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)
Hot Air in Bali - This week in Bali, Indonesia, delegates are considering climate policy after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. We will witness a well-known human response to failure. Delegates will insist on doing more of what is not working: in this case more stringent emissions-reduction targets, and timetables involving more countries. A bigger and "better" Kyoto will be a bigger and worse failure. (READ MORE)
Iran Curveball - President Bush has been scrambling to rescue his Iran policy after this week's intelligence switcheroo, but the fact that the White House has had to spin so furiously is a sign of how badly it has bungled this episode. In sum, Mr. Bush and his staff have allowed the intelligence bureaucracy to frame a new judgment in a way that has undermined four years of U.S. effort to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. (READ MORE)
Hill Close To Deal on War Funds - House Democratic leaders could complete work as soon as Monday on a half-trillion-dollar spending package that will include billions of dollars for the war effort in Iraq without the timelines for the withdrawal of combat forces that President Bush has refused to accept, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said yesterday. (READ MORE)
U.S., Russia still at odds about Iran -Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday the U.S. would continue using a two-track strategy to deal with Iran by pressing for new sanctions and demanding Tehran come clean about its nuclear program while offering talks to sweeten the deal. But Russia ignored her calls to punish Iran. (READ MORE)
Drug makers look East for testing - Asia is becoming the new testing ground for companies looking for the next blockbuster drug, a development that will shorten the time it takes for pharmaceutical products to enter the U.S. market in the coming years, drug industry experts say. (READ MORE)
Agency defends estimate on Iran - The federal agency responsible for national intelligence estimates yesterday defended its report on Iran against charges that it was crafted primarily by former State Department officials who infused their personal politics into the report to undercut the Bush administration. (READ MORE)
Negotiations fail to settle Kosovo's fate - A diplomatic train wreck eight years in the making appeared all but certain yesterday as U.S., European and Russian mediators admitted failure in a last-ditch attempt to reach a deal in the volatile standoff over the fate of the Serbian province of Kosovo. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Valuing the daughters - It takes an act from the governor for an American man to talk to Afghan women. I'm not exaggerating. I recently met the head of civil affairs in Ghazni at an event and she told me about the work her organization and others were doing with orphanages and vocational training for women. With most of the humanitarian aid we receive here at Camp Vulcan aimed at women and children, I thought it would be good if we could plan an HA drop with the Afghan National Police to directly support this work. She suggested we meet to discuss it. (READ MORE)
Tragically Famous: Final Destination - H-hour is nearing fast. Whispers rouse continuously on post as I stroll about in uniform. I know what they cry. It all comes down to, "He's in 10th Mountain. He must be leaving soon..." “Year of the Monkey won’t be the same without you. You guys are what makes us come to work everyday. When you guys leave we will be missing a part of us. You will have it with you. When you’re overseas saying to yourself, ‘ Damn, this sucks!’ we’ll be back here saying ‘Damn, this sucks!’ (READ MORE)
Richard's Deployment to Afghanistan: Deployed Holidays - There’s something bitter-sweet about holidays when you are deployed. Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Christmas is just around the corner. Holiday lights and Christmas trees decorate the hospital and offices and hootches, alongside weapons and body armor, patients, medical equipment and supplies. Thanksgiving on FOB Salerno was just like any other day, except for the meal. The Dining Facility went all-out, and did a great job. (READ MORE)
Sergeant Grumpy: Update: NSTR - Well, really not too much to report here. One day after the other of the same shit. Today was a little weird in that, while I guess it wasn't technically a sandstorm, the sky was filled with dust and looked alternately gray and orange, with the sun just a silver disk in the sky. Some random thoughts to bore you with: (READ MORE)
On Point: Voices from Anbar - For today's special we bring you a video from the 2nd Marine Division (Fwd) that is currently based in Anbar Province. While all the news reports about the peace, quiet, and economic boom in Anbar is accurate, it's due to the efforts of your Marines on the ground, working with their Sunni counterparts, that keep the area secure. This is an impressive group of young men and women stationed in Iraq, many of whom are spending their second and third Christmas holiday in the Fertile Crescent. (READ MORE)
Northern Disclosure: Bad Voo Doo Leads Again! - Today, all of Bad Voo Doo minus the lucky few that are on leave were here at the same time. I stood proudly in front of a formation early in the morning as we got together for a little jog through the sand. Its amazing how running in sand put a beating on your legs and calves. It felt great outside, there was a slight morning hue in the air, breezy just enough to keep it moving and the sweet smell of ozone that took me back to the Pacific Northwest. Ranger Nievera, Sidwa, LT and I were all missing Fort Lewis! (READ MORE)
Michael Yon: Men of Valor: Part IV - SGT Richard Edwards, a 12-year veteran from Newport, South Wales had served in Iraq during Telic 6 without firing a shot during those six months. During Telic 10, Edwards found himself down at the PJCC, where Iraqi police outnumbered British soldiers by a significant ratio. In late July, while they were waiting for the Brigade Commander Brigadier Bashall to arrive, a couple of shots came in from a neighboring and overlooking building used as a wheat factory. Shots also began coming in from the “Hole in the Wall,” a lateral slit several inches high and about three feet long in a wall 200 meters away. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Accentuate the Negative, Eliminate the Positive... - As Iraq struggles to emerge from the enormous difficulties of the past few years, people argue over whether any good has come about despite developments that give us reason to be optimistic. But the most amazing development is the refusal of those Democrats who unwittingly helped bring Iraq forward to take credit for their work. The number of internally displaced Iraqis declines for the first time. "The number of internally displaced Iraqis fell by 4.8 percent in October, or nearly 110,000 people, marking the first significant drop in two years, the Iraqi Red Crescent said Wednesday." (READ MORE)
ETT PA-C: Moving - Well, the time is coming. Yes, Camp Georgia is in position for us to move in. First to the rooms then in a few days we can use our bathroom and kitchen. Lots of refinement to be done on the contractors work but at least we'll be out of the "zoo." SGM's vision will definitely leave a legacy here. We're all going to be putting a lot of effort into making it happen over the next few months so I'll keep you up to date with the progress and give you shots to see its development. (READ MORE)
Desert Dude: 6 December - Well, I started out last night thinking that I would be spending a few days away from the FOB…I was scheduled for a trip to Jalalabad and the plan was for me to stay for a few days…the trip was to swap out some more older trucks for brand new ones…so, after packing up some socks and underoos for an extended trip, along with my cold weather gear and sleeping bag, I hit the sack early last night—around 11pm—and tried to get some sleep…kinda tossed and turned all night because I am usually on a night work schedule so my body clock wasn’t ready for sleep …I was told I could be there anywhere from 2-10 days... (READ MORE)
Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure: Separation, Reunion, Revolution - When I volunteered to come to Afghanistan, I volunteered as an individual soldier. When I was at Ft Riley, I was a member of an ad-hoc team. Shortly after we arrived in-country, three of us were split off from that team, but we became our own little family. A couple of months later, we got a new Colonel that pulled me away from that team and swapped me out with a Major. The two teams were more together than apart during the better part of the time between then and now, except for the month that I spent living in the valley with my Afghan team during the operation. (READ MORE)
Battlefield Tourist: A Tour of Southeast Baghdad - 3/2 Stryker Battalion Combat Team once again started combat operations in Iraq in August 2007. Prior to that, the unit immortalized by military writer, Michael Yon, spent a combat tour on the mean streets of Mosul in 2005. When I caught up with this unit in September 2007, they were assigned to clear a neighborhood known as “Mechanic’s Elbow”. At this time, the US presence in this area was rare. With surge forces in place elsewhere, 3/2 SBCT was assigned to clear this neighborhood, one of the last bastions for the very deadly terrorist group, Al Qaeda in Iraq. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Patrick S Lasswell: When Old Media Means Obsolete Media - Can we please stop returning to the thrilling days of yesteryear for our political commentary? I've got a radio station here in Portland trying to turn back the clock and report on last year's war. Don't get me wrong; I'm a history guy and I love for the lessons of the past to inform our choices. The problem is that the decisions of the past cannot continue to be our choices, especially when we are at war with a continuously changing foe. (READ MORE)
Robert D. Novak: Blocked Vatican Envoy - President Bush's nomination of Harvard Law School professor Mary Ann Glendon as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican is being held up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raising the possibility that the post may be vacant when Pope Benedict XVI visits the United States in April. The selection of anti-abortion advocate Glendon is opposed by Catholics for a Free Choice. No official holds on her confirmation have been filed, but failure to schedule a hearing blocks her confirmation. She is caught up in blanket Democratic opposition to Bush's final nominees. (READ MORE)
Chuck Colson: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima—and Calvary - Sixty-six years ago today, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor—an action that dramatically altered the course of history. Jacob DeShazer was on KP duty in California when he first heard the news. Furious at what the Japanese had done, he resolved to retaliate personally. And in April 1942, he got his chance—as a B-25 bombardier when Doolittle’s Raiders attacked Tokyo. During that fateful run, DeShazer’s plane ran out of fuel, and the crew bailed out over enemy territory. DeShazer was captured and spent the next forty months as a POW—including thirty-four months in solitary confinement. Three of his buddies were executed, and another died of slow starvation. (READ MORE)
Diana West: Don't Close the Book on the Clintons - A few weeks ago, I went rummaging through my attic looking for a box of books. Not just any box of books: my Clinton books. Or, should I say, given the range and number of tomes, my Clinton library. I'd tucked it all away sometime after 9/11 when a burgeoning collection on Islam needed shelf space. Being able to reach for "What the Koran Really Says" by Ibn Warraq, say, and not chapter and verse on Clinton corruption, was suddenly an obvious priority. We were at war, yes, but there was some consolation in the fact that our long national nightmare -- the Clintons -- was over. At least it was safe to pack away the books. Temporarily. (READ MORE)
John Fund: 'We Who Believe in Democracy' - Zimbabwe is in the news this weekend as its 83-year-old strongman, Robert Mugabe, arrives in Lisbon to attend his first European Union summit meeting in seven years. His appalling human-rights record has led British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to boycott the meeting. While the spotlight has not recently been on this deeply troubled land, there are dissidents who do not want the world to forget. Earlier this year I met with one of them, a tall, charismatic 41-year-old who attended the Aspen Ideas Festival, an annual chatfest of thinkers and well-heeled idealists sponsored by the Aspen Institute. (READ MORE)
Wolf Pangloss: Parsing the NIE’s release: Check the timing - Inspired by the Belmont Club. The latest unclassified NIE on the Iranian nuclear weapon program was released a couple of days before the New York Times released its latest treasonous intelligence leak from the classified NIE. Coincidence? The NIE was a bombshell that turned Intelligence agencies’ opinions about Iran’s intentions around 180 degrees, and it was based on information from August 2007. This may have come from Asghari’s defection, or from one of several Quds force spies who were captured in Iraq, or from another source. By the way, Asghari defected but left his family behind in Iran. What kind of defector leaves his whole family behind? Only one who has no intention of revealing the truth: A double agent. Again, coincidence? ush is a good poker player. Some of his obscure moves have a purpose, no matter how nonsensical it seems. In this case he is making this play both for domestic political purposes and also to read his opponents’ hand. (READ MORE)
Ilya Somin: When Foreign Libel and Hate Speech Laws Threaten the Free Speech Rights of Americans - International law writer Andrew McCarthy has an interesting blog post discussing the ways in which the extremely broad libel and hate speech laws of some foreign nations can be used to undermine free speech rights in the US. For more detail, see his August article on the subject. As McCarthy explains, some states have very broad libel laws that make it easy for public figures to sue their critics even if there is no real proof that the latter have made any false statements about the plaintiff. In addition, some of these nations, including Britain, have very low standards for establishing jurisdiction in libel cases; in some cases it's enough that a few copies of the defendant's book or article have been sold in Britain even if the work was originally published elsewhere. (READ MORE)
Kingsley Browne: Co-ed Combat – Closing Thoughts - I would like to thank Eugene again for inviting me to guest-blog and the readers who have provided thoughtful comments. In these posts, I have touched upon some of the problems created by sexual integration of combat forces. There are many others that I cover in my book, including the tendency of men to protect women; the double standards often applied to women, which probably result, at least in part, from this same male protective impulse; the disruptive effect of sexual relationships and sexual attraction on group cohesion; and issues relating to female prisoners of war. (READ MORE)
Orin Kerr: The Fourth Amendment Comes Out At Night, Minnesota Supreme Court Holds - Today the Minnesota Supreme Court held in State v. Jackson that the police violate the Fourth Amendment if they execute a search warrant at night without getting special permission based on a request with specific facts to execute the search at night. (See also the related case handed down today, State v. Jordan.) I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this. [See update at the end of the post; it turns out there is at least some authority in this direction, even if no court has taken it this far.] The hour of execution of a search is generally left to statute, and the few constitutional cases on this issue involve warrants that specify on their face that they must be executed in the day but are instead executed at night. (READ MORE)
The Tygrrrr Express: 8 Crazy Nights, 8 Crazy Democrats - As the 4th night of Hanukkah prepares to involve significant amounts of parties, the day involves a serious look at one not so serious party, that being the demagoguic party. One of the reasons I feel the democrats running for the presidency are not up to snuff is because they are scared to death of the voters. They will not condemn Al Queda, but will brag about who can be tougher on Bill O’Reilly, who to my knowledge did not fly a plane into the towers. They do not express hatred for Saddam Hussein, but seem to despise Dick Cheney. They will not try to remove Armageddonijad, opting for dialogue instead, but would impeach President Bush rather than engage in any constructive dialogue. (READ MORE)
Steve Schippert: The Fiction of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi - Fully engaged in the Information War, al-Qaeda in Iraq continues to put forth its message in Iraq under the umbrella of a notional Islamic State of Iraq and employing an Iraqi actor to fill the fictitious shoes of its purported Iraqi leader, “Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.” While al-Qaeda in Iraq is in dire straits in Iraq - as evidenced by the content of “al-Baghdadi’s” latest al-Qaeda-prepared speech - its information campaign has kicked back into gear in earnest, deriding the “apostates” of the Iraqi Awakening movement (Sahawah al-Iraq or SAI) and announcing a new campaign through the end of January. The United States needs to engage in more creative means of participation in this Information War, exploiting al-Qaeda’s faults and weaknesses beyond dry news releases and press conferences. (READ MORE)
Stop the ACLU: Leftist projection about political bias - Projection is so rife among Leftists that seeing what they say about conservatives is a handy guide to what it true about them. And nowhere is that more evident than in the various discussions about IQ. Quite plainly, what Leftists say about the subject is guided by their “all men are equal” ideology rather than by the facts. Their stance has everything to do with ideological bias and has only an incidental concern with the facts. So what do they do when non-Leftists confront them with the facts? They accuse their opponents of ideological bias! — as we saw in Metcalf’s recent attack on Saletan. Saletan himself could not readily be accused of much but someone he quoted (Rushton) has some association with people who believe that racial differences are widespread (which makes them “racists” in Leftist parlance) so that was enough to throw all Saletan’s pesky facts onto the trashheap. (READ MORE)
ROFASix: New Media & Anti-American Hollywood - While Hollywood has managed to produce failure after failure about the ongoing wars against terrorists, that hardly means Americans are not interested. It simply means that they want to get it without the political spin one expects from the leftys who make such films as "Lion for Lambs" and "Redacted." I accidentally watched Redacted on HD Net and as I wrote after, it was an appalling film. If anything, the film represents a total disconnect with what I would be willing to spend my money on to see. Oozing out of Hollywood today are films disguised as entertainment, that are little more than anti-American screeds. Who in their right mind wants to pay to be indoctrinated with the philosophy of Jane Fonda, Mark Cuban and George Soros? If you do, you can get it free over at Move.on and Daily Kos! (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl: Helen Thomas: Reagan Was A Freeloader? - Just an interesting tidbit that might help reveal some of the mindset behind at least one White House reporter that covered Ronald Reagan during his presidency, Helen Thomas. It isn't shocking, or overly embarrassing. As a result of a post of mine on her that's gotten a lot of attention, an individual who interacted with her professionally during the Reagan years forwarded me an email exchange with Ms. Thomas after she penned an article on the Reagan diaries in June. Not wanting to be played, I asked that the email be sent as an attachment, which it subsequently was. Her published piece concludes: "As a reporter having covered him for eight years in the White House, I am sure the press could have done a better job if we had known the real Ronald Reagan." But is that true? Apparently not. (READ MORE)
Reverse Spin: NOW endorses Hillary, sexual harassment - In a world that was logical, a group that claims to protect women wouldn’t be endorsing a presidential candidate who has a top donor accused by the federal government of “egregious” sexual harassment. Not only did Hillary Clinton accept about $165,000 in campaign donations from business owner and accused sexual harasser John Burgess, she rode on his International Profit Associates jet and spoke at an IPA company function. All while the allegations were pending in U.S. District Court in Chicago. None of that seems to bother the Illinois chapter of NOW, which proudly endorsed the sexual harassment enabler from New York, for her “long history of support for women’s empowerment.” (READ MORE)
Rhymes with Right: Mexico Demands US Kow-Tow - Mexican President Pendejo Felipe Calderon Cabron has demanded that US presidential candidates limit themselves to Mexican government-approved statements on immigration and that the United States Congress comply with conditions set by Mexico for receiving foreign aid from the United States. “President Felipe Calderon accused U.S. presidential candidates yesterday of anti-Mexican posturing and warned the U.S. Congress not to impose conditions on an anti-drug aid package. ‘The only theme in the (U.S.) electoral campaign is to compete to see who can be the most swaggering, macho and anti-Mexican,’ Calderon told a local radio station, Enfoque. He did not name any candidate or party.” (READ MORE)
Pejman Yousefzadeh: Why Is Hillary Clinton Running For President? - No one really is sure. And I have harped on this exact point for quite a long time. I don't care how famous a particular candidate is. I don't care how amazing it would be for history if that particular candidate got elected to the Presidency and I certainly don't care how personally pathbreaking such an election might be. Candidates have to have a reason to seek the office they seek, a reason that is entirely independent of their personalities and/or their personal identities. That reason has to do more with the realm of ideas and less with the issue of personalities altogether. And when there is no underlying reason or rationale to a candidacy, that candidacy falls apart pretty quickly. (READ MORE)
Reformed Chicks Blabbing: NBC rejects ad thanking the troops for their service - Because of the inclusion of Freedom's Watch's website address: “NBC has nixed holiday advertisements meant to thank troops for serving overseas in opposition to the inclusion of a non-profit's Web address. The ads, paid for by the non-profit Freedom's Watch, are a simple thank you, the group says, with people shown paying gratitude to members of the military and the final frame showing the group's Web address, http://www.freedomswatch.org/.” (READ MORE)
Congressman Roy Blunt: Democrats’ Flawed Policies Threaten America’s Economic Future - If history has shown us one thing, it’s that an ever-expanding federal government financed by an ever-increasing tax agenda is absolutely the wrong way to grow our economy and create new jobs. But now almost a year into this new majority, we’ve seen time and again that Democrats are willing to impose that reckless agenda on the taxpaying public at the risk of surrendering tens of millions of good-paying American jobs. This week, House Republicans unveiled a report (Death by a Thousand Cuts: Democrats’ War on American Jobs) that demonstrates the real cost of these misguided policies – costs that represent a real threat to hard-working families. According to this analysis, this year alone, this Congress has passed $203.9 billion in tax increases that could threaten 16 million American jobs. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Saddam henchman escapes raid by Iraqi forces - Izzat Ibrahim al Douri, the most wanted member of Saddam Hussein's regime and insurgent leader, narrowly escaped a raid on a his hideout in the northern city of Tikrit on Friday. Al Douri was organizing meetings with the local insurgency, the Malaysia Sun reported. Police found computers and documentation with important information on the insurgency and al Qaeda. Police and local security forces from the Tikrit Awakening Council surrounded al Douri's hideout in the village of al Sada al Naeem on Thursday after receiving "confirmed intelligence," Abdullah Hussein Jabara, the deputy governor of Salahadin province told Voices of Iraq. "The forces did not find al-Douri, but seized documents with information on the al-Qaeda network and other militias, their activities and the techniques used to conduct their operations in northern Iraq," Jabara said. (READ MORE)
Quid Nimis: Where is he now: Richard Armitage - Richard Armitage has become the poster-child for State Department perfidy. Thanks to him, an innocent man has been hounded, tried and convicted while many others were distracted from their duties to defend themselves from the malicious prosecution of the non-crime that was the Valerie Plame affair. Mr. Armitage himself is alive and well and walking free and posing as the token "Republican" on blue-ribbon task forces that want the United States to use "smart power, " that is, to make people love us by running to the rescue whenever an earthquake strikes or a tsunami hits, and to "take the lead in technology" to combat global warming. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Withdrawal - Dems close to terms on surrendering surrenderism. There’s a shakedown: And apparently the way you get agreement among all the other relevant players is to buy them off. Kind of sad, when a significant block of America’s political leadership has to be bribed to continue supporting U.S. troops in the field, thwarting genocide and terrorism, building democracy. (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston: IC agents threatened to release the NIE if Bush refused to do it? Updated - I think my outrage meter just broke. I’m not sure it can be fixed. Since when do people on the left think this is a good thing? “‘…intelligence career seniors were lined up to go to jail if necessary’ if the document’s gist were not given to the public. Translation? Someone in that group would have gone to the media ‘on the record’ to disclose its contents.” So once they had produced the 2007 NIE that a) contradicted the 2005 NIE and b) would probably take the wind out of any effort to keep up the pressure on Iran (which, even according to the 2007 NIE did have a clandestine nuclear weapons program, albeit one that might be on hold), the unelected intelligence officers who produced it were prepared to force it into the public if the president himself didn’t release it. (READ MORE)
GayPatriotWest: Why have Universities Forsaken Studying the Meaning of Life? - When I graduated from college, I was determined to pursue a Ph.D in Comparative Literature, hoping to expose myself to the best of European & American literature so that I might teach students to appreciate great books where they could find insights to guild them in their lives’ journeys. Not only that, I hoped to write about literature, showing how those great writers of the past addressed themes that we confront in our lives today. In short, I saw the profession of university teaching as one where a scholar would help students relate literature to their own lives. These works would, I hoped, remind students that there is more to life, to quote my favorite poet, than “getting and spending.” They would see the study of literature as a life-long avocation, something to pursue alongside their professional endeavors. (READ MORE)
DiscerningTexan: Flatlining over at the Network of Peacocks and "Keith Overbite" - Outrageous. You know, at some point the mind simply has to just shut itself down because of its inability to grasp adequately the unreasonable, unjust, unfathomable horror that is growing like kudzu on steroids everywhere we look. When I was a kid, I remember the NBC peacock in all of its brilliant colors. And anchors named Huntley and Brinkley. Back when people at the networks actually gave a damn about this place. How proud they must be now of what has become of a once-esteemed network. In all seriousness, it makes one wonder: just how long are we as a nation supposed to just meekly turn away and do nothing about this sort of crap? (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Dems cave on Iraq funding - The Surge worked. Congress hasn’t. Time to quit the hippie act. A 3-way deal among the House Democrats, Senate Democrats and Republicans was cut. Democrats will throw in the towel this weekend on their silly refusal to fund a war that we’re winning. That is huge. Democrats have bet their farm on failure in Iraq. President Bush is about to collect that farm. I am guessing that the Democratic rank-and-file are displeased with the failed leadership of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. (READ MORE)
Walid Phares: Misestimating Iran's Nuclear Strategies - The release to the US Congress of the NIE Iranian threat report has unleashed a wave of discussions streaming directly into the debate about the war on terror. From there, obviously, the ripple effects of the findings - plus their politicization - are feeding the critics of the War in Iraq; but more importantly, impacting both the friends and the foes of the United States, including principally the Iranian regime. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Tape Destruction Decision Compartmentalized - The decision to destroy the tapes of interrogations that included waterboarding two al-Qaeda terrorists came from the director of the clandestine services of the CIA and in opposition to requests from both Congress and the White House. Jose Rodriguez, the Director of Operations, made the decision without consulting the CIA's attorneys or the DCI, Porter Goss. While a member of Congress and head of the House Intelligence Committee, Goss had demanded that the CIA retain all such recordings: “White House and Justice Department officials, along with senior members of Congress, advised the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 against a plan to destroy hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda, government officials said Friday.” (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Life is Tough for Whining Democrats - Back when the Republicans held the majority the Democrats used every tactic in th book to keep legislation from making it through the process. They threatened to filibuster so much that a phony gang of 14 worked out a compromise which the Democrats broke before the ink was dry on the paper. Now that they are in the majority they are crying because Republicans use the same tactics. (READ MORE)
Dafydd: The Impasse in Congress: May We Make a Suggestion? - The august New York Times has a snarky article about the inability of Congress to enact, well, almost any legislation at all under the Democratic leadership of Senate Majority Leader Harry "Pinky" Reid (D-Caesar's Palace, 90%) and Squeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Haight-Ashbury, 95%). It seems it's all the Republicans' fault -- mostly in the Senate -- for "blocking" the "Democrats’ legislative agenda": “As if there was [sic; subjunctive case] any doubt that Congress was on the verge of devolving into a carnival atmosphere, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, on Thursday proposed doing cartwheels down the center aisle of the Senate chamber to draw attention to Republican efforts to block legislation. Here, in the Cirque du Senate, there is trash-talking, whining and finger-pointing, bickering and, occasionally, brief flashes of serious disagreement on policy.” (READ MORE)
Meryl Yourish: Palestinians really do cut off their noses to spite their faces - Let’s do a little reading between the lines here. The AP has a three-hanky story on how the mean ol’ Israelis are shutting off the Gaza fuel supply, just because Hamas is allowing terrorists to fire over 2000 rockets into Israel over the past twelve months. Witness the horrors: “Service stations across the Gaza Strip shut off their fuel nozzles. Tens of thousands of people have no fresh water because pumps can’t run. Hospitals parked ambulances, and bicycles are the new favored form of transportation. A month-old Israeli reduction in fuel shipments to Gaza is hitting the seaside territory hard. And things could get worse - seeking to punish Gaza’s Hamas rulers further, Israel is waiting for court approval to reduce the electricity supply as well.” (READ MORE)
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