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)
A Sarbox for Housing - Throughout the 1980s and '90s, Congress prodded, even strong-armed, banks into making more mortgage loans to low-income and minority families. Washington enacted anti-discrimination and community lending laws with penalties against lenders for failing to issue riskier mortgages to homebuyers living in poor neighborhoods or with low down payments and subpar credit ratings. And so it was that the modern subprime mortgage market was born. (READ MORE)
Border Chief in TB Row to Retire - The federal official in charge of the El Paso, Texas, border crossing — where a Mexican national with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis was allowed to enter the U.S. 76 times since August 2006 — has announced his retirement. (READ MORE)
Poll Finds 77% Oppose Licenses for Illegals - Voters oppose driver's licenses for illegal aliens by a nearly five-to-one margin, a new Fox 5/Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports poll finds. (READ MORE)
Unsafe Politically at Any Speed - Wherever it's been tried, embracing driver's licenses for illegal aliens — as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and most of the Democratic presidential field did last week — has been political poison, including helping cost one Democratic governor his office. (READ MORE)
Envoys at Odds Over Iraq Service - The growing pressure on State Department personnel to serve in Iraq, which culminated in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's decision to resort to forced assignments, has polarized the Foreign Service to a level not seen in decades, American diplomats say. (READ MORE)
Chaudhry Urges Lawyers to Continue Protests - Ousted chief justice's call to eliminate 'dictatorship,' restore the constitution comes amid continuing turbulence on the Pakistani streets. (READ MORE)
Teen Wins Fight for Antiabortion Club at School - For Stephanie Hoffmeier, it came down to believing in a power higher than a school system. With prayer, persistence and a lawsuit against the Stafford County schools, the 16-year-old recently succeeded in starting what might be the region's only antiabortion club in a public high school. The Pro-Life Club, which attracted about 20 people to its first gathering... (READ MORE)
Bombs Targeting Afghan Lawmakers Kill 64 - KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two bomb blasts targeted a group of lawmakers touring a factory north of Kabul on Tuesday, killing at least 64 people, including five parliamentarians, the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, officials said. The bombs went off outside a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan as the lawmakers were about to enter. (READ MORE)
Italy police arrest 20 on terrorism charges - ROME (Reuters) - Italian police have arrested 20 foreigners suspected of terrorist activity, police sources said on Tuesday. During the operation, ordered by Milan prosecutors and being carried out in the northern Italian cities of Milan, Bergamo, Varese, Reggio Emilia and abroad, police said they seized poisons and long distance ignition devices for explosives. (READ MORE)
Engraved in Their Minds - Even now, the sound of a helicopter or a phrase of Vietnamese can carry Len Funk back to the war. In a bar or restaurant, Mike Kentes still sits where he can keep an eye on the door. This week, thousands like them are again gathering in Washington, this time to observe the 25th anniversary of the Wall. A downtown parade and other activities are scheduled for Saturday, and commemorative ceremonies will be held Sunday at the Wall. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
ON Point: An AQI Weapons Cache - Five months ago Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) infiltrated the small village of Tash, located just south of Ramadi. The enemy fighters, 70 heavily armed men were killed or captured when a small US Army patrol stumbled onto the fighters and a vicious firefight broke out. When the fight was over, known now as the battle of Donkey Island, the battlefield was littered with dead enemy bodies and foreign weapons. Aside from the size and ferocity of the attack there was a curious observation I noted from a military brief received prior to embedding. The hand grenades used by the fighters were homemade - fashioned from plastic bottles filled with explosives and nails. Why would an AQI infiltration force choose to use homemade hand grenades in a country awash with weapons? (READ MORE)
Badger 6: Morning Regimen - “Beep-beep. Beep-beep. Beep-beep. Bdddah-beep. Bddah-beep. Bddah-beep.” The alarm clock goes off. Not quite 0600. I silence the incessant noise with the snooze button trying to decide whether to get up or wait for the alarm to resound. Before I can make that complex decision, my alarm clock sounds again. This is my third alarm clock since I have been in Iraq. The first was a cheap travel alarm clock that folds up; it has a black plastic case with gold trim, its only illumination a light activated by a button on the back that doubles as the snooze button. It was put out of commission after being accidently knocked to the floor from the improvised night stand. (READ MORE)
Far From Perfect: The Beginning of the End - Its here… almost! My time in this hellish wasteland is almost at an end! Last night my internet was cut off, and I have my lower priority baggage packed and ready to be loaded for shipment. Soon we will be moving to temporary housing, then comes RIP/TOA! I can’t wait to get home and spend some real quality time with my family. We are, however, still on our regular hellish patrol schedule. The new guys aren’t here yet. We have been driving to all the usual places and a few more on what I will refer to as our Farewell Tour. Shaking hands, kissing cheeks, and eating food. In fact, I had a really good mix of pomegranite and tomato the other day. Its was really tangy and sweet, a good combination. (READ MORE)
From an Anthropological Perspective: The Cloth Merchant - I am trying to understand reciprocity and the cultural construction of indebtedness and social obligation. One story I was told today, a parable really, was about a cloth merchant. It goes like this: "There was a cloth merchant who sold many meters of cloth to a customer. The customer came to the store and said, “Please, I need two meters of this cloth, three meters of that cloth, and another five meters of this other cloth.” The merchant happily cut the requested lengths of cloth from each roll and was thankful for his good fortune." (READ MORE)
Matt Sanchez: The Media's Iraq Con Job - I'm convinced that when the United States went to war in April of 2003, the media drew arms as well, and although professional neutrality is key to reporting the news, I'm not always sure how many members of the press have chosen sides. When I first got to Iraq six months ago, I had my fingers crossed. I literally had no idea what I would find. My biggest fear was that I'd see a group of very discouraged men and women trying to implement a failing policy. I thought I'd see Iraqis poorly coping with an oppressive American military. (READ MORE)
Northern Disclosure: It is also Human - Time for a moment has slowed. I am enjoying the late nights on my deck sipping wine with my friends, sleeping in with my new little girl and playing in the park with our boys. I know that there will be a quick end to this and lastnight the sobering voice of reality checked back in when I opened my email and read all the updates from theater. Of course in my mind I don't want to admit that time ticks on over there without me and I try to detach from the sense of "everything's cool, right?" (READ MORE)
Sergeant Grumpy: Holding our collective breath - Three IEDs were found in the small city we operate out of today. What is significant about this is that all three were called in to the IPs by local citizens who noticed something out of place. The police handled each one, and although one blew up not far from our gate, no one was hurt. Things could still go to hell here, but everyday there is a little more news that things may really be turning a corner. (READ MORE)
Sgt Hook: What’s it Worth? - An interesting question, What’s it worth? What’s it worth to drive to work unafraid your car might explode into flames as a result of an improvised explosive device hidden along your route? What’s it worth to send your kids off to school not worrying if an evil band of hooded men will take their classroom hostage killing several innocent children? What’s it worth to go shopping for more than just the necessities without a bomb going off in the middle of the market? What’s it worth to log onto your computer and read this blog or send an email to a friend or loved one any time of the day you wish? What’s it worth to sit at home and watch two teams battle it out on the football field knowing the losing team is not going to be put to death for their loss? (READ MORE)
This War and Me: Entering the Blogosphere - Off to Google to check my feeds and see who has updated recently. Who has been inspired while I was dreaming of home and how much I can’t wait to hold my children? I check SiteMeter and see activity has been steady through my night. I always like to see where my readers are coming from. I scan through the list and see the usual MilBlogging, Badgers Forward, Thunder Run and This F*ing War. A few more catch my interests. I am excited to see that more explorers in the Blogosphere are finding me. (READ MORE)
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: The 89,000 - This year, the 12 months I am working in Afghanistan, there will be 89,000 more children live who would have died without the international community's help. That's an astounding number. The Afghan Health Ministry and John Hopkins University revealed the figure yesterday in announcing that child mortality in Afghanistan has dropped 25 percent since the fall of the Taliban. What that means in real terms is that instead of 257 children in every 1,000 dying before the age of five in this country, 191 died last year. (READ MORE)
The Sandmonkey: The View from Pakistan - Ok, so let's get this straight: Musharraf declares a state of emergency, and shuts down the media and deposes a Judge he doesn't like. The Judge urges people to protest , the people go nuts and European nations froze aid and Bush can't make up his mind on what is more important: The War on Terror, or Democracy. In the midst of all that, my Pakistani Friend M. Chaudrey just sent me this, which gives you the view of how it's like to be living in Pakistan at the moment: Its so frustrating. Absolutely nerve wracking. You sit at home, you switch on the T.V and all you can watch is fashion T.V, music videos and Hollywood and Bollywood movies. No news. The screen is just a black void when you switch to the channels where news spoke... (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Waving the Shiite Flag - Iraqis who were still in Iraq in 2003 often say that the sectarian issue was introduced by exiles. This curious article might fit into that theory. I can't say I understand why Nibras Kazimi would write such a disappointing piece. He talks of Iraq's Shiites as "poised to project their newfound political, cultural, strategic, and mercantile power beyond their borders." The writer, whose Talismangate site has had some good stuff, also says this in the NY Sun: "Wahhabism is a malicious and malevolent idea that animates the worst of today's jihadists." (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Bret Stephens: Waterboarding and Hiroshima - The death last week of Paul Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945, is an opportunity to revisit the debate about the strategic value and moral justification of the aerial bombardment of civilian targets in wartime. It also casts some light on the controversy surrounding Michael Mukasey's nomination to be the next attorney general of the United States. (READ MORE)
Brendan Simms: Blunt Diplomacy - The British conservative Enoch Powell once famously said that all political careers end in failure. John Bolton's career, as we read in the opening pages of "Surrender Is Not an Option," began with the defeat of Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign, on which he had served as a teenage volunteer. It is a disarming start to the memoir of a man usually caricatured as a bombastic tub-thumper. In any case, history records that John Bolton bounced back from this disappointment, rose through the Republican ranks in the 1980s and, after loyal service interpreting Floridian chads during the 2000 election count, found himself propelled into high office. He tells the rest of the story with a focus, brutality and exasperation that will give pain and pleasure in all the right places. (READ MORE)
Daniel Pipes: Saddam's Damn Dam - The surge of U.S. troops in Baghdad is succeeding but deeper structural problems continue to plague the American presence in Iraq. The country's largest dam, 40 kilometers northwest of Mosul, near the Turkish border, spectacularly symbolizes this predicament. Just after occupying Iraq in April 2003, a report found that Mosul Dam's foundation was "leaking like a sieve and ready to collapse." A more recent, still-classified report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concludes that "The dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability." (READ MORE)
Bill Steigerwald: Meet the Anti-Planner - It is safe to say economist Randal O'Toole is an expert in many of the things that have caused Pittsburgh and other cities great pain -- government planning, government mass-transit systems and government attempts to shape or contain the redevelopment of cities. A senior fellow at the Cato Institute, he specializes in urban growth, public land and transportation issues. His daily blog is called The Antiplanner (ti.org/antiplanner) and his new book is "The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future." (READ MORE)
Bill Murchison: The Entitlement Society - This has to be the Entitlement Age, because nobody I know of would call it the Age of Common Sense. You take these two, I suppose you call them, ideals -- entitlement to blessings and benefits on the one hand and shrewd appraisal of the way life works, and you find, I think, they match poorly, if at all. Take the driver's license flap -- the one that arose when Hillary Clinton couldn't or wouldn't come out and say what she thought about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal for the issuance of driver's licenses to illegal aliens. (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: Stop "Making A Difference" - Among the many mindless mantras of our time, "making a difference" and "giving back" irritate me like chalk screeching across a blackboard. I would be scared to death to "make a difference" in the way pilots fly airliners or brain surgeons operate. Any difference I might make could be fatal to many people. Making a difference makes sense only if you are convinced that you have mastered the subject at hand to the point where any difference you might make would be for the better. Very few people have mastered anything that well beyond their own limited circle of knowledge. (READ MORE)
Patrick J. Buchanan: An Intrusion of Reality - "Inaction at this moment is suicide for Pakistan, and I cannot allow the country to commit suicide." Thus did President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declare a state of emergency and invoke martial law. The Supreme Court has been dismissed, the chief justice put under house arrest. A thousand lawyers and political opponents have been incarcerated. Human rights organizations have been shut down. Independent news media have been silenced. Musharraf has effected a second coup, the first being his takeover in 1999. (READ MORE)
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann: Behind Hillary's Doubletalk - Every time she approaches a microphone, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton labors under the necessity of fudging on her program - offering, instead, an artificial personality and a variety of poll-tested bromides that let her duck key issues. The resulting circumlocutions were evi dent in Tuesday night's Democratic debate. Her plans for Social Security? Clearly, she thinks she may need to raise Social Security taxes - but she can't say so. Instead, she repeats the poll-tested mantra of "fiscal responsibility" and a "bipartisan commission." (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: Obey on Iraq: ‘We’ve Run Out of People to Kill’ - The man who controls the House purse strings to fund the war in Iraq said the President’s “surge” was showing recent signs of success because U.S. soldiers have “run out of people to kill.” “One of the reason we’ve had incidents of violence, sectarian violence go down is because they are running out of people to kill,” said the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee Rep. David Obey (D.-Wisc.) at a National Press Club luncheon Monday afternoon. (READ MORE)
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Bush Doctrine 2.0? - The first term of the George W. Bush presidency and what has come to be known as the “Bush Doctrine” were marked by a profound and forceful reaction to September 11, 2001. Determined to prevent further, murderous attacks on the United States, Mr. Bush and his national security team were determined to “drain the swamps” from whence terrorists received safe havens and other forms of support. Out went the sort of “stability” born of accommodations with totalitarians and favored by the foreign policy establishment’s so-called “realists.” In came a U.S. commitment to bringing down the “axis of evil,” in favor of a world ordered by liberty and democracy. (READ MORE)
Armed Liberal: People should not fear their government, their government should fear the people - So on to the issue of torture. I've wrestled and wrestled with the issue; torture is obviously bad, but what is it about torture that is so expressly bad - why is it worse than the death and suffering that comes in war, or in the daily violence police officers do as a part of their jobs? In large part, it's the fact of violence against captives; against the helpless, the unarmed, those incapable of resisting. But that didn't get to the heart of what cleaves torture as an issue from violence as an issue. And why I - as someone who is decidedly not nonviolent - am so decidedly against and uncomfortable with issues of torture. I came to an answer, as I usually do, in an unplanned realization while reading a book. (READ MORE)
The Tygrrrr Express: Are the Greeniacs Wrong? - One of my main criticisms of liberalism is that it demonizes anybody that dares to disagree with the conclusions that liberals theorize. Either one is a liberal, or they are an imbecile, evil, or in rare cases such as George W. Bush, both. Feelings trump facts, emotions trump evidence, and loud screaming displaces logical reasoning. When Timothy McVeigh committed the Oklahoma City bombings, Senator Dianne Feinstein claimed that we needed more gun control, even though guns had nothing to do with this atrocity. When Bill Clinton received illegal campaign contributions from Asian donors who skipped town (a pattern his wife is now repeating), the left claimed that we needed more campaign finance reform. (READ MORE)
Sweetness & Light: Media Matters Cites Soros Advocate On Torture - From Clinton/Soros taxpayer-supported “charity” Media Matters: "Summary: Fox News’ Steve Harrigan underwent what he described as three “phase[s]” of the controversial interrogation technique known as 'waterboarding,' on camera, concluding that the technique is 'a pretty efficient mechanism to get someone to talk and then still have them alive and healthy within minutes.' Psychologists have asserted that 'such forms of near-asphyxiation' can lead to long-term psychological damage." This last sentence is touted by Media Matters (and now other media outlets) as somehow a debunking of the accuracy of Mr. Harrigan’s experience. But leaving aside that Mr. Harrigan can probably judge whether he has suffered long-term psychological damage, let’s look at the authority Media Matters is citing for their quote. (READ MORE)
W. Thomas Smith Jr.: Edwards And A Tall Glass Of Kool-Aid Today In Iowa - You won't believe some of the lines (well, maybe you will) John Edwards delivered today at the University of Iowa: "When I am president, I will immediately withdraw 40-50,000 troops, launch a diplomatic offensive to invest all local, national, and regional parties in the comprehensive political solution that will end the violence, and will completely withdraw all combat troops within 9 to 10 months. The bottom line is simple — no combat troops; no combat missions; no combat, period. Not sometime to be determined, not by 2013. By the end of my first year as president, by the end of 2009." (READ MORE)
TigerHawk: Asymmetrical refugees - An advocacy group is reminding us that Jews did not necessarily leave Arab lands for Israel voluntarily: The story of the Jewish expulsions in 1948 and subsequent integration is worth remembering, though, because it reminds us that there are only two explanations for the failure of the Arab countries similarly to integrate Palestinian Arab refugees. Either they were not competent to do so, or they deliberately confined them as refugees for political or geopolitical purposes. In the first case we might wonder why the world holds Israel responsible for the effects of Arab incompetence and Jewish competence -- both groups started with around 800,000 refugees, but the Jews wove themselves into Israel's national fabric while the Arabs remained "refugees" in law, at least, and multiplied by a factor of five within two generations. (READ MORE)
Kim Priestap: Don't Tell the Pro-Illegal Immigration Crowd: The Border Fence is Working - This is really unusual. We are getting some good news from the border: "At this fabled border crossing, where the last armed conflict between the United States and Mexico flared, the rancorous debate over the new U.S. anti-immigrant fence has been resolved. The fence works, residents north and south of it say. At least it works for now on this snippet of the line." (READ MORE)
Mark Steyn: You've Seen the movie, Now Don't Buy the War - As far as I know, the movie Deliverance has featured in political discourse just the once. Back in 1996, Pat Buchanan, hot from his triumph over Bob Dole in the New Hampshire primary, warned the country-club Republicans that he was coming to get them "like a character out of Deliverance." In the film, you'll recall, a quartet of suburban guys spend a nightmare weekend in the backwoods, in the course of which one of their number winds up getting strapped to a tree and sodomized by a mountain man. ("Squeal, piggy!") At the time of Pat's remark, I remember thinking: What a great country! In how many other political cultures can a fellow identify himself with a stump-toothed inbred psycho hillbilly homosexual rapist as an applause line? (READ MORE)
Sister Toldjah: Another fake “hate” incident at GWU - There must be something in the water at GWU. A few weeks ago, several GWU students admitted to putting up fake “hate Muslim” posters around the university in response to Islamofascism Awareness Week. Robert Stacy McCain reports on another hoax a student has admitted to perpetrating on herself (h/t: BCB): "A student at George Washington University has admitted drawing swastikas on her own door, university officials say: After evaluating evidence from a hidden camera positioned in response to the swastika postings in Mitchell Hall, University Police have linked the student who filed the complaints to several of the incidents." (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: The Clash of the Titanic Egos - It is a relatively noncontroversial idea that politicians as a class tend to be narcissists with a small "n" (to distinguish from the more technical Narcissistic Character Disorder.) They tend to love the sound of their own voice, their own brilliant ideas, and rarely question their own judgment. They desire nothing more than re-election and the ability to do the people's work, as determined by them in their wisdom, facilitated by the people's money; they love sycophants and fawning adulation more than life itself. Coincidentally, the MSM is also well stocked with narcissists who have an equal love of their own voice, idealize their own ideas, and rarely if ever question their own judgment. The MSM have done the Republicans immeasurable benefit by focusing their opprobrium on everything and anything Republican. (READ MORE)
ROFASix: Religion in the Military - Is religion being dissed in the military as a result of liberals? According to "Onward Christian Soldiers" by Mark Alexander that is the case. He cites the 2005 case against Brig. Gen. John Weida, who, when serving as commandant of cadets at the Air Force Academy, was accused of commingling character development with Judeo-Christian principles, commenting "as if the two are mutually exclusive." He also included the asinine directive that recently came out directing how the flag folding ritual at a funeral omit any reference to God. He wrote: "Democrats in Congress have now instructed the Department of Veterans Affairs to scrutinize the ceremonial folding of flags after being removed from the caskets of fallen warriors." (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: Democrats, Taxes, And The Troops - You have to hand it to Democratic House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey. Not only is he looking for a way to lose the war in Iraq and deny our troops credit for all the progress they've made in recent months, he has found a way to tie it all into a tax increase. It's the ultimate liberal trifecta! “If violence is decreasing in Iraq, it may be because insurgents ‘are running out of people to kill,’ House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) said Monday. ‘There are fewer targets of opportunity,’ Obey said in a speech to the National Press Club.” (READ MORE)
Ray Robison: They cut off our heads and we can't cut off their beards? - I think we have a clear winner in the category of terrorist sympathizing journalist of the year award. Here's the award nomination worthy head line: Terror suspects' beards are safe now. I kid you not. Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald loads this piece with jihad lovin ooziness. I, as I am sure most of you did, thought the headline was a little sarcastic. But no, Rosenberg is completely concerned that Muslim men are now being tortured by a beard trim (torture redefined again). “GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Guards earlier this year stopped cutting the beards off unruly war-on-terror detainees, according to the military, confirming for the first time a practice that enraged Muslim captives and their American advocates.” (READ MORE)
Political Vindication: Who does the State Department represent? - There are a lot of frowns around the State Department these days. Their president has ordered them to Iraq, and what was once a volunteer assignment has now become a place where you get assigned. The irony of it all is that the State department had a lot to do with arming and protecting Saddam Hussein, and then did what it could to sabotage President Bush’s war against him in that country. What one has to understand about State is that beyond the political appointees is a bureaucracy of careerists who think nothing of defying a president with ‘temporary’ power. One can spend a lifetime perusing the scandals and willful insubordination that earn the State Department its nickname “Foggy Bottom.” It’s intransigence may frustrate a president, but it first endangers Americans. (READ MORE)
MountainRunner: The Fraying of State - The freak out by some FSOs at State is impressive and less than an indictment of the corps than most make it out to be. True, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to fill only 48 posts, but releasing the announcement Friday night like a bit of bad news is no way to treat trusted and valued employees and patriots and a good way to rile the entire Department. But this bad form is not entirely surprising given her leadership over the last several years at Foggy Bottom, or in the years before as National Security Advisor. Her Cold War thinking is out of touch with the requirements of the post-Cold War world. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Suicide bombers kill over 90 in Afghan north - The Taliban have pulled of the largest suicide attack in Afghanistan since the US overthrew the Taliban government in late 2001. A pair of suicide bombers targeted a parliamentary delegation as it visited a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan. Over 90 were reported killed, including five members of parliament, and over 50 have been wounded. A local doctor said the casualties may well rise. A large number of children and civilians were killed in the strike. Among those killed were Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, the leader of the parliamentary delegation and member of the opposition. Kazimi was also the head of the national economy commission of Afghanistan's lower house of parliament. (READ MORE)
Amy Proctor: "We Train Soldiers in Morality" - the LT Murphy Story - Bottom Line Up Front: If LT Michael Murphy had been a cold-hearted killer, me may very well be alive today. Because the U.S. military trains ethics and moral codes to its soldiers, and because soldiers usually adhere to those ethics, soldiers are at greater risk of death and injury because when faced with the moral dilemma of erring on the side of caution for themselves or a civilian, they usually choose the latter. This point is made clear in a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal by a former Army officer about the incredible story of LT Michael Murphy, who recently received the Medal of Honor. But first, some background: (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Who NYT blames for Pakistan - Hint: It is not Musharraf Well, that didn’t take long. Martial law was imposed in Pakistan over the weekend and the New York Times editors convened on Monday to fix the blame squarely on George Walker Bush. And so this is the lead in Tuesday’s lead editorial: “By imposing martial law, Gen. Pervez Musharraf has pushed nuclear-armed Pakistan further along a perilous course and underscored the failure of President Bush’s policy toward a key ally in the war on terrorism.” (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston: TNR asks: What if Iraq stabilizes? - The horror, the horror. "It hasn’t become much of a campaign issue–yet–but for the first time in a long while the news from Iraq isn’t unrelentingly ghastly. Some previously hard-to-imagine glimmers of hope are now emerging. Of course there are a thousand caveats here, and Slate’s Phil Carter has a good summation of them. But this weekend an experienced Iraq correspondent–someone who has been extremely bleak about the war in the past–told me he thinks it’s really possible that the country is turning a corner." (READ MORE)
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