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)
Trent Lott to Resign From Senate - Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, plans to resign his seat before the end of the year, congressional and White House officials said today. Lott, 66, scheduled two news conferences in his home state later in the day to reveal his plans. According to congressional and White House officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement, Lott intends to resign effective the end of the year. (READ MORE)
Study Calls HIV in D.C. A 'Modern Epidemic' - The first statistics ever amassed on HIV in the District, released today in a sweeping report, reveal "a modern epidemic" remarkable for its size, complexity and reach into all parts of the city. (READ MORE)
The Press's Post-Iowa Tailwinds: As Nature Intended It? - On the morning of Jan. 4, 2008, the winners of the Iowa caucuses -- one Democrat, one Republican -- will blast into the stratosphere as if they were strapped to a booster rocket. (READ MORE)
Iraqis Detail Shooting by Guard Firm - Guards employed by Unity Resources Group, a security company responsible for the shooting deaths of two Iraqi women here Oct. 9, had shot and seriously wounded a man driving a van 3 1/2 months earlier on the same Baghdad thoroughfare, according to four witnesses. (READ MORE)
The FCC Plays 'Monopoly' - With all due respect to Kevin Martin, we're beginning to wonder if the head of the Federal Communications Commission knows the first thing about the cable industry he regulates. At a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, Chairman Martin plans to push a slew of new regulations on cable operators. (READ MORE)
On the Jewish Question - Herewith some thoughts about tomorrow's Annapolis peace conference, and the larger problem of how to approach the Israel-Palestine conflict. The first question (one might think it is obvious but apparently not) is, "What is the conflict about?" There are basically two possibilities: that it is about the size of Israel, or about its existence. (READ MORE)
A Challenger Welcomed - Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned home to a tumultuous welcome last night, ending seven years of exile in Saudi Arabia in hopes of reinvigorating his political party and challenging President Pervez Musharraf for national power. (READ MORE)
Islamists Target Arizona Base - Fort Huachuca, the nation's largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility. (READ MORE)
D.C., Annapolis Brace for Summit Security - D.C. police say they will use rolling street closures today to protect and help move diplomats attending the first day of the Middle East peace talks. (READ MORE)
Out of Office, Blair Opens Up on Role of Faith - Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that religious faith was "hugely important" to his decision-making — including the decision to go to war in Iraq — but that he was unable to talk about it while in office because people in Britain regard religion with deep suspicion. (READ MORE)
Hillary Takes Aim at Obama on Health Care - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton often tells voters she is proud of the Democratic field of presidential candidates, saying it's so nice that "you don't have to be against anybody." (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Bill and Bob's Excellent Adventure: Patriot - I met a patriot today. I met a man who is not in the military of any country, but he is most certainly a patriot. He is a manager for the company that manages our terps, or interpreters. He is an Afghan-American. He lived in the United States Since the early 80's. Shortly after he arrived in the United States he became an activist for his native country, first as an opponent of the communists, and then as an opponent of the Taliban. He worked to raise awareness among the decision-makers of the events in Afghanistan and the threats to the security of not only his native land but to the rest of the world as well. (READ MORE)
Eighty Deuce On The Loose In Iraq: A time to give thanks... - This Thanksgiving has a little extra meaning this year. It is a time when we give thanks for the things we have, and to remeber that some of the most important things we have are those that we have always had or will always have; our friends and family. But this year, I have a little something more to be thankful for. To take a few steps back, I'll go back and talk about the last couple patrols I went on. These were the first couple of patrols I had done since being back in Iraq. The first one, there was nothing really special about it. I was a dismount team leader and we did the usual amount of walking around, but I discovered that my body was going to take a little bit to get used to working 20+ hours at a time again. (READ MORE)
ETT PA-C: Arrival - I have made it "home" so to speak. After about 3 days, 3 countries, 3 planes, 1 cold shower and 9 hours of sleep I've arrived. It was a bitter sweet arrival to Kandahar, feeling the pain of leaving my beautiful family behind yet feeling the joy of seeing my comrades here again AND dare I mention the fact that I'm in the down hill slide of the tour now. There's joy in just that alone. On the trip back Goddard got "stuck" in Qatar for a day and couldn't believe that was a base supporting a war. (READ MORE)
Far From Perfect: In Transition - If you haven’t guessed by now, updates may be few and far between for the next month or so. Why? Because I am getting ready to leave this God Forsaken country, and access to the internet is getting scarce. So please bear with me and I’ll update everyone as often as I can. (READ MORE)
Fightin' 6th Marines: Marine awarded Silver Star for heroism - Staff Sgt. Charles M. Evers, a platoon sergeant with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, was awarded the Silver Star Medal during an evening ceremony here, Nov. 23, by Gen. James T. Conway, the 34th commandant of the Marine Corps. Evers, a native of Lewiston, Idaho, was presented the award for his actions against insurgents during Operation Iraqi Freedom while serving as platoon commander with third platoon, Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, I Marine Expeditionary Force Forward during June, 2006. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Snubbing the Annapolis Meeting - As the Middle East talks begin in Annapolis, some absences might be the subject of fun speculation. We all know why Iran isn't present, and there could be all sorts of reasons for Iraq's decision to stay away. Surely Iraqi politicians should be busy working towards solving their own problems. But there might be a more sinister reason for Iraq's choice to stay home. "Iraq has received an invitation to attend the meeting in the United States but will not take part in it for several reasons," Labid Abawi, the Undersecretary for Political Affairs in the Iraqi foreign ministry, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq by telephone on Monday. (READ MORE)
Matt Sanchez: Ride along with U.S. military quick reaction force saving lives in Iraq - Embedding with the quick reaction force – QRF – was like drawing straws and hoping something would happen on the long 24-hour shifts. I was with the "C" Company 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment from Fort Campbell, Ky., a medical evacuation team stationed at Balad, Iraq, north of Baghdad. Its motto: "Bene Volare Vitam Salvare," "To fly well is to save lives." Paul Rauscher, a chief warrant officer and pilot originally from Lake of Ozarks, Minn., was on his third trip to Iraq, where he piloted a UH-60 Sikorsky, a type of flying ambulance with 6 litters for the wounded. (READ MORE)
Michael J. Totten: Happy Thanksgiving Weekend - I would have written "Happy Thanksgiving" to all my American readers, but I have been embedded in joint Marine-Iraqi security stations in Fallujah very far from Internet access. So my holiday greeting is late. The Marines are keeping me busy. I have tons of material, and little time to write yet. But I should, theoretically, have a proper full-length article for you on Monday (he says as he crosses fingers.) Thank you for being patient. (READ MORE)
Ranger Sid: Thanksgiving? - Its been quite a while since my last post....I've really had a tough time coming up with positive things to say....It seems as this deployment drags on, my patience and tolerance of others is rapidly decreasing...and i found myself on Thanksgiving... thinking.... what the hell do I have to be thankful for??? Of course then it dawned on me....Almost like a slap in the face.....that i DO have plenty of things to be thankful for..... (READ MORE)
This War and Me: In my solitude - Tonight is cool and the air is crisp. I sit in my solitude and work on my Psychology paper that is due in a couple days. I must do it tonight as I will be on a mission and unable to turn it in on time if I don't finish it tonight. Always the procrastinator, I have waited until the last possible moment to do it. I lean back and look up at the stars as I sit on the steps of my porch. My air conditioner fan is clanking along beside my head so I turn it off and enjoy a bit of silence. It is nice, relaxing and reminds me of home; sitting on my front porch, snuggled between the Ozark Mountains. (READ MORE)
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: What a day! - It had the makings as one of my worst days in Afghanistan (not counting the times our troops were involved in IED strikes). I woke up early Sunday morning to watch my beloved Crimson Tide lose its sixth straight game to hated rival Auburn. We were preparing to leave Kabul and I was the convoy commander. I missed my departure time because vehicles and soldiers were not prepared at the prescribed time. Then, our five-ton truck broke down and had to be recovered back to Camp Phoenix where we ended up spending another night waiting for it to be repaired. What else could go wrong? (READ MORE)
Michael Yon: Men of Valor Part II - To interpret events in al Basra, context is critical. When we invited the British to join us in this war in 2003, the U.S., with the bulk of troops and assets, was the senior partner. In essence, we were the driver of a bus filled with several dozen partners: Poland, Australia, Japan, Georgia, Korea, Albania and so on. Although several key countries had opted to stay home, no nation stepped up to the task like Great Britain, taking responsibility for southern Iraq. But they could not have not planned for the seemingly precipitous and arbitrary decisions made by the mostly American bus drivers in Washington and Baghdad, who took many turns without consulting an accurate map. Egos and strained competencies only magnified and compounded errors. Nobody paid more for these mistakes than Iraqis and Americans, but the Brits and others have also paid tolls for their seats. (READ MORE)
Battlefield Tourist: COP Corregidor and al-Hawsa - Southwest of Baghdad is an area called al-Hawsa, a Sunni region in the area of Iraq known as South Baghdad. It’s an area that is part of Iraq’s notorious “Triangle of Death”. It’s also the area that, up through October, was assigned to “B” Troop, 1-89 Cavalry, part of the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd BCT. The unit established COP Corregidor as part of the US military’s new strategy to put smaller units among the population in an effort to stimulate cooperation. From this strategy shift, the “Concerned Citizens” movement began to take root across the area, following the successful template being used in Anbar Province. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Paul Greenberg: Peace Through Confusion - Let us begin with this one fact, for it may be the only thing that is clear in all the diplomatic fog that has settled over this Chinese puzzle: Joseph Wu is an envoy. I know that much. He walks, he talks, he looks like a diplomat. It takes me a good half-hour of asking dumb questions for him to show even the slightest trace of exasperation. Yes, he's definitely a diplomat. He speaks at least a couple of languages. (I can vouch for the quality of his English, though not his Chinese.) (READ MORE)
Donald Lambro: Dems in Denial Over Iraq Recovery - WASHINGTON -- The significant decline of violence in Iraq is well documented: fewer insurgent attacks, far less roadside bombs, fewer U.S. casualties and little or no sectarian warfare. Last week, a series of reports by U.S. military officials in Iraq revealed the dramatic changes that have taken place there. A 55-percent drop in attacks since the surge offensive began nine months ago. Overall violence in key areas of Iraq has dropped to its lowest levels since the summer of 2005. Iraqi civilian casualties have also fallen, a staggering 60-percent drop since June, down 75 percent in Baghdad alone. (READ MORE)
Michael Barone: A Wide Range of Possibilities in the Race for President - Six weeks out from the Iowa caucuses, the presidential race looks more uncertain than ever. Only last week did the schedule of contests become certain: The day before Thanksgiving, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner set the state's primary on Jan. 8, and the day before that, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Michigan primary can proceed on Jan. 15. Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani continue to lead the competitions in national polls and in the large states, but on the Democratic side, there is a virtual three-way tie in Iowa, and on the Republican side, Mitt Romney leads in Iowa and New Hampshire. As for the general election, national polls show Democrats generally doing better than Republicans, but recent Rasmussen and Mason-Dixon polls show Hillary Clinton trailing in what was, in 2000 and 2004, the key state of Florida. (READ MORE)
Ken Blackwell: Gun Rights and Presidential Politics - The debate over individual gun rights just has become a front line issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. The United States Supreme Court decision to hear arguments on District of Columbia v. Heller, the D.C. gun ban case, guarantees it. In the District of Columbia, it is a crime to have a handgun. It also is a crime to have shotguns or rifles unless they are unloaded and disabled. Ordinary people cannot have a gun, even in their own homes. (READ MORE)
Doug Wilson: A Victory For Freedom - Democracy scored a huge victory earlier this month, one that the media has largely overlooked. Yahoo Inc., the Internet company made famous by their search engine, settled out of court with two Chinese journalists who sued the company under U.S. human rights laws for providing the Chinese government with identifying information about their Internet use. One of the journalists, Wang Xiaoning, is an editor of several publications that advocate for democracy in China and was arrested in 2002 after police raided his home. Charged with government subversion, Xiaoning was sentenced to jail. Advocacy groups that received word of the arrest thought it bizarre that Xiaoning was found so quickly by the Chinese police, though he had anonymously sent his pro-democracy writings. According to the lawsuit, Yahoo gave Xiaoning’s e-mail records to local authorities. (READ MORE)
John Fund: The Wolverine Primary - What if we look back on the 2008 presidential nomination contests and conclude one or both were effectively decided by a single vote--and among a group of judges at that? Democratic partisans still argue that the 2000 presidential contest was decided by a single vote in the U.S. Supreme Court, even though media recounts of Florida ballots showed that the outcome would not have been changed if Bush v. Gore had gone the other way. But there's no doubt that a 4-3 ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court last Wednesday saved that state's Jan. 15 presidential primary, which was in danger of being scrapped over a dispute about whether it adhered to the state constitution. The winners are likely to be Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton. (READ MORE)
Shelby Steele: Obama Is Right on Iran - After a recent Democratic presidential debate, Barack Obama proclaimed that were he to become president, he would talk directly even to America's worst enemies. One could imagine President Obama as a kind of superhero taking off in Air Force One for Tehran, there to be greeted on the tarmac by the villainous Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Was this a serious foreign policy proposal or simply a campaign counterpunch? Hillary Clinton had already held up this idea as evidence of Mr. Obama's naiveté. Wasn't he just pushing back, displaying his commitment to "diplomacy"--now the most glamorous word in the Democratic "antiwar" lexicon? (READ MORE)
Soccerdad: Sieg-speak: war is peace - Henry Siegman is my hero. Really. With academic credential no greater than mine (a bachelor’s degree from the New School vs a B.A. in Math from Yeshiva University ) Siegman has had the title of “expert” appended to his name. He writes for the New York Times, the New York Review of Books and served on the council of foreign relations. He also is better connected than I am. I doubt that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia would deign to I don’t know that he writes a whole lot better than I do, though he is certainly longer winded. Me, I’m just a blogger. Still when Siegman writes, people apparently read, so I guess that’s why he continues to write no matter how wrong he’s been in the past. In a recently published piece in the NY Review of Books dramatically titled, Annapolis: The Cost of Failure, Siegman lays out many of his ideas about what’s wrong with the Middle East. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: Some Free Advice For Congress - With Congressional approval at incredibly dismal levels (I believe polls place them around the level of used-car salesmen, serial killers, and lawyers, and they're heading towards pedophiles and telemarketers), I find myself wanting to offer them some advice. The advice I have to offer is simple: DO SOMETHING. This is awkward, as my libertarian streak strongly believes that "that government is best which governs least," as Thomas Paine put it, but "least" means that they have some things they need to do, and they're failing miserably at that. (READ MORE)
DJ Drummond: The Problem With Reason - The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case out of Washington D.C., where a long-standing law prohibiting honest citizens from owning and keeping handguns for their self-defense and the defense of their families is being challenged as a violation of 2nd Amendment rights. It would seem, at first, to be a clear division of positions - one either contends that the 2nd Amendment was written regarding individuals, or it was not. But, a longer inspection makes things a bit sticker. For Liberals, the fact that the Bill Of Rights was clearly written to protect the people from a repressive government makes it hard to claim that they should be denied the right to protect themselves from criminals. (READ MORE)
Ron Winter: God and Conservative Values Alive and Doing Well in "Blue" America - Most of the nation's attention has been focused on the Thanksgiving weekend travel and the upcoming Christmas - excuse me, generic holiday - shopping season that officially kicks off today. But Monday and Tuesday evenings, in Enfield, Connecticut, newly elected Republican Council and Board of Education members were sworn in and took their seats to start two years of what can be and should be new directions for the community. Throughout the summer and fall the GOP spread the message that the emphasis will be on transparency, accountability and inclusion for the community. Monday night there were statements of cooperation and bipartisanship from the new GOP council majority, while the Democrats looked quite uncomfortable in their new status as minority party. (READ MORE)
David Bernstein: Florida Supreme Court Welcomes Junk Science - In Marsh v. Valyou, the Florida Supreme Court (1)reiterated that Florida follows the Frye general acceptance test; (2) held that Frye doesn't apply to a medical expert's "opinion" testimony regarding causation; (3) held that even if Frye did apply, it should be applied only to the issue of whether the technique of "differential diagnosis" is generally accepted in the medical community, regardless of whether the technique was used in a generally accepted way. [It was not, as the dissent explains in some detail. In fact, it wasn't really a differential diagnosis at all, but a differential etiology, and this cannot properly be used to "rule in" a cause that has not been otherwise established by other evidence.]; and (4) implicitly rejected the notion that Florida Rule of Evidence 702, modeled on the federal rule that led to the Daubert Supreme Court opinion, provides a "backup" reliability test for causation testimony. (READ MORE)
David Kopel: D.C.'s Handgun Ban and the Constitutional Right to Arms: One Hard Question? - Prof. Nelson Lund, of George Mason, is one of the leading conservative legal scholars writing in support of a meaningful Second Amendment. Unlike, for example, most of the VC writers, Lund's legal philosophy has hardly any libertarian influence. (For example, Lund argues that Pierce v. Society of Sisters was wrongly decided, as are all its progeny, the "substantive due process" cases.) Lund's latest article on the Second Amendment, will appear soon in a symposium issue of George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal. Here's part of the abstract of the thought-provoking article, which addresses an argument that, as the cert. petitions have already shown, will be a key part of the Fenty administration's attempt to preserve the D.C. handgun ban: (READ MORE)
Nick Grace: Al-Furqan Releases New Iraq Video - Al-Furqan, the official media wing of al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), posted a new video on Saturday - its first since September - called “Implementing Allah’s Rule On Nine Elements Of Interior Commandos.” The video lasts 3 minutes and 14 seconds and shows the gruesome assassination of nine Iraqi men by masked mujahideen with a bullet to the back of the head. It is included in the group’s ongoing series of video releases called “Roman and Apostate Hell in al-Rafedain Land.” The murders appear to be recent. Although the video and accompanying Web posting do not state when the men were killed, the New York Times reported the discovery of four dead bodies in Salahuddin, including three floating in the Tigris River, on November 20. (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: Shame in Britain: Disabled veterans jeered at swimming pool - The London Telegraph has a Sunday morning blood-boiler. Britain has a potent strain of moonbat virus going around. What would Churchill do? “Injured soldiers who lost their limbs fighting for their country have been driven from a swimming pool training session by jeering members of the public. The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers ‘hadn’t paid’ and might scare the children.” (READ MORE)
Tel-Chai Nation: Annapolis disaster: mugs for smashing, not drinking - A day before the Annapolis surrender summit, al-Reuters reports that an Arab shopkeeper is selling mugs that he invites customers to smash if things don't go their way (via Michelle Malkin): “In a symbol of fragile hopes for this week’s Middle East peace conference at Annapolis, one Palestinian shopkeeper is selling souvenir mugs for the event - complete with instructions to smash them if talks break down. Under a dove and olive branch motif, the mugs carry the message in English: ‘Please keep this souvenir, but in case of the conference’s failure; you are only asked to break the mug.’” (READ MORE)
Stop the ACLU: US Media Distorts Falling Dollar Story - What is it with the MSM and their fetish with worrying so much about everyone but Americans? For the L.A.Times, for instance, even the weakness of our dollar is cause for worrying over how bad it is for… wait for it… foreign companies. While our dollar weakens and could perhaps bring us major economic trouble, the L.A.Times shows serious concern and laments that the soft currency crisis is hurting European companies who are finding their prices rising because of our falling dollar. The Times is all upset that foreigners are losing profits, but there isn’t a word in its story about what it might do to Americans, befitting its general disinterest in America and perfectly reflecting its heightened concern for foreigners. (READ MORE)
Mark Steyn: What America Has, and Europe Doesn't - Giving thanks - Speaking as a misfit unassimilated foreigner, I think of Thanksgiving as the most American of holidays. Christmas is celebrated elsewhere, even if there are significant local variations: in Continental Europe, naughty children get left rods to be flayed with and lumps of coal; in Britain, Christmas lasts from December 22nd to mid-January and celebrates the ancient cultural traditions of massive alcohol intake and watching the telly till you pass out in a pool of your own vomit. All part of the rich diversity of our world. But Thanksgiving (excepting the premature and somewhat undernourished Canadian version) is unique to America. "What's it about?" an Irish visitor asked me a couple of years back. "Everyone sits around giving thanks all day? Thanks for what? George bloody Bush?" (READ MORE)
Melanie Phillips: The question of a freed slave - Simon Deng, a former jihad slave and now a human rights activist, has written a remarkable protest to Bishop Desmond Tutu over the bishop’s rabid prejudice against Israel which he accuses of ‘apartheid’. The State of Israel is not an apartheid state. I know because I write this from Jerusalem where I have seen Arab mothers peacefully strolling with their families – even though I also drove on Israeli roads protected by walls and fences from Arab bullets and stones. I know Arabs go to Israeli schools, and get the best medical care in the world. I know they vote and have elected representatives to the Israeli Parliament. I see street signs in Arabic, an official language here. None of this was true for blacks under Apartheid in Tutu’s South Africa. (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: A Liberal Narcissist's Thanksgiving Primer - It is rare to see liberal narcissism so clearly delineated as in the marvelously misguided and myopic cri du couer from Robert Jensen, Journalism Professor at University of Texas at Austin. He starts by setting the stage: “Fowl Play - Ethnic Cleansing. Crimes Against Humanity. Turkey and Stuffing? After years of being constantly annoyed and often angry about the historical denial built into Thanksgiving Day, I published an essay in November 2005 suggesting we replace the feasting with fasting and create a National Day of Atonement to acknowledge the genocide of indigenous people that is central to the creation of the United States. I expected criticism from right-wing and centrist people, given their common commitment to this country's distorted self-image that supports the triumphalist/supremacist notions about the United States so common in conventional politics, and I got plenty of such critique. But I was surprised by the resistance from liberals -- even some on the left, including a considerable number of my friends.” (READ MORE)
The Shield of Achilles: The "New Holocaust" in Iraq: Alternet's alternate reality - Whenever I stray too far from what should be the main topic of this blog (The War on Terror), there's always something that gives me a sanity check, reminds me why I started this blog in the first place, and knocks me back on track. This time it was a nonsensical article at Alternet, which compares the occupation of Iraq to the "Holocaust" and parrots the long debunked claim that "over a million" Iraqis have died since the start of the Iraq war. It hit the front page of Digg, and has thousands of people in a frenzy of self-flagellation, condemning the US and asking: "Why? why? why are Americans worse than the Nazis??" I'm not exaggerating either. Here's an eloquent sample: (READ MORE)
McQ: Energy Policy: Unconventional Energy Resources - We hear (and have heard) political promises to make the US "energy independent" by x number of years coming from all the current presidential candidates. And they’re also concerned with breaking the hold of foreign oil dependence. Two worthy goals - if they allow what we have already available to be exploited. And what we have available is massive: “In a massive new multivolume report on energy strategy in the United States, a high-powered federal task force puts ‘peak oil’ into perspective. On the one hand, it says, the country has already consumed, in 150 years, 446 billion barrels of its own fossil-fuel endowment. On the other hand, it says, the country has 8.59 trillion barrels left - or more ‘oil equivalent’ than the rest of the world combined. More than 95 per cent of America’s oil reserves, in other words, are still in the ground.” (READ MORE)
Scott Johnson: Overcoming History - During the summer of 1971 Hillary Clinton interned at a well-known Oakland "Communist law firm." Today's New York Sun publishes two articles by Josh Gerstein exploring Ms. Hillary's activities that summer. Mr. Bill and Ms. Hillary acknowledge that they lived together in Berkeley during the summer of 1971. The Sun calls it "The Clinton's Berkeley summer of love." Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham lived together in Berkeley while Ms. Clinton worked at the radical firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein. Gerstein has examined archival material and interviewed law firm principals and others to ascertain what she did professionally that summer. What cases did she work on at the firm? In "Hillary Clinton's radical summer," Gerstein hunts an elusive quarry that is rendered even more elusive Ms. Hillary's highly selective approach to her own history: (READ MORE)
John Hinderaker: "I Believe!" - So says Dan Rather, in this Hollywood Reporter interview. I have generally found Rather an endearing character, to the extent I've paid attention. It's hard not to sympathize with his desire to keep working as long as someone is willing to pay him, or with his claim to be an "independent" commentator on the news. There are two problems with Rather's world-view. The first is that, while he may or may not be an independent, he is most surely a liberal, and his liberal political philosophy has informed his work throughout his career. The second is that, as to the 60 Minutes / National Guard story that brought his career to a crashing halt, he is in outer space: (READ MORE)
Political Vindication: Honor killings - What does it tell us about a culture? - When Americans who support the battle against extremist Islam wonder aloud at how the left in this country can sit idly by as freedoms are denied and equality is mocked, we are often told one of two things; that America is the cause of the extremism or that living in a multicultural world means allowing people to have their own definitions of freedom or equality. We can agree to disagree, but what is evident is that one side unabashedly brings to light the depravity of the medieval mindset that drives the terrorist, the other side forsakes its duty to defend the weak for the political hatred that drives the partisan. (READ MORE)
Neptunus Lex: The fall of Camelot - Forty-four years ago last week, Sarajevo came to Dallas and the boy king of Camelot stood in the footsteps of Archduke Ferdinand. Rather than igniting a world-wide conflagration, when Lee Harvey Oswald fired those three shots from the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolhouse Depository he ignited what was to become the American culture war - a war whose volleys echo to this day. Partisans of the handsome young president and his glamorous bride saw in him the manifestation of all their aspirations and prayers. His murder on the streets of Dallas sent them searching for an enemy to blame. They found it in Oliver Stone-style conspiratorial visions of an America divided by race and class, gender and age. They found in it a reason to hate themselves - or at least, to hate those among them who did not share their vision of the America-that-ought-to-be. (READ MORE)
The Monkey Tennis Centre: UK's Iraqi employees are pleading for help - Blogger Dan Hardie is coordinating efforts to put pressure on the British government to help Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they've worked for UK forces in the south of the country. The government continues to drag its feet on the matter, and the plight of many Iraqis who have worked as interpreters and in other capacities. You can read more here. I had the following email from Dan this morning, which he's asked me to post here: I've had emails from three people who claim to be - and who almost certainly are - Iraqi former employees of the British Government. All three say that they and their former colleagues are still at risk of death for their 'collaboration'. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Iranian Special Groups linked to Baghdad pet market bombing - The Friday, November 24 bombing of al Ghazi pet market in Baghdad was the largest attack in the capital in months. At least 15 Iraqis were killed and 56 wounded in the blast. US and Iraqi security forces now believe the attack was conducted by the Iranian-backed Special Groups and was designed to simulate an al Qaeda in Iraq attack in order to increase Shia dependency on militias. The "ball-bearing laden bomb" was hidden inside a birdcage smuggled inside the pet market by members of the Special Groups, the US learned after capturing four members of the terror group. "Based on subsequent confessions, forensics and other intelligence, the bombing was the work of an Iranian-backed special group cell operating here in Baghdad," said Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, the Deputy Spokesman for Multinational Corps Iraq in a press briefing on November 25. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Peace in Someone Else’s Time - What Annapolis is about, IMHO, at Pajamas. It’s a Kumbaya thing, it’s a divide-and-conquer thing. It’s about making new friends and isolating old enemies. It’s a build, which might make it one of the more practical Mideast peace moves since Egypt and Jordan figured out which side of the pita had the humus on it. Someday, it might amount to something. Meanwhile, related but different at WSJ, interesting read from Hoover Institute’s Shelby Steele, “Obama is right on Iran.” He posits direct talks with A’jad as a seizing of the moral high ground after which war remains an option. (READ MORE)
Flopping Aces: The New Meme From The Left On Iraq - Laura at Ace of Spades HQ posted a snippet of a new editorial from the WaPo that is most probably gonna be the new meme from the left. Sure, Iraq is working, but we still paid too high a price to make it work: “Though I don't especially want to perpetuate any stereotypes about the mainstream media, I have to say that this optimism is totally unwarranted. Not because things aren't improving in Iraq -- it seems they are, at least for the moment -- but because the collateral damage inflicted by the war on America's relationships with the rest of the world is a lot deeper and broader than most Americans have realized. It isn't just that the Iraq war invigorated the anti-Americanism that has always been latent pretty much everywhere. What's worse is the fact that -- however it all comes out in the end, however successful Iraqi democracy is a decade from now -- our conduct of the war has disillusioned our natural friends and supporters and thrown a lasting shadow over our military and political competence. However it all comes out, the price we've paid is too high.” Now who couldn't see this coming? (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Bad Economy? Not So Far, Although Good Luck Reading About It - As a presidential election draws near, the opposition party inevitably begins talking about how poor the economy has begun. This election has seen an early start to this kind of talk, recalling the 2004 rhetoric about how the rebounding US economy then resembled the Great Depression -- laughable in retrospect and educational in review. It appears that Christmas shoppers have both laughed and learned this weekend as well: “The nation's retailers had a robust start to the holiday shopping season, according to results announced Saturday by a national research group that tracks sales at retail outlets across the country. According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, total sales rose 8.3 percent to about $10.3 billion on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, compared with $9.5 billion on the same day a year ago. ShopperTrak had expected an increase of no more than 4 percent to 5 percent.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Lead America, Republicans - We need our Tony Blair, our Nicolas Sarkozy. While Democrats select a presidential candidate, Republicans seek a president. There are a bunch of Jimmy Carters on the other side who are willing to apologize for America’s greatness. Forget about finding the next Reagan. America can settle for another Tony Blair or Nicolas Sarkozy. Wouldn’t it be delightful to hear Mitt Romney say: “Sept. 11 was not an isolated event, but a tragic prologue, Iraq another act, and many further struggles will be set upon this stage before it’s over. There never has been a time when the power of America was so necessary …” (READ MORE)
The Captain's Journal: The Special Forces Plan for Pakistan: Mistaking the Anbar Narrative - While the campaign in Iraq continues and the Afghanistan campaign continues to suffer from a lack of adequate force projection, Pakistan remains fertile soil for making jihadists. Concerning the going-forward U.S. strategy for addressing the problem, the New York Times is the recipient of leaked preliminary strategy plans for counterinsurgency in Pakistan. “A new and classified American military proposal outlines an intensified effort to enlist tribal leaders in the frontier areas of Pakistan in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as part of a broader effort to bolster Pakistani forces against an expanding militancy, American military officials said. If adopted, the proposal would join elements of a shift in strategy that would also be likely to expand the presence of American military trainers in Pakistan, directly finance a separate tribal paramilitary force that until now has proved largely ineffective and pay militias that agreed to fight Al Qaeda and foreign extremists, officials said.” (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Reducted - Not a movie review; I haven't seen the movie. But of course, neither has anybody else. That's the point. According to Box Office Mojo, Brian De Palma's new anti-war, anti-American, anti-soldier tour de farce Redacted, winner of the Best Director award at the Venice Film Festival -- which tells the stirring and subtle story of how American soldiers raped, murdered, and burned a fourteen year old Iraqi girl, and then raped, murdered, and burned her entire family to silence them, and then raped, murdered, and burned the military investigators, then the news reporters who tried to report on it, then families of random American soldiers, then Mr. Whipple, then all the animals at the petting zoo -- has enjoyed a resounding lifetime box office gross of $25,628 dollars. But wait, that's not entirely fair; that's just the domestic gross. We really should include the international take, too... that would be $71,968 (all from Spain, where the movie opened), for a whopping grand total of $97,596. (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Democrats Cannot Embrace Victory - The problem with the Democrats, besides their weakness on national security, is that they want to win so badly they will say of do anything to get elected. This includes slandering our troops and changing their points of view in order to refocus the attention of the electorate. For the longest time the Democrats claimed that George Bush was not listening to his commanders on the ground (though commanders say he was) but when commanders asked for more troops and Bush listened (the surge) the Democrats criticized the President for actually listening to his commanders. They said the surge would not work and that we are in the middle of a civil war. (READ MORE)
Augean Stables: Rioting in Paris Suburbs - In an interview with a French journalist last week I made the point that the French police live in constant fear of a French “al Durah” — with a “youth” killed by the police, even as a mistake, they can end up not just with rioting, but with suicide bombing. That’s why when the rioting happens, the police are extremely reluctant to suppress the violence. The first part of that prediction just came true in Paris where two boys died when their moped smashed into a police car and it led to immediate rioting. Note that the police are nowhere to be seen. (READ MORE)
Ace of Spades: Anyone Could See This Coming - A while back in some comments I predicted how lefties/ MSM would have to respond to a good outcome in Iraq. After years of investing their reputations in defeat, success must not be allowed to stand untarnished. Even if Iraq became a stable democracy- if we created a strategic beachhead of sanity in the Middle East, they will have to maintain that it wasn't worth our investment of blood and fortune. It is the last way they can still claim we lost. This outcome hasn't even been determined yet, but the distressingly good news from Iraq has already provoked that response. (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: Making ends meet - Politicians the world over like to kiss babies. That's the trouble. “Meanwhile, horrifying new details emerged last night of the attempt by suicide bombers to kill Ms Bhutto on her return home from exile last month. Investigators from Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said yesterday they believed the bomb, which killed 170 people and left hundreds more wounded, was strapped to a one-year-old child carried by its jihadist father. They said the suicide bomber tried repeatedly to carry the baby to Ms Bhutto's vehicle as she drove in a late-night cavalcade through the streets of Karachi. ‘At the point where the bombs exploded, Benazir Bhutto herself saw the man with the child and asked him to come closer so that she could hug or kiss the infant,’ investigators were reported as saying.” (READ MORE)
Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.
No comments:
Post a Comment