A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Senate halts Iraq pullout, cash cutoff - The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly rejected a bid to pull out troops from Iraq and cut off funds for combat, a bruising defeat for Majority Leader Harry Reid that highlights the Democratic split over how far to go in opposing the war. (READ MORE)
White House backs off alien safeguards - The Bush administration, trying to win an immigration agreement with Democrats, is backing away from safeguards designed to target businesses that hire illegal aliens and to prevent a repeat of the rampant fraud that resulted from the 1986 amnesty. (READ MORE)
World Bank mulls Wolfowitz's terms - The World Bank's board is negotiating an exit package for President Paul Wolfowitz that should end his tumultuous two-year tenure that burst into acrimony over his role in directing a high-paying promotion for his girlfriend, board sources said yesterday. (READ MORE)
Ban pushes for Hariri tribunal despite Lebanese objections - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he wants an international tribunal to try those suspected of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and others -- with or without approval from Lebanon's divided government. (READ MORE)
Justice Weighed Firing 1 in 4 - The Justice Department considered dismissing many more U.S. attorneys than officials have previously acknowledged, with at least 26 prosecutors suggested for termination between February 2005 and December 2006, according to sources familiar with documents withheld from the public. (READ MORE)
Wolfowitz Hangs On As Ouster Hits Wall - The Bush administration spent much of yesterday trying to broker a graceful end to the ethics controversy consuming the World Bank, offering the resignation of embattled president Paul D. Wolfowitz, senior administration and bank officials said. (READ MORE)
Many Tips, Few Answers in Hunt for GIs - The intelligence was grim: The bodies of three missing U.S. soldiers had been dumped in a canal. So U.S. and Iraqi forces, in the midst of one of the biggest manhunts since the war began, drained the 20-foot-deep canal until the water was knee-deep. They found no bodies. (READ MORE)
No Dissent on Spying, Says Justice Dept. - The Justice Department said yesterday that it will not retract a sworn statement in 2006 by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales that the Terrorist Surveillance Program had aroused no controversy inside the Bush administration, despite congressional testimony Tuesday that senior departmental... (READ MORE)
Gaza Fighting Intensifies, Leaving at Least 21 Dead - Intensifying factional fighting brought the Palestinians' two-month-old power-sharing government closer to collapse Wednesday as Israeli military aircraft fired on a Hamas operations camp in the Gaza Strip in an effort to end days of rocket attacks on Israeli targets. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Noah Pollak: Another Hostage in Iran “Haleh Esfandiari is the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, and in December of last year she traveled to Iran to visit her ailing mother. In a statement on its website, the Wilson Center explains that in late December, “on her way to the airport to catch a flight back to Washington, the taxi in which Dr. Esfandiari was riding was stopped by three masked, knife-wielding men. They took away her baggage and handbag, including her Iranian and American passports.” Her visit to a passport office four days later instigated six weeks of interrogations. Last Monday, just over a week ago, she was arrested and taken to the notorious Evin prison, where she stands accused of being a Mossad agent, a U.S. spy, and of trying to foment revolution inside Iran -- the same charges that were leveled at the American embassy staff in 1979 when it was taken hostage.” (READ MORE)
Jack Army: Sergeant Major Bradley Conner “I wrote about memories yesterday and today I was struck in the face with more memories. Earlier in the day, I mentioned blogger Michael Yon to someone at my FOB. Since I hadn't checked his blog in a while, I decided to take my own advice and surf on over where I discovered the picture of someone from my past, SGM Brad Conner. As I realized why I was seeing his picture online, my hands dropped into my lap and I leaned back in my chair. I lost focus for a few minutes through the tears...” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Victor Davis Hanson: The New Penance doesn't Offset Much “What do leftist, mostly secular elites share with medieval sinners? They feel bad that the way they live sometimes doesn't quite match their professed dogma.” (READ MORE)
Austin Bay: Ending Darfur's Genocide “Despite four years of international posturing and kvetching, the Sudan national government's genocidal war in Darfur continues.” (READ MORE)
Suzanne Fields: The Media is the Politics “The ‘debates’ between the current crop of presidential wannabes bear little resemblance to the stirring intellectual drama of Lincoln and Douglas, but they accurately reflect our times. Short answers to trivial questions for short attention spans. There's little opportunity for eloquence in a sound bite and it's not likely that television audiences would stay tuned if there were.” (READ MORE)
William Rusher: The problem of junk science “As regular readers know, I seldom review books in these columns, preferring to leave that important job to professional reviewers. But every once in a while a book comes along that illuminates a major political problem so effectively that I cannot resist calling it to the attention of thoughtful readers. That is the case with Tom Bethell's ‘The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science,’ recently published by Regnery.” (READ MORE)
Robert D. Novak: Rove and the Grand Inquisitor “As House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, Waxman is tirelessly making life miserable for a confused administration during George W. Bush's last two years as president. Bringing down Rove ranks high on Grand Inquisitor Waxman's agenda.” (READ MORE)
Larry Elder: Democrats to Bush: You Are Evil “A mind-blowing 35 percent of Democrats believe the president possessed prior knowledge of the 9/11 terror attacks that killed over 3,000 Americans. Another 26 percent of Democrats said that they are ‘not sure.’” (READ MORE)
George Will: Energy independence “Democrats, seething at the injustice of gasoline prices, have sprung to the aid of embattled motorists.” (READ MORE)
Michael Medved: No such thing as obscene profits “On occasion, an idiotic phrase will receive such ceaseless repetition in media conversation that we become numb to its essential stupidity and dishonesty.” (READ MORE)
WSJ Review & Outlook: Congress's War Dodge “Democrats in the Senate yesterday demonstrated, once again, that they neither have the votes for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq nor a real policy on the war. Wednesday's vote to cut off funding by March 31, 2008, was voted down 67-29, with 19 Democrats joining every Republican in opposing the measure, which was submitted as an amendment to an unrelated bill. Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, who put forth the measure with Majority Leader Harry Reid, noted optimistically that a majority of his caucus voted for the measure, which is one way of defining majority down.” (READ MORE)
WSJ Review & Outlook: Wiretap Tales “Democrats and former Deputy Attorney General James Comey put on quite a Senate show Tuesday over the National Security Agency's wiretapping program. With New York's Chuck Schumer directing, the players staged a full length docudrama to create the impression that the Bush Administration broke the law in reauthorizing the program to eavesdrop on al Qaeda. Senate hearings can be boring, so we'll assume the press corps dozed through select parts. That would explain why no one reported on the discussion as Senator Arlen Specter questioned Mr. Comey on how the great covert operation actually went down. News stories have suggested a pattern of White House misdeeds to accomplish an ultimately illegal end. The transcript tells a different story.” (READ MORE)
Bret Stephens: World Bank Scholar - Paul Wolfowitz's judges may have ethical issues of their own. “In the winter of 2006 an email was sent to the investigations hotline of the World Bank's Department of Institutional Integrity, or INT. Its subject was the ‘Hypocrisy of ED Tom Scholar.’ ‘Please know,’ read the text of the email written by a bank employee, ‘that UK ED Tom Scholar is continuing an affair with [a bank employee]. This woman has been given preferential treatment in [the department] because of her relationship with this powerful ED, this affair is well known, and is in violation of the Bank Staff Rules and the Boards Standards of Conduct.’” (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: Stand Up And Be Counted Or Sit Down And Shut Up “Charlie Daniels has always been a great supporter of our Troops and has always been very vocal on his stance about things going on in the country. On May 14th he posted another in response to political maneuvering and the thwarted terrorist attack at Fort Dix, in the Soap Box section of his official website. I think it’s worth sharing here.” (READ MORE)
The Anchoress: Tell me again who’s “steamrollering” America? “One of the things I frequently read from folks on the left is that the ‘evil’ that is George W. Bush is ‘steamrollering’ America, that he is destroying the right to free speech, that he’s destroying the constitution, that he is suppressing dissent, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And yet, repeatedly, the reality seems to be that the folks on the left side of the aisle are the ones with the steamrollers.” (READ MORE)
Army Girl: Just a "Reservist" “Forgive me for a moment while I feel sorry for myself... I was sent this by an Anonymous Angel. It's the Non-Commissioned Officer Enlisted Schools Policy. Although I realize that this may throw some weight into my side of this issue, even if I were able to fight this.. I would most likely make more people angry than necessary. If it were happening to my soldier, then there would be no question. I'd fight till the end. I've just come to realize as a Reservist with a Regular Army (RA) unit, some battles are just not worth the cost. Even if I win, I lose.” (READ MORE)
Augean Stables: MSM Attention Deficit Disorder: If Israel Isn’t to Blame, Why Bother Discussing It? “Calev Ben-David has an excellent comment on the lack of the MSM’s interest in what goes on in the Middle East unless Israel’s involved. This was particularly noticeable last summer, when the press flooded into Lebanon for the war, but left as soon as the Israelis left. Obviously, one expects more reporters in wartime… but no one but the bloggers, like Michael Totten and Charles Malik, hung around to see what was happening on the ground?” (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: Will IEDs Come To the West? “One of the first western journalists to interview Osama Bin Laden thinks IEDs will be deployed and used in Western cities regardless of whether the U.S. stays or withdraws from the war. There is no obvious physical or logistical reason why this can't can't true. Although it doesn't have the apocalyptic mystique of a nuclear weapons attack scenario, the use of IEDs in the West causing hundreds of casualties raise the same strategic questions. If the attacks are unattributed against whom shall we retaliate? If the attacks are attributed, shall we go after them? If we choose to appease or surrender to them, to whom shall the check be mailed?” (READ MORE)
Baldilocks: Hitchens' "Religious" Ritual “Right on cue comes noted atheist Christopher Hitchens' "tribute" to Jerry Falwell. Hitchens, who seems to take a perverse delight in trashing notable figures upon their deaths, especially those who were publicly religious, predictably excoriates Falwell for his acknowledged sins but in the midst of the rant, goes off on a tangent about certain anti-Semites who call themselves Christians.” (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Pressure Mounts for Clinton, Obama, Feingold, Biden, Reid to Resign From Senate “In Congressional CalamitiesToday's humiliating vote on the bill by Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI, 100%) to set a hard date for American withdrawal from Iraq -- the bill needed 60 votes to break the Republican filibuster; it got 29 votes, a scant 31 votes short -- puts more pressure on the 28 Democrats who voted for it, including all Democratic presidential candidates still in the Senate, to resign from that august body in disgrace.” (READ MORE)
Grim at Blackfive: Someone you should know: One of my own “Today, an old man was found dead in his favorite chair, having passed peacefully in his sleep. He was my father-in-law. His name was Gene Easley. He joined in the Army in 1946, as a young officer just of age. He served in the Army Air Force and then the Air Force. He was stationed in Germany at the beginning of the postwar period, when things were not yet settled. He was charged with guarding the payroll for his unit, a duty that obligated him to master the 1911 service pistol.” (READ MORE)
Fjordman: The Great Conversation “One of the things I love about the Internet is that I get instant, online feedback on everything I write, from people in the United States to Australia and India. Quite frequently, this brings me to reassess what I have initially written, either by adding new perspectives and ideas that I hadn’t thought of at first or by stating more clearly what I mean. This Great Conversation is why the most interesting debates are frequently found in the blogosphere today. I have received so many impulses through this process from so many different individuals that it is not just modesty if I say that many of my essays should be considered as group efforts, with me as editor rather than sole writer.” (READ MORE)
Baron Bodissey: A Report From Islamberg “Ever since last Friday people have been sending me links to Dr. Paul Williams’ story about the headquarters of the Muslims of America and Jamaat ul-Fuqra near Hancock, NY. I haven’t written about it until now for three reasons: 1) I’ve been too busy with my real job; 2) I have a mile-long backup of blog posts waiting to come out; and 3) There was no new information in the story. Nonetheless, Dr. Williams’ story is a good summary of the available material on Islamberg. Dr. Williams’ account is a familiar one to regular Gates of Vienna readers: the unpaved and badly-maintained roads leading back into a wooded compound dotted with rusty trailers, the presence of armed men in Islamic garb, the recruitment of new members via proselytizing the prisons, and, above all, Jamaat ul-Fuqra’s terrified neighbors:” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Al Gore’s assault on democracy “The assault on democracy began on Nov. 8, 2000. An hour after Gore conceded the election to George W. Bush, Gore called back to renege. Gore was not going to accept that he had been defeated in the closest election ever. Gore’s assault dragged the electoral process through the mud of litigation that only served to divide the nation.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Iraq Report: More on the Search, Diyala, and Battling Mahdi “As we noted late last night, the search for the three missing U.S. soldiers has intensified in the "Triangle of Death," the region south of Baghdad, particularly in the areas near Yusifiah and Mahmudiyah. This region "has been divided into 35 zones of which 32 have been searched," according to CNN. Two suspects involved in the assault have been captured, a battalion commander involved in the search in the region told CNN's Arwa Damon.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: Sandy Berger forfeits law license to avoid cross-ex on document swipe “And so a case that’s already reached the heights of suspicion somehow manages to reach a little higher. ‘In a written statement issued by Larry Breuer, Mr. Berger’s attorney, the former national security adviser said he pleaded guilty in the Justice Department investigation, accepted the penalties sought by the department and recognized that his law license would be affected.’” (READ MORE)
Ian: (Video) O’Reilly says Fred! picked fight with Moore to raise profile “Telling us how he sees it, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said Fmr. Senator Fred Thompson was “picking a fight” with Moore. The all-knowing Bill O says Fred! doesn’t like Moore or his relationship with Fidel Castro. Gee wilikers, what is he going to tell us next, that the earth revolves around the sun? The fact is, Moore attacked Thompson first in a scathing letter challenging the potential Presidential candidate to debate health care in the United States. Fred then responded in a casual video blog.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Mass Graves Day “How did you spend it? Not really your concern if you’re an American, of course. Those were all someone else’s relatives stacked up in those pits, and thanks to Saddam, kite-flying Sunnis and Shiites were living prosperously and in harmony with each other.” (READ MORE)
DJ Drummond: The Dubya Standard “I watched the Republicans debate in South Carolina on Tuesday, and I noticed how many of them tried to compare themselves to Ronald Reagan. It was, frankly, laughable. The Reagan Aura has grown far beyond anything a mortal man could hope to claim, but even the real Reagan was much more than any of these yokels could hope to compare. I happen to think that the Republicans in the race would be very wise to try to show how much they are like our current President, George W. Bush.” (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: A Necessary Digression “The Democrats and the MSM have traditionally had a difficult time explaining to themselves why their preferred candidates for office so often lose to people they consider ethically, morally, and intellectually inferior. In extremis, they have taken to a course that last succeeded in 1964, that is, the Psychological Attack. In my post PsychBlogging and the Goldwater Rule, I discussed the Goldwater Rule, promulgated by the American Psychiatric Association after the psychological savaging of Barry Goldwater during the 1964 election campaign. I included part of the text of the APA statement (and a link to the full statement) and added some thoughts about the delicate balance the PsychBlogger must negotiate:” (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.
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