A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Alaska Senator's Home Is Raided - Agents from the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service raided the Alaska home of Sen. Ted Stevens (R) yesterday as part of a broad federal investigation of political corruption in the state that has also swept up his son and one of his closest financial backers, officials said. (READ MORE)
Bush, Brown Stress Commonalities - President Bush and the new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, presented a united front Monday on Iraq and Afghanistan, seeking to dispel suggestions that the "special relationship" between the United States and Britain would deteriorate because of the recent transfer of power in London. (READ MORE)
Chief Justice Suffers Seizure - Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was rushed to a hospital here Monday afternoon after suffering a seizure at his summer island home, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said. Roberts, 52, fell on a dock after having a "benign idiopathic seizure," said Kathleen Landin Arberg, the court's public information officer. (READ MORE)
Taliban Threaten More Killings - The body of a second South Korean hostage is recovered in central Afghanistan, and the Taliban threatened today to kill more captives if their demands were not met. (READ MORE)
New British Leader Backs Bush on Iraq - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday strongly backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq and said the global war against terror looms as a "generation-long battle." (READ MORE)
GOP Resolution Rejects Amnesty for Illegals - State Republican officials from across the country on Thursday will formally break with the desire of President Bush and other top Republican leaders to include amnesty and other benefits for illegal aliens in immigration-reform legislation. (READ MORE)
Pakistani Army Battles Militants - Government soldiers backed by helicopter gunships repelled an attack on a military checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan today, killing up to 12 militants, an army spokesman said. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Michael Yon: Bread and a Circus, Part One “Baqubah - The Battle for Baqubah (or “Baqouba” according to the story above) is still underway. Small TICs [Troops In Contact] continue to occur, but those enemy attacks have had little effect since combat kicked off on 19 June. As of 30 July, we lost 1 soldier, while the enemy losses number about one hundred. This battle is best measured not in the losses, but the gains. The people of Baqubah have been demonstrably ecstatic. Other than in the Kurdish areas, I have never seen such overt gratitude from so many Iraqis. Iraqis continue pointing out al Qaeda operatives and their hidden bombs. Despite that many al Qaeda escaped, the success so far is overwhelmingly obvious. The challenge remains to make it stick, but the gains are undeniable and the sense of momentum is palpable.” (READ MORE)
Greyhawk: There is no jihad. We are just instruments of death. “Former suicide bomber Ahmed Abdullah al-Shaya, ‘“I realized that all along I was wrong,” al-Shayea told The Associated Press in a two-hour interview at a Riyadh hotel before returning to an Interior Ministry compound that serves as a sort of halfway house for ex-jihadists rejoining Saudi society. “There is no jihad. We are just instruments of death,” he said.’” (READ MORE)
LTC Rich Phillips: Week 26--A Look Back. “As we pass the midpoint of this 12-month tour, it seems like a good time to look back on where we came from and what we’ve experienced in the last six months. In January the 396th CSH (FWD) left Camp Atterbury, IN enroute to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom VIII. After three months at Camp Atterbury our journey took us by bus to Pope AFB, then by air to Bucarest, Romania, Manas Airbase and finally Bagram Airbase before we separated to our three locations in Afghanistan.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Uncle Jimbo @ Blackfive: The Resurgence of The Surge "The anti-war left has gone pretty much all out in their surge against the surge and thus far all Harry Reid and company have managed is to fail to do anything at all. Sadly, given our Congress, that is the best that could be hoped for. Reid went so far as to call the surge doomed prior to the last troops even leaving the US. I try to give opponents of the war the benefit of the doubt , but the problem is their lack of concern over the effects of a sudden withdrawal make that difficult. Jonah Goldberg has a recent quote that points out one aspect of this." (READ MORE)
David Ignatius: Sept. 10 in Waziristan “The National Intelligence Estimate released July 17 put the problem plainly enough: Al-Qaeda has ‘regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability’ using a new haven in the lawless frontier area of northwest Pakistan known as Waziristan.” (READ MORE)
Bret Stephens: Bad Company “American and Indian diplomats have now completed negotiations for the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Accord, also known as a 123 Agreement (after a section of the 1954 U.S. Atomic Energy Act that governs such deals). The agreement, which bridges the gap between what Congress approved late last year and the conditions demanded by India's government, would allow India to purchase U.S. nuclear technology and fuel, ostensibly for civilian purposes only. Whether New Delhi abides by that commitment is another matter:” (READ MORE)
WSJ Review & Outlook: Tax Hike Scorecard “With a new Democratic majority, the agenda on Capitol Hill has shifted abruptly this year, and no more so than on taxes. For a decade the focus in Congress was which taxes to cut. Now everywhere you look someone running the Congress, or running for President, is proposing to raise taxes on some industry or group of Americans. The proposals are coming so frequently that it's hard to keep track without a scorecard. So as a reader service, and with a tip of the hat to Ed Hyman's ISI Group for some of the details, here's a list of the most notable proposals so far:” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Iraq Report: Attacks fail to materialize after soccer victory “The Iraqi soccer team gave the nation a reason to celebrate on Sunday with a victory over Saudi Arabia and the championship in the Asia Games. There were no major attacks reported during Sunday celebrations, and Iraqi security forces killed a suicide bomber and defused another car bomb in Baghdad.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Worst. Delegation. Ever. “Alaska’s three Republicans in Congress are an embarrassment. They should be impeached, er, expelled. Rep. Don Young is the target of an FBI investigation. The headline in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: “Young feeling heat on the Hill.” From the story:” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: Muslims to pet food factory: We’re inhaling pork! “Just what we need — another type of emission for the left to get angry about. If the mere smell of pork is so lethally haram, how do they manage to live in England at all? One wrong turn down an unfamiliar street and they might end up outside a butcher shop. What then? Or is there some de minimis exception where trace amounts of pig smell are okay so long as it’s not, um, ‘raining down’?” (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: In Sickness And In Hell, Part II “My apologies for the delay in this piece; I was rather delightfully distracted online last night. So, we've established that our health care system works pretty damned well, but the way we pay for it is seriously bollixed. Just what the hell should we do about it? Well, I am innately suspicious of any heavy-handed government solution. There's an old saying that ‘the power to tax is the power to destroy,’ and the power to regulate and control is not that far removed from the power to tax. I would be very concerned about having the government ‘fix’ the financing end without totally wrecking the important part, the part that works -- the actual health care.” (READ MORE)
Cassandra: Bringing The Strong Strength of Strongness... “Jake Tapper notes an interesting competition shaping up amongst the candidates for the Democratic nomination: Though Tapper doesn't make this point, the use of ‘attack’ seems almost obscene to this Marine wife when we have 150,000 men and women in uniform actually being attacked in Iraq right now and tens of thousands more in Afghanistan. One has to wonder whether these people ever stop to think just how unstatesmanlike such tactics make them look, especially when we are at war?” (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: Laying a Golden Egg “Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post say that a positive report from Iraq might split the Democrat Congress ‘and impede ... efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.’ ‘[House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.)]Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal....’” (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Did the Gore Name Save the Kid from Jail? “Rush Limbaugh became addicted to prescription pain killers and ran into trouble with the law. He went into treatment and was off the air for a little more than a month. When he came back he had to fight for a very long time against the judicial system that kept digging and digging. No one in the system told him that since he completed treatment that they would drop the charges.” (READ MORE)
Blue Crab Boulevard: If It Walks Like A Duch “Just a few days ago John Kerry stoutly denied that there had been a bloodbath in Southeast Asia when the Democrat-controlled Congress cut off funding for South Vietnam. Today the UN-sponsored Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia destroyed Kerry's claim by finally bringing charges of crimes against humanity against the former warden of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison.” (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Lieberman On Offense On Iran, Iraq “The Hill interviewed Senator Joe Lieberman about his unique position in the upper chamber, and how he sees the debate on Iraq and Iran. Lieberman castigated his former colleagues in the Democratic caucus as excessively partisan and unwilling to meet the threats posed by America's enemies: ‘Lieberman, the Democrats’ 2000 vice presidential nominee, insists he is not actively considering joining the Republican Party. But he is keeping that possibility wide open as his disenchantment grows with Democratic leaders. The main sticking points are their attempts to end the war in Iraq and their hesitation to take a harder line against Iran.’” (READ MORE)
Steven Emerson: Muzammil the "Moderate" “Continuing in its efforts to help sanitize radical Muslims and present them as mainstream voices, the Washington Post and Newsweek, in their ‘On Faith’ blog, published a piece from long-time Imam of the Islamic Society of Orange County, Muzammil Siddiqi. ‘On Faith’ describes Siddiqi as involved in ‘inter-faith initiatives, including participation in an inter-faith prayer service with President George W. Bush’ and as the ‘Chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America, a body tasked with interpreting religious law throughout the continent.’ (For more information on the pro-terrorism background of the Fiqh Council, read, ‘The American Islamic Leaders' 'Fatwa' is Bogus’).” (READ MORE)
Flopping Aces: No Evidence of Hate Crime Charges Being Brought Against Those Who Destroy Bible “Ok, what universe are we in when Alan Colmes actually makes sense? Well, not a huge amount of sense when he backs CAIR, but we are talking about Alan Colmes here. Also the Washington Times cannot find any other case of someone being prosecuted for hate crimes after destroying a bible. Asked whether someone was ever charged with a hate crime over the Bible, Mr. Thorpe said ‘that would take a paralegal a couple of days to research, but this whole situation is fraught with this kind of question.’” (READ MORE)
Dymphna: “They Celebrate the Massacre That is Still Vivid in My Eyes” “This letter must reach everyone; spread it around as much as possible… ‘Milan, September 11 ’04 Saturday afternoon September 11 2004. In front of my house there is a mosque of sorts, or rather there’s a building where practically only Muslims live and they’ve set up a room for prayers, they’re all dressed in white, they’re celebrating… yes they’re celebrating September 11, they usually never meet on Saturdays but on Fridays so this is a special day, they’re celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers, they celebrate the massacre that is still vivid in my eyes and in anybody’s eyes…’” (READ MORE)
The Tygrrrr Express: Support Terrorism–Buy the Los Angeles Times “While the Washington Post is firmly entrenched as the ugly kid sister of the Jayson Blair Times, the Los Angeles Times has decided that it is now qualified to be the retarded family cousin that nobody talks about. Once content to be a badly written paper that was simply less awful than its East Coast counterparts, the LA Times has now officially declared itself an enemy combatant. Take the editors to Guantanamo Bay, there is no turning back. This is not about free speech, or even disgusting speech. This is about expressing support for terrorists. The LA Times wants American Taliban John Walker Lindh to be set free.” (READ MORE)
TigerHawk: Allies “Once again, critics of the Iraq war are disappointed that George Bush has been able to maintain the support of our ‘traditional allies’: “Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, has disappointed American and British critics of the war in Iraq by declaring that he believes the West is involved in a ‘generation-long battle’ against radical Islamic terrorism, that he believes the American mission in Iraq is worthwhile, and that he will stand by President Bush in his efforts to promote democracy in Iraq and in the rest of the Middle East.” (READ MORE)
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