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)
Dow Takes Traders on Wild Ride - It started with another stomach-turning drop at the open, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 326 points by midday. Then the Dow changed course and raced higher to close up nearly 300 points, the biggest gain in two months. (READ MORE)
Inquiry Grows in Contract Scandal - Law-enforcement authorities are widening their probe into a $130 million federal contracting scam that has led to convictions against a General Services Administration procurement official and two former executives of a prominent security company. (READ MORE)
Huckabee Alienates GOP in Arkansas - For the 10 years he was governor of Arkansas, Mr. Huckabee was at war with much of his party. Now that Mr. Huckabee is seeking the presidential nomination, many Arkansas Republicans warn that he could wage a bruising battle with the national party, too. (READ MORE)
Al Qaeda Makes Strides in Pakistan - Al Qaeda forces are gaining strength in remote areas of Pakistan and stepping up activities in that country, the region and farther abroad, according to recent U.S. intelligence assessments. (READ MORE)
Obama Cites His Straight Talk, 'Old Tricks' of Foes - Sen. Barack Obama mocked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday as someone who shifts positions based on the political wind, while former President Bill Clinton blamed the press for fanning the flames of the latest Democratic fight. (READ MORE)
Negotiators Grappling With Stimulus Plan - The White House and congressional leaders struggled yesterday to preserve their newfound alliance on the economy in the face of revolts in both parties over the shape of a potential stimulus package and of debates over issues such as health care and warrantless surveillance. (READ MORE)
Some in Party Bristle At Clintons' Attacks - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign aired a new radio ad here Wednesday that repeated a discredited charge against Sen. Barack Obama, in what some Democrats said is part of an increasing pattern of hardball politics by her and former president Bill Clinton. (READ MORE)
Democrats Attack Iraq Security Proposal - The leading Democratic presidential candidates and their allies on Capitol Hill have launched fierce attacks in recent days on a White House plan to forge a new, long-term security agreement with the Iraqi government, complaining that the administration is trying to lock in a lasting U.S. military... (READ MORE)
Terrorism Probe Points to Reach Of Web Networks - In April 2005, police swarmed the U.S. Capitol to confront an erratic Australian man, carrying two suitcases, who they feared was a suicide bomber. After blowing up one of the bags, officers realized he was harmless. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Babylon & Beyond: Scenes from a soggy checkpoint - Some things are universal, like the way a rainy day slows down a city. The cold drizzle that blanketed Baghdad on Wednesday made the gray city even grayer. It turned the dirty streets into muddy messes, including in the fortified Green Zone, one of the few places in the capital suitable for walking. That meant even longer waits at Green Zone checkpoints as would-be walkers opted to drive in. These checkpoints are not luxurious to begin with, and they are downright wretched when it is cold and rainy. At the first of four search points I had to pass, a crowd waited in a bunker-like area while dogs sniffed their vehicles. They shuffled their feet and rubbed their hands to keep warm. They watched their breath as it formed little white puffs in the cold air. (READ MORE)
Badger 6: Drinking in the War Zone - Under General Order #1 possession or consumption of alcohol by US Forces is illegal. Soldiers have received Article 15, Non-Judicial Punishment and even been Court Martialed for violations of General Order #1, although from what I have read, the latter has certainly involved several other criminal acts as well. On balance I think it is a smart order to have in place, all one need imagine is a drunk with a machine gun. As someone who enjoys there fair share of beer, wine, and various whiskeys, as well as shooting, I can tell you the two do not mix. Even though I don't always like the rule, I understand it and more importantly as an officer, help enforce it. (READ MORE)
ETT PA-C: A Little View - I rack my brain sometimes trying to find something to send over the blog that may interest you. After about a year of this I must admit I'm a little tapped out on things that just may. I can share some of what we do as "Police Mentors" but little else that we do out in the field. Often I can show you pics of places that we visit but often its not really our tactical turf so to speak. Recently, we picked up some new police to mentor and here are some pictures of some of the training we've been conducting on site. Mind you, "Police" is a rather watered down version of "Local Soldier" in this country so much of what we teach is more military in nature. If the ANP look a little weird, that's because I painted their eyes. Any real concern, no, but just in case. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Our Own Worst Enemy? - A British politician says he was surprised when the Iraq's deputy prime minister told him that some of Britain's mosques are more radical than those of Iraq. He said what he saw during a visit would be not be permitted in Iraq. This story says, "Barham Salih claimed some mosques in the UK would be banned in Iraq for the extremist messages they preach." Salih, who made his comments during a dinner party in Baghdad attended by Tory culture spokesman Tobias Ellwood, said: "I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn." (READ MORE)
Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal: Pay Day - Absolute madness degenerated absolutely into mad absolution. And I was there to witness it, first-hand. I probably don’t get involved in the house operations of our combat outpost as much as I should – CPT Whiteback keeps telling me a good officer understands the grander scheme of things at all times, and I do make half-hearted attempts at such, but I tend to become a bit scatterbrained when too much math or too much paperwork is involved. Not to mention there’s always something more interesting going on with the Gravediggers. So when I walked outside of our outpost last week, eager for a breath of noxiously-fresh Iraq air and mulling over the latest batch of Lindsay Lohan photos, I was surprised to find Sunni-and –Shi’a-induced pandemonium on our steps when I should’ve expected it. (READ MORE)
Defiant Compliance: Traipsing Through The Desert - Hello, It's been a while. Sorry. I changed jobs recently and I've been moved from Camp Victory, where I was quite comfortably appointed, to Camp Echo, a little hole in the wall base that I can walk across in ten minutes. I'm the only one from my company here, and I'm also responsible for Camps Delta and Scania... So I'll now be traveling again every so often. I've uploaded some footage of the daytime part of our convoy: Leave me comments and let me know what you thought, and if you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them. It's my first attempt at video editing, don't laugh too hard. More citizen journalism coming soon. (READ MORE)
Northern Disclosure: From Hero to Zero - I really can't participate in my hobbies over here other than MMA training but one thing that I have been able to do is read. I get my hands on a book every now and then but mainly I read the papers. Yes I read the papers when possible. My good friend Deborah hooked me up with a New York Times subscription and we get the Stars and Stripes on a pretty regular basis. These are very contrasting papers one left and the other that caters to its military readership so its good to see more than one thing. Don't get me wrong, I am not confessing to be a liberal or a conservative, its no secret I am PRO SOLDIER but that does not make me a face or commercial to a propoganda campaign either. (READ MORE)
Michael Yon: Men of Valor: Part VI of VIII - By the third month of Telic 10, 4 Rifles soldiers had been hit with about 1,700 rockets and mortars at their small encampment at the Palace. One day, more than 70 rockets and mortars exploded inside the compound. Just walking to breakfast or lunch could be a deadly mission. As a result, some soldiers ate only once per day. 4 Rifles fired more than 37,000 rounds of machine gun and rifle ammunition. They fired grenades, Javelin missiles, and artillery. American jets and helicopters launched rockets and dropped bombs. If this situation could have been impacted by artillery and ammunition, it would have given way by now, especially given the superiority of the British soldiers in Basra. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
William J. Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger: Beyond Payday Loans - The American dream is founded on the belief that people who work hard and play by the rules will be able to earn a good living, raise a family in comfort and retire with dignity. But that dream is harder to achieve for millions of Americans because they spend too much of their hard-earned money on fees to cash their paychecks or pay off high-priced loans meant to carry them over until they get paid at work. (READ MORE)
Andy Kessler: What's Next for the Banks? - It had been a year or so since a couple of trillion dollars of investor wealth had been wiped out. The Dow was 8000 and dropping, and the stocks of big institutions from Citi to Merrill Lynch to Morgan Stanley were at multiyear lows. Bank lending was down, but no one was really worried. The old "borrow short, lend long and pocket the difference" game had been around for millennia, and banks had weathered worse than this mild economic slowdown. (READ MORE)
Steve Forbes: The Giuliani Tax Cut - Rudy Giuliani has proposed the largest tax cut in modern American history and a dramatic simplification of the tax code. His proposal has received broad support from fiscal conservatives in Washington; yesterday it was introduced as legislation by Reps. David Dreier and Roy Blunt, and by Sen. Christopher Bond. Since Fred Thompson has dropped out of the race, there's no question which candidate offers the best tax plan, or is the best spokesman for advancing the tax-reform cause. (READ MORE)
Daniel Henninger: The Authenticity Thing - Fashions come and go when the American voter goes shopping for a new president. In 1912 they chose the reformist Princeton egghead, Woodrow Wilson, over two heavyweights, incumbent William Howard Taft and a former president, Teddy Roosevelt. In 1976, weary of Watergate, they picked a peanut farmer. Four years later, Hollywood sophistication was no obstacle, but by 1992 anonymous Southern governors were back into fashion. (READ MORE)
Larry Elder: Open-Minded Liberals? - Walter Cronkite, when asked whether he agreed that liberals dominated the major news media, told me, "Yes -- if by liberal you mean open-minded." Are liberals more "open-minded" than conservatives? To find out, a biennial survey conducted by the University of Michigan's American National Election Studies uses a scale from 0 to 100 -- 0 meaning shoot-the-person-on-sight hatred, and 100 meaning find-a-place-for-him-on-Mount-Rushmore adoration. The 2004 survey then asked 1,200 adults to define themselves politically. (READ MORE)
Michelle Bernard: The Path to Democracy and Stability in Pakistan - Who are we fighting in this War on Terror? For many Americans, the War on Terror remains a confusing concept. We are used to wars against countries, not against a group of people brought together by an ideology and hatred of the West. Our enemy is most easily defined by their acts: the attacks of September 11th exemplify the threat they pose. Now, with news that the CIA has concluded that members of al-Qaeda, in concert with allies of Baitullah Mehud... (READ MORE)
Ken Blackwell: No Time Outs in the War on Terror - In his State of the Union address next week, it is imperative that President Bush push for the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. Setting aside foolish partisan politics and ad hominem arguments, FISA is necessary for the national security of America and the safety of Americans. FISA is the law that governs gathering foreign intelligence information. Last year, when the CIA and intelligence community announced there were gaping holes in our ability to track overseas terrorists, Congress acceded to the president’s call for immediate action to fix and update the law. (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson: The Moral Economy - In this heated campaign season, housing prices are plummeting. Banks write off billions of dollars in unrecoverable debt. The stock market wildly fluctuates almost hourly. Candidates promise painless and near instant relief. But despite the politicians' rhetoric, it is not hard to understand why America is in trouble. First, there has been too much madcap real estate speculation. In recent years, housing prices were driven sky-high on the expectation that almost anyone, often with little security, could profit by borrowing easy money to buy and sell property. (READ MORE)
Steve Chapman: Surging to Stalemate - When it comes to the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq, the Republican presidential candidates all seem to be auditioning for the lead in a remake of "Pollyanna." In their eyes, it has been the greatest triumph since the liberation of Paris. John McCain crows that the Democratic presidential aspirants "continue to deny the facts on the ground that we are succeeding." Mitt Romney says "the surge is working." Mike Huckabee agrees. Rudy Giuliani boasts that he supported it from the start. Only the perennial skunk at the garden party, Ron Paul, declines to recite the catechism. (READ MORE)
Suzanne Fields: Looking for Mr. Perfect - Barack Obama is on to something with his praise of Ronald Reagan as "a transformational president." A lot of Democrats screamed, and even a lot of Republicans complained that a Democrat was trying to steal their hero. Ronald Reagan symbolized something else to the rest of us, a man from a time when both Democrats and Republicans could honor a dead president for his actual deeds. He reminded us that it could still be "Morning in America," not "Mourning in America." The mean characterization of Reagan as an "amiable dunce" has evaporated as his keen intelligence has been revealed in his letters and journals. (READ MORE)
Hugh Hewitt: Do Conservatives Still Care About The Courts? - Which of the Republican candidates for the presidency is most likely to get "Soutered?" To nominate for the Supreme Court, not an originalist, but in fact the opposite. Those vulnerable to being Soutered lack an ear for or an interest in the inner ideology that all lower court judges keep carefully tucked away until they arrive on the Supreme Court of the United States where it is allowed to take full flight. It is hard work to get SCOTUS nominees right. Even when a president cares about the Court and the Constitution's interpretation by the nine deeply, he can still be flummoxed by the process. If he isn't passionate about it going in, it won't spring up in the course of his busy life in the Oval Office. (READ MORE)
Salena Zito: Swiftboating 2.0 - An e-mail attributed to Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, and sent out by the Barack Obama campaign took on those who would "swiftboat" Obama. Kerry, saying in the e-mail that "this is personal for me, and for a whole lot of Americans who lived through the 2004 election," tells Obama supporters that "we must stop the swiftboating, stop the push-polling, stop the front groups, and stop the e-mail chain smears." "The truth matters, but how you fight the lies matters even more. We must be determined never again to lose any election to a lie." (READ MORE)
Michael Medved: Six Big Lies About John McCain - LIE #1: John McCain isn’t a loyal Republican. TRUTH: McCain has been a stalwart Reagan Republican since he first entered politics in 1981. He has never backed Democratic candidates for president or lesser posts – other than supporting his friend Joe Lieberman in his Independent campaign for US Senate in 2006. Over the years, he has campaigned tirelessly for Republican office-holders in every corner of the country – including vigorous campaigning that helped win elections for his former rival George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004. (READ MORE)
A Newt One: Thousands Flee Gaza After Israeli Blockade - In an effort to end the rocket attacks upon Israeli citizens all border crossings were sealed leading into Gaza last week, cutting off the flow of vital supplies needed by those living in the besieged territory. In spite of renewed Peace Talks, rockets have rained down on Israeli Border Towns, leading the Israeli government to temporarily seal off all of the border crossings with Gaza and eliciting warnings from the United Nations that the closure would lead to increased hardship for the "impoverished Palestinian Arabs" living in the territory. Exacerbating the tensions, Israeli PM Olmert called the attacks emanating from Gaza "war," leading Palestinian PM Abbas to threaten to quit the newly restarted peace talks and possibly even to resign his post. (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: Eliminating The Gaps In Medical Care - When a servicemember is injured, whether that injury occurs on the battlefield, during a training exercise or just in their everyday work, they always receive the best medical care that is available. The Defense Department is working to ensure that the gaps that often occur, as a patient moves from the DoD system of care, to the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system or even to private hospitals and closed and the transition is much smoother. The gaps that have been experienced in moving between the medical systems is one of the focuses of the Dole/Shalala group and their recommendations that followed. (READ MORE)
American Ranger: My Last Year in the Army Begins - My third mobilization since 9/11 began on February 1, 2007 and was scheduled to end on January 31, 2008. I decided to allow the Army to extend my active duty until February 1, 2009. Since I turn 60 on February 28 of that year and must retire from the military, this will be my last year in the Army. The fact is that the military still needs experienced soldiers to mobilize and train the troops that are being shipped off to war. When this final year ends, I will return to duty at the police department. From that point on, I will work as a cop until it isn’t fun any more. Then I will retire from there as well. (READ MORE)
Blue Crab Boulevard: Identity Politics, Front And Center - Bill Clinton admitted today that there are identity politics cards on the table. He said that he expected blacks to vote for Obama in South Carolina while Hillary Clinton would catch the votes of women. Then he blew up at the media and moved along to his next appearance. “DILLON, S.C. - Bill Clinton said Wednesday he expects blacks to vote for Barack Obama and women to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the dynamic may cause his wife to lose the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary Saturday.” (READ MORE)
The Captain's Journal: The Role of Electricity in State Stabilization - Not too many months ago, one of al Qaeda’s tactics to create chaos in Iraq was to attack the infrastructure (e.g., water supplies and the electricity grid). With the retreat of al Qaeda from Anbar and the constant combat they sustain in the North, there are fewer oppotunities for them to attack the grid, and power is being consumed at higher rates in the large urban areas, while outlier cities are starved. “Residents in the battered city receive just a couple of hours of mains power a day, and in the depths of winter US soldiers are facing a whole new array of challenges, said Captain Dan Gaskell.” (READ MORE)
Noah Shachtman: NYC's Subway Spycam Network Stuck in the Station - New York City's plan to secure its subways with a next-generation surveillance network is getting more expensive by the second, and slipping further and further behind schedule. A new report by the New York State Comptroller's office reveals that "the cost of the electronic security program has grown from $265 million to $450 million, an increase of $185 million or 70 percent." An August 2008 deadline has been pushed back to December 2009, and further delays may be just ahead. (READ MORE)
Dadmanly: Thompson - Now they come with praise. NRO Editor Kathryn Jean Lopez praises Fred Thompson and his failed candidacy for President, and offers a somewhat remorseful eulogy. She harkens to a self-summation of Thompson’s view of Government, offered to caucus-goers in Iowa: Whoever winds up the Republican nominee for president this year, he’d be doing his country a service if he read Fred’s pre-caucus message to Iowa voters that Thompson posted on his website. In it he listed “the fundamental, conservative principles that have unified us for over two centuries.” (READ MORE)
Dr. Sanity: Victimhood 101: A Short Course on how to Obtain and Nurture It in Today's World - DEDICATION The world's most celebrated victims have once again scored a PR coup and managed to get the major news services pimping for them. Of course, the UN Commission on Human Rights (otherwise known as the UN Israeli CRimes Against Palestinians --UNICRAP-- Committee ) has already sprung into action. One can only sit back in admiration and awe at the skill and talent--not to mention energy and resources it takes to pull off a victimhood scam of this magnatude! (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Sow. Reap - Musharraf went soft on bin Laden. Musharraf may regret that. Army Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez told Pentagon reporters that the troops in Afghanistan are not really worried about a spring offensive by the Taliban and al-Qaeda. That’s because the bad guys may be eying an easier target: Pakistan. Yesterday, I posted on how Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf finally admitted publicly that he isn’t going after Osama bin Laden. Poor decision. It shows a sign of weakness. And now, guess who is in Musharraf’s back yard? The U.S. send troops to Pakistan? You have got to be kidding. (READ MORE)
Fortress of Solitude: Secret Clinton Memos - Hillary Clinton has been campaigning for the Presidency her entire life. But, ever since she OFFICIALLY announced her candidacy, she has claimed that she is “uniquely qualified” for the job of President of the United States. In her own words: “I wouldn't be in this race and working as hard as I am unless I thought I am uniquely qualified at this moment in our history to be the president we need.” Of course, no one can really figure out what her “unique qualifications” are. Is it because she was First Lady? In that case, I guess Laura Bush is “uniquely qualified” as well. How about Lady Bird Johnson, for that matter? Was she “uniquely qualified?” Perhaps, it is Hillary’s 7 years as a junior Senator which "uniquely qualifies" her. Although, the major problem there is that, since being elected to the Senate, SHE HASN’T DONE ANYTHING. (READ MORE)
Baron Bodissey: It’s All Israel’s Fault - The political situation in Israel has been less than encouraging ever since the accession of Ehud Olmert as prime minister and the end of the 1986 war with Hizbullah. Despite the fact that the majority of Israeli citizens see clearly the danger of Hamas and the PA, the government of Israel seems to be infected by the same dhimmi virus that afflicts the rest of the West. The current state of affairs in “Palestine” serves to highlight the convergence of several pathological trends that have become more and more common within Western culture: (READ MORE)
Kit Lange: They Are Not Forgotten - Like everyone else who has worn the uniform, the title of this post has a particular resonance for me. It is more than just a catchy slogan. It is my blood oath to my brothers who never came home. It is my honor bound obligation to remember the sacrifice our POW/MIAs have made, and to remember them with love, honor and respect. Obviously, I am preaching to the choir here, and you are probably wondering why. I am relating this because for some months now we have been fighting the good fight here in Philadelphia. During the baseball playoffs we noticed that some teams fly the POW/MIA flag, while most do not. An entity that made over $6,000,000,000 last year has told me personally that it is a team by team decision. The Philadelphia Phillies have told me that they have done enough. (READ MORE)
GayPatriotWest: Bill Clinton’s Legacy–Divisive Politics - Few presidents have fretted more about their legacy while in office than did Bill Clinton. Now, he seems determined to define that legacy by helping his wife win election to the White House. If she wins, he rationalizes, it’ll cement his role in U.S. history. Yet, had this Democrat not focused as much on politics as he has, he may well have earned one of the best domestic policies legacies of any president in the twentieth century, a man who succeeded in reforming many of the programs his partisan predecessors had enacted. (READ MORE)
Heading Right: McCain Doesn’t Have A Soul - Believe it or not, I think E.J. Dionne has a point. John McCain’s biggest weakness is the huge reservoir of enmity and mistrust he’s built up over the past seven years in the GOP base whose votes he is going to need to capture the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. He’s wasted no opportunity to shaft his own party on its most valued conservative causes in no small part as retribution for being rejected eight years ago in favor of George W. Bush. For a man of McCain’s titanic (even for a U.S. senator) ego, that was an unforgiveable afront. It was his turn, bleep it, and it was those blankety-blank right-wingers who denied it to him and handed it to that smirking, malapropositic frat boy instead. Don’t think for a moment that he’s forgotten, much less forgiven, any of it. (READ MORE)
Jihad Watch: Shock horror! "Hamas staged some of the blackouts" - War Is Deceit Update: Hamas fakes a crisis. When will the Western mainstream media -- the part of it that is not complicit, that is -- wake up to the fact that the jihadists are staging propaganda theater on this grand scale? "'Hamas staged some of the blackouts,'" by Khaled Abu Toameh for the Jerusalem Post (thanks to Mladen): “On at least two occasions this week, Hamas staged scenes of darkness as part of its campaign to end the political and economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip, Palestinian journalists said Wednesday.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Possibility Imagined - Israel: Egypt wants Gaza, Egypt can have Gaza. Theoretically, that makes Mubarak responsible for rockets flying into Israel. Insidious Zionist plot or disastrous Hamas/Mubarak miscalculation? It will be interesting to see what Israel does the next time one comes flying over the fence. So the Arabs, or one of them, who disowned the terrorist group Hamas now own it. Fascinating development. (READ MORE)
Congressman John Campbell: The CBO Budget Outlook - The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its report on The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2008 to 2018. I am off to a Budget Hearing Committee, and this is a lengthy report, but at first glance this is what stands out to me. According to the report, the budget deficit fell in 2007 for the third year in a row. It dropped from $316 billion in 2005 to $248 billion in 2006 to $163 billion in 2007. Revenues in 2007 totaled $2.6 trillion (18% of the GDP), which is a 6.7% increase from the previous year. (READ MORE)
Knee Deep in the Hooah! He teacheth mine hands to fight, Pt. 1 - Mr.Hooah!’s memoirs …Part I. My wife has invited me to be a guest blogger writing a short (how short?) series covering my time from entry into the Army via Sand Hill, Ft. Benning, up until the time I left OCS HHC due to an injury. I’m not a writer, so I’ll write the story out, and I will ask her to edit. She has worked so hard to have a good blog that I dare not mess it up. Not unless I like sleeping on a couch. I give this information from my own personal perspective of my experience in BCT and OCS. I am not speaking for the United States Army or any branch of the Armed Services. These are my opinions, expressly, blah, blah, and all that legal stuff. Additionally, I warn you that I run the risk of sounding like one long recruitment ad. So, as Colonel Hati from Jungle Book might say, “I remember when I was in the Maharajah’s third pack-ee-derm … ah those were the days …discipline, discipline was the key …” (READ MORE)
Tom Bowler: American Honor - At one time anti-war liberals were quick to compare the war in Iraq to the war in Vietnam. “Beyond the purely pragmatic argument that the war in Southeast Asia was unwinnable, there was also a sense among opponents of the war that defeat would, in some deep way, be balm for America's soul. ‘For all the anguish felt over the loss of American lives, can we acknowledge there is something proper in the way that hubristic American power has been thwarted?’ asked antiwar writer James Carroll in 2006, explicitly making the connection between the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. On the subject of honor, Mr. Carroll added that ‘the goal of “peace with honor” assumes the nation's honor has not already been squandered.’” But that was before General Petraeus's success with the troop surge became impossible to ignore. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Pakistani Army launches offensive in South Waziristan - After nearly two weeks of conventional assaults by the Taliban against Pakistani military outposts and convoys, the military has launched an offensive in South Waziristan. The Army has moved over 600 soldiers, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships into the northern region of South Waziristan. The target is Baitullah Mehsud and his Taliban forces. The military launched its offensive from three axes, The Nation reported. The Army attacked Makeen from Ramzak in North Waziristan, Ladha from Wana in the south, and Spinkai Raghzai from Jandola in the southeast. The Taliban are still in possession of the Sararogha Fort, which was captured Jan. 16 in a massed assault. Pakistani troops have been reported to be launching attacks on Taliban positions in the mountains. (READ MORE)
Patterico: Tim Rutten: Incompetent? Or Indifferent to the Truth? I Offer My View - Below, Jack Dunphy has a post about Tim Rutten’s recent column on financial disclosure at the LAPD. Read that post before you read this one. Go ahead. I’ll wait. I wanted to add a few points of my own, but I’m doing it in a separate post rather than an update, because I don’t people to be confused about who is saying this — and I don’t want Jack to be held responsible for what I’m about to say. Which is this: it’s quite clear that Tim Rutten didn’t want to know about any instances of leaking or accidental disclosure of confidential police information, because any such facts would have presented an inconvenient obstacle to the rant Rutten wanted to write. (READ MORE)
Pirates Cove: Barking Moonbats Plan Anti-Bush Campaign During W’s Last 365 - The AP, which writes the article, calls them liberals. Really, isn’t it about time to start really referring to them as leftists, or, has the hard left taken over and absorbed the remaining old school liberals? “A liberal advocacy group plans to spend $8.5 million in a drive to make sure President Bush’s public approval doesn’t improve as his days in the White House come to an end. Americans United for Change plans to undertake a yearlong campaign, spending the bulk of the money on advertising, to keep public attention on what the group says are the failures of the Bush administration, including the war in Iraq, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and the current mortgage crisis.” (READ MORE)
Pros and Cons: Crazy like a fox? - A lot of hawks, Jhn Bolton comes to mind, were very upset when the Administration allowed the latest NIE (national intelligence estimate) to be published, and even defended it, though it said that despite a plethora of bad acts and forbidden research, Iran had given up its active pursuit of nukes, as opposed to nuclear capacity, in 2003 after we gave it the object lessons of Saddaam Hussein and Muhamar Qadaffi’s Green Revolution. I am one of those that thinks the backsliding we allowed in north Korea is, by itself, bad, though it helped a South Korean hawk get elected president in Seoul and started other nations worrying about North Korea now that they could not pretend to ignore he threat by denouncing but counting on a forward leaning US posture in the Northeast Asia. (READ MORE)
McQ: Hillary Clinton: "Fair" warning - Jacob Sullum takes a look at the words and phrases Hillary Clinton has been using on the campaign trail and warns us to take heed: “During this week’s Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton said putting together the right kind of stimulus package is ‘a part of economic justice.’ The remark reflected a major campaign theme for the New York senator, who has declared she would pursue ‘a new vision of economic fairness’ as president. That slogan should set off alarm bells for anyone who recognizes that economic outcomes result from myriad individual choices. To impose her vision of economic fairness, Clinton would have to override those choices, compromising freedom in the name of equality.” (READ MORE)
The Redhunter: Afghanistan Update - Who's Winning? - In the wake of their being squeezed out of Iraq, al Qaeda has been "redeploying" assets to Afghanistan. To help counter this, the United States is sending 3,000 additional Marines. Even so, the troops we already have there inflicted a significant defeat on them and their allies, the Taliban, last month. It's devilishly hard to know who's winning in Afghanistan, because individual battles may prove illusory. At the end of October Michael Yon wrote a pessimistic piece in which he said point blank that "there are many indicators that the Afghan campaign is at this date a complete failure." He discussed many reasons for his conclusion, not the least of which was the ever-increasing drug trade. "Approximately half of Afghanistan’s economy is based on opium", and much of the profit goes to the Taliban and al Qaeda. As with Central America, it's hard to stop at the supply end. And, indeed, this years opium crop was the largest ever. (READ MORE)
Words From Warriors: 24 hours in milsupport - It's 3 o'clock in the morning...I'm up because well...sleep and I are strange bedfellows. I am also up listening to the rain and grateful that all my children and husband are just a few steps away. The funny thing about military support is no one tells you how attached you get to these people who you may or may not ever meet or even talk to by mail or internet. When you are first introduced to the concept t generally revolves around getting alist of things to send and wondering if they are going to think you are crazy for trying to meet some of the needs of a stranger. Of the 36 I and friends have supported in the last year I have 6 well read letters and a couple of email addresses I am on my knees grateful for everytime I see them in my inbox. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: OK, Let's Go To Plan B... - A few weeks ago, I came out and said I was going to vote for Fred Thompson in New Hampshire's presidential primary, and I did. For all the good it did. Fred's hung it up. I'm disappointed. Thompson, I thought, was the best potential president out of the lot. He had a firm grasp of federalist principles -- knowing what was and was not the business of the federal government -- and a refreshing honesty and candor. John McCain calls himself a "straight talker," but it was Thompson who went to Michigan and essentially said (to steal the precise phrasing from Bruce Springsteen) "these jobs are going, boys, and they ain't coming back." (READ MORE)
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