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)
$11M Verdict in Funeral Protesters Case - Members of a fundamentalist Kansas church ordered to pay nearly $11 million in damages to a grieving father smiled as they walked out of the courtroom, vowing that the verdict would not deter them from protesting at military funerals. (READ MORE)
Fed Rate Cut Likely Last of Year - The Federal Reserve yesterday lowered interest rates but indicated it would be the last easing this year because of the rising risk of oil-fed inflation. (READ MORE)
Senate Panel OKs sea Treaty, but Fight Looms - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee easily approved the Law of the Sea convention yesterday, brushing back conservatives' objections and setting up a bruising ratification fight on the Senate floor, where Republicans say they can defeat it. (READ MORE)
Hillary Draws Fire for Aliens Answer - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday declined to clarify her position on enabling illegal aliens to get driver's licenses despite sharp attacks from both Democrats and Republicans. (READ MORE)
U.S. Presses U.N. Agencies on Budget Transparency - The United States has started a new initiative to force dozens of U.N. independent agencies to publish detailed budgets in an effort to see how U.S. contributions are being spent, an official said yesterday. (READ MORE)
Clinton Regroups As Rivals Pounce - After a rare night of fumbles by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination rushed to maximize the damage yesterday, even as her advisers argued that the "piling on" engaged in by an all-male field of opponents will ultimately drive more female voters into ... (READ MORE)
Spitzer Chose to Compromise on Immigrant Licenses - When New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer (D) announced six weeks ago that illegal immigrants would be able to obtain driver's licenses in his state, he expected some opposition, but not a national firestorm. After all, seven other states, under Republican and Democratic governors,... (READ MORE)
For Kurds In N. Iraq, A Familiar Foreboding - The last three women left this tiny hamlet on Monday, carrying no more than their clothes and prayers. They joined 250 villagers who fled in the past two weeks, locking their homes and their yellow church and driving away on a desolate road scarred by war. Only 11 men remain, their lands separated from Turkey by a thin, emerald river winding through a fertile valley. (READ MORE)
Envoys Resist Forced Iraq Duty - Uneasy U.S. diplomats yesterday challenged senior State Department officials in unusually blunt terms over a decision to order some of them to serve at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or risk losing their jobs. At a town hall meeting in the department's main auditorium attended by hundreds of Foreign Service officers, some of them criticized fundamental aspects of State's personnel policies in Iraq. (READ MORE)
U.S. Military Raises Profile Against Piracy Off Somalia - The U.S. military has stepped up activities in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia, going to the aid of hijacked cargo ships twice this week. American medics treated wounded North Korean sailors on one vessel, and the Navy was tracking another after destroying two pirate skiffs lashed alongside it. (READ MORE)
Hilliam Clinton - In the 1990s, "Clintonesque" became a by-word for political double-speak. We even became, briefly, a nation of deconstructionists when President Bill Clinton mused on the meaning of "is." Such existential questions seemed to be in the past. But with another Clinton running as if she's all but a sure thing for the White House, Clintonesque is once again becoming a politically relevant adjective. In Tuesday night's Democratic Presidential debate, the moderators and Hillary Clinton's fellow panelists took pains to pin her down on one question after another, without notable success. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Trick or treat - For Halloween I will be going as a U.S. Army Major. I know it's not a very original idea and there will be two other guys here at Camp Vulcan going as the same thing. Had Halloween fallen on Saturday, I would be going as an Alabama Crimson Tide fan, but no such luck this year. Despite the lack of costumes and door-to-door trick-or-treating, we are not completely without the festive trappings of the holiday. (READ MORE)
This War and Me: Support the Troops - I have recently been contacted by some great people at Soldier’s Angels and they encouraged me to pass along a few things. Another wonderful organization I would like to mention is AnySoldier.com. I would have registered on there myself, but I do not meet the 4th requirement to register and that puts a great big smile on my face! I highly encourage you all to at least drop by and check out their services and assistance. I also wanted to inform anyone interested that you can call the Post Office at 1-800-610-8734 and request the FREE Care Kit #4 for military overseas mailing. (READ MORE)
LTC Phillips: Halloween at Salerno Hospital - Before I fold my tent, and . . . well, you know the rest ! Thanks Sergeants it's been fun. Hi Mike ! They are a great bunch of people. I've had a lot of fun, and hope you have enjoyed meeting some more of the wonderful warriors of Salerno Hospital. They continue to inspire LTC Phillips. (READ MORE)
Michael Yon: Iraqi Islamic Party says, “Al Qaeda is Defeated.” - “Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans. (READ MORE)
The Landlocked Sailor: The Lame-Duck Times ... - That's it! I've finished my turnover, attended my last meeting and shipped all my stuff home. All I need now is a plane flight out of here, and that will happen in just over a week. It's been an odd week - ever since I announced my pending departure, (in the way so many do these days ... an Outlook 'Out-of-Office' message) I have found my inbox frighteningly quiet. As described in a previous post, the war must go on, and there is no reason to continue E-mailing a guy who isn't in the job anymore. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Awful Normal? - ABC this week aired a report showing how life is slowly returning to normal in some parts of Baghdad. The video shows that shops are open and some people are out and about. This might not look like much to an outsider, but Iraqis know that a few months ago this would not have been possible. It's welcome news to us. So what's the best reaction of the media to such information? Naturally, they must find ways to show how far from normal Baghdad is and how unlikely it is to ever be anywhere near normal. (READ MORE)
Badger 6: Sunni and Shia Getting Along, Getting Together - Iraq is incredibly complicated. As I mentioned here several weeks ago, one of the things I learned here was that it was not a 100 piece puzzle to put back together; more like a 1000 piece puzzle. Many people at home think that by being able to talk about Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds they somehow are demonstrating a greater understanding of the social dynamics of Iraq. There are the various tribes and clans throughout Iraq. Even within some tribes, not all the people are of the same sect. Simply dividing the conversation along sectarian lines leaves out a greater complexity of the Iraqi landscape. It is complex to say the least. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Daniel Henninger: Garry Kasparov, Dissident - One of the current truisms of the news business is that the Internet has shrunk the world, and that everyone knows everything from the Web the moment it happens. Yet sometimes, we know nothing. Last month, the former world chess champion Garry Kasparov announced his candidacy for the presidency of Russia, to be decided in March. The world shrugged at the Kasparov candidacy, and went back to surfing the Web. Is this because we in the wired world already know all there is to know about what's up in 21st century Russia? Or in fact are we clueless about the place Churchill described as the deepest enigma? (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson: Please: Not Another Farm Bill - The House this July passed another five-year, multi-billion-dollar farm support bill. The Senate now has its own version under discussion. And we can probably expect that the compromise bill that passes will be at least the $286 billion allotted by the House. Here we go again with payouts to well-off Americans that have neither logic nor morality. The farm subsidy program currently in place pays out over $7 billion directly to larger farmers for a few select crops like corn, cotton, rice, soy and wheat. But it pays nothing to most other — often smaller — farmers of fresh fruits and vegetables.(READ MORE)
Steve Chapman: The Perils of Presidential Predictions - Last summer, before the college football season began, sportswriters and coaches drew on all their experience, savvy and predictive powers to rate the best teams in the land. The top five schools in both the major polls all got to enjoy the honor, but not for long. Two months into the season, only one of them (Louisiana State) is still in the top five. Of the newcomers to the top five, Boston College and Oregon weren't even in the preseason top 25. (READ MORE)
Suzanne Fields: "The Kosher Conspiracy" - The wraiths and witches of Halloween have retreated once more to the crevices of youthful imagination, but real ghosts continue to stalk our humanity. None are so spooky as the costumes of the anti-Semites who once more grow bold. When the grim outlines of the Holocaust were first revealed, a mantra of "never again" echoed sympathy for the Jews and translated into support for the state of Israel. Nowhere was this more dramatic than in Europe, where six million Jews died as bystanders insisted they didn't know what was going on. (READ MORE)
George Will: Something - In today's political taxonomy, "progressives" are rebranded liberals dodging the damage they did to their old label. Perhaps their most injurious idea -- injurious to themselves and public schools -- was the forced busing of (mostly other peoples') children to engineer "racial balance" in public schools. Soon, liberals will need a third label if people notice what "progressives" are up to in Utah. There, teachers unions, whose idea of progress is preservation of the status quo, are waging an expensive and meretricious campaign to overturn the right of parents to choose among competing schools, public and private, for the best education for their children. (READ MORE)
Robert D. Novak: Nancy's "Committee of One" - A story told in cloakrooms of the House of Representatives shows how ironic life on Capitol Hill can be. Jim McCrery, the low-key, hard-working ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, has spent all year trying to establish good relations with the tax-writing committee's first Democratic chairman in 12 years, Charles Rangel. He succeeded, only to discover that Rangel does not really run Ways and Means. Nancy Pelosi does. (READ MORE)
Lawrence Kudlow: Despite the Gloom, More Bush Boom - With all the gloom coming out of Wall Street, the Democrats on the campaign trail and the mainstream media, a remarkable thing just happened: Real gross domestic product, the best summary report of the American economy, came in at a breathtaking 3.9 percent annual rate for the third quarter. In fact, following the 3.8 percent growth rate for the second quarter, the U.S. economy has posted its strongest quarterly growth in four years. The economy actually appears to be speeding up, following the relatively sluggish performance of the prior 18 months. (READ MORE)
Ann Coulter: How long before the A.D.L. kicks out all its Jews? - The Anti-Defamation League is to Jews what the National Organization for Women is to women and the ACLU is to civil libertarians. They represent not Jews or women or civil libertarians, but the left wing of the Democratic Party. In the paramount threat of our time, the Democratic Party is AWOL. And those are the patriotic Democrats. The rest are actively aiding the enemy. The blood of millions of Israelis is at stake, and the ADL is flacking for a party that yearns to surrender to the terrorists. (READ MORE)
Dinesh D'Souza: What Has Atheism Done for Us? - My new book What’s So Great About Christianity, just out, is already an amazon.com bestseller, a Wall Street Journal bestseller and No. 16 on the New York Times bestseller list. On Saturday C-Span broadcast my debate with God Is Not Great author Christopher Hitchens. Many people have commented that this is the best debate on the topic of Christianity v. Atheism that has yet been held. If you haven’t seen it, you can find the debate on my website dineshdsouza.com. Following the debate, AOL posted the video on its main page, and asked people to make up their minds and vote on who won. Modesty prevents me from disclosing the answer. (READ MORE)
Richard Lazarus: Advocacy Matters: More Responses to More Comments - These second set of comments are just terrific. I am going to select out just a few for response. 1. It is certainly true that the impact of the advocate is greater at the cert stage than on the merits. I draw that distinction in the article and explain the reasons why, which largely relate to the amount of time the nine chambers are able to devote to cert (relatively little) as compared to the merits (much more, especially with the smaller docket). But the two cannot be completely severed because the cert stage sets the table these days for the merits. The percentage of affirmances has gone down over time. So success at the cert stage tends to become success on the merits, especially when the expert petitioner effectively repitches the case by raising issues differently than done below and the less effective respondent fails to object and becomes subject to a Rule 15.2 waiver. (READ MORE)
Eugene Volokh: Student Groups' Disinviting Ex-Israeli Soldier from Panel - There's been a good deal of buzz about this recently, and the incident seemed to me both (1) worth condemning, and (2) worth clarifying. Here are what seem to be the facts (from the Philadelphia Bulletin): “Asaf Romirowsky, a fellow at the Middle East Forum and an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) veteran ... was invited to speak at a university forum sponsored by the College Republicans and College Democrats on the topic of anti-Americanism in the Middle East. Others scheduled to appear on the panel included Clinton-era National Security Council official Stuart Kaufman, University of Delaware political science professor Muqtedar Khan and a graduate student. But upon learning that the university had invited Mr. Romirowsky, who is also manager of Israel and Middle East affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, to appear at the forum, Mr. Khan wrote a letter to one of the panel's organizers, identified only as ‘Laura,’ expressing displeasure at having to appear publicly with a former IDF soldier.” (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: Driving While Paranoid - Thomas Sowell is one of our National Treasures and today he addresses a popular meme, 'Driving While Black', that has done a great deal of damage to relations between Black and White in this country. He is not convinced that we live in an irredeemably racist society and that the police are by nature and institutionally racist; at the same time he notes the prevalence of the feeling in the Black community: “Recently a well-known black journalist told me of a very different experience. He happened to be riding along in a police car driven by a white policeman. Ahead of them was a car driving at night with no headlights on and, in the dark, it was impossible to see who was driving it. When the policeman pulled the car over, a black driver got out and, when the policeman told him that he was driving without his lights on, the driver said, ‘You only pulled me over because I am black!’” (READ MORE)
Tel-Chai Nation: Why neo-fascist movements in Europe may have monopoly on Islamist issue - I have followed some more about the worrisome rise of political parties with shady and questionable credentials such as the BNP, Vlaams Belang and Sweden Democrats on sites like Hot Air and Little Green Footballs, and there's more available here and here. And frankly, I can only conclude that these parties are no better than the Front National in France, which thankfully ran out of luck in the last parliamental election. But there's reasons why the three other political movements may rise to more power if someone doesn't start showing more common sense in Belgium, Sweden and the UK. (READ MORE)
TigerHawk: Trees and glaciers - The seemingly lefty LiveScience reports that Canadian glaciers have retreated to the point that they have exposed the stumps of trees that have not seen the light of day in 7,000 years: “Melting glaciers in Western Canada are revealing tree stumps up to 7,000 years old where the region's rivers of ice have retreated to a historic minimum, a geologist said today. Johannes Koch of The College of Wooster in Ohio found the fresh-looking, intact tree stumps beside retreating glaciers in Garibaldi Provincial Park, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of Vancouver, British Columbia. Radiocarbon dating of the wood from the stumps revealed the wood was far from fresh—some of it dated back to within a few thousand years of the end of the last ice age.” (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nut House: Ron Paul: Panderer to the Paranoid? - What is it about the candidacy of Ron Paul that has attracted the paranoid fringe of American politics? Clearly, there are Ron Paul supporters who are rational and grounded, not given to spouting conspiracies or blaming “neocons” for everything bad that happens in the world (neocons being a blind for anti-Semitism). For all we know, they may be the majority of his voters. But just as clearly, there is a dark underbelly to the Paul campaign – a ruthless, mob of internet ruffians who seek to intimidate those who would dare criticize them, the Paul candidacy, or most especially, one of their pet conspiracy theories about 9/11, the “New World Order” (an amorphous term that generally means the imposition of a one world government), or something as mundane and silly as planting a computer chip in every new born in America. (READ MORE)
Right Truth: I don't understand - Somebody needs to explain this to me, because I can't wrap my head around the situation with Israel, Hamas, Gaza, and the upcoming 'peace' talks at Annapolis. Hamas continues to launch missiles into Israel and the Israeli people are demanding something be done. Ehud Barak says that Israel must and will retaliate AFTER the Annapolis peace talks. WHAT? Many believe that the peace talks will never happen and are "dead in the water anyway because of Abbas' demand for time table and other pre-condition demands plus lack of Arab attendance and support." The Israelis try to fight back by peaceful means, cutting off utilities in the Gaza strip, but then the Israelis are portrayed as the bad guys in the media. Has this world turned upside down? (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: Any Excuse Is A Good Excuse To Raise Taxes For Democrats Or Alternately, No Gas Tax, No Money To Fix Your Bridge - After the Minneapolis Bridge disaster, the press releases were flying out at the speed of light about infrastructure. Why, the Republicans were responsible for that bridge collapse, but now that the Democrats are in charge, boy howdy, are things going to change -- and honestly, you'd think that they would. After all, improving roads and bridges is a use of taxpayer dollars that even most fiscal conservatives and little "l" Libertarians won't balk and again, a bridge collapsed, which should be like an alarm clock going off, even for Congress. You know, "Wake up! Bridges are collapsing! Do something!" At least, that's what most people would think. (READ MORE)
Sister Toldjah: Hillary’s composed veneer cracks at last night’s debate - If you’re like me, you didn’t bother watching last night’s Democratic debate because you probably had better things to do - like watch the leaves fall or something. Seriously, last night’s debate proved to be the one to watch, as Hillary Clinton made her first official “noticeable” mistake: her facade started to crumble, the day before Halloween no less. Of course, being the frontrunner, the other candidates were targeting her, but the Senator proved she didn’t need much prodding to to prove that on the issue of giving illegals driver’s licenses in NY - as ordered by New York Governor Eliot Spitzer - she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Here’s the relevant part of the transcript: (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl: Republican? So, What's The Point? - Betsy Newmark has an item up pointing to the problems facing the Republican Party today, at least some of them. As a Big Tent kinda guy, I get it, however, somewhere along the way you have to ask yourself, what's the point? Yes, I'd like to see something of a re-alignment around immigration reform (read border security) and National Defense as defining themes for the Republicans in 08, but does anyone believe throwing off low taxes as a campaign theme is going to help the Conservative, or Republican cause? Heck, why not throw off limited government and lose the libertarians, too? "Tony Blankley is tired of various groups of Republicans trying to read one candidate or another out of the party." (READ MORE)
Richard H Collins: Hillary Ignores Baby Boom Time Bomb - This past Friday was Hillary Clinton’s sixtieth birthday. On Thursday she celebrated the event, in typical Clinton fashion, with a fundraising bash attended by celebrities from Hollywood and the music industry. Leave it to the Clintons to raise $1.5 million in campaign cash while celebrating a birthday. One might be tempted to write this off as just another example of Baby boomer extravagance and self-regard combined with the Clinton’s unique blending of the personal and the political. But there are some serious issues involved in Hillary’s candidacy and the irony is that she refuses to squarely face the very challenge, some might say crises, her generation is causing. (READ MORE)
Rhymes with Right: Will We Hear The Outrage? - When noose was found on the door of a black professor, there was national outrage and campus protests. Will we get the same level of outrage in this case, over an incident in the same building? Or will Columbia University prove that it is the hotbed of anti-Semitism that it has been accused of being in recent years? "A swastika was found spray-painted on a Jewish professor’s office door yesterday morning at Teachers College at Columbia University, the second time in less than a month that one of the college’s professors has been the target of bias." (READ MORE)
Kim Zigfeld: Now, the Bus Bombs Start in Russia - Is Russia the new Lebanon? The Google News wire is burning this morning with dozens of stories reporting terrorist attack on a passenger bus (shown above) in the southern Russian city of Togliatti yesterday. Eight people died and 50 were hurt. As we've previously reported, Russia has been outrageously awarded the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, which it proposed to hold in the southern city of Sochi -- even closer to Russia's breakaway Chechnya region, source of most terrorist activity, than Togliatti. (READ MORE)
Pursuing Holiness: Of course I question your patriotism! - I just don’t get how anybody could boo at this: It seems this was shown along with the previews before a movie, and a fair amount of the audience actually booed at it. The Cheerful Iconoclast questions the patriotism of those who booed. I question their patriotism as well. And I wonder at all the moral outrage that occurs when anyone’s patriotism is questioned. Why is that considered socially off-limits? If you happen to be a Saints fan - no wait… if you were a Saints fan then I would be questioning your intelligence. Let me try again. If you say you are a Colts fan, yet you seldom watch the games, and when you do watch them, you are unenthusiastic, make sarcastic remarks about Peyton Manning, mock the Peyback Foundation, and say “Hah!” in a “in your face” kind of way every time the other team scores, I question whether or not you really are a Colts fan. (READ MORE)
Scott Johnson: Ambush in Samarra: The longest morning - Combat reporter Jeff Emanuel was one of my traveling companions on the whirlwind tour of Israel I took courtesy of American's Voices in Israel this past summer. Jeff went from Israel to Iraq, in search of the stories that the mainstream media are ignoring. He has told many such stories over the past three months (collected here), but he saved his best for the new issue of the American Spectator. Jeff's "The longest morning" is the cover story of the November issue. In a separate message sent within the past hour, Jeff writes: “Six weeks ago in the Iraqi city of Samarra, four paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division became the object of a pre-planned, coordinated effort by dozens of al Qadea to kidnap and slaughter American soldiers only days before General Petraeus's internationally televised testimony to the U.S. Congress on the state of the war in Iraq. Not all survived -- but those who did fought like heroes, saving each other and preserving the honor of their nation. This is their story.” (READ MORE)
Richard S. Lowry: More on San Diego Fire Donations - I received a request to publish the contents of the letter Colonel Abbas sent along with his men's donation. “To The United States Government, To CMATT/MNSTC-I Headquarters, To the Coalition Force Commander in Iraq Behalf of all the Officers and the Soldiers in the Besmaya Range Complax My self COL ABBAS FADHIL ABDUL-SAHIB, The Commander of the Besmaya Range Complex, I present my greatest regrets and sadness for the wild fires accrued [occurred] in San Diego City in the United States Of America.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Fighting, peace talks resume in Swat; military demoralized - The fighting between the Pakistani military and the Taliban is back on after the latest cease-fire in the settled district of Swat fell through. The Taliban, lead by radical cleric Mauluna Qazi Fazlullah, attacked Pakistani military and police positions throughout Swat on Tuesday and Wednesday, prompting the Pakistani military to return fire with helicopter gunships. The Taliban responded by firing at the helicopters. "The militants twice attacked the choppers in mid year with rockets, causing no damage," the Associated Press of Pakistan, a government news agency, reported. "[The Taliban] blew up boundary wall of the Mingora Police Lines." The military claimed 15 to 18 Taliban were killed in the latest round of fighting, which claimed the lives of at least 50 Pakistani soldiers and 70 Taliban fighters. (READ MORE)
Amy Proctor: Time Sticks By False Story Out of Iraq - Bottom Line Up Front: Time Magazine tied a bogus story of beheadings in Iraq to proof that the surge has outlived its usefulness. Remember last Thursday when U.S. forces in Iraq officially handed over authority of the historic city of Karbala, Iraq to the Iraqis? You may recall that story being followed up with an “Oh, but there were 20 headless bodies found near Baquba, say Iraqi police.” I thought it was odd. So did Gateway Pundit, who decided to ask commanders at Multi-National Force-Iraq about the "headless bodies". MNF-I reported there is no evidence whatsoever to support the story and Iraqi police are denying the report. The story of 20 headless bodies is completely false. (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston: Hillary whines, keeps digging on illegal immigration Update: CNS gets pols on the record - As I reported earlier today, Hillary Clinton has come down on the radical side of granting drivers licenses to illegal aliens. That’s going to resonate in a bad way with the voters, both in the primaries and the general if she gets that far. "Voters want control of the borders and workplace and recreating an immigration system that works and oppose driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants – positions supported by about two-thirds of the country. For them, that is the starting point, the common sense of the issue. If political leaders do not start there, they are not likely to be heard on other steps." (READ MORE)
The Captain's Journal: The Sniper Threat and USA Today Hit Piece - IEDs have received their due attention, but with the exception of web sites like this one, sniper attacks have been somewhat overlooked in the press in terms of troop risk and force protection. The Department of Defense knows about the risk, and has requested supplemental funding to decrease the risk for fiscal year 2008. “The dangers from enemy sniper attacks have increased steadily during the past year, with the number of attacks quadrupling. These attacks have not only caused numerous casualties, but have had an adverse psychological effect on both Coalition forces and the Iraqi civilian populace.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Byrd pisses off Greece - Diplomacy is not for amateurs - Let’s see, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco treat, ticked off Turkey by dredging up the Armenian genocide that happened more than 80 years ago. Ticking off a key ally in the war on terrorism is dumber than dirt. And dangerous. 70% of our troop supplies in Iraq pass through Turkey. House members balked and she had to eat her resolution. Enter Democrat Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia’s Constitution-waving senator. (READ MORE)
Big Dog: No Way in Hell I’d be a Muslim for a Day - …or for any amount of time. A school in the UK forced faculty and students to dress up as Muslims for a day to belatedly celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid. Most of the students are Christians and only two teachers are Muslim but everyone was forced to dress as Muslims. There was also a gathering but men were not allowed there because Muslim men do not like their women mixing with other men. Many of the people involved are not happy about this but went along anyway to protect their jobs and keep from being labeled a racist. (READ MORE)
Army Wife Toddler Mom: Nickelodeon is trying to brainwash your children in the morning, or a leftist primer - My Husband sent me this link this morning. Please watch this, in its entirety. It is imperative that you SEE what Nickelodeon is showing at 5:00am. NICKELODEON IS BRAINWASHING YOUR CHILD Linda Ellerbee is the host, that should be enough said. Pay particular attention to the second and fourth stories. This Nickelodeon "news program", is not a news program. It is a leftist primer on how to be a "left-wing radical REBEL". (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Target Rich Environment - Whether it's Pakistan or Afghanistan, the Taliban and their Islamist buddies are taking a serious beating, which is as it should be. That isn't to say that the Taliban or the Islamists are completely beaten or that they can't inflict serious casualties and cause problems for years to come. They can. Pakistan continues to waffle on how to best deal with the problem, and Musharraf's policy appears to change depending on which way the winds blow. (READ MORE)
Fjordman: Little Green Footballs and Racism in the United States - As most readers know by now, I have been involved in what has unfortunately become a very public brawl — some would probably say witch-hunt — with Charles Johnson of major American blog Little Green Footballs about the supposed “racism” of the Sweden Democrats and the Vlaams Belang. Many of these claims have already been countered, though LGF refuses to link to this. I have announced my intention to take a break from commenting at LGF, where I have been active for several years, since it has become abundantly clear that neither Charles nor many of his readers have any interest whatsoever in having an actual debate, and certainly not about the real threats to freedom in Europe. However, I’d like to continue the debate about “racism,” which now frequently means something along the lines of “I’m a Multiculturalist. I’ve just lost the debate because I have poor arguments in favor of my case. I want to shut you up, therefore you are a racist.” (READ MORE)
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