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)
Clinton Rebukes Rivals for 'Gang Up' - Former President Bill Clinton told voters in South Carolina yesterday that the "boys" have been ganging up on his wife in recent weeks but that she can take it. (READ MORE)
Violence Mars Rally for Fatah - A massive show of support for Yasser Arafat's Fatah party, held on the third anniversary of the Palestinian leader's death, broke up in chaos yesterday when Hamas security men fired into the crowd killing at least six persons. (READ MORE)
Voters Dismiss 'Piling On' Charge - Most Americans reject the charge that other presidential candidates are "piling on" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a new Fox 5/The Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports poll. (READ MORE)
Beijing Profiles Olympic Press Corps - The Chinese government has created profiles on thousands of foreign journalists coming to report on next summer's Beijing Olympics and is gathering information on thousands more to put into a database, a top official said in comments published yesterday. (READ MORE)
Maryland House Delays Meeting on Slots - "I think there's going to be problems, and there should be," said Delegate Jill P. Carter, after House leaders delayed a key meeting on legalizing slot machines yesterday while Democrats searched for support for the plan, lawmakers said. (READ MORE)
Panel May Cut Sentences For Crack - An independent panel is considering reducing the sentences of inmates incarcerated in federal prisons for crack cocaine offenses, which would make thousands of people immediately eligible to be freed. (READ MORE)
Head of 'The House' - Back in March, when Fred D. Thompson's presidential candidacy was just a possibility, but one with seemingly unlimited potential, a small group of veteran Republican insiders began meeting regularly in the dining room of Thompson's McLean home to plot his coming-out. (READ MORE)
Giuliani Campaign Tries to Minimize Fallout From Kerik Indictment - Aides to former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani worked yesterday to bat down the perception that his bid for the Republican presidential nomination had suffered after Friday's indictment of Bernard B. Kerik, his longtime ally and former business partner. (READ MORE)
Japan's Leader Cites Limits In Global Security Abilities - TOKYO, Nov. 13 -- Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda affirmed on Monday the singular importance of Japan's alliance with the United States, but also made it clear that his government's reach in global security affairs would not be as expansive as the Bush administration wants. (READ MORE)
Bhutto Put Under House Arrest - LAHORE, Pakistan, Nov. 13 -- The Pakistani government early Tuesday placed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for seven days and said her party would be barred from holding a major procession to protest emergency rule. (READ MORE)
AGs Gone Wild - District Attorneys have "National Prosecution Standards." U.S. Attorneys have their own ethics manual. But what about state Attorneys General? They get to make everything up as they go, as their increasingly aggressive prosecutions are showing. The problem is laid out in a new report by the Institute for Legal Reform, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that deserves more publicity. (READ MORE)
Movin' On Up - If you've been listening to Mike Huckabee or John Edwards on the Presidential trail, you may have heard that the U.S. is becoming a nation of rising inequality and shrinking opportunity. We'd refer those campaigns to a new study of income mobility by the Treasury Department that exposes those claims as so much populist hokum. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Freeing feeling - I did it again and, as before, food was the motivation. After a morning spent tediously inventorying weapons by serial number at the ANP provincial headquarters in downtown Ghazni, we paused for lunch. An ANP general insisted we join him at a nearby restaurant. So, the three of us hopped into his SUV sans body armor and helmets and rolled over to the restaurant, which was on the second floor of a commercial building. Once at the restaurant, the prudent thing to do would be to find a secluded corner and try not to draw attention to ourselves. Instead, we chose to eat out on the balcony for all of Ghazni to see. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Uncommonly Good - Visitors to the Iraq story often make me laugh. Journalists bring their own interpretations to the story before they observe anything. When Iraqis tell them something, they ignore us. The outsiders then zero in on something and proudly call it a unique observation. A good example of this is the story of the Bab al Sheik neighbourhood in Baghdad. The reporter acts as though some secret has been uncovered: "Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Christians live together here with unusual ease." (READ MORE)
Iraq the Model: Baath Holds The White Flag - The formation of a so called political council for Iraqi resistance was met by different reactions from the public and the politicians who are now divided into proponents and opponents. Whereas the Accord Front called for mediation between the council and the government some parties in the UIA see that the council cannot be negotiated with and declared it a continuation of the former regime. What is important in my opinion regarding this development and aside from whether to negotiate with it or not, is the very announcement of forming this new political entity. It consists of remnants of the former regime and it had led the violent campaign against the change and now its leaders announce the transformation into a political entity seeking negotiations with the government. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Daniel Ford: Hell at Low Altitude - Whereas now we go into combat hoping for zero casualties and regard any loss whatever as proof of unforgivable incompetence, the history of warfare is mostly a chronicle of high casualties and terrible sacrifice. In the history of American warfare, there is little to compare, on this score, to the carnage of World War II--"worse than anything probably that ever happened in the world," in the words of Henry Stimson, the U.S. Army secretary. "Into the Fire" gives a fresh account of one particularly bloody mission from that war--an American bombing raid on Aug. 1, 1943. (READ MORE)
Bret Stephens: Being Pervez Musharraf - Imagine yourself as Pervez Musharraf, the 64-year-old military ruler of Pakistan. As a young artillery officer, and later as a commando, you acquired a reputation for personal bravery--and for doing just as you pleased, whatever your orders. Your subsequent performance as a general and politician has been of a similar piece. In recent days, you have declared a state of emergency, imprisoned thousands of lawyers and civil society types, fired the Supreme Court and put its chief justice under house arrest, and shut down much of the independent media. You have done all this to keep your grip on power, all the while insisting you have "no personal ego and ambitions to guard." (READ MORE)
Daniel Pipes: Washington Protects the Terror Masters - The Bush administration's counterterrorism policies appear tough, but inside the courtroom, they evaporate, consistently favoring not American terror victims, but foreign terrorists. Consider a civil lawsuit arising from a September 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed credit for five dead and 192 wounded, including several Americans. On the grounds that the Islamic Republic of Iran had financed Hamas, five injured Americans students sued it for damages. (READ MORE)
Michael Steele: Immigration Amnesty in Any Form is Wrong - New York looks to play an important role in the upcoming presidential elections in more ways than one. Not only could we see an "all New York" presidential line-up (Rudy vs. Hillary) but Democrat Governor Elliott Spitzer has managed to focus the attention of the entire nation on New York by announcing his plan to grant driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Governor Spitzer obviously has no clear understanding of the far-reaching and crippling effects on our Nation’s security such a measure would have. (READ MORE)
David Strom: Biofuels: Poison for the Poor? - Two years ago, Ethanol and Biodiesel were being touted as the solution to our “addiction” to oil. After all, wouldn’t it be better to grow our fuel than simply pump it out of the ground at exorbitant rates? Appealing as that idea sounded, it has turned out to be a big mess threatening to get bigger by the day. A new coalition of—believe it or not—environmentalists and advocates for the poor have started raising tough questions about the tax breaks, subsidies and mandates that have fueled the growth of the Ethanol and biodiesel industry. (READ MORE)
Cal Thomas: Joe Lieberman: Patriot - This will probably kill his career, but I rise to praise Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut. In a speech last week before Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Lieberman said, "Since retaking Congress in November 2006, the top foreign policy priority of the Democratic Party has not been to expand the size of our military for the war on terror or to strengthen our democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East or to prevail in Afghanistan. It has been to pull our troops out of Iraq, to abandon the democratically elected government there, and to hand a defeat to President Bush." (READ MORE)
Dennis Prager: To Understand the Left, Read this Issue of Rolling Stone - The current issue of Rolling Stone magazine, its special 40th anniversary issue, reveals almost all one needs to know about the current state of the cultural left. The issue features interviews with people Rolling Stone considers to be America's leading cultural and political figures -- such as Al Gore, Jon Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, Cornel West, Paul Krugman, Kanye West, Bill Maher and George Clooney, among many others. It brings me no pleasure to say that, with few exceptions, the interviews reveal a superficiality and contempt for cultural norms (as evidenced by the ubiquity of curse words) that should scare anyone who believes that these people have influence on American life. (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: Denying Progress in Iraq - Listening to the Democrats denying our progress in Iraq is reminiscent of a high school debate where one team gets stuck with the wrong side of the issue and has to defend it valiantly anyway. But in real life, especially when life-and-death consequences are involved, such artificial, unreasonable positions are not valiant but disgraceful. On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson whether his plan to withdraw all troops from Iraq was outdated now that the surge "shows signs of working." (READ MORE)
Rich Galen: Ask Me No Questions... - One of the staples of campaigning in the "early states" is the tradition of candidates delivering remarks, and then taking questions from the audience. In Newton, Iowa, the other day. Senator Hillary Clinton was doing just that. She made her remarks at a biodiesel plant and then asked for questions. She called on a student from Grinnell University who asked her about global warming. Clinton warming to the subject, launched into her standard I'm-Greener-Than-Al-Gore riff. (READ MORE)
Harry R. Jackson, Jr.: An Open Letter to the Christian Community - This past year I have spent countless hours writing about problem of the government encroaching upon our religious liberties. I have been shocked that many Christians just don’t seem to grasp the fact that we are in very sophisticated power struggle. We don’t seem to want accept that there is an all-out assault against Christians being waged in the legislature, teamed with the mainstream media. Let me trace four major attempts to thwart faith in the U.S. Attack No.1 – New Federal Hate Crimes Legislation (READ MORE)
Dinesh D'Souza: Are Atheists the New Gays? - Richard Dawkins has a bright idea: Atheists are the new gays. Is he joking? Not at all. The bestselling author of The God Delusion has been suggesting for two years now that atheists can follow the example of gays. This would put the atheists last in the line of liberation groups: first the civil rights movement, then the feminist movement, then the gay liberation movement, and now the cause of atheist liberation. What makes Dawkins want atheists to be like gays? Dawkins explains that gays used to be called homosexual, but then they decided to pick a positive-sounding name like "gay." (READ MORE)
DJ Drummond: Just a Reminder: It's a Bad Idea to Ignore History - The readers who know me are well aware that I said early on, that a Republican would win the White House in 2008. I did not make that prediction in 2004 or 2005, but 2006 when it seemed as though the Donks were doing a 'reconquista' on everything the Reagan Revolution had given to the American people. And I made that prediction on the basis of two key traits: While they are absolute morons at times, Republicans in general will put the country ahead of everything else, and the voters know this; Democrats always end up going to extremes, having abandoned the center to the degree that they cannot find it, even when they most need it. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: It's Not Easy Being Green... - Well, last week NBC (to much mockery) had a "Green Week" where all its shows were supposed to feature some kind of pro-environment theme. I don't watch "30 Rock," but I did see Al Gore's cameo there and thought it was pretty good -- for all my other problems with the guy, he's pretty damned funny when he's making fun of himself. Apparently, we here at Wizbang are doing something similar -- but I missed the e-mail. Because last night DJ wrote a piece that I found brilliant, insightful, and profound. At least, I thought so when I wrote virtually the same article almost four years ago. (READ MORE)
Ron Winter: PopASmoke at the Vietnam War Memorial; The Meaning of Semper Fidelis in Action - United States Marines can be a cantankerous lot, especially when they are at war. That shouldn't come as a surprise, considering that we are America's shock troops, assigned to impossible missions, often fighting against overwhelming numbers of enemy forces in the worst of circumstances, all on the short end of the defense budget. In the end we deliver, but it is never easy or fun, although Marine gallows humor is some of the best in the world. Our casualties are high, percentage wise, because we have to go where the worst of the worst often are dug in waiting, and either overcome their defenses, or keep ours secure against their massed attacks. (READ MORE)
Wind of Change: The Democrats' Earmark "Reform" in Action.... - Earmarks involve designating funds in spending legislation that must be used for a very particular purpose. While they can be a useful tool, they can also be a magnet for shady dealings and last-minute surprises. Indicted Naval ace and former Congressman Randy Cunningham's [R-CA] activities revolved around earmarks, for instance. So, too, did the kerfuffle where ABSCAM-scarred Rep. Jack Murtha [D-PA] threatened a legislator who questioned his earmarks. Past US national defense budgets have included everything from renovations to Washington's baseball stadium (based on the standings, a donation to hire players might have been better), to Utah watershed conservation, to the initial funding that got the war-defining Predator UAVs going. It's a mixed bag. (READ MORE)
Jonathan Adler: Sunstein and the Political Economy of Climate Policy - No international agreement to control greenhouse gas emissions will have a meaningful effect on future projections of global climate change without the active participation of the United States and China. Yet as University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein argues in his paper, “The Complex Climate Change Incentives of China and the United States,” neither nation has much of an incentive to participate in such a regime. Whatever the global benefits of an international emission-control regime, the U.S. and China are unlikely to agree to such an agreement given the existing economic incentives they each face. (READ MORE)
The Tygrrr Express: Those who praise the troops need to listen to them - To all those who serve, I wish you a Happy Veteran’s Day. To those who previously served, thank you, and welcome home. To my father, a veteran, I wish you a peaceful day, and good health always. To those who will be singing the praises of the troops, I want you to listen to them first. Put your own agenda aside for one day and just listen to what those you claim to support are saying. My prediction is that the left, especially those running for President, will fail to simply let the solemn day go without running their opinionated mouths. Consider this column a pre-emptive strike. (READ MORE)
Stop the ACLU: Hayworth-Nadler, Closer Than it Seems – Immigration and the GOP - Over the last month there has been a donnybrook of sorts in the pages of the Wall Street Journal between Richard Nadler, the president of America’s Majority Foundation, and former Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona. At issue is exactly why Mr. Hayworth lost his last bid for reelection to the House of Representatives in 2006. Nadler claims it was J.D.’s overzealous illegal immigration policy suggestions that culminated in a “deportationist policy” revealing an antipathy toward Hispanics that caused Hispanic and white voters to consider Hayworth an extremist on the issue making them shy away from pulling the lever for him in the voting booth. (READ MORE)
TigerHawk: Neediest cases through the eyes of the New York Times - Back in the day, I occasionally gave to the New York Times annual "neediest cases" fund, and maybe will do so again. I have fallen out of the habit not because I no longer support its aims, but because so many other charities now compete for my attention that I am in the almost constant condition of turning down worthy requests. That said, this morning's editorial promoting the Neediest Cases Fund reveals a little something about the definition of "need" in the mind of the chattering class: “In the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Fayner was a physicist and his wife, Aleksandra, an engineer. They are intelligent people, warm and playful. They are also Jewish, and in the Soviet Union, carrying that stamp on your passport meant a lifetime of trouble. By the time the Soviet Union fell, they had long since had enough and were finally free to start a life somewhere new. The United States granted them refugee status, and in 1997 they moved to New York City.” (READ MORE)
Kim Zigfeld: All Hell Breaks Loose in Pakistan - First she's free. Then she's not. Then she is again. And then she's not. You'd think her last name was Gandhi. Pakistani freedom fighter Benazir Bhutto was back under arrest in Lahore yesterday, her headquarters there besieged by nearly 1,000 soldiers to prevent her from carrying out a protest march to Islamabad. The U.S. responded by dispatching an emergency mission led by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to try to convince the clearly demented military dictator General Pervez Musharraf to release his grip on the nation's jugular. And Bhutto announced that her party may be forced to boycott the coming elections, creating a national crisis. When asked whether she might flee the country, she boldly declared: "I prefer to live in Pakistan in jail than to leave." (READ MORE)
Political Pistachio: Security of the Seas, Space, Homeland, and T-Shirts? - As discussed on The Andrea Shea King Show tonight, China has sprung on the United States Military an unexpected surprise. It seems, according to the British publication Daily Mail, that a Chinese submarine popped up near a United States Carrier Group undetected. That's right, our superior technology did not detect the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine that came within viable range for launching weapons at the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk Aircraft Carrier. A Carrier Group consists of a dozen ships which support and protect the aircraft carrier. These "escorts" consist of frigates, destroyers, carriers, battleships, oilers, repair ships, and such. (READ MORE)
MountainRunner: Somebody, Prove my theory - Today is Veteran's Day here in the United States and a good time to wonder something out loud. Actually, I've been saying this in meatspace for a while, but I don't think I've put it on the blog yet. As you think about our country's veterans, ask yourself how many veterans you actually know. It's very likely that you, as a reader of this blog, know (or are) a veteran: you are reading what some call a milblog after all. Here's my theory: more Americans know a mercenary, but don't know it, than know a vet, adjusting for sheer numbers. In other words, contractors our "outside" in the public more than current or former serving members of America's military. (READ MORE)
Blogs for Victory: The Curious Norman Hsu - While the FEC against Hillary Clinton works its way through the bureaucracy, an interesting news story about Norman Hsu has come out in the Wall Street Journal. Interesting because of this: The man went bankrupt in the United States in 1990, bankrupt in Hong Kong in 1997 and made his first federal political donation in 2003. Huh? Yeah, you read that right - a double-bankrupt starts gathering large donation amounts six years after his second bankruptcy. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Operation Iron Hammer targets al Qaeda in Iraq’s north - As Baghdad has experienced a dramatic drop in violence, the northern provinces have suffered a spike in attacks over the past few months. To counter al Qaeda in Iraq’s repositioning into the northern cities and rural areas, Multinational Forces Iraq and Iraqi Security Forces have launched Operation Iron Hammer in the northern provinces of Ninewa, Tamin, Salahadin, and Diyala. The northern operation was launched on November 5 and consists of four Iraqi Army Divisions and three US brigades. Over 200 insurgent suspects have been captured, including three high-value al Qaeda leaders. A large amount of explosives and weapons caches have also been found. (READ MORE)
Amy Proctor: Armitage Didn't Know Plame Was Covert - Bottom Line Up Front: Richard Armitage accidentally outed Valerie Plame because of her own carelessness in allowing her name to be known at the CIA. Richard Armitage, the former Deputy Secretary of State who outed Valerie Plame, insisted he did not know she was covert and that it was accidental. In an interview with Wolf Blitzer on Late Edition, Armitage explained that the outing occurred, although Plame's covert status is highly questionable, because he'd never seen a covert agent's name listed in a memo as hers was. He was sent an interoffice memo which stated Plame was an CIA analyst and her name was mentioned to publicly chair a meeting. (READ MORE)
Jihad Watch: The Muslim Brotherhood: A Moderate Islamic Alternative to al-Qaeda or a Partner in Global Jihad? - Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi, a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Here (thanks to Sr. Soph) he takes on and demolishes utterly the Robert Leiken/Steven Brooke contention that the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate, democratic organization with which the U.S. can and should deal. There is a great deal to his argument -- read it all. Here is a sample. He quotes Leiken and Brooke saying this: (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Partner for Peace - Never mind the nuke-lust, the terrorism, the murder of American soldiers, the Zionist-entity erasure, domestic oppression and efforts to dominate the entire Middle East, all of that with whacked-out endtime Iranovision. That embassy thing, it’s history! Maybe this will get some people rethinking their notions of this regime as a partner for peace. Iranian minister: Gays should be hanged. Tortured, too. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Hill’s shills grow - CNN uncovers more planted questions - Guess it no longer is the Clinton News network. CNN interviewed the Grinnell college student who said the Clinton campaign gave her the question to ask Hillary in Iowa. Planted questions are her Dumbo Eruptions. The student, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, 19, said a senior staffer for Hillary approached her and asked her if she’d like to ask a question. He opened a binder with 8 questions. (READ MORE)
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Recent progress in Iraq - We’re getting some fairly high level enemy leadership out of the way from Pros and Cons
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