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)
Visit to N. Korea Urged - The South Korean government urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday to visit Pyongyang as a "political boosting measure" to an international deal requiring North Korea to disable its main nuclear facilities by year"s end. Seoul's ambassador to Washington also said it was "ironic and paradoxical" that the Bush administration softened its previously harsh stance against the communist state only after it conducted a nuclear test one year ago this week. (READ MORE)
General Acted to Resolve Conflict - A spokesman for Lt. Gen. Frank Kearney, who is under fire from military rank and file for bringing homicide charges against two soldiers who had already been cleared, said yesterday the general had acted only to clarify the situation after two investigations produced conflicting results. Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican, has called on Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to open an investigation into the actions of the general… (READ MORE)
Judge Blocks Crackdown on Hiring of Illegals - A federal judge in San Francisco yesterday blocked plans by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to crack down on employers who hire illegal aliens. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued an order saying the agencies could not go forward with plans announced in August to send letters warning employers they face stiff penalties... (READ MORE)
Hillary Abandons 'Baby Bonds' Plan - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's quick backtracking from an off-the-cuff "baby bonds" proposal demonstrates her campaign's ability to jump on damage control. It's been less than two weeks since the New York Democrat casually said, "I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time." (READ MORE)
Army Offers Big Cash To Keep Key Officers - The Army is offering cash bonuses of up to $35,000 to retain young officers serving in key specialties -- including military intelligence, infantry and aviation -- in an unprecedented bid to forestall a critical shortage of officer ranks that have been hit hard by frequent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Army officials said that lengthy and repeated war-zone tours -- the top reason younger officers leave the service… (READ MORE)
Obama Tells Md. Voters, 'We Need Something New' - Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) spent yesterday evening in Prince George's County, speaking to one of the nation's most affluent African American communities in an attempt to convince voters that he has a real chance of becoming the nation's first black president. The ticketed rally, his first presidential campaign appearance in Maryland, drew a spirited and racially diverse crowd of thousands to Prince George's Community College in Largo. (READ MORE)
Effort to Curb Illegal Workers' Hiring Blocked - A federal judge barred the Bush administration yesterday from launching a planned crackdown on U.S. companies that employ illegal immigrants, warning of its potentially "staggering" impact on law-abiding workers and companies. In a firm rebuke of the White House, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer of San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction against the president's plan … (READ MORE)
Chief Justice Prolongs Executive Powers Debate - When a case involves the power of the judiciary, the authority of the World Court, the role of Congress in enforcing treaties and the ability of states to ignore a direct order from the president, even the nine justices of the Supreme Court need more than an hour. So Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. told the attorneys to keep arguing -- and fellow justices kept pulling out copies of the Constitution and peppering the lawyers with questions… (READ MORE)
White House Fights Democratic Changes to Surveillance Act - President Bush and other Republicans stepped up their attacks on Democratic legislation that would require more oversight of surveillance within U.S. borders that is directed at foreign targets, escalating a partisan battle over the boundaries of U.S. spying. In separate votes along party lines, the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees approved bills that would require the government to get approval from a special intelligence court for blanket surveillance of targets overseas. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
From an Anthropological Perspective: What expertise do anthropologists bring to the field? - The primary skill they bring to the field is an ability to create research designs that answer questions to problems using systematic methods of data collection. Without this, decisions may be made based on upon gut feelings or anecdotal evidence. The social sciences have well-demonstrated that apparent causes are not always accurate. Having a team dedicated to generating conclusions with explanatory force enables the military to work smarter and perhaps with greater efficiency and fewer casualties. (READ MORE)
Letters From the Other Side of the World: Reunited - So a lot of you already know this, but Adam is back home safe and sound. The big question is whether or not he’ll have to be deployed again. The hard truth is that a small number of men and women are carrying the large burden of fighting this war. So we hope he won’t be deployed again, but we really just don’t know. (READ MORE)
Michael Totten: On Patrol in Ramadi - Join me and Army Captain Phil Messer on a walking tour of Ramadi, Iraq, in a 20 minute video shot during a dismounted foot patrol in early August, 2007. If you enjoy this movie, please consider a donation through Blog Patron or Pay Pal. I will return to Iraq shortly, and if I can raise money from shooting and editing video, I’ll make a lot more of them. (READ MORE)
Greyhawk: Sh!tb@gs - By way of explanation... Given that the idea of former American troops becoming political party activists or expressing opposition to the war in Iraq really doesn't bother me (though I'll freely counter any false claims they might make in that capacity) I guess I should explain why I refer to the IVAW sh1tb@gs as IVAW sh!tb@gs. Simple - while ostensibly "anti-war", the IVAW sh!tb@gs actually spend their time and energy accusing American soldiers of committing endless atrocities in Iraq and insisting that said atrocities are condoned and covered up by the US military. (READ MORE)
Sgt Hook: Dust in the Wind - I was caught by surprise when the alarm chirped at 0500 this morning. I usually awake a few minutes before my battery operated Timex travel alarm clock reports for duty, but this morning I slept in. I hit the go button on the coffee maker before walking to the latrine for a quick shave. As I stepped out of my hooch into the early morning darkness I thought that the air felt a little thick. After a cup of joe, I laced up my running shoes and stepped out into the dawn of morning. I noted that the sky had a brownish haze to it as I began my jog and not long into it, I became painfully aware of how difficult it was to fill my lungs with air. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
WSJ Review & Outlook: Smiling Past Corruption - Robert Zoellick outlined a vision for the World Bank yesterday, at a speech marking his 100th day as president. His theme: "inclusive and sustainable globalization." Whatever that means. We long ago became accustomed to the toothless catchphrases by which the bank shovels money (now more than $30 billion a year) out the door, and it remains to be seen if Mr. Zoellick's agenda will amount to more than a high gloss on the status quo. To his credit, the former U.S. Trade Rep is emphasizing the importance of free trade to economic development... (READ MORE)
Daniel Henninger: Hillary Talks About 'It' - In an interview in yesterday's Washington Post, Hillary Clinton said she had contributed to the country's mood of bitter partisanship and wants to "put an end to it." The senator hedged her words for future revision by referring to the problem throughout the interview only as "it." Thus, she spoke of "having gone through it, having been on the receiving end of it and in campaigns that were hard fought maybe on the giving end of it . . ." When the reporters pressed her to explain her views on polarization, she said: "I've talked about it a lot, and I think I will continue to talk about it in a lot of different ways." (READ MORE)
Christopher Demuth: Think-Tank Confidential - I have been presiding at the American Enterprise Institute for 21 years. Today I am announcing that I will step down before the end of 2008. The search for a successor has begun--this being AEI, it will be a competitive search, and we expect a happy conclusion long before the target date. I hope to remain at the institute, if my successor will have me, pursuing my own research and writing. Policy think-tanks such as AEI have become important centers of applied scholarship, and friend and foe alike say we are terribly influential. But our position at the crossroads of politics and academics draws a certain amount of fire from both directions, and the reasons for our success are not widely understood. Here is my kiss-and-tell. (READ MORE)
Ken Blackwell: SCHIP: The Mad Hatter Matter - In “Alice in Wonderland,” during the tea party, the Mad Hatter sat down to a beautiful white linen tablecloth. He proceeded to make a mess in front of himself, but instead of cleaning up, he just moved to another spot and made another mess. And so on down the table. The other day, I realized that parable was applicable to the government-run State Children’s Health Insurance Program. (READ MORE)
Marco Martinez: Why Do Conservatives Love the Military? - If a soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine in Iraq were to receive an anonymous care package or letter of support, who likely would have been its sender: a liberal or a conservative? Chances are you said the latter. But why? Why are conservatives and Republicans seemingly more supportive of our troops than liberals? I’m no political expert. In fact, I don’t even consider myself terribly “political.” But I do have five thoughts on why conservatives seem to lend far stronger and more vocal support to our military than liberals: (READ MORE)
Steve Chapman: Hillary Clinton's Learning Curve - On most issues, you can line up Hillary Clinton on one side and the Bush administration, free-market think tanks and conservative economists on the other. It would be a surprise to find the former first lady lifting ideas from her longtime opponents. But in this case, there is not one surprise but two: She's not only doing it, but she's doing it on health insurance, where she once embodied Big Government. The chief question before the country right now is what to do about the 47 million people in the United States who lack health insurance. (READ MORE)
William Rusher: What Does the First Amendment Require? - Columbia University President Lee Bollinger got just about everything wrong that one could have gotten wrong in how he handled the speech by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad there. He was wrong to issue the invitation at all. Americans are so devoted to the supposed imperatives of the First Amendment that we mistakenly assume that every demand, or even desire, to speak must be honored instantly in the high name of "free speech." (READ MORE)
Cal Thomas: Selling Out Israel on the Installment Plan - Name one concession Israel has made in recent years that has been reciprocated by its sworn enemies. This is not a trick question. There are none. That’s why next month’s announced “Middle East Summit” in Annapolis, Md., should be viewed as one more installment payment in the sellout of Israel and of American interests in the Middle East. While the United States continues to struggle to shore up democracy in Iraq, the Bush administration — like administrations before it — proceeds in undermining the likelihood that the region’s first democracy will endure. (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: Until proven innocent - Some of the most depressing e-mails received over the past year and a half have been those that asked why I was worrying myself about three rich white guys at Duke University. Neither those three students accused of rape nor the District Attorney who accused them are the ultimate issue. If all District Attorneys in this country were like Michael Nifong, the United States of America would become the world's largest banana republic. (READ MORE)
Lisa De Pasquale: Elizabeth Edwards Sends Campaign Into Oblivion - Elizabeth Edwards sure has been feisty lately! I’m starting to think she’s auditioning for a seat on The View. Doesn’t she know all the seats have been filled? If Mrs. Edwards wears the pants in that marriage, I hope there's a good return policy. A recent fawning profile in Time magazine was more uncomfortable than Al and Tipper Gore’s infamous kiss. [John] and Elizabeth fall into a little routine onstage—she's the smart, gabby wife, he's the exasperated but loving husband—and when she interrupts him by mopping up some water that has spilled at his feet, he pretends to get mad. (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: Senate Earmark Reforms Quietly Gutted - A three-word rule change quietly made to Congress’s newly-enacted lobby reform package was recently discovered that significantly reduces disclosure requirements for the earmarks each senator requests. The new ethics bill, which was signed into law in September, purported to require members of both the House and Senate to make public a signed letter that included the name and address of the intended recipient, or location of any requested earmark. The final bill, however, contained an exception for members of the Senate. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Pushing for peace in North Waziristan - As the fighting between the Taliban and the military in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal agency nears the end of the fifth day, the Pakistani military has halted attacks in the town of Mir Ali in order to allow civilians to bury the dead. Raids and airstrikes have been reported in the Mosaki, Hurmiz, Asokhel, and Hyder Khel. Multiple reports indicate the Pakistani government is seeking a negotiated end to the fighting. The Pakistani Air Force conducted bombing runs in Mir Ali and the surrounding areas in an attempt to strike at Taliban and al Qaeda positions. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Big Development and a Poll - Sargent at TPM: beginning of the end, big development, significant step forward.* “Nearly 90″ have now signed a letter saying they won’t fund any more war. Riehl does the math, so we don’t have to: Let’s see, number of Representatives in the House – 435. Actual number signing the surrender letter - 87 - only 17 added since the same stunt in July Number that haven’t signed - 348, or about 80% of the House. Or, as one of the signers helpfully notes, an entire one-third of the Democratic caucus. (READ MORE)
Ian Schwartz: (Video) Coulter Brings Attention To Possible John Edwards Affair - The National Enquirer is claiming John Edwards had an 18-month affair with a campaign employee: “The affair started about 18 months ago,” a friend says the woman confessed to her. “When they met at a bar, sparks flew immediately. “She never expected it would turn sexual since John is married and is running for President. But it soon did — and she fell for him.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: (Audio) Adam Kokesh defends his smear of the Young America’s Foundation - Bryan touched on this yesterday but Kokesh is the guy known for wearing his cammies to anti-war protests in violation of military regulations, a protocol Kos once deemed “objectively un-American.” Two months after he wrote that, Sgt. David Aguina showed up in dress uniform at — ta da — Yearly Kos to defend the surge and was chewed out publicly by Jon Soltz for using the uniform as a political platform. I love karma. (READ MORE)
Baron Bodissey: House Foreign Affairs Committee: Yes , It Was a Genocide - The Democrat-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee has spurned the advances of the White House and voted to call the actions of the Ottoman Turks against the Armenian minority in 1915 a genocide. For the Democrats, presumably, it was more than enough that President Bush was against the measure — then they knew they must be for it. Sometimes people do the right things for the wrong reasons. According to the AP: (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Canadian moms, U.S. babies - Remember the Jepp quads? Thanks to socialized medicine, there was no hospital in the second-largest nation on Earth that could accommodate the quadruple birth and so Mrs. Jepp flew 325 miles from Calgary (population 1 million) to Great Falls, Mont. (population 56,000) to give birth. She may be Canadian, but her 4 daughters are American. Well, it turns out the Jepp quads are not the exception, they are the rule. Rather than build enough neo-natal intensive care units to handle their preemies, the Canadian government ships mothers to the United States to give birth. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: It's Hard Work, Not Getting Much Done - When the Democrats took the majority this year, they swore to set a new tone of hard work in Congress by demanding a five-day work week while in session. This would allow both chambers to get more accomplished and impress upon everyone the responsible nature and work ethic of the Democrats. Nine months later, while overdue appropriation bills still have not seen the House floor and the 110th Congress acquiring a do-nothing appelation, Democrats have begun to rebel against the schedule: (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: Waziristan - Bill Roggio reports on efforts by the Pakistani government to come to a political solution in Waziristan, after much inconclusive fighting with the Taliban. Roggio raises the key question of why any ceasefire should be different from the earlier ones which failed. The question that springs to mind is what distinguishes the dismal efforts by the Pakistanis with the epidemic-like "uprising" against al-Qaeda that began in Iraq's Anbar and has since started to spread like wildfire. Brigadier General Kevin Bergner recently described recent developments in a blogger teleconference roundtable. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: Suffer The Little Children - It's strange, how some events can have tremendous influence on our attitudes and beliefs, but we forget the actual incidents themselves. For example, one of my pushbutton issues is the use of children in political events. I stopped listening to Rush Limbaugh when he had the infamous "Chelsea Clinton as White House Dog" incident, and still don't listen to him today. I get infuriated when people talk about "drafting the Bush twins." And I got seriously annoyed when Harry Reid had his staff get a 12-year-old boy to make their pitch for the S-CHIP program. (READ MORE)
Jim Addison: Lying leftist liars stonewall about their lies - After The New Republic published purported "Iraq diaries" by an active-duty deployed soldier, Scott Beauchamp, which swiftly proved implausible and unverifiable, they promised a swift investigation into the matter. Since then, they have stonewalled. They blamed the Army for keeping the Private incommunicado during the official investigation, leaving the impression they were being inhibited from speaking to their "source." They were - at the time of their last update, some two months ago. Since then, though, they were able to speak to Beauchamp - and DID. On top of this story from the start, Confederate Yankee relates his interview with Major Kirk Luedeke: (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: The Choice Was Simple … He Gave Up Living The ‘American Dream’ To Serve His Country - Over the past year or so, we’ve heard various politicians allude to the fact that they feel our Troops aren’t the smartest people in the world. John Kerry, Harry Reid and others have alluded to the fact that they feel that way. It’s rare that we hear our politicians publicly applaud the choices our Troops make to serve our Country. How often do we hear them talk about the men and women who’ve given up promising careers in other fields, fields in which they’d make much more money, to serve in our country’s Armed Forces? I for one, have never heard these same politicians, who so vehemently blast anything and everything having to do with the war in Iraq, say anything of the sort. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Carter Claims US Engages In Torture - Former President Carter again steps in it - claiming that the US tortures prisoners. Nothing like using his bully pulpit as a former President to make the foreign policy and national security posture of the sitting President all the more difficult in a global war launched by Islamist terrorists against the US. “‘I don't think it. I know it,’ Carter told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. ‘Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights,’ Carter said.” (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Don't Throw Illegals in That Breyer Patch - A San Francisco-based federal judge, who grew up in San Francisco, a graduate of UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School, former Watergate prosecutor, who worked as a counsel at the Legal Aid Society in San Francisco for his first job as an actual lawyer, has put the kibosh on a crazy scheme to send letters to businesses warning them about employees whose Social Security numbers don't match their names.See if you can guess which recent president appointed Judge Charles Breyer, younger brother of you-know-who, to the bench. “Breyer said the new work-site rule would likely impose hardships on businesses and their workers. Employers would incur new costs to comply with the regulation that the government hasn't evaluated, and innocent workers unable to correct mistakes in their records in the given time would lose their jobs, the judge wrote.” (READ MORE)
Bear Creek Ledger: Hamline Univ, St. Paul suspends a student for advocating gun rights - Why doesn’t this surprise me about Hamline University? Student advocates gun rights, gets suspended (Church-affiliated university to require mental evaluation before return allowed) "A Christian church-affiliated university in St. Paul, Minn., has suspended a student after he raised questions about the campus ban on concealed weapons, and is ordering him to have a mental health evaluation before he can resume his education. The Hamline University case involves student Troy Scheffler, who, after the Virginia Tech massacre where a student shot and killed nearly three dozen others, suggested the killing spree might have been stopped if students had been allowed to carry concealed weapons." (READ MORE)
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross: Suicide Bombs Target Salahadin Awakening Leader - Yesterday, two suicide truck bombs targeted a leader of the Salahadin Awakening Council. (The Awakening movements that have sprouted up across Iraq during the past year are based on the model that experienced great success in the Anbar province.) The Times of London reports: "Up to 22 people were killed and many more wounded when two suicide truck bombs exploded in a town in northern Iraq today, targeting a police chief and a tribal leader who had joined forces with the US military against al-Qaeda." This is in line with al-Qaeda in Iraq's announced campaign of assassinations intended to coincide with Ramadan. As the MEMRI Blog reports, shortly after the assassination of Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, an extremist web site published a list of names and photos titled "Pictures of the Infidels and Apostates Wanted by the Islamic State of Iraq." (READ MORE)
Dr. Sanity: Ammunition for the War of Ideas Here at Home - If you haven't read it already (or even if you have), now would be a good time to read Norman Podhoretz' essay titled, "World War IV: How It Started, What It Means, and Why We Have to Win" from the September, 2004 issue of Commentary. This essay has been expanded into a book that is now on the best-seller list at Amazon (see at the end of this post). Podhoretz wrote a follow-up essay in Commentary titled: "The War against World War IV". In this latter piece, Podhoretz discusses the forces of defeatism that threaten to overwhelm our resolve in this war. (READ MORE)
MountainRunner: Congress continues to screw up its priorities and we still don't get privatization issue - It's no wonder that Congress asked such lame questions of Blackwater's Erik Prince and think that tweaking MEJA will solve the problems. While there's a war raging and we continue to lose credibility, Congress, namely the Foreign Affairs Committee, fiddles. From Chapter 9 of the forthcoming Handbook on Military Administration (buy two for the holidays): "It is too early to tell if private military companies are a temporary aberration or the signal of a long-term reversion to the ways of earlier times. Complicating our understanding is the conduct of the administration of President George W. Bush on the world stage. Far from an actual coalition builder, national security strategies and speeches over the years of his tenure have reinforced a unilateralism on the international stage and in domestic politics and a clear disregard for international norms that combined to eliminate pressures to keep a lid on non-state forces." (READ MORE)
Monkey Tennis Centre: If you're wondering where all that aid money goes... - This is going to be bad news for Bono and Bob Geldof, but what a lot of people have long suspected is now official: every last penny in foreign aid sent to Africa is effectively being spent on waging war. The BBC reports: "A report on armed conflict in Africa has shown that the cost to the continent's development over a 15-year period was nearly $300bn (£146bn). The research was undertaken by a number of non-governmental organisations, including Oxfam. It says the cost of conflict was equal to the amount of money received in aid during the same period." (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: Why did Google ban anti-MoveOn.org ads? - Update 10:45am Eastern. Want to see the banned ads? Here’s the scoop from the guy who tried to place them. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been driving home the little-noticed story about MoveOn.org bullying mom-and-pop Internet shop owners who criticized the General Petraeus ads. Remember how they got them to yank their anti-MoveOn merchandise? By abusing trademark law. Well, it looks like they may be at it again. Possibly with Google’s help. Robert Cox reports for the Examiner: (READ MORE)
Neptunus Lex: First do no harm - Can we stipulate that the Armenian people endured a nightmarish catastrophe during the final days of the Ottoman Empire? Can we admit that the Turks have been less than entirely forthcoming on the topic in the interim? While also conceding that they have made but prickly and uncertain allies from time to time? Can we do all of that and yet aver that needlessly provoking the only mature Islamic democracy - one that, despite numerous efforts to conform to Western standards of governmental decency, continues to be held at arms length by the “Christian boys club” of the EU - is a bad idea? When Turkish troops stand a-tiptoe atop the border of a thinly defended, US-monitored northern Iraq antagonized by a Kurdish “People’s Party” that raids and kills and causes mayhem in Turkish Kurdistan? (READ MORE)
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