A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention updated throughout the day…so check back often. This is a weekend edition so updates are as time and family permits.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
House Approves Wiretap Measure - The Democratic-controlled House last night approved and sent to President Bush for his signature legislation written by his intelligence advisers to enhance their ability to intercept the electronic communications of foreigners without a court order. (READ MORE)
Bloggers Give Clinton a Mixed Reception - CHICAGO, Aug. 4 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York walked into the lion's den here Saturday, drawing applause as well as boos and hisses from an audience of progressive bloggers during a presidential candidates forum in which she became the target of sharp criticism... (READ MORE)
Tougher Stance on Pakistan Took Months - Last September, when Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf visited the White House to tout a controversial plan for driving al-Qaeda from his country, President Bush responded at a joint news conference with a trademark profession of faith. When Musharraf "looks me in the eye" and says there "won't... (READ MORE)
House Votes to Raise Oil Tax - The Democrat-led House yesterday passed a $16 billion tax increase on the oil industry to pay for renewable energy and conservation incentives ignoring the White House's charge that it will raise gas prices and reliance on foreign oil. (READ MORE)
Critical Hunger for Reform - Budget hawks are criticizing efforts to expand a welfare program that many people decline to use, even though the government has spent millions of dollars to tout its benefits. (READ MORE)
Bloggers Applaud Rebuff of Lobbyists - A presidential forum hosted by liberal bloggers drew sharp exchanges yesterday when John Edwards challenged his rivals to stop taking donations from lobbyists. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Eighty Deuce on the Loose in Iraq: A drastic misallocation of surge troops in Iraq... “Alright, well let me start off by saying that I try my best to stay positive about what I'm doing here in Iraq, and I generally wish to portray a positive attitude about my job. But like anything else in life, sometimes you need to just let a little steam off and get some things off your chest. This is the post that I will do just that. Consider this my rant so I no longer bottle these feelings up inside causing me to turn in to some horrible bitter man.” (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Nothing to do but panic “That NYT op-ed by Michael O’Hanlon and Ken Pollack arguing that the surge is showing some encouraging results has apparently panicked some people. After all, what really matters to a certain kind of war critic is that the Bush administration be humbled; if that also means that means humiliation for the United States and genocide in Iraq, well, that's just unavoidable collateral damage.” (READ MORE)
Omar: The Untimely Recess “The withdrawal of the Accord Front from Maliki's cabinet and the persistence of the parliament on taking a month long recess is a major embarrassment for Baghdad and Washington alike and for anyone who was looking forward to seeing some political progress in Iraq before the September milestone. When it comes to the recess, two main factions can be identified as the cause of the deadlock:” (READ MORE)
My Desert Adventure: My last post? “This could very well be my last post. Tomorrow, I’m “wheels in the well” and on my way to Kuwait. I don’t know if I will be able to keep up with this blog from there on not (the military is cracking down on bloggers and quite often, the websites are restricted). My original intent in writing this blog was to keep my family and a few close friends informed as to what I was up to while I was over here. I purposely tried to stay anonymous by avoiding using certain key words—words like JCCS-1, RFF-611, EWO and a few others.” (READ MORE)
Far From Perfect: Long Day “Its been one long continuous patrol this week. Its all blended into one never ending day. Out all day, up all night. Patrol this, secure that, drive way the hell out to this place. Its gets tiresome. We got back around noon today after spending the night at that peculiar remote outpost in my dream. I got a few hours sleep between patrols in a non air conditioned connex box of an aid station on a stretcher. They have built it up pretty well though, so no deja vu episodes. When we returned to the FOB, there were no showers of course. They don’t turn them on till late because of the water shortage. So no nap for me as I can’t sleep in my bed while stewing in my own filth. Cleaned up a best I could, but I had to wait till the showers were opened.” (READ MORE)
Wesley Morgan: On patrol in northern Babil province “Saturday morning I got an unexpected grand tour of the US Army’s infrastructure in the greater Baghdad area when my helicopter flight out of Camp Victory, which I thought was going straight to FOB Kalsu, instead stopped at four other landing zones on the way. After waking up and catching a ride to the main 3rd Infantry Division landing zone on Camp Victory, I armored up, strapped into the Black Hawk (I’m handy now with the four-point-release seatbelt, which was really hard to use the first time) with a bunch of 3rd ID and 10th Mountain soldiers, and took off on the Marne Express, a flight that circulates to all of 3rd ID’s FOBs (3rd ID is called “Rock of the Marne” for its role in Aisne-Marne offensive of 1918).” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Jules Crittenden: Trouble in Paradise “What if Americans would rather win? US News and World Report: ‘As reports come in suggesting the “surge” is producing some military but not political results, some conservatives are raising the possibility that Democrats will face a backlash from the voters for their staunch opposition to the Iraq war.’” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: (Video) Pajamas Media interviews soldier who spoke up at Yearly Kos; Update: Soltz’s VoteVets bio features photo of him in uniform “Even more interesting than the rules governing what he did yesterday will be the rules governing what he can do this week. The media’s going to want to talk to him as much as his commanders are going to want to stop that from happening lest it draw more attention to his probable breach of military regs yesterday. Presumably there’s nothing they can do to stop him once he’s off duty and out of uniform — or can they, given his misconduct? If they can’t, expect him to turn up on Hannity & Colmes imminently.” (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston: (Hot Air Video) The speech that CAIR didn’t want you to hear “This is it: Robert Spencer’s speech to the Young America’s Foundation conference in Washington on August 2, 2007. This is the speech that the Council on American-Islamic Relations tried to threaten YAF into stopping. The video begins a few seconds into YAF spokesman Jason Mattera’s introduction. Enjoy!” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Ditching Kos “Congress held a rare Saturday session in the House to update the FISA. It is a 29-year-old law that has been updated since 9/11. Why the urgency? The Yearly Tinfoil Hat Convention. Democrats House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Plurality Leader Harry Reid and DNCC head Rahm Emanuel had been scheduled to speak to the tinfoil crowd.” (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: "Madame Speaker, We're Hooked On Our Own Petard!" "Shut Up And Keep Hoisting!" “Last week, there was a bit of a kerfuffle on Capitol Hill, involving procedural shenanigans over a measure that would have denied certain forms of federal aid going to illegal aliens. Long story short, the vote was gaveled over before everyone thought it was over, and the vote tally was changed and switched around a few times until it was finally judged defeated by the Democrats, whose leadership had opposed it.” (READ MORE)
The Hatemongers Quarterly: Our Future Hypocrite-in-Chief? “Gosh, you just have to love John Edwards' campaign for president. Every time you think the former Senator from North Carolina can't become more hypocritical, he somehow manages to up the ante. Frankly, unless you collect Mike Gravel quotes, Sen. Edwards' candidacy is the most entertaining part of the 2008 presidential race.” (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: The Crystal Ball “Stratfor has a theory about the way politics will work out in Iraq. And it goes like this. All of the local political forces have spent themselves and fractured themselves so badly that powerful foreign forces can essentially call the tune. Here's how they tell it: ‘Normally, when a country faces a rebellion against its prime minister, the formation of a de facto separatist government, the threat of invasion and resignation of its military chief…’” (READ MORE)
Dafydd: A Lame Duck Beats a Full House (and Senate) “And in the fullness of time, both the Democrat-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate broke with longstanding Democratic tradition and decided to support the United States of America. Silly bit of business, really; foreigners calling foreigners whose calls happen to be routed through nodes in Los Angeles or New York, and the National Security Agency was listening in when it appeared that one or the other foreign party was a terrorist, a terrorist supporter, or a terrorist harborer. But the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opened the Devil's gate by deciding that this violated some obscure clause of the Constitution of which we were all previously unaware:” (READ MORE)
Big Dog: With Democrats, it all Depends on Who Steals the Vote “Back in 2000 George Bush won the Presidency by defeating Al Gore in a hotly contested election. The results were not known for more than a month because the Democrats demanded recount after recount and things ended up in the courts mostly because there were different vote counting procedures in the various counties and only selected (heavily Democratic) counties were recounted. A number of recounts have all determined that George W Bush won the election but this entire fiasco has been a sore spot for Democrats who think Bush stole the election.” (READ MORE)
Brian @ Blonde Sagacity: Whenever an American Soldier Loses His Life a Liberal Gets Their Wings “There are a few laws that govern life. For example, if you drop Al Franken from the Chicago’s Sears Tower, gravity will pull him back to earth at an acceleration rate of approximately 32 feet per second (or so I am told). Another physical law of note is the fact that a diet of fudge, pixy sticks and Schlitz will eventually result in a sensation not unlike indigestion, and quite possibly some shooting pains in your left arm. Also, if you are going to be a passenger in Ted Kennedy’s car, wear water wings. Last but not least, a law of nature is that liberals hate the military and all who serve in it.” (READ MORE)
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