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)
It's Mukasey or No One, Bush Warns - President Bush yesterday warned Democrats that if they do not confirm his attorney general nominee, Michael B. Mukasey, the U.S. might have no attorney general for the remainder of his term. (READ MORE)
Chinese Military Boosts Hacking - Senior military commanders at the U.S. Pacific Command here said China's recent test of an anti-satellite weapon and increased computer-hacking activities prompted increased defenses for U.S. forces in the region and in space. (READ MORE)
Maryland Legislators Suggest Cuts - House lawmakers yesterday presented $440 million in additional cuts to the Maryland budget as a bipartisan alternative to a plan by Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, to increase taxes to reduce the state's $1.5 billion shortfall and increase state spending. (READ MORE)
Pakistani Hits Implementation of Tribal Pact - A senior Pakistani general said yesterday that poor implementation of a 2006 peace agreement with tribal leaders near the Afghan border forced Pakistan to deploy nearly 100,000 troops to battle pro-Taliban militants in the region. (READ MORE)
Swastika Painted on Columbia Professor’s Door - 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)
Expecting Presidential Veto, Senate Passes Child Health Measure - Talks seeking a bipartisan compromise on health insurance for low-income children were cut short on Thursday, and the Senate then swiftly passed a bill to provide coverage for 10 million youngsters, fully expecting President Bush to veto it. (READ MORE)
Industries Paid for Top Regulators' Travel - The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. (READ MORE)
Undecided Schumer May Be Key to Mukasey's Chances - As Democratic opposition builds over attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey, no Democratic lawmaker has found himself in a tighter spot than Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), who had eagerly recommended the former federal judge as a consensus candidate. (READ MORE)
In Iraq, a Lull or Hopeful Trend? - From store clerks selling cigarettes by generator power, to military commanders poring over aerial maps, Iraqis and Americans are striving to understand the sharp decrease in violence over the past several months and what it might herald for the future of Iraq. (READ MORE)
Dozens Die As Pakistani Troops Battle Insurgents - ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 1 -- Pakistani forces fought pitched battles with insurgents Thursday in a scenic northwestern valley, leaving dozens dead. The violence came on a day when the Supreme Court indicated that President Pervez Musharraf's election to a new term would remain in legal limbo... (READ MORE)
Mukasey and the Democrats - Democrats welcomed Michael Mukasey as a "consensus choice" for Attorney General only weeks ago, but incredibly his confirmation is now an open question. The judge's supposed offense is that he has refused to declare "illegal" a single interrogation technique that the CIA has used on rare occasions against mass murderers. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Douglas Halepaska, Jr.: On Patrol with the Marines in Ramadi - A year ago Ramadi was considered the most dangerous places in Iraq. The “Souk” (Arabic for “market”) was so dangerous that patrols were not allowed into the narrow streets and alleyways that comprised the Ramadi market for fear of suffering heavy casualties. Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) had identified Ramadi as its capital – even going as far as staging a parade in Ramadi after the 2006 Ramadan holiday. However it’s far different today, as the Marines of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion 7th Marines are happy to report. Those 3/7’s Marines who fought there in 2005, but have returned in 2007 will testify that “During 2005 it wasn’t a question of if we would take fire, but how bad that fire was going to be,” commented Sergeant Ryan Ruckel. A Texas native, Ruckel is on his third tour in Iraq. (READ MORE)
Eighty Deuce On The Loose In Iraq: Goodbye America... - Yup, that time is here. This will be the last posting that I will make for the good old US of A for a while. I have thourougly enjoyed myself while I've been home, and as sad as I am to leave this place, my family and my friends, I am eager to get back and see my boys and to finish this up and be back for good. I have many great memories to take with me to get me through the remaining few months left so that is good. Yesterday for Halloween I ended up getting a chance to swing by the Arizona State Fair, and had a BLAST! (READ MORE)
Iraqpundit: Allawi's Fix for Iraq - Ayad Allawi, in a piece in today's NYT, criticizes Iraq's 2005 elections and offers a solution to the sectarianism that plagues the country: It's important to note that he's not opposed to democracy because he knows that Iraqis bravely came out and voted when the terrorists promised to kill anyone heading to the polls. Allawi has a different idea: (READ MORE)
A Battlefield Tourist: Quiet Times in the “Triangle of Death” - The Blackhawk landed hard, forcing the men inside to grab hold of something. “Go! Go! Go!”, broke through the night, above the thundering sound of the rotor blades overhead. The choppers quickly emptied as 10 Americans, 10 Iraqis, a translator and myself rushed toward the nearest home, surrounding it. Within seconds, the sound of doors being kicked in echoed through the night as soldiers entered the house from all directions. Inside they found only an old woman seemingly pleading her case. (READ MORE)
ETT PA-C: VMO - So, sometime in my recent past I was able to go on another village medical outreach about an hour from my new location. Turned out that it was a village surrounded by a refuge camp with approximately 12000 families. If you know anything about families in Afghanistan, that's like 10 dudes with 10 wives a piece and a few thousand kids running about the mine fields like no big deal! Anyway, two other PAs and I went out with SECFOR (security forces) with humanitarian goods and medical supplies for about 300-400 people. (READ MORE)
Sergeant Grumpy: Whump, Whump, there it is! - We folks, time for an update - I don't have lots of time to sneak these in, but work on it a a while each day, so what you get is a composite over several days. Fortunately I don't sleep much so this is my break from work. The old team is gone and we have assumed responsibility for operations here (RIPTOA in army speak, or Relief In Place - Transfer Of Authority.) The outbound guys answered some last minute questions, hit some golf balls off the top of a bunker, and wished us well. (READ MORE)
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Faith in a flag - This week I have witnessed signs of hope for all of us trying to unify this country behind its young government and against those who want to destroy it. As much as I have bemoaned the tribalism and the other problems within this country that prevent true unity, there seems to be an embracing of the Afghanistan national flag to the point where real unity seems possible. We first saw it when the black red and green colors dominated everywhere during Afghanistan Independence Day. We saw it again at the shura in Dih Yak this week. The flag was not only on display, it was embraced. (READ MORE)
This War and Me: Rebirth of a Nation - You can’t help but see the winds of change in this country... A couple months ago I wrote that the real story here was the progress being made toward a stable Iraq. I wrote about the rebuilding of the infrastructure and how American media focused only on the violence and unrest. There have been so many reports lately that solidify the progress being made here in Iraq, that not even the Democrats nor the media can hide it anymore. More and more of this country is being run by the Iraqi government and that is great news for everyone. I have seen it with my own eyes and have heard it from our guys on the road. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
John Fund: 'This Will Make Voter Fraud Easier' - Sen. Hillary Clinton was asked during a debate this week if she supported New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. At first she seemed to endorse the idea, then claimed, "I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it." The next day she took a firmer stand (sort of) by offering general support for Gov. Spitzer's approach, but adding that she hadn't studied his specific plan. She should, and so should the rest of us. It stops just short of being an engraved invitation for people to commit voter fraud. (READ MORE)
Peggy Noonan: Hillary Reveals Her Inner Self - The story isn't that the Democrats finally took on Hillary Clinton. Nor is it that they were gentlemanly to the point of gingerly and tentative. There was an air of "Please, somebody kill her for me so I can jump in and show high minded compassion at her plight!" Barack Obama, with his elegance and verbal fluency really did seem like that great and famous political figure from his home state of Illinois--Adlai Sevenson, who was not at all hungry, not at all mean, and operated at a step removed from the grubby game. Mr. Obama is like someone who would write in his diaries, "I shall point out Estes Kefauver's manifold inconsistencies, then to luncheon with Arthur and Marietta." (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: Keep Religion In, Not Out Of, Politics - In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to drive God from the public square and his followers from the political process. Oh, don't get me wrong, Christians are still welcome to mouth politically correct platitudes and vote for whoever says a few nice words about Jesus, but if we actually support policies and candidates based on our religious beliefs, the anti-Christian secularists start tut-tutting and slinging cliches. (READ MORE)
Paul Greenberg: Shocking: Scientist Commits Heresy - I almost spilled my coffee. I just stood there, dumbstruck right in my own kitchen. Flipping through the Wall Street Journal the other morning while waiting for the oatmeal to cool, my eye was caught by an article I had to read all the way through - then and there. It was the text of an interview with the latest Nobel Prize laureate. No, not the one named Al Gore. (READ MORE)
Burt Prelutsky: The Nobel Peace Prize for Gorebal Warming - From now on, Al Gore will no longer be best known as the man who lost the presidency because he couldn’t even carry his own home state. People may even begin overlooking the fact that the most fascinating thing about him is that his head is as large as the pumpkin that sits atop Barry Bonds’ neck. Those are just two of the reasons that Mr. Gore can be grateful that, along with his Oscar, he now has a Peace Prize on his mantel. There is probably nothing that people would rather have mentioned in their obituaries than the fact that along life’s torturous path, they managed to snag a Nobel Prize. (READ MORE)
Oliver North: The Future of the 'War on Terror' - This week, the Pentagon released official figures on how dramatically the security situation has improved in Iraq. Terrorist attacks, secular violence, roadside bombings, Iraqi civilian deaths and U.S. casualties are all down. The announcement received scant notice from the so-called mainstream media. About the only news from the global war on radical Islamic terror to receive less attention this week was the erroneously headlined story on The Associated Press wire: "Army captain from Fort Lewis, WA, drowns in the Philippines." (READ MORE)
Linda Chavez: Tortured Justice - Judge Michael Mukasey seemed a shoo-in for confirmation to attorney general when he was nominated in September, but now his nomination seems in genuine peril. Democrats who were quick to praise his stellar credentials are suddenly mum on whether they'll vote for the retired federal judge -- that is if his nomination even makes it to the floor of the Senate. (READ MORE)
Mona Charen: Taking the Easy Way Out on Torture - Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., started something when he asked Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey whether he considers waterboarding to be torture. When the nominee declined to give a definitive answer, the matter cascaded into a confirmation-threatening imbroglio. Within a day, all of the Judiciary Committee Democrats as well as Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., had signed a letter demanding clarification. Sens. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., and John McCain, R-Ariz., then further complicated Mukasey's position by denouncing waterboarding and calling upon the would-be attorney general to do the same. (READ MORE)
Robert Knight: Shameless in Massachusetts - On October 22, Larry Cirignano could breathe easy again for the first time in 10 months. The pro-family Catholic activist was acquitted of assault and battery charges leveled by a Massachusetts ACLU official and backed by a local reporter. The alleged “assault,” stemming from an incident at a Worcester pro-marriage rally last December, never happened. A jury dismissed all counts. However, the Worcester Telegram-Gazette has refused to apologize for or retract its stories “reporting” that Cirignano angrily threw a counter-protestor to the pavement. (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: Global Warming Committee Examines Forest Fires - After Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) blamed climate change for California’s raging forest fires, House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D.-Calif.) newly created global warming committee tried to prove Reid’s contention true. In an October 24 news conference Reid told reporters, “One reason that we have fires burning in Southern California is global warming.” (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: In Rememberance: Honoring The Children Of Fallen Warriors - When a servicemember falls on the battlefield, not only does that affect the Soldiers who are serving with them, but their families and friends as well. In a ceremony on Monday, October 29th, ten children of fallen warriors, who were killed during the Global War on Terrorism were honored for their sacrifices, at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington D.C. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Michael Mullen and the Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey were among others who participated in recognizing these children and remembering their fallen Heroes. (READ MORE)
Donald Douglas: A Long Morning for Charlie Company - The American Spectator has a gripping retelling of the 82 Airborne's "Charlie Company" (2-505 Parachute Infantry Regiment) and its close-range firefight with insurgents in Samarra, Iraq, August 26, 2007. The story focuses on "Reaper Two," a sniper team from the Charlie Company's 2nd Battalion. The team's mission that morning was to provide a rooftop observation point (OP) to guard against insurgent activity on the roads into the central Samarra, where Charlie Company's 3rd Platoon would be carrying out a search of an IED manufacturing shop. Reaper Two's position atop the building was compromised, and the sniper team cam under withering enemy fire. (READ MORE)
TheAnchoress: Mean reporters dared ask Poor Hillary real questions! - I wasn’t going to “pile on” Poor Hillary Clinton about her crash-and-burn in the last Democrat debate. Everyone else was writing about it - which is what happens, when a candidate gives himself or herself away - so I didn’t feel the need. I simply amused myself watching the video of her head bobbing, bobbing, bobbing in agreement with Tim Russert…until it stopped. But it seems Poor Hillary is feeling “piled on” by those mean boys. The boy reporters who dared to ask her actual, substantive questions, and the mean boy candidates who did what candidates do, when they’re running against each other - made like Tessio in The Godfather: “it’s just business, nothing personal - we always liked you, Hillary.” (READ MORE)
American Soldier: Gauntlet of thoughts - It’s been a while since I last wrote. I don’t know where to begin as far as catching up. I’ve been in a rut and really I don’t know how to get out of it. Lately I’ve had some consistent thoughts of the war. None are happy or even proud moments. When I first got back I tried to make sense of a lot of things and create a story about my experiences. In retrospect I can say that my optimism was sometimes masked by trying to make light of my situation. I wanted to just feel normal again. What is normal after all? My experience was my own and others may feel it wasn’t enough. I can neither agree nor concede that mindset. All I know is it is still here with me today. (READ MORE)
Pamela Geller AKA Atlas: Hillel Neuer, UN WATCH at the Yale Club - Today the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism had Hillel Neuer speak at a delicious little lunch at the Yale club. This initiative is such a good thing. Long overdue. Much kudos to Yale and Charles Small (if ever a name was not fitting.) “The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA) is dedicated to the scholarly research of the origins and manifestations associated with antisemitism globally, as well as other forms of prejudice, including racisms, as it relates to policy. Through the examination of antisemitism and policy, YIISA disseminates scholarly material so to promote further understanding and contribute to aspects of policy analysis. YIISA is housed at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS), Yale University.YIISA” (READ MORE)
Sachi: Take Back the Right! - Front Page Magazine reports that yet another David Horowitz speech was disrupted by screaming left wing and Islamist thugs. I won't go into detail about what happened; it's the usual: Horowitz speaking as part of "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" at Emory University; bunch of Leftists and Islamists show up full of sound and fury, signifying nothing; event has to be called off. Horowitz compares them to "the fascists... in Germany in the 1930s." You know the routine. The reason I call this "routine" is that it really is: (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Water Boarding Tortures AG Confirmation - Many Senate Democrats have indicated they will not vote to send the nomination of Michael Mukasey to the full Senate for a confirmation vote because he refused to answer whether water boarding is a form of torture. The most recent uninformed malcontent to have a say in the matter is none other than Teddy “the Boozer” Kennedy who had this to say: “Kennedy said Mukasey’s unwillingness to give a definitive answer on the torture question [whether water boarding is torture] increased the chances that the technique could be used against U.S. troops.” (READ MORE)
The Captains Journal: Regional Flux and the Long War - Former Commander of CENTCOM General John Philip Abizaid, born to a Christian Lebanese-American father and fluent in Arabic and knowledgeable in Middle Eastern culture, coined the phrase long war to describe the conflict with extremist Islamic groups such as al Qaeda. This phrase was dropped by Admiral William J. Fallon, but the idea is the same and the conflict will not go away because the phrase isn’t used at CENTCOM any more. Michael Yon has posted an interesting and well-supported article entitled Al Qaeda is Defeated. He documents the perspective of a powerful South Baghdad tribe concerning al Qaeda violence in their city. (READ MORE)
Jeffrey Imm: Pakistan Polls and Growing Support for Islamism - Two recent polls of Pakistanis show that between 60 and 76 percent of those polled seek the growth of Sharia throughout Pakistan, which is a key principle in political Islamism. The enforcement of Sharia throughout Pakistan is the stated goal of the Taliban in Pakistan. The Islamist aspects of these poll findings are not news headlines because America lacks a policy and a coherent position on Islamism. However, these polls are not only informative to American taxpayers funding the Pakistan efforts in the "war on terror", but also should be a red flag to American policy makers regarding its long-term relationship with Pakistan as well as the underlying ideological disconnects between U.S. policy and Pakistani public opinion. (READ MORE)
Flopping Aces: Nickelodeon with a Left-Wing Cause - Listening to Michael Medved yesterday, he brought to my attention two programs. I believe one of them aired last night, on HBO. I don't get HBO, so would not have been able to catch it, even if I were at home. But based upon Medved's program, the documentary, “To Die In Jerusalem: Two Daughters Lost in Conflict”, sounds like the ultimate in moral equivalency. “Like the infamous Newsweek cover that inspired it, this documentary treats both girls – Palestinian Ayat al-Akhras and Israeli Rachel Levy – as victims of “faith or fate that brought each of them to the end of her life in such a tragic manner.” Appallingly, the filmmakers blur the distinction between murderer and victim, evil and innocence. The Israeli girl went to the market to buy Sabbath supplies; the Palestinian girl went there to murder strangers in a homicide bombing.” (READ MORE)
Baron Bodissey: That Diabolically Clever Filip Dewinter - During the last couple of weeks the controversy over the Flemish separatist party Vlaams Belang has centered on allegations of “neo-Nazi” baggage and white supremacist tendencies among its leaders and membership. Various pieces of evidence are offered in support of these assertions: an alleged radio interview of VB leader Filip Dewinter “opposite David Duke”, the photo of a white power flag at a Vlaams Belang rally, etc. Most of these allegations have been refuted. The rally in the photo (a smaller version is shown at right) turns out to have been a rally by an entirely different group, a truly racist group. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Good news on Iraq (see page 18) - WaPo continues to pretend it is the New York Times - The good news on Iraq continues to be buried in the Washington Post. The story about the dramatic decrease in civilian deaths in Iraq relegated to Page 14 on Wednesday. The LA Times gave it the best play on Page 1 on Thursday. Now comes news that Iran is curtailing its activities in Iraq. Apparently that saber-rattling over the A-bomb is working. ‘Tis better to rattle sabers than to have to actually use them. The Post relegated this story to page 18. (READ MORE)
Democracy Project: Investing in Freedom: The ‘miracle’ of California’s new ‘Divest Iran’ law - I’m ordinarily a “free trader” but, like “free speech”, it’s not a license to suicide. Candace de Russy, knowledgeable in the labyrinth of higher education funding and accounting, and Peter Huessy, President of GeoStrategic Analysis, a specialist in combating nuclear terrorism, authored a comprehensive analysis of the issues and hurdles encountered in California’s legislature forbidding state retirement boards from investing in companies doing business in Iran.,”Investing in Freedom: The ‘miracle’ of California’s new ‘Divest Iran’ law.” (READ MORE)
Gateway Pundit: TIME Magazine: Quit Spreading Lies!! Retract Your Bogus Story!! - It's been nearly 48 hours since TIME Magazine published their "20 beheaded bodies" story. It is a lie. It never happened. TIME Magazine needs to choose whether they are going to believe the Multi-National Force Iraq, the Iraqi government, the Iraqi media and the BBC?... Or, is TIME going to believe some discredited radical who is feeding them lies? (READ MORE)
Ian Schwartz: (Video) Laura Ingraham On Threatening to Burn Down Churches - Laura Ingraham was right on with her opinions about a San Francisco man plotting to burn a church down. Ingraham noted if this was about a mosque or burning cross instead of a Christian church you better believe SanFran’s mayor Gavin “The Alcoholic Adulterer” Newsom would be outraged. Congrats to Laura who is now an official Fox News contributor. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Taliban parade capture Pakistani soldiers in Swat - The situation in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province has grown markedly worse over the past 24 hours. One day after the military claimed to have killed 70 Taliban in Swat and denied its soldiers were captured, the Taliban paraded 48 captured paramilitary soldiers from the Frontier Corps. The captured soldiers surrendered after being surrounded by a large formation of Taliban troops. Upwards of 700 troops surrounded a hilltop in Swat, Dawn reported. The soldiers were airdropped on the hilltop days ago and have been besieged since then. The BBC stated an additional 100 Pakistani troops have deserted in Swat. (READ MORE)
Knee Deep in the Hooah!: From Mourning to Morning - I have been thinking a lot about grief and mourning lately. It's on my mind when I am praying for my friends who are dealing with grief, and while I am working through other things in my life that leave me a little lost. I have had to deal with my own serving of grief and mourning through out my soldiers' deployments and assignments. I am realizing, now more than ever, that grief and mourning are inevitable when you are facing the deployment of a loved one to a war zone, and there is certainly an amount of grief and mourning when you are separated from your spouse even for a period of training. (READ MORE)
Scott Johnson: Condi's confusion - The Bush administration's current efforts to create a Palestinian state in defiance of every marker it has laid down is a study in weakness and confusion. Rick Richman provides a case study in the New York Sun column "Defining the roadmap down." Part of the problem here seems to be intellectual. Put to one side the question whether the lack of a twenty-third Arab state is the problem, or the refusal to accept the existence of one Jewish state. The latest round of diplomatic buffoonery includes a recurrence of Seceretary Rice's characterization of the Palestinian cause as a civil rights issue in the image of the one she grew up with in Birmingham, Alabama. As Joel Fishman recently reported: (READ MORE)
Dan Collins: Juan Cole, Amazing Prick - Juan Cole: "Bush is trying to Shanghai several hundred foreign service officers and force them to go to Iraq. They are protesting...Now is that time for all Americans to stand up for the diplomats who serve this country ably and courageously throughout the world, for decades on end." Amazing prick. You see, it’s Bush who’s trying to Shanghai these people into serving in Iraq. It’s not the country that they’re serving calling on them. It’s Shanghaiing, because they didn’t, as a prerequisite of their employment, take an oath to serve wherever they were posted. It’s not a betrayal of their obligation to their country, but a repudiation of Bush. How can that be wrong? (READ MORE)
Reformed Chicks Blabbing: Jumping the Gun on Global Warming - "Every time I look around, it's in my face" are the lyrics to this catchy song from a few years ago that I keep singing in my head. Might have nothing to do with global warming, per se, but it does seem apropos to me with how much attention global warming is getting these days. My daughter was assigned to bring in two current event articles, her topic of choice: global warming. In my French class today, guess what we talked about? Global warming. What happened in the senate today? A Global warming bill advanced. It's everywhere!
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ShrinkWrapped: The Decline of the West: Mainstreaming Anti-Semitism - Anti-Semitism is like a good paranoid delusion. It explains all of one's problems and disguises all of one's defects. The anti-Semite, like the Paranoid Schizophrenic, need take no responsibility for their own failures, which preserves self-esteem, and also enables and rationalizes the expression of primitive feelings of deprivation, frustration, and rage while preserving one's essential passivity. The anti-Semite, like the Paranoid Schizophrenic, is thus under no obligation to change any of his dysfunctional behavior; in fact, anti-Semitism, as with Paranoid delusions, allows him to remain convinced of his own superiority, moral, ethical, racial, congenital, etc., in the face of abject failure and obstinate reality. (READ MORE)
Sister Toldjah: Team Hillary plays the victim card two days after the debate (UPDATED) - From the very moment Hillary Clinton announced her intentions to run for president, I knew this would happen. I knew that one day, the seemingly unflappable junior Senator from New York would go through what could be described as not one her finer moments in front of a crowd, and that as an excuse, she’d do what so many other so-called “equality-loving” feminists do: play the victim card. Her supporters started doing so last night, and Team Hillary - and more of her supporters - officially played it today. Sam Youngman at the Hill reports (emphasis added): (READ MORE)
Sweetness & Light: Kerry Condemns Waterboarding, Not Tasering - It is being reported that John Kerry will vote against the nomination of the new attorney general because of Michael Mukasey’s failure to flatly condemn “waterboarding” under all possible circumstances. Well, is waterboarding really worse than tasering? Lest we forget, Mr. Kerry seemed to have no qualms about the latter when it was done to protect him: (READ MORE)
Ilya Somin: How Useful is the Concept of "Judicial Activism"? - In considering Thomas Miles and Cass Sunstein's effort to measure "judicial activism" and the criticism it has generated, I am increasing persuaded that it is impossible to define "judicial activism" in a way that is both 1) useful, and 2) not simply a synonym for incorrect decisions. My tentative sense is that any ideologically or politically neutral definition of "activism" is unlikely to be useful in shedding light on the normative debate over what judicial review should be used for. On the other hand, normatively useful definitions of "activism" will tend to coincide with the analyst's definition of "incorrect decision." It is certainly possible to define judicial activism in a neutral way. For example, Miles and Sunstein define "activism" in the context of judicial review of regulatory agency decisions as any judicial decision to overrule an agency. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: Foreign Matters - Over the last 24 hours or so, I have learned something remarkable about myself. First, I learned that I was woefully ignorant about the Foreign Service part of the Department of State. Second, I learned that my ignorance was shared by a goodly number of those people currently employed by the Foreign Service. Thirdly, I learned that I was a lot smarter than they apparently are, because I can learn. Before the whole brouhaha arose from the State Department with career diplomats saying "hell, no, we won't go!" to Iraq, I didn't realize that Foreign Service was not just a description, but a must-be-capitalized proper noun, the name of an actual government body. (READ MORE)
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