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)
3 Mine Rescuers Die, 6 Others Hurt - HUNTINGTON, Utah, Aug. 16 -- A cave-in Thursday night killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach six trapped miners, authorities said. Mining officials were considering whether to suspend the rescue effort. (READ MORE)
FBI Director's Notes Contradict Gonzales's Version Of Ashcroft Visit - Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft was "feeble," "barely articulate" and "stressed" moments after a hospital room confrontation in March 2004 with Alberto R. Gonzales, who wanted Ashcroft to approve a warrantless wiretapping program over Justice Department objections, according to notes from ... (READ MORE)
Jury Convicts Jose Padilla of Terror Charges - MIAMI, Aug. 16 -- A federal jury convicted former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla on Thursday of terrorism conspiracy charges, handing a courthouse victory to the Bush administration, which had originally sought to imprison him without a criminal trial. (READ MORE)
An Olympic Tryout in Beijing: Banning Cars, Briefly - BEIJING, Aug. 17 -- More than a million cars were banned from Beijing's notoriously clogged streets Friday in a test run for all-out measures to reduce pollution during the 2008 Olympics. (READ MORE)
Hill to Link AMT, New Tax - A Democratic proposal to raise taxes on the private partnerships that are behind buyout mania on Wall Street has a good chance of passing because legislators plan to couple it with an extension of Alternative Minimum Tax relief — a combination President Bush would have a hard time vetoing. (READ MORE)
Democrats Vie For Most Electable - Iowa voters say it's tough to distinguish between the platforms of the Democrats running for president. So the hopefuls are downplaying their differences and instead, each is promising to be the most electable of the bunch. (READ MORE)
Straw Poll Revives Huckabee's Bid - Mike Huckabee parlayed a Southern governor's folksy charm, four outstanding debate performances and a populist economic message that sets him apart from the rest of the Republican presidential field into a second-place finish in last week's Iowa presidential straw poll. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Badger 6: This is Not An ESPN Highlight Reel - Light at the end of the tunnel; the two minute; the bottom of the ninth; the shot clock's off and all we need to sink is that three pointer. That is the case for the Task Force, not so much for the mission though. Barring some significant change most of Team Badger will soon be back in the United States. The planning to return though has kept me off mission for the most part and in any event the missions have been quiet. That's a good thing for the Soldiers and for the people of Al Anbar, not so good for the writer though. (READ MORE)
The Gunner's World: Return - Glancing out the window of the Lufthansa flight I was taken aback by all the green I saw, after months in the desert everything seemed so alive with color from my view headed into Dulles Airport. I sat back and thought about my whole experience and how in an hour or so I would be joining my family again and heading north back to Maryland. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: You Call This "Moderate"? - After a lot of criticism for failing Iraqis with his flaccid leadership, Iraq’s Nouri Al Maliki has acted! What did this decisive problem-solver do? He announced a "new" political alliance for the country. This new alliance is not only supposedly "new," it's supposedly "moderate," too. (READ MORE)
Matt Sanchez: (Video) The Killing Field - The Jamia District is the home to the Baghdad "killing field". It's nothing impressive to look at, lots of trash in an empty field, but more bodies have been dumped in this plot than any other place before. Major Norrie also fought in the Haifa Street Ambush on January 6th, 2007. (READ MORE)
Northern Disclosure: Recreational Warfare - The Shelbystani's were a nation of stupid people that aggrivated me beyond belief. I was always in a state of disbelief to the things I was hearing. The leadership drunk on stupid juice all the time but I have now entered a new place. I am currently in the capital of POGistan. Also know as AJ in Kuwait. I was selected to come down here with our crew to display our vehicle and discuss it with some VIP's. The reason I have dubbed this place POGistan is due to the complete state of denial that the majority of people that live here operate in. (READ MORE)
Mario Loyola: Iraq & the Lap of Luxury - Here at Camp Fallujah, the headquarters of the Marine Expeditionary Force / Multi-National Force - West (Anbar province) and of its component Regimental Combat Team 6 (Fallujah and environs), it can't be said that accommodations are bare. We sleep comfortably and eat well. For the guys out at combat outposts and joint security stations, the same cannot be said — they live off dry-stocks, commonly without running water, roughing it for real, and often just yards away from the enemy. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Mike Gallagher: Churches have no business harboring illegals - What happens when a criminal who seeks and receives sanctuary in a church in order to escape prosecution eventually leaves the church? (READ MORE)
Hugh Hewitt: How Long And How Many? - You don't often hear any Congressmen or Senators demanding answers on how long the duration or how great the number of troops will be required in Bosnia, South Korea, or Germany. But you hear little other than those questions when the subject of Iraq comes up. (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: NASA Blocked Climate Change Blogger from Data - Despite the fact that NASA tried to block him from accessing U.S. temperature data, persistent efforts by a climate change blogger forced the government to amend U.S. temperature data. (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: 8 Reasons Why Conservatives Must Defeat Hillary - Now, I will be the first to admit that the GOP was very disappointing in the 2006 election cycle and although the Republicans have improved significantly in a lot of areas, they're still not doing as much as conservatives have asked them to do on spending, corruption, immigration, and foreign policy. (READ MORE)
Debra J. Saunders: The Man Behind the Haircut - Elizabeth Edwards complained to the Progressive magazine that antiwar critics such as Sen. Barack Obama are "behaving in a holier-than-thou" manner on Iraq. Too bad for Edwards that Obama opposed the war in Iraq in 2002, while her husband John Edwards -- as well as Sens. Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd -- voted for the Iraq war resolution. (READ MORE)
Paul Weyrich: Recognition of the Wisdom of Vetoes - Unlike his father, President George W. Bush sometimes is difficult to understand. However, one issue about which he has been resolute and consistent in recent times is taxes. In the past Bush did not veto higher spending bills. In his entire first term and well into his second President Bush did not veto a single bill. (READ MORE)
Oliver North: Return of the Bear - The great horned owl is a magnificent raptor with feathers so soft its prey can't even hear it coming until it's too late. (READ MORE)
Jonah Goldberg: Envy: The underrated sin - The consequences of envy run even deeper. It will never be known how many millennia man endured in misery and darkness under the moldering blanket of envy. (READ MORE)
Linda Chavez: Republicans Have No Heir Apparent - The GOP has traditionally been the party of political primogeniture. From Ronald Reagan to George Herbert Walker Bush to Bob Dole to George W. Bush, Republicans have nominated the man who could best lay claim to being the natural heir. (READ MORE)
Diana West: Death by rules of engagement - This is what comes through, loud and ugly, from that mountaintop in Afghanistan, where four young Americans ultimately agreed it was better to be killed than to kill. (READ MORE)
Bill Steigerwald: Watts Rattles Global Warming Theologians - Citizen Watts may look like a troublemaker to NASA's experts but he's convinced he's on to something important. He's found no evidence that anyone except him has ever made an effort to verify the quality-control standards at every weather station site. (READ MORE)
Rich Lowry: The Revenge of the Tribes - In September 1898, an outnumbered British-led army battled the forces of a Muslim fanatic in Omdurman, Sudan. The Brits unleashed machine-gun fire and artillery on the primitive warriors and suffered a loss of 48 dead and 434 wounded, while killing 9,700, wounding 13,000 and capturing 5,000 of the enemy. (READ MORE)
Peter Wehner: Step 1: Troops leave Iraq - Step 2: Jihad wave spreads far and wide - As we approach next month’s report by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, the debate about Iraq will intensify. One key point of discussion will be a threshold question: How important is Iraq in the larger war against Islamic extremism? Is Iraq a central battleground in the fight against jihadists, or a distraction? (READ MORE)
Lamar Smith: Enforcing our Immigration Laws - For far too long, too many have spoken out on the problem of illegal immigration but done too little. The laws we need to combat illegal immigration are on the books in this country, and they are pretty clear. However, these laws only work if they are enforced across all levels of government ? federal, state and local. If we are to end illegal immigration, we must establish the rule of law and enforce the current laws. (READ MORE)
Rich Galen: Rove - Interesting, isn't it, now that Rove has announced he is leaving the White House Democrats (who consider him to be a combination of - in reverse order of publication - Lord Voldamort, Darth Vader, and Grendel) are leaping up and down with joy, elbowing each other out of the way on cable news chat shows to point out that they don't really care if he stays or goes and they never thought that much of, or about, him anyway. (READ MORE)
Jenny S. Martinez: The Real Verdict on Jose Padilla - The conclusion of Jose Padilla's criminal trial in a federal court yesterday shows that waging the "war on terror" does not require giving up our constitutional values or substituting military rule for the rule of law. The jury's guilty verdict should be appealed, but the verdict on the Constitution... (READ MORE)
Evan R. Goldstein: Professors on the Battlefield - Marcus Griffin is not a soldier. But now that he cuts his hair "high and tight" like a drill sergeant's, he understands why he is being mistaken for one. Mr. Griffin is actually a professor of anthropology at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va. His austere grooming habits stem from his enrollment in a new Pentagon initiative, the Human Terrain System. It embeds social scientists with brigades in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they serve as cultural advisers to brigade commanders. (READ MORE)
Kimberly A. Strassel: Democrats and Cannibals - Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar is today fond of quoting a famous Lyndon Johnson line: "You know the difference between cannibals and liberals? Cannibals only eat their enemies." Mr. Cuellar would know, having found himself the main course on liberals' election menu just last year. A centrist Democrat who is pro-business, free-trade and strong on law enforcement, the congressman was designated an apostate by the left-wing Netroots crowd. They decamped to his district and bankrolled a liberal primary challenger. Mr. Cuellar triumphed, though Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas would later swagger on his blog: "So we didn't kill off Cuellar. But we gave him a whooping where none was expected and made him sweat." (READ MORE)
Peggy Noonan: Hatred Begins at Home - Whenever I think of war, I think of this: It was 1982 or '83, I was in Northern Ireland, and a local reporter was showing me around Derry, then a center of the Protestant-Catholic conflict. The neighborhood we were in was beat up, poor, with Irish Republican Army graffiti on tired walls. There were some scraggly kids on the street. Suddenly an armored British army vehicle slowly rounded the corner, and the street came alive with kids pouring out of houses, grabbing the heavy metal lids of garbage bins, and smashing them against the pavement. They made quite a racket. (READ MORE)
WSJ Review & Outlook: Money Ball - Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson gave an upbeat interview to The Wall Street Journal Wednesday, assuring everyone that the current credit market turmoil will "extract a penalty" but not lead to recession. We tend to agree, but Mr. Paulson would have done better spending his time smoothing over KKR Financial Holdings's commercial paper blowup instead. His words didn't stop another wild market ride yesterday. (READ MORE)
The D-Ring: Wired: Brass, not bloggers greater OPSEC risk - For years, the military has been warning that soldiers’ blogs could pose a security threat by leaking sensitive wartime information. But a series of online audits, conducted by the Army, suggests that official Defense Department websites post material that’s far more potentially harmful than blogs do. (READ MORE)
Steve Schippert: Al-Qaeda In Pakistan -- Blades Of A Fan - If the latest National Intelligence Estimate left anyone unconvinced, rest assured that al-Qaeda is most certainly not a cave-dwelling and decentralized movement. (Newest NIE is not to be confused with this one, nearly schizophrenic by comparison, dated April 2006 & released [unclass] in September 2006.) What brings this to mind? The Jose Padilla conviction. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Iraq Report: Sunni insurgents vs. al Qaeda in Diyala - Al Qaeda in Iraq continues to face opposition from Sunni insurgent groups. In the Buhriz district in Diyala province, the 1920s Revolution Brigades assisted Iraqi police in fending off an attack of upwards of 60 al Qaeda fighters. Multinational Forces Iraq identified the Sunni insurgents as the "Baqubah Guardians," however IraqSlogger reported the al-Ishreen Revolution Brigades (1920s Revolution Brigades) engaged in the fight. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Poll: Americans Want to Win - 47 percent of Americans now think we’re making progress in Iraq, despite the best effort by our major news media organizations to ignore this, to bury it, to cast it in the worst possible light. This is before our top generals have had the opportunity to address Congress and the nation. This is after repeated efforts by Congress and presidential candidates to portray Iraq as a disaster we must abandon at allow costs, though it very likely would mean we bear witness to genocide and wear a national stain of shame and cowardice in perpetuity. (READ MORE)
Dadmanly: Giuliani and Edwards - Earlier this week, Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit linked to two important essays from the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs: one written by John Edwards, the other by Rudy Giuliani. I've already read lots of commentary, serious and silly. As Foreign Policy issues will play a critical role in the upcoming Presidential election, and Presidency, how candidates frame such issues should be a critical factor in judging their qualifications for the Presidency. At the risk of adding redundancy to the debate, here's my take on their essays. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: NYT and economic genocide - Having said in July that America should abandon Iraq and let the genocide begin, the New York Times editorial board took a whack at the global economy today. The editorial failed. Rather than praise the Republican leadership for the past 25+ years in putting the nation in position to be competitive in the world market, the Times trotted out liberal ideas that failed. Said the Times: (READ MORE)
Richard Landes: How Liberals (Unconsciously?) Pursue the “Politics of the Worse” - Jenny Tonge has already made her case for being the poster-woman for PCP1-2 when she explained that if the Palestinians have a death-cult in which they sacrifice their children on the altar of the shame-driven hatreds, it must be Israel’s fault (she didn’t actually put it that way; it might have gotten in the way of her sympathy for the underdog). “If I had to live in that situation - and I say that advisedly - I might just consider becoming one myself.” Part of what is so appalling about the remark is that, unlike Cherie Blair, who expressed similar sympathies, Tonge tells us she might wade into a crowd on civilians and blow herself up. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Fiddling in New Jersey - While Gov. Jon Corzine (D) and Mayor Cory Booker (D) call on increased restrictions on gun sales and New Jersey has entered an agreement to forward gun information to the ATF weapons database, the idea that cracking down on illegal aliens and eliminating provisions relating to Newark's status as a sanctuary city are not going to happen, despite the fact that two of the accused murderers in the Newark triple execution slaughter were illegal aliens who had a lengthy record of criminal acts and had been out on bail when committing further crimes, including the triple slaying. (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Democrat Crowing Causes Sun to Rise - This is really a hoot, a tempest in a teabag. Somehow, some media maven started a rumor that when Gen. David Petraeus arrives in mid-September, he won't give any public report on Iraq; in fact, he won't even talk to Congress. The rumor continues that his report will be ghost-written by White House aides, who are too terrified that Petraeus (Bush's puppet) will accidentally spill the beans that the war is actually catastrophically lost... if those brilliant inquisitors of the majority (yes, I mean you, Pat Leahy, D-VT, 95%!) ask a few inconvenient questions. (READ MORE)
Bear Creek Ledger: A Trail of Media Bias, Distortion and Lies - American Thinker has a story by a Randall Hoven where he’s keeping a list and checking it twice. The list is longer than you think. He’s also soliciting for help if he’s missed any names. Scott Beauchamp was the last straw. I realized that I need a scorecard to keep track of all the fallen journalists, journalistic mistakes and major and minor screw-ups in the media. I couldn’t find one already made, although Wikipedia came close, so I started my own. I apologize if there is a good list already out there, but I looked and could not find. (READ MORE)
Blonde Sagacity: DNC: The New Party of "the Rich" - Dems can't play the "working man's party" card anymore or demonize the GOP as the "rich white man's party", well, I guess they can if they don't mind misleading the American public. "Democrats seeking the White House have received more than four times as much money from some of the nation's wealthiest enclaves as they did four years ago, an analysis of campaign-finance records shows. (READ MORE)
bRight & Early: Reid Protecting His Investment - Harry Reid is busy protecting his investment. Not in Nevada real estate, but his investment in losing the war in Iraq. He is trying to do this by picking a fight where none exists. Senate Democratic Majority leader Harry Reid accused the White House of launching an attempt to mask candid testimony on the strategy. "If the president is going to continue to ask American soldiers to fight in this civil war … then those closest to the situation on the ground must give Congress and the American people a frank and honest account of this war free of White House spin," he said. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: The Ghoul And The Fool - Patty Murray managed to sucker her fellow Democrats into looking like exploitative idiots two weeks ago, but not many media sources caught the Senator from Washington in her fib. Murray, who made headlines by pointing out Osama bin Laden's educational career after 9/11, used the St. Anthony Bridge collapse to rail against the Bush administration's supposed callousness towards our nation's infrastructure. The Hill and the Seattle Times noted the exchanges (h/t CQ reader Stoo): (READ MORE)
Counterterrorism Blog: CAIR Cites Counterterrorism Blog in HLF Legal Filing - In the case of United States versus Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), et al, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) clearly doesn't like it when the Counterterrorism Blog and the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) is presenting the news on this subject. In an Amicus Curiae brief by CAIR to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, CAIR complains about the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) postings on the Counterterrorism Blog with news in regards to the HLF case and CAIR. (READ MORE)
Flopping Aces: The Catcalls From Our Liberal Media - Now this is an interesting story that started yesterday and I completely missed due to my day job. So if you were under a rock like I was then here is the scoop. It began with a story that in a Seattle newsroom some reporters began cheering once word came that Rove was resigning: “Seattle Times Executive Editor Dave Boardman wrote today in one of his morning notes to staff that there had been "an awkward moment at yesterday's news meeting." That's the meeting where editors and other staff from throughout the newsroom talk about the stories planned for the next day's paper. Boardman wrote in "Dave's Raves (and the occasional rant)" When word came in of Karl Rove's resignation, several people in the meeting started cheering. That sort of expression is simply not appropriate for a newsroom.” (READ MORE)
Errol Morris: Will the Real Hooded Man Please Stand Up - It was arguably one of the least newsworthy pictures in the world, if only because it had already been seen by everybody. And yet, on March 11, 2006, The New York Times published on the front page of the first section, upper left-hand corner, a photograph of a man holding the photograph that had been seen around the world. Ali Shalal Qaissi, the man in the Times photograph (below) had told a group of human rights workers that he was “The Hooded Man” or “The Man on the Box.” The no longer anonymous Hooded Man became a national news story – not because he was a victim of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib but because he was in a famous photograph – a photograph which in all likelihood will become the iconic photograph of the Iraq war. (READ MORE)
John Hinderaker: The Jose Padilla Fan Club - Jules Crittenden did the dirty work, so you don't have to: he toured the fever swamp of liberal web sites to record their reactions to yesterday's conviction of Jose Padilla. As you would expect, those that haven't fallen silent are regretful. Jules also notes this paragraph from an A.P. report: U.S. officials said Padilla, while incarcerated in a military brig in South Carolina, admitted exploring the dirty bomb plot. But that evidence could not be used at trial because he was not read his rights and did not immediately have access to an attorney. (READ MORE)
Kim Zigfeld: Neo-Soviet Russia, Found Guilty of Attacking Georgia, Stonewalls at the U.N. -- And, at last, the U.S. Fights Back! - Exposing an outrageously dishonest neo-Soviet Russian response to Georgian allegations, an official international delegation has visited Georgia and determined that Russia did in fact violate Georgian airspace with military attack aircraft and strike Georgian territory with a large missile: "An unidentified aircraft flew from Russian airspace into Georgian airspace and back again into Russian airspace three times," the eight experts said in their report. (READ MORE)
McQ: How does something like this go unnoticed for 6 years? - That was the first question that popped into my mind when I read this story: “A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to a Texas base, U.S. officials said.” What this contractor did was discover and exploit an automated Defense Department purchasing system. Bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled ``priority’’ were usually paid automatically. So once they discovered they could charge just about anything for shipping and get paid, they did. For six freakin’ years: (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: John Edwards: “Predatory lending” beneficiary? - Welcome to John Edwards’ America, a land where Democrat presidential candidates demonize the businesses that made them rich. Via the WSJ today, a fresh look at silky hypocrisy. Headline: “Edwards, Foreclosure Critic, Has Investing Tie to Subprime Lenders:” As a presidential candidate, Democrat John Edwards has regularly attacked subprime lenders, particularly those that have filed foreclosure suits against victims of Hurricane Katrina. But as an investor, Mr. Edwards has ties to lenders foreclosing on Katrina victims. (READ MORE)
Ralph Peters: Killing For Congress: Iraq's Latest Massacres - TWO days ago, al Qaeda det onated four massive truck bombs in three Iraqi vil lages, killing at least 250 civilians (perhaps as many as 500) and wounding many more. The bombings were a sign of al Qaeda's frustration, desperation and fear. The victims were ethnic Kurd Yazidis, members of a minor sect with pre-Islamic roots. Muslim extremists condemn them (wrongly) as devil worshippers. The Yazidis live on the fringes of society. That's one of the two reasons al Qaeda targeted those settlements: (READ MORE)
Kat in GA: Saturday, August 12...... - On August 2, 2007, twenty-four-year-old Army Specialist Cristian Rojas-Gallego of Loganville, Georgia, lost his life in Iraq. Surviving are his parents, his young widow and three very young children, ages three, two, and ten weeks. Spc. Rojas-Gallego was almost home when he was killed. This, his fourth tour in Iraq, was nearly at an end. Prior to enlisting in the Army, he served three tours in Iraq as a Marine. A combination of staunch patriotism, love of America and love for his growing family eventually led him to enlist in the Army after his Marine Corps service was over. (READ MORE)
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