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)
Justices To Rule On D.C. Gun Ban - The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will determine whether the District of Columbia's strict firearms law violates the Constitution, a decision that will raise the politically and culturally divisive issue of gun control just in time for the 2008 elections. (READ MORE)
Pentagon Warns of Civilian Layoffs If Congress Delays War Funding - The Defense Department warned yesterday that as many as 200,000 contractors and civilian employees will begin receiving layoff warnings by Christmas unless Congress acts on President Bush's $196 billion war request, but senior Democrats said no war funds will be approved until Bush accepts a shift... (READ MORE)
In Pakistan, U.S. Envoy Courts No. 2 General - ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 20 -- When Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte visited Pakistan last weekend, he met once with President Pervez Musharraf, for two hours. But before he left town, he held three meetings with a lesser-known figure: Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, the deputy army chief. (READ MORE)
Murtha: 'We Can't Win Militarily' - House Democrats' point man in the war-funding showdown with the White House is dismissing U.S. military gains in Iraq and vowed to tighten the purse strings until President Bush accepts a pullout plan. (READ MORE)
Mideast Peace Conference Set - President Bush plans to play a prominent role in next week's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, elevating the level of the summit, even though it will be officially hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, administration officials said yesterday. (READ MORE)
Court Agrees to Consider D.C. Gun Ban - The Supreme Court will rule on the scope of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms for the first time in nearly 70 years after deciding yesterday to hear arguments on whether D.C. residents can keep handguns in their homes. (READ MORE)
Senate Democrats Play Recess Hardball - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said he called yesterday's pro forma sessions because the Bush administration had informed him the president would be making recess appointments during the current congressional layoff. (READ MORE)
Skin Cells Alter Stem-Cell Debate - Scientists from Japan and the United States have changed human skin cells into cells that look and behave like embryonic stem cells, a development that could be a turning point in the contentious debate over human embryonic stem-cell research. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Mail anatomy - The flood of packages, cards and letters I have received recently really tell a lot about the hearts of the people who sent them. First of all, you love and support the troops. Tracy Post and the folks of SALUTE (Sending Appreciation & Love with Unending Thoughts of Esteem) in Doon, Iowa, loaded us up with lots of goodies ranging from Christmas decoration to clothes, toiletries and snacks, including homemade cookies. Widows Might Ministry of Liberty Baptist Church in Chelsea, Ala., sent us lots of nice goodies, including Christmas cards for the troops and a stocking filled just for me. I will wait until as close to Christmas as I can before opening my stocking. (READ MORE)
Northern Disclosure: Hearts get filled before our Bellies! - Holidays are those days that make us remember whats really important. Whoever came up with these days was a smart man but most likely a woman! It is important to designate days that we should create memories on for so many other days we forget all to easily. As a soldier that has missed the majority of my adult holidays when they come around they don't seem to mean what others might think. When another holiday passes and I have spent it with our guys its starts a personal sense of this is the way it should be. (READ MORE)
Michael Yon: Men of Valor: Part I of about VIII - “Bizarre” is an accurate word to describe how quickly a man can fly from, say, Orlando and land smack in the middle of a minefield. Not a metaphorical minefield, but a big, real minefield. The transition occurred in a matter of a few days: Goodbye Mickey Mouse, Hello Minefield. Hello Iran. The American name for the war is Operation Iraqi Freedom. OIF 1 comprised the initial invasion back in 2003. Subsequent rotations have led to OIF 2, 3, and so on until the OIF number has become nearly meaningless, and definitely confusing. The British name for OIF is “Operation Telic,” or “Op Telic.” The British designation is less confusing, but practically no British soldiers know what “Telic” means. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: The Opinion Writers' Show - Seems to me that newspaper columnists this week are already on vacation. I can't believe what these people are saying. They say we mustn't get too excited about recent developments in Iraq. Okay, we can all agree. Even Gen. Petraeus has been careful to say that al-Qaeda has not been defeated. But then the columnists do exactly what they caution against. They themselves get really excited about the surge -- but for different reasons. Take for example WaPo's Anne Applebaum, who has been really good on European issues. Perhaps she ought to stick with Europe and leave Iraq alone. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Jeff Robbins: The Perils of Engagement - In March 1999, a Democratic president of the United States was leading a military intervention in Kosovo. It was aimed at stopping the mass murder of a Muslim minority by Slobodan Milosevic, a bona fide war criminal. Our European allies ardently desired the U.S. to shoulder the burden of this effort--but wished to publicly distance themselves from it, in order to avoid the potential political fallout in their own countries that ineluctably follows an association with the U.S. (READ MORE)
Peter Wehner and Yuval Levin: Back to Normal? - Fifteen years ago, a deep pessimism seemed to be stalking the American landscape. It arose from diverse quarters, took different forms, and cited a congeries of different symptoms--military, economic, social, cultural and spiritual--in support of its dark diagnosis. For some, like the Yale historian Paul Kennedy, America's commitments abroad--dubbed by Mr. Kennedy a species of "imperial overstretch"--were a sure harbinger of impending national decline. (READ MORE)
Austin Bay: Manned and Unmanned in the Air - THE MIDDLE EAST -- At a sprawling desert airbase in the Middle East -- one not far from Iran and the geo-strategically critical Strait of Hormuz -- I saw the past and future in aerial reconnaissance cross-paths. This instructive moment, however, was symbolically inverted. In the Hollywood version, the future takes off and the past lands, rolling off into the sunset. Just the opposite occurred. The past, a black U-2 spy plane, took off and shot skyward with a characteristic steep climb, an altitude grabber. The future, a U.S. Air Force Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, landed and glided to a stop. (READ MORE)
Paul Greenberg: How Goes the War? - The news on the military front in Iraq continues to improve thanks to a new commander's new strategy, aka The Surge, and to the continued courage and competence of the troops entrusted with executing it. At last they seem to have a commander worthy of them. Every wartime president struggles to find his Grant. George W. Bush's may be named Petraeus. Kimberly Kagan of the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War ran the numbers the other day: (READ MORE)
John Stossel: The Tragedy of the Commons - Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. "Isn't sharing wonderful?" say the teachers. They miss the point. Because of sharing, the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn't happen. The failure of Soviet communism is only the latest demonstration that freedom and property rights, not sharing, are essential to prosperity. (READ MORE)
Walter E. Williams: The Greatest Generation - The "greatest generation" is a term sometimes used in reference to those Americans who were raised during the Great Depression, fought in World War II, worked in farms and factories and sacrificed for the war effort while maintaining the home front. Following the war, these Americans, many of whom were born between the turn of the century and 1930, went on to produce a level of wealth and prosperity heretofore unknown to mankind. There's no question that this generation made an important contribution. Let's look at what else that generation contributed that might qualify them for the generation that laid the foundation for the greatest betrayal of our nation's core founding principle: (READ MORE)
Paul Weyrich: A Guide to Federal Spending Out of Control - One of the reasons the Democrats won that resounding victory in the 2006 elections is that Republicans lost their way. In the 109th Congress there was profligate spending which would have made President Lyndon B. Johnson blush. Following the 2006 elections the Party leadership resolved that the GOP was going to get back on track. The leadership determined that spending was again going to be a major issue for the Republicans. Toward that end, Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) has produced a booklet to help GOP Members of Congress "in making the case for a smaller, less intrusive, more efficient and more effective federal government." (READ MORE)
Ben Shapiro: Pakistan vs. Lebanon: Bush Derangement Syndrome Strikes Again - There is a country in the Middle East where democracy could flourish. In that country, however, democracy has been crushed repeatedly by foreign-supported autocrats. Elections have been postponed in order to prevent the rise of truly liberal democrats; international observers have stood silently by as authoritarianism has run roughshod over civil libertarianism. That country is, of course, Lebanon. This week, Lebanon postponed its upcoming presidential election for the fourth time. It did so in order to enable Hizbollah, the terrorist group, to put forward a viable alternative to a candidate backed by Western-friendly Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.(READ MORE)
Kathleen Parker: On Bush Time - ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE -- George W. Bush has accepted that he won't live long enough to witness his legacy, though he still hopes to capture Osama bin Laden before leaving office in just over a year. These were among his thoughts during an in-flight interview on Monday following a Thanksgiving address in Virginia. Bush looked relaxed in a blue jacket, and frequently gazed out the window as he reflected on his years in office, the war and this season of gratitude. (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: Stop Before You Gripe - Before you blow your top about the holiday hassle at the airport, the long lines at the grocery store, all the hours you'll spend cooking and cleaning, the uninvited guests who are crashing hubby's football party, and the endless Christmas shopping list that awaits, just stop. Stop and think of the Johnson family. Army Spc. John Austin Johnson of El Paso, Texas, is recovering from massive head wounds sustained in an IED attack. Johnson is a member of Fort Bliss' 4-1 Cavalry. He had survived five previous bombing incidents. That is not all. (READ MORE)
Tony Blankley: Hillary's Faux Experience - Having spent much of my adult life in politics, it would be silly at this late date to be shocked by the discovery of insincerity and misleading statements coming from leading candidates for president. But if I have seen too much of the world to be shocked, at least I still can be appalled. And the gentle lady, the junior senator from the Empire State continues to appall. Consider the following Associated Press story from earlier this week: (READ MORE)
Maggie Gallagher: The United Nations is Always Right - Last week, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, issued a new warning on global warming that began with this sentence: "We all agree. Climate change is real, and we humans are its chief cause ... we are on the verge of a catastrophe if we do not act." Just a few days later the United Nations released a new report in which it confessed its previous estimate of AIDS cases worldwide was inflated by more than 6 million sick people. In India alone, the number of AIDS patients estimated by the United Nations dropped by more than half, from 6 million to 3 million. (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: The Obey-Murtha Funding Compromise - Two anti-war Democrats who hold congressional purse strings offered President Bush a deal on war funding today: give us a withdrawal date and we’ll give you the money. House Appropriations chairman Rep. David Obey (D.-Wisc.) and Rep. John Murtha (D.-Pa.), chairman of the Defense Subcommittee on Appropriations said they would agree to pass a funding bill if President Bush would commit the military to a no-torture policy and agree to a withdrawal all troops from Iraq by December 2008. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: Common-Sense Environmentalism - I've spent a bit of time lately discussing the hysteria surrounding the environmental movement lately, and it occurs to me that I might be painting with too broad a brush. The whackos do have a few points -- and I don't mean the ones atop their heads, the ones that pinch their brains and compress them into twisted, perverted, unnatural shapes -- and we all ought to do a few simple things to respect the environment. (READ MORE)
Kim Priestap: Breaking: SCOTUS to Hear DC Gun Case - Many have been waiting with great anticipation about whether the US Supreme Court would hear this case, the outcome of which has far reaching Second Amendment implications: "The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide whether the District of Columbia can ban handguns, a case that could produce the most in-depth examination of the constitutional right to "keep and bear arms" in nearly 70 years." (READ MORE)
Jim Addison: CNN's Dem debate debacle - Before last week's Democratic debate in Las Vegas on CNN, Hillary Clinton backers issued "warnings" to moderator Wolf Blitzer. Since a Clinton supporter in a conference call had suggested Tim Russert "should be shot" for pressing Hillary for an answer in the Philadelphia debate, such warnings would be heard. Some suspected Wolf would be forced into aggressive questioning of the former First Lady to assert his journalistic integrity, but others noted he had never had any journalistic integrity in the first place and expected him to roll over and sit like a good dog. (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: Despite Injuries, Soldier Chose To Remain In Iraq - Many people who aren’t in the military or familiar with it, often wonder why some of our Troops stay in the warzone, even when they have they opportunity to return home early. They don’t understand the special bond, the comrarderie that develops between the Troops, when your in a place where your life is constantly on the line. Many people don’t understand why thousands of our Troops, stand up and reenlist in the military, in the warzone. (READ MORE)
Ace of Spades: John Murtha: "War Can't Be Won Militarily;" American Troops' Enormous Progress Has Nothing To Do With Actual Victory - As they say in court: When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When the law is on your side, pound the law. When neither is on your side, pound the table. There is some truth that ultimate victory must be ratified and consolidated via political means. However, there is indeed political progress being made as well; grassroots reconciliation is doing much of what the elected officials will not. Furthermore, we've had serious political progress before -- like the free and open elections -- and Murtha didn't seem to care about such progress then, only the military situation. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Is This What Victory Looks Like? - The momentum has been shifting away from the terrorists in Iraq and towards peace ever since the US demonstrated its commitment to the mission with the surge. Over the last five months, violence has dropped precipitously and normality has begun to return, which even the New York Times noticed yesterday. Some skeptics still insist that the situation only improved because Iraqis left the country in droves. Guess who's coming back to town? (READ MORE)
Bill Whittle: Some of You May Remember Me - During my entire life I have never been able to explain my need to simply go wander the desert by myself at the most inopportune times. It is not something I am proud of. In fact, it is a deep character flaw. But it does seem to be part of the bedrock of the psyche that has produced these writings, and I am long past the point of arguing with that strange and destructive impulse. I hope you can forgive me, or at least understand that I do not understand it myself. One of the reasons why I update E3 so infrequently -- despite my best efforts -- is because I often have to think long and hard about things, and that is what I have been doing for these past months. Not only thinking about Ejectia! and other issues I'd like to deal with, but coming to grips with things on a deeper level, in terms of what the best use of my time and limited talents should be. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Iraq-is-lost parody - Glen Campbell fans may recognize this tune. The Agence France Presse startled me with this report, which began: “The gaudy orange, green and purple electronic palm trees flashing in the dark alert you that you’re getting close to one of Baghdad’s bustling nightspots. “The palms, like a mirage, can be seen from way down the darkened streets, lighting up the night and giving a promise of normality in the otherwise bleak and deserted capital, ravaged by four years of insurgency and sectarian strife. (READ MORE)
Dymphna: Through a Glass Darkly - We often make quick judgments, based on what we think we know, only to discover later that our brilliant insight may have been wrong. In fact, not only wrong, but unkind and — in the long run — harmful. Thus, the story in The Daily Mail. A story about someone we thought we knew, someone we made into an iconic symbol of all that we hate and fear since 9/11. He’s a poster boy for islamic terrorism, right? He hates, and it shows on his face. But what is behind that façade? I’ll bet that like me, you thought you knew his story, or at least it’s general outlines. (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston: (Video) Laura Ingraham pwns some Commie chick - Her name is Sunsara Taylor, and I’ve probably seen her at one or two of the protests we’ve covered. She’s cleaned up here on the Factor, but in the wild I’m sure she’s as hippie as the rest of them. She’s with World Can’t Wait! (because it has bladder control issues or something) and World Can’t Wait! (to get back into life with Depends) is a bona fide Communist outfit. They have been lead organizers, along with the ANSWER crowd, in organizing the anti-war protests all over the country. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Road from Damascus - Times of London on Iraqis voting with their feet here. AP story on Iraqi pols unclear on the concept here: “BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister lashed out at the country’s Sunni Arab vice president in an interview published Tuesday, drawing attention to a bitter rift between two key politicians from rival sects at a time the U.S. is pressing for Iraqi unity.” Difficult to read internal politics from halfway around the world, and unfortunately the political reporting on Iraq has been about as bad as the military reporting, and creates a vacuum in which it is hard to judge the depth and nature of problems and possible resolutions. Reports like this however suggest that the preferred Democratic strategy of abandoning Iraq in order to force them to get along is not a particularly viable path. (READ MORE)
Atlas: CAIR Lauds Dhimmi Ruling on Iman's Suit Againsy Airline - Another Clinton appointee asshat judge submits to CAIR. And don't even think of selling me on well she is hung up on constitutional rights. Because if that were the case, would she have denied a young boy his "rights" to wear a Green Bay Packers shirt to a Minnesota Vikings party? But she did. Hey, Monte - we are at war, tool! “CAIR ALERT: (WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/20/2007) The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) welcomed a ruling today by a federal judge in Minnesota that rejected almost all of the arguments made by U.S. Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission in the case of six imams, or Islamic religious leaders, removed from a flight last year in Minneapolis, then arrested and denied further service.” (READ MORE)
Augean Stables: “EU Inaction Breeds Contempt in a Dictatorship of Floggers” - The following article is from Kevin Myers at the Irish Independent. And it really does express a magnificent independence, a sense of moral outrage that one can be forgiven for thinking had all but disappeared from Europe, spent in the moral masturbation of attacking Israel and the US. Among the more interesting aspects of the case, which the author raises, but whose implications he does not explore, is the fact that the girl in question got 90 lashes for being raped, and an additional 110 lashes for speaking to the press about it. There we touch on honor-shame issues; and we also touch on the enormous leverage the West has — if it would only use it — on the Muslim world. (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Democrats Fail to Support the Troops - Too often the word is put out that the Democratic Party supports the troops and anyone who dares to question that is castigated by anyone associated with that group. People can't really be blamed for the perception that the Democrats do not support the troops because they have a strange way of showing their support. In the past year they have voted on over 40 pieces of legislation designed to hurt the mission and to lose the war. They opposed the troop surge and now that the evidence is clear that the surge is providing benefits they claim it is not and that a decorated general is a liar. They have trumpeted the cry that we have lost the war and they wave the white flag in front of our enemies. This is what passes as support and how dare anyone question that. The same holds true with funding the war. (READ MORE)
Dadmanly: Winning, to Won - The NY Times decided it’s time for front page acknowledgement that the situation in Iraq has clearly improved, dramatically, across the board and in almost all areas: “The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer and down sharply from a recent peak of 59 in March, the American military says.” Gone are the negatives in the lead, the contrarian framing of the story in editorially favored tones. Sure there’s a slight effort of “sure things are good now, but that may not last,” but the effort is pale and weak, and shrivels in contrast. (READ MORE)
GayPatriotWest: John McCain, Hillary, the Media and the “B” Word - Last week, while doing some cardio at the gym, I looked up at the TV monitor to see CNN’s Rick Sanchez anchor a seemingly lengthy segment about how Republican Presidential contender John McCain handled someone describing New York’s junior Senator and Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton as a “bitch.” Given the attention Sanchez was devoting to the topic, I assumed a McCain aide has so described the former First Lady. Only later would I learn this reporter was hyping the Arizona Senator’s failure to rebuke a woman who asked him “How do we beat the bitch?” I wonder if CNN has ever devoted as much time to a top Democrat’s failure to rebuke someone who asked a question using equally colorful language to describe the President of the United States. (READ MORE)
YankeeMom: Peace In America - Okay, I’ve had it with all the head in the sand nonsense going on in this country. While Congress quibbles and plays political games with our troops welfare and gives those who wish to see us destroyed ever more ammunition (instead of our military), there are many who are already in this country working to empower and aid the enemy. So I’ve decided to ramp up the info about these activities and those who are behind them. My information will be coming from ACT for America (Brigette Gabriel), The Religion of Peace and other sites that are keeping an eye on such things. We need to know what is going on right under our noses, on our soil, in our towns, as well as around the world. Because have no doubt, they are here: (READ MORE)
Jihad Watch: Shock horror! No evidence to support CAIR-backed Muslim schoolgirl's claim she was harrassed and threatened! - Now, everyone knows CAIR is a neutral civil rights organization that is scrupulous about telling the truth. Never mind that CAIR's spokesman Ibrahim Hooper has defamed me on national television, or that the organization's website even featured a link, for a time, to a tissue of lies about me and Jihad Watch penned by a mendacious and pathetic thrice-convicted felon. Never mind that CAIR's Ahmed Bedier, quoted in this story, has posted a vile hate message at this site, and has never bothered to answer my questions to him about the Islamic supremacist ideology. (READ MORE)
McQ: Blind Envy - You knew someone would attempt to make a big deal about it and you also knew it would be someone from the Nutroots. My money was on Oliver Willis, but instead it was one of the mouth-breathers at FireDoggerelLake, home of the black-face Joe Lieberman. Apparently our acceptance from the American Petroleum Institute of coach tickets in the horror that is modern airline travel and hurried dinners at 11pm EST (the result of a very ambitious itinerary)was enough for this whack-job to question my and Ed Morrissey’s integrity without knowing either of us. Never mind that each of us openly disclosed that information (at the insistence of API although I’m sure I speak for Ed when I say we’d have done it anyway). (READ MORE)
Protein Wisdom: No right to self-defense - Well, at least if you’re melanin challenged. “LAKEPORT, Calif. - Three young black men break into a white man’s home in rural Northern California. The homeowner shoots two of them to death — but it’s the surviving black man who is charged with murder. In a case that has brought cries of racism from civil rights groups, Renato Hughes Jr., 22, was charged by prosecutors in this overwhelmingly white county under a rarely invoked legal doctrine that could make him responsible for the bloodshed.” (READ MORE)
TigerHawk: The New York Times and the civil right it does not like - The editors of the New York Times are, unusually for them, calling upon the Supreme Court to construe one of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution to give individuals no rights against the government. Hint: It is not the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, or Eighth amendments. You do the rest of the thinking. The most appalling thing about the editorial is its final sentence: “A decision that upends needed gun controls currently in place around the country would imperil the lives of Americans.” (READ MORE)
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