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)
Fed Chief Talks of 'Decisive' Action - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday signaled that the central bank will cut interest rates aggressively to try to prevent a serious economic downturn, using unusually direct and forceful language. (READ MORE)
Economy Slumps To the Top of the Campaign Agenda - As the presidential campaign got underway a year ago, the candidates faced a volatile political environment dominated by the Iraq war, illegal immigration and terrorism. A year later, the campaigns are rewriting their playbooks as it appears that the race may actually be shaped by the economy. (READ MORE)
Air Force Indefinitely Grounds Many F-15 Jets - The Air Force will keep more than 40 percent of its older model F-15 fighter jets grounded indefinitely after discovering that critical support beams have manufacturing flaws dating back nearly 30 years that could lead to catastrophic damage to the aircraft. (READ MORE)
Wiretaps Are Cut Over Unpaid Bills - Telecommunications companies have repeatedly cut off FBI access to wiretaps of alleged terrorists and criminal suspects because the bureau did not pay its phone bills, according to the results of an audit released yesterday. (READ MORE)
Chinese Envoy Denounces Efforts to Link Darfur Concerns, Beijing Olympics - BEIJING, Jan. 10 -- China on Thursday rejected any attempts to connect humanitarian concerns about Darfur to the upcoming Beijing Olympics, saying they come from people unwilling to view objectively China's role in that embattled region of Sudan. (READ MORE)
GOP Candidates Trade Barbs - Last night's Republican presidential debate in South Carolina reflected just how chaotic the contest has become, with candidates squaring off against opponents they view as their biggest obstacles to the nomination in the upcoming primaries in South Carolina, Michigan and in Florida. (READ MORE)
Musharraf Open to Power Sharing - Pakistani Ambassador Mahmud Ali Durrani said yesterday that the party allied with President Pervez Musharraf will be prepared to work with any other parties to form a government after critical parliamentary elections Feb. 18. (READ MORE)
Bush Sees Plight of Palestinians - President Bush got a small taste of Palestinian frustrations during an unprecedented visit to the West Bank yesterday and won over at least some of the territory's residents with his public support for a Palestinian state. (READ MORE)
Gates: Al Qaeda Almost out of Anbar - U.S. and Iraqi forces have nearly "cleared" the western Iraqi province of Anbar and Baghdad of al Qaeda terrorists and other insurgent groups, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday. (READ MORE)
Virginia Legislature to Target Illegals - More than 100 bills proposing reforms in the way that the state handles illegal aliens have been introduced in the first two days of the General Assembly — ending any speculation on how important the issue is to Democratic and Republican lawmakers. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
A Battlefield Tourist: Marines Prepare to “Surge” Into Afghanistan - Official movement is underway to send a surge force of 3,000 US Marines into southern Afghanistan, the Pentagon reported January 9th. The move has been speculated and downplayed for months. Reports are tapping the men and women of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp LeJeune, N.C., to head to southern Afghanistan augmenting forces in time for the spring fighting season. While US Defense secretary Robert Gates has yet to approve the request due to concerns over a shortage of manpower, news released January 10th may make the decision much easier. (READ MORE)
Desert Dude: 11 January - The past few days have been pretty slow…I haven’t been doing anything but practicing with the band and procrastinating on finishing the evaluations for my guys…doesn’t matter if I finish them because I can’t finalize them till I have my ID card reset or get a new one or whatever…I am supposed to go back to J-Bad to get a new card—whenever that is…I can get a new card there but we have to call a day or two prior to our trip and set up an appointment…ridiculous… (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Slippery Journalism - The L.A. Times reports that the administration has levied sanctions on an Iraqi businessman who owns a satellite TV station, along with a top general in Iran's Revolutionary Guard and two men accused of directing terrorist attacks. Mishaan Al-Jubouri, who Iraqis will remember called a fellow TV guest "a Persian shoe," has tried to wear the sanctions on his Syria-based satellite TV station like a badge of honour. (READ MORE)
A Surgeon's Letters Home From Iraq: 10 JAN 2007 Every day, a day in school - Ah yes, midnight in the Wounded Warrior computer lounge. My fingers again caress the familiar keyboard, because there is nothing else in the hospital that they ought to be caressing! I'm smiling because I know that no matter what they do to me, they can't stop the clock! There is also ample reason to smile today because we were fortunate to see very few wounded pass through our doors in need of comfort and care. After reporting my list of patients from my 24-hr shift, I attended to the needs of a sweaty body that had been in the same clothes for 24 hours, and made a deep dive for slumber land. (READ MORE)
Matt Sanchez: January 11, 2008 - With films like Redacted drawing fire for being more political than realistic, many have asked when will someone in Hollywood give the viewing audience a taste of what it's really like in Iraq? I just got to see a preview of Pat Dollard's series, Young Americans. I'll write extensively on our interview, but just keep in mind, be careful what you wish for. Dollard succeeds where the pretenders have failed, since Pat spent time in the most dangerous city in the world, Ramadi. (READ MORE)
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Dressed for a shower - At approximately 6:33 a.m. local time today, my days of walking to the shower dressed in only my underwear came to an abrupt end. It took me about five steps in the 3-degree morning air to end my morning sojourn sans clothes. Jack Frost was nipping at more than just my nose. You will all be thankful to know there is no photo accompanying this blog post. (READ MORE)
Jason's Iraq Vacation: slip and slide - I poked my head out of my room and blinked my eyes a few times, not believing what I saw. My feet were freezing but I had to step out and touch it anyway, just to make sure - it was snow. Snow, in central Iraq! The roads were slippery from the snow-turned-rain, and the humvee slid, just alittle, threatening to fishtail if it didnt find traction soon. Luckily for us, it did, and not a minute too soon, as we came up on a narrow bridge with only metal spanners to cross it. The orange dunptruck stopped for no reason on the bridge made us nervous, but it turned out to be nothing. I dont know if it was the snow, but there seemed to be more stalled vehicles than normal - every half mile there seemed to be a guy pulled off to the side of the road, peering under his hood or just standing there. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Lawhawk: What McCain-Feingold Has Wrought - It has meant that judges now get to determine what is political speech and what isn't. Here, they've decided that a film about Hillary Clinton is campaign advertising subject to McCain Feingold. The film happens to be anti-Hillary. The early reviews are in, and three federal judges appeared in agreement Wednesday that a movie lambasting Hillary Clinton seemed an awful lot like a 90-minute campaign advertisement. (READ MORE)
Ace: Brit Hume: A Total Dick - I'm just kidding. I love Brit Hume. But. He did seem to pursue a line of questioning for far too long to no good effect. He badgered all the candidates about whether or not they were content with the naval commanders' decision not to open fire on the harassing Iranian speedboats. He didn't just ask the question. He badgered. It was a dumb question. No candidate on the stage has any idea what the navy's rules of engagement are. No one knows the exact protocols those commanders are under as regarding opening fire. (READ MORE)
Fishwrap: Pessimism in the streets of Jerusalem's Old City - After all the speeches and proclamations of the last two days here about the Middle East peace process, I decided to go see what people on the street thought about President Bush's visit. I walked into the Old City, and was blown away by the richness of character and personal background in the few people I was able to talk to. To a person, all of my interviewees dismissed Mr. Bush's visit as a hopeless effort, even if some of them felt the U.S. president was well-intentioned. "I love President Bush. I believe he is committed to peace, but he can't do the impossible," said Neal Turk, a U.S. citizen who lives in Miami Beach, Fla., but once lived with his wife in Israel for three years. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Don’t ask, don’t care - Military ignores anti-gay orders from Clinton and a Democratic Congress. Gays have been in the military since Alexander the Great. At least. He did OK. In the 1990s, Clinton was going to acknowledge gays in the military till he caught some flak and then he turned around and ran. Let’s get this, um, straight: A Democratic Congress and a Democratic president codified the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Now, nearly 15 years later, the military is ignoring the policy. Army Sgt. Darren Manzella told the AP that he took the door off his closet — apparently without retribution. (READ MORE)
Jihad Watch: West: "This high-level effort to, in effect, deny the connection between Islamic law and what the military calls the 'enemy threat doctrine' should ring bells, not just in the military, but in Congress" - In "Foul play," the brilliant Diana West gives us an absolutely masterful take on the Pentagon's firing of Steve Coughlin: “The year is 1942. The place, the Pentagon. A Berlin-born aide to the U.S. deputy secretary of defense has learned that a military intelligence officer has not only read Hitler's Mein Kampf, but is lecturing senior officers about Hitler's heretofore unexamined goals of world domination.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Anbar Ready - A little over a year ago, it was no man’s land. AP: "WASHINGTON (AP) - Iraq’s western province of Anbar, hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency for the first four years of the war, will be returned to Iraqi control in March, a senior U.S. general said Thursday." ...[W]hich raises the question. Has the surge been so successful that significant drawdowns are in fact possible. Is political progress not to be measured by legislation passed … a measure that would be unkind if applied to those who insist on it … but through increments such as rhetorical gestures and practical cooperation. (READ MORE)
Amy Proctor: GEN Petraeus on Relationships - Bottom Line Up Front: We’re winning in Iraq, “one Beanie Baby at a time” This is the most interesting interview I’ve ever seen with GEN Petraeus. Compliments of the Pentagon Channel comes this on-the-street-of-Baghdad dialogue with America’s top commander in Iraq as he does what he does best: wins people over. The interviewer said what most allude to but don’t actually come out and say: "GEN Petraeus, you’re like a rock star around here!" This led to the predictably humble reaction by the calm and collected commander and a fascinating discourse about what makes the world goes around: RELATIONSHIPS. (READ MORE)
Neal Boortz: It's All About Race - There are some people out there that must look at everything through a racial lens. For these people, Obama's presidential run will be all about his race ... even though he himself doesn't focus on it. Chris Matthews of MSNBC, agrees with many other commentators. He says that pollsters leading up to the New Hampshire primary were misled because voters did not want to openly admit that they might not vote for a black candidate. In other words, voters said that they would vote for Barack so that they didn't appear to be racist. (READ MORE)
Political Pistachio: No More Tears - No more tears for Hillary Clinton after pulling off a win in the New Hampshire Primary, narrowly defeating Barack Obama. She says she found her own voice. She cried before the primary, some say because of the defeat at the hands of Obama in Iowa, and some say because she is seriously fearful of a direction this country may take if the White House is once again in the hands of the Republicans. Question is, did she truly win? People forget that it's all about the delegates, and even though Hillary won the percentage of the vote, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton walked away from New Hampshire with the same number of delegates: 9. (READ MORE)
Paul Mirengoff: The battles within the debate - Let's oversimplify a little bit, and think of tonight's Republican debate as several discrete contests: Thompson vs. Huckabee; McCain vs. Romney; and Giuliani vs. irrelevance. Who won these battles? In my view, Thompson and Giuliani won theirs, while McCain and Romney drew (a de facto victory for McCain). Thompson came out swinging at Huckabee, and he landed some good blows -- notably on Huckabee's "blame America first" foreign policy, his stance on taxes, and his immigration policy as governor. Huckabee responded as he often does, with charm and evasion. This approach has worked for him in the past, and it may have worked tonight. But if the voters were paying attention, then an awful lot of traditional South Carolina conservatives had to be much more impressed by Thompson than by Huckabee. (READ MORE)
John Hinderaker: How Many Iraqis Killed? - A new survey by the Iraqi government and the World Health Organization concludes that around 150,000 Iraqis were killed in the three years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This number seems far more reasonable than the 600,000 + figure that was floated by a group from Johns Hopkins, just in time for the off-year elections in 2006. Details on the current survey will appear later this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. Reports released so far do not break down violent deaths among the various causes. It seems obvious, however, that a large proportion of those killed were victims of terrorism--I would so classify many of those who fell victim to "sectarian violence"--and many of the others were the terrorists themselves. (READ MORE)
ROFASix: Hillary's New Hampshire Tears - Crocodile or Real? - You've see the words or heard the discussion. "Were Hillary's New Hampshire tears - crocodile or real?" Every time I encounter it I keep thinking, "Man, what a bunch of ink and airwave time has been spent on that question. How absolutely immaterial is the answer"! Yet, according to many pundits it was the 'teary episode' in the New Hampshire that swung the 'undecided' female vote to Hillary. They opine that it showed how human and sincere she was. I hope it's hogwash, because if its not, I just lost a lot of respect for female voters. My three year old granddaughter can turn on the tears like a fountain when her grandfather does not respond quickly enough to one of her demands. Once satisfied, she is back to laughing and giggling ... sorta like Hillary. (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: On Fairness and Passion - Civilizations fall when they have been hollowed out from the inside, when their elites no longer consider their civilization of any value and as a result allow others to control their security and their future. For Western, Judeo-Cristian Civilization, the Jew (and now Israel), has traditionally been the "canary in the coal mine", presaging the various storms that have struck the West in the past. Once again, Israel and the Jew is at the center of a non-quantifiable, highly conflicted, strategic and psychological struggle being played out in the world. Yesterday Josef Joffe, writing at MESH (Middle East Strategy at Harvard) took issue with the core idea behind Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations: (READ MORE)
The Tygrrrr Express: From Ground Zero to South Carolina - Iowa is irrelevant. New Hampshire is useless. New York City is what matters, since that is where the giant crater exists along with the memories of 3000 murdered new Yorkers. I am working out of my firm’s Wall Street office this week, and there is a television and a computer here in the break room, allowing me to watch the Fox news republican debate while blogging about it. Just around the block is the New York Stock Exchange, where people can no longer go on the trading floor as guests. Those days are long gone. (READ MORE)
Cassandra: Voter ID: It's A No Brainer - A familiar maxim warns that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on. The half vast editorial staff were left ruefully pondering the truth of that dictum early this morning when the perpetually entertaining Ms. Dahlia Lithwick of SlateMag managed to muck up both the facts and the law before we could grab a cup of coffee and clear the cobwebs from our pea-sized brain. The golden thread that runs through all of Ms. Lithwick's essays on jurisprudence is the distressing propensity of the Evil, Partisan Roberts Court to brutally oppress hapless orroyo toads, fluffy Angora kittens, people of cholor, and transgendered wolves longing to pick out a china pattern and settle down in The Hamptons. (READ MORE)
Orin Kerr: Why United States v. Di Re Clearly Was Not A Case on the Federal Supervisory Power - The comment thread in my post on next week's oral argument in Virginia v. Moore led to an interesting exchange about whether the Supreme Court's 1948 decision in United States v. Di Re, 332 U.S. 581 (1948), was a case decided on Fourth Amendment grounds or as an application of the federal supervisory power. Oddly enough, this ends up being an important part of the Moore case. If Di Re was a Fourth Amendment decision, then it largely answers the questions for the Court in Moore; if it wasn't, then Di Re is irrelevant. The comment thread led me to take a closer look at the history and context of Di Re, and that research leads me to conclude with a very high degree of certainty that Di Re was a case on the Fourth Amendment and not about the federal supervisory power. In this post, I want to explain why. (READ MORE)
David Kopel: D.C. lawsuit against gun manufacturers is dismissed - A unanimous 3-judge decision of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals has dismissed a municipal lawsuit brought against firearms manufacturers, District of Columbia v. Beretta et al. The court ruled that the suit was barred by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act, which was passed by Congress in 2005, and which by its terms applies to all pending and future cases. In the first part of the decision, the court rules that the congressional act applies to lawsuits brought under D.C.'s Strict Liability Act, which imposes absolute liability on manufacturers for certain firearms injuries. The second part of the decision rejects various arguments that it is unconstitutional for a congressional statute to be applied to a lawsuit that has already been filed. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: It's Not Paranoia If They Are Out To Get You - President Bush is in Israel, trying to secure his legacy by winning a real peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Israel is being a bit reluctant to sign on, and I have to admit that they have good reason. Why would Israel be leery about a peace agreement with the Palestinians? And, in the larger picture, why would they be reluctant to sign on to an agreement backed by so much of the world? Well, it's this sticky little thing called "precedent." (READ MORE)
Meryl Yourish: Ms. Magazine refuses to publish ad about Israel’s most powerful women - The magazine co-founded by Gloria Steinem doesn’t seem to like Jews when they’re Israeli Jews. Or at least, that’s the impression they’re giving after rejecting an ad for Israel that the AJC wanted to place. “A Ms. Magazine representative, Susie Gilligan, whom the Ms. Magazine masthead lists under the publisher’s office, told Ms. Kurlander that the magazine ‘would love to have an ad from you on women’s empowerment, or reproductive freedom, but not on this.’ Ms. Gilligan failed to elaborate what ‘this’ is.” I’d be very interested in getting an answer to what “this” is. Because running an ad about three powerful Israeli women saying, “This is Israel,” is an example of women’s empowerment. The magazine ran a cover story on Nancy Pelosi in the winter 2007 magazine, with a headline that seems, well, familiar. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: The First Black President About To Lose His Standing? - Bill Clinton has gotten a lot of mileage out of the notion that he was somehow the nation's first black president, but that may be coming to an end. The tone he and Hillary have taken when criticizing Barack Obama has begun to generate a reaction among black politicians, and the New York Times reports that the first salvo in return may come soon. Rep. James Clyburn may reverse himself and endorse Obama before the South Carolina primaries after listening to the Clintons in New Hampshire: (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: How The Bradley Effect Blew Up The New Hampshire Polling - There's still a lot of debate about what went wrong with the polling in New Hampshire. Personally? With the benefit of hindsight, I think that it's clearly, unequivocally the Bradley Effect at work. Let's cover the bases on why I think that's so. First of all, the polling on the Republican side was solid and did a good job of reflecting the actual results. So, there was obviously a factor on the Democratic side that was not in play with the Republicans. (READ MORE)
Paul Greenberg: Too Good For This World: Waterboarding and Its Discontents - It’s been eclipsed in the news for just a moment by all the hubbub over the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire presidential primary, but earlier you may have noticed the latest suggestion in Congress and Medialand over how to conduct the war on terror: Go after the good guys. Honest. Not the enemy. But the CIA. Not its chief but the lower-downs. Maybe even the grunts. The foot soldiers who do the real work, take the real risks, and who get their hands and maybe even their consciences dirty. (READ MORE)
Burt Prelutsky: A Few Words in Defense of Torture - Sometimes I get the idea that America’s MSM is nothing more than an off-shoot of Al Jazeera, a well-oiled propaganda machine for all things Islamic. For instance, we’ve been hearing for the longest time that torture is the worst possible way by which to extract information from the enemy. Who says so? When something that is so nonsensical is passed off as common knowledge, I, for one, get very suspicious. (READ MORE)
Oliver North: Hotheads of Hormuz - MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- In early January, this oceanfront resort community is usually a pretty quiet place. This year, however, nothing is usual. This week, hotel rooms are packed, and the lobbies are crowded with presidential candidates, their campaign aides, political activists and more than 700 members of the international press corps. They are all here to participate in a series of debates and the upcoming first-in-the-South primary election. I also have discovered that among the media are a number of aliens from a parallel universe where nothing seems as it is. (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson: The Messy Politics of Illegal Immigration - With the war in Iraq politically on the backburner, illegal immigration is heating up as a campaign issue. The public wants action, and the candidates are scrambling to react. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s sure nomination was first questioned when she flubbed an easy debate question about driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Sen. John McCain’s recovery took off when he backed away from his support of immigration reform that did not first ensure the closure of the border. (READ MORE)
John McCaslin: Dubya and Ache - Yesterday, just hours after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's unexpected first-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, a black oval-shaped bumper sticker was spotted on Capitol Hill, similar to the popular "W" sticker in support of President Bush. Except this newer, bolder version touted "H the President." Now, as everybody knows after seven years, when you spell "W" you get "Dubya." Given the initialed nickname for Hillary, we thought it would be fun to spell "H" and see what we came up with. (READ MORE)
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