels representing the ‘victims' viewpoint.’ The other guests consisted of innocent persons whose convictions had been reversed, their appellate lawyers, their parents and a reporter who had helped vindicate a father wrongfully convicted of murdering his young daughter.” (READ MORE)
Bret Stephens: The Arab Invasion “Indonesia's radicalized Muslims aren't homegrown. The headquarters of the Front for the Defense of Islam is reached by a narrow alley just off a one-lane street in a residential neighborhood near downtown Jakarta. But step inside the carpeted reception area, decorated by a mural of a desert mosque and partially open to the sky, and it's as if you've arrived in a bedouin kingdom.” (READ MORE)
Jim Fusilli: Music and Lyrics “Hip-hop ‘artists’ are no better than Imus. In case you missed it, on Friday afternoon the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), an advocacy group for the rap and hip-hop industry, issued a press release ‘differentiating between Don Imus and Hip-Hop.’ That such a press release is required suggests there may be reasons to confuse these two reliable sources of offensive speech--but no, say Russell Simmons and Benjamin Chavis, HSAN chairman and president, respectively.” (READ MORE)
John Donovan: The Code of Conduct “Regarding the Brits captured by the Iranians. On 13 April, an Air Force Captain named Lance Sijan would have turned 65. He would have, at least, had he not chosen a different path from that chosen by the Brits. The difference in the respective approaches is what underlies the discussion of the behavio(u)r of the Brit sailors and Marines. I've been pretty quiet on the issue, actually. Initially, I wanted more information, though from what we had I was appalled at the response of British leadership, military and political. As the debacle continued, I became more appalled with the response of the Brit leadership, military and political.” (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: In Loco Parentis “What will be most hotly debated in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, which are now reported to have claimed 32 lives, is the role of guns. There's a roundup of related news stories, plus cell phone video camera footage at Pajamas Media. One of the most chilling things about watching that video is how it is punctuated at intervals of several tens of seconds by deliberate gunshots. One can almost imagine how the shooter is roaming through the dorms, his victims trying to defend themselves with schoolbooks, chairs, baseball bats, ipods or whatever else came to hand, largely in futility. And with each shot, another son or daughter dies.” (READ MORE)
Sachi: What Goes Up... “I never cease to be astonished at how an event can flip from good to bad in a nanosecond -- depending on which way it needs to be spun to hurt George W. Bush. Two fascinating stories out of Iraq in the last few days. Both would seem, at face value, to be good news. But in the hands of the skillful propagandists in the elite media, both turn into ‘proof’ that the counterinsurgency isn't ‘working’ (by ‘working,’ they mean ‘working perfectly without the slightest back and forth,’ like turning on a light):” (READ MORE)
Confederate Yankee: The Blotter: Never Let Tragedy or Stupidity Get in the Way of Your Political Agenda “Brian Ross and Dana Hughes prove just how little they know about firearms, laws related to them, and the effects of both with their knee-jerk response to today's Virginia Tech shootings, where they attempt to place the blame not on the shooter, but on high-capacity magazines: ‘High capacity ammo clips became widely available for sale when Congress failed to renew a law that banned assault weapons.’” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Self-hatred v3.11 “Self-hatred is one of the most remarkable byproducts of success. The children of privilege are often the most resentful of capitalism. Not many of them take a vow of poverty. Indeed, the first thing they do upon the birth of their own child is to set up a trust fund to avoid taxation.” (READ MORE)
Dymphna: Ringing Down the Days: A Va Tech Student's Failed Plea from August 2006 “The first piece in this post is from the Roanoke Times online (Roanoke.com) from last August. It celebrates the defeat of the State Assembly bill that would have allowed students to register to carry handguns for their personal safety. You will realize how fatuous this article is, when you see the lightweight backup for this writer's reasoning: a Harvard study which said ‘Americans feel less safe rather than more safe as more people in their community begin to carry guns…’” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: (Video) Kurdish president a little iffy on this whole ‘second Holocaust’ idea “He breaks the bad news about 80% of the way through the clip — and is promptly informed by the interviewer that his radical position will draw ‘much criticism’ in the Muslim world. And so it will. Click the image to watch.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: On Second Thought “Brits regain a sense of shame. Priorities may be a little skewed still, however. News of hearings into the decision to let swabs sell stories trumps hearings into the capture and detention of the 15 sailors and marines in the Telegraph’s account. AP deserves a nod for being able to tell the difference between the sizzle and the steak.” (READ MORE)
The Middle Ground: On Total War II “Col. Kilcullen necessarily and briefly focuses on the complaints Luttwick has regarding the newest counter-insurgency manual, FM 3-24, refuting several by pointing out that Luttwick was reading the ‘draft’ version and several of his complaints had already been addressed. In reading Luttwick's piece, the first issue is that Luttwick, who has many things to his credit, but fighting an insurgency is not one of them, tends to state things in a very affirmative manner. One such statement:” (READ MORE)
William Teach: Va Tech Shooting: HuffPo Chimes In “By now, most people know about the Virginia Tech shooting. If you want some good info, check out Blue Star Chronicles, Hot Air, and the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler. You can also follow the trackbacks at Hot Air. There is little that I can add beyond saying what a horrendous tragedy this was, and I offer my heartfelt prayers for all those involved, their families, and friends. Now, over at the Huffington Post, there are certainly good comments, but, of course, the typical liberal insanity, politicizing the tragedy, similar to what the Rottweiler points out:” (READ MORE)
McQ: Muslims speaking out against theocracy and radical Islam “Yesterday I noted a large demonstration of about 300,000 in Turkey demanding the Turkey remain a secular state. Another demonstration yesterday took place in Karahci, Pakistan, in which ‘Kalashnikov Sharia’ was denounced: ‘The Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Sunday staged a massive rally in the city against what it called the threat of ‘Kalashnikov Sharia’ of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid clerics and asserted that Islam did not allow enforcement of Sharia by force and Pakistan had not been created to be turned into a theological state.’” (READ MORE)
The RedHunter: Moral Posturing “People are engaged in moral posturing when they say they want to ‘do something’ about a problem but then reject all options that involve risk or pain. Their words make them sound concerned, but they are not willing to sacrifice anything to achieve the objective. They don't want to do anything that would actually solve the problem, they just want to sound like they care. Let's look at three areas in which people posture constantly: (READ MORE)
Rhymes with Right: Newspapers Agree -- Make it harder For Victims To Defend Themselves “What else would you expect from the New York Times? ‘Our hearts and the hearts of all Americans go out to the victims and their families. Sympathy was not enough at the time of Columbine, and eight years later it is not enough. What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.’ Which ignores, of course, that the problem is likely to be one of illegally obtained guns -- guns already banned under the statutes that exist -- and not legally obtained weapons.” (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl: VA Tech: Is Media Making It Worse? “Whenever there's a tragic event as there was today at Virginia Tech, we soon start hearing stories of counseling programs and how students are in danger of long term emotional issues as a result. Reading multiple threads on this Hokie bulletin board, I came away wondering if the press doesn't make it worse. The students commenting aren't saying too much good about the press. Along with the incident, it's as if they now see their institution being attacked. Perhaps they just aren't up for that right now.” (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: The I "Changed My Mind About The War" Crowd “I can understand being for or against the war in Iraq from the beginning, but the people who have changed their minds since the start of the war have gotten entirely too much of a free pass for their wishy-washiness. Now, the average person? They may not be familiar with history, but any politician, columnist, or blogger should know that it's not the least bit unusual for wars to be much longer and considerably more difficult than anticipated.” (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: The Anti-War Paradox “There has been an excellent discussion, generally polite though pointed, going on in response to my last post, the third part of my series on The Accelerating Clash. Both Douglass Carmichael and Charles Stewart deserve to be commended for thoughtfully expressing the anti-war position without resort to the kinds of polemics typically found in such discussions. It is not easy to take on a community of very well read and versed commenters over such emotionally charged topics. That being said, I would like to point out an apparent internal contradiction in the anti-War position.” (READ MORE)
Lorie Byrd: Lessons to be Learned from Senseless Mass Murder “My power went out around 10:30 yesterday morning due to a wind storm that took out a transformer in my area. As I am writing this (away from home) power has yet to be restored so I am a bit behind on details, but I heard news of the Virginia Tech massacre on the radio and caught bits and pieces here and there. While I don't know many of the specifics, I have read the excellent posts on the story here at Wizbang and a few other blogs. Most of the early reports are fact oriented. What has only just begun, but will surely follow in earnest over the next few days is the political blame game. The calls for gun control are a given, as they were following Columbine. There will also, probably, be a way some will tie all this to President Bush, Dick Cheney and/or Halliburton. (I really hope I am wrong about that last prediction.)” (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.
No comments:
Post a Comment