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)
Ms. Merkel's Left Problem - The only clear winner in Sunday's German regional elections is the country's (very) Left Party. Among the many losers is the economic reform needed to sustain Germany's recovery -- now and possibly after next year's national elections. (READ MORE)
Final Year's Realities Push Big Ideas Into Background - Gone were the grand dreams of remaking Social Security, immigration law or the tax code. In their place were modest initiatives, such as hiring preferences for military spouses. The economic package targeted tax breaks to low- and middle-class workers. (READ MORE)
McCain, Romney Go Another Round in Fla. - ORLANDO, Jan. 28 -- The front-runners in the Florida Republican primary exchanged some of their sharpest criticisms of the campaign on Monday, with each seeking a win on Tuesday that would provide a big haul of delegates and a burst of momentum heading into a Feb. 5 mega-primary. (READ MORE)
Bush Touts Iraq Progress, Economic Plan - President Bush told the American people last night that his strategy to stabilize Iraq is achieving results "few of us could have imagined just one year ago," even as he sought to reassure the public that his new stimulus plan will stave off a recession that threatens to hobble the nation's economy...(READ MORE)
Greater Use of Privilege Spurs Concern - The U.S. government has been increasing its use of the state secrets privilege to avoid disclosure of classified information in civil lawsuits, prompting legislation in the Senate that would provide more congressional oversight of the practice. (READ MORE)
Revenge Killings Stoke a Violent Cycle in Kenya - NAIROBI, Jan. 28 -- The toll from five days of fighting between rival tribal gangs across western Kenya rose to at least 85 Monday, as the post-election violence that has swept this East African nation began to take on a new character: revenge. (READ MORE)
Bush Draws Line on Spending - In his final State of the Union address last night, President Bush called on Congress to overcome election-year politics and impose fiscal discipline, prevent the economy from slipping into recession and bolster national security. (READ MORE)
Obama Oratory Garners Big-name Backers - Sen. Barack Obama's ability to move a crowd with his oratory has helped him win over thousands of new voters and prominent endorsers alike, and will be tested as he tries to build momentum for the coast-to-coast showdown on Super Tuesday. (READ MORE)
GOP Looks to Diverse Florida Retirement Enclave - Democratic presidential challenger Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton might argue that is takes a village to raise a child. In Florida, Republican hopefuls think it takes the Villages to help win an election. (READ MORE)
Australia Considers Inflation Main Foe - A new left-wing government in Australia has begun with a decidedly unliberal approach to economic policy — proposing a budget based on deep cuts in spending and taxes. (READ MORE)
Challenge on Earmarks Aimed at '08 Democrats - President Bush last night drew a line in the sand on "pork-barrel" spending that puts the presidential field on the spot and creates an election-year fight on an issue that unites Republicans but splits the Democratic presidential candidates. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Andrew Lubin: Clearing Out the Belts: With 1–30 Infantry South of Baghdad - Patrol Base Al-Mizan: We were awakened our first night at this forward base by the sound of the machine guns pounding from the Apaches flying overhead. This is Patrol Base Al-Mizan, opened two days ago by the 1-30 Infantry, LTC Ken Adgie commanding. Out of Fort Stewart, Ga., Bravo Company and HAC Company started building this forward base, the latest in a series, just two days ago. Taking over an abandoned house, the Soldiers have been filling Hesco barriers, putting electricity and lights into their new FOB, pushing out into the countryside, and working on expanding their very aggressive and very competent Concerned Local Citizens group in the opening days of Operation Coliseum. (READ MORE)
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Kabul through a Humvee window - There is no place in Afghanistan like Kabul. You know when you're there because of the traffic and the crowds. The city feels like one big bazaar with produce stands and shops that sell everything. There are hotels and restaurants and vendors selling nuts, shoes and clothes right off their carts. Large slabs of meat hang from hooks. You can buy a motorcycle and plumbing supplies at the same shop. "Traffic" could include everything from a bus to a tractor to a bicycle to a horse to a donkey to a goat. Shops and homes not only crowd the streets, but spread along the surrounding mountains. (READ MORE)
Sgt Grumpy: Not Part III - Sometimes here in Iraq things go boom, or "boomba" as our Iraqi Jundees say. Yes, I am overdue. Some of you even chose to use your potty-mouth words to tell me so. I could respond with a few choice Iraqi put-downs, which are very colorful, and more poetically constructed than in English. But, suffice to say I have been damn busy. (READ MORE)
Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal: Graveyard Shift - I couldn’t see the makeshift dip cup PV2 Van Wilder spat into, but I heard his deposit splash into the pool of tobacco brown before he answered my question. “No worries, Sir, we’re doing fine.” In the limp, ambiguous darkness of the hours between midnight and dawn, I could only make out the outline of my soldier’s shape three feet away from me. We were on the roof of the American combat outpost, overwatching Hell’s ghetto, making small talk to disrupt the brittle chill in the night. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Change Could Be Good - Bing West and Max Boot have an interesting piece in the L.A. Times. [Thanks Anton Efendi for sending me the link.] They write that Bush might have to withdraw support for Iraq's Nouri Al Maliki, and Iraqis might not have to hold our noses and back the prime minister. It's great to read a piece that says Iraq's biggest problem is its ineffective government, and not some huge civil war. Iraqis have been talking about this for a long time. (READ MORE)
From an Anthropological Perspective: Trash and Sewage - News reports sometimes reference trash and sewage in the streets of Baghdad. I decided to show what it looks like in some areas. The way this works is that there is no waste removal system as part of city governance. The US Army and USAID pay a bunch of independent contractors to haul trash from the streets. We are talking BIG money. And then sometimes contractors will collect the trash and dump it in another neighborhood rather than take it all the way to a central dump. (READ MORE)
Fearless 1st Marines: Regimental Combat Team 1 takes Command - CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Jan. 27, 2008) –Regimental Combat Team 6 officially transferred their authority of the area of operations to Regimental Combat Team 1 during a ceremony aboard Camp Fallujah, January 27. “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve with the Marines of Regimental Combat Team 6 for the last 13 months,” said Col. Richard L. Simcock II, commanding officer, Regimental Combat Team 6. “Our Marines have faced many challenges but have also made immense progress in brining stability and security to the region.” (READ MORE)
Desert Dude: 28 January - Woke up this morning around 0700… another mission today…so, I got up and took care of the personal hygiene action, had some coffee and a smoke, got my weapon loaded in the truck—M249…today’s mission was to attend a shura –a meeting or consultation—to declare that their area is now known as a “peaceful area”…I am not really sure how they can claim this—maybe only 18 IEDs a year (or whatever they have had) is still under the limit…anyhoo…it was a huge event with lots of people and media and high rollers and all kinds of dog and pony show circus type stuff… (READ MORE)
Iraq: The Purgatorium: Exodus Vs Institutionalization - I’ve been away for a long time. A really long time. Almost a year, non-stop. A YEAR in the wastelands. A year in a place that only exists in headlines for the rest of the world. A mythical terrible place where all kinds of horrific things happen. But you know, this place isn’t so horrific to me. Nah, this is normal. All of it. Me looking the same as everyone else. All of us, wearing the exact same thing. The only caste system is the rank system. There’s no rich or poor among us, not visibly. We all have jack shit. (READ MORE)
Army of Dude: Photo Story Monday - The Reality Of War - Every Monday for a few months, I've been bringing you tales of battlefield excitement, from ducking machine gun fire to uncovering mass graves. While these stories are intense and need to be told, they really don't show for you the true realities one experiences in war: infinite, soul crushing boredom. Behind every firefight, every raid, every huge clearing mission, lies hours and hours of downtime, plan changes, reconfiguration of plan changes, cancellations, earlier start times and later start times. After the intensity of knocking down gates and dragging away a boogeyman, we'd sit on couches - or in Strykers - for hours, waiting on 'the word,' the ubiquitous order from above, to pack up and head back. Exfiltration, a fine art it seemed, would take at least an hour if everything went perfectly. If you've been a reader for awhile, you probably guessed that is never the case. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Dick Armey: A Mortgage 'Tweak' We Don't Need - Politicians are always willing -- if not quite qualified -- to play the role of economic savior. And with fresh bad news about the economy coming out regularly, there are plenty of would-be saviors auditioning for the role. Some of their proposals are serious reforms. Others are Keynesian-inspired, more silly than harmful. But too many are dangerous ideas that would undermine recovery and do long-term harm to both homeowners and our general prosperity. (READ MORE)
Bret Stephens: The Gaza Breakout - What if Gaza were to conquer Egypt? The possibility is not as remote as it may seem just by glancing at the map. Egypt has more than 50 times the population of its former colony and 2,800 times the landmass. But Gaza is sovereign Hamas territory, Hamas is the Palestinian branch of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, and Egypt -- not Israel -- is the country that has most to fear from a statelet that is at once the toehold, sanctuary and springboard of an Islamist revolution. (READ MORE)
Greg Rushford: Nailed - Try this for a new way to hammer the already troubled American housing market: Raise the price of a key housing input -- nails. On Jan. 23, the U.S. Commerce Department published a notice announcing its intention to slap tariffs ranging from 20% to 118% on "unfairly" low-priced Chinese nails, while charging a duty of 4% on nails from Dubai. The tariffs are aimed at helping five struggling U.S. manufacturers who filed a dumping suit claiming they're hurt by imports of below-cost nails worth about $564 million last year. (READ MORE)
Chuck Norris: Presidential Buyer's Remorse - This past week, investors experienced a sizable economic tremor as Wall Street's fortress shook. From a Dow that dropped more than 200 points in the first 10 minutes of trading to the Federal Reserve's biggest "emergency" slash of interest rates in a quarter of a century, even the experts are confused as to whether these are signs of an unhealthy economy or birth pains of an American recession. Just as fluctuating and fickle is this presidential election. With political surges, primary bypasses, midstream startups and blended politics, there are still no clear front-runners in either party. (READ MORE)
Carrie Schwab Pomerantz: Is LTC Insurance a Good Idea? - At a party over the holidays, a woman I've known forever asked me about long-term care insurance. She and her husband were starting to think about retirement and its more unpleasant partner: old age. Specifically, she wanted to know if LTC insurance was a good idea. My answer, as is so often the case with personal financial issues, was "it depends." As I'll explain, chances are you're going to need some form of custodial care during your lifetime. For many people, LTC insurance can be a good way to mitigate the high costs that go along with it. What factors should you consider? (READ MORE)
Ed Feulner: Too Much "No" In NATO - If the truth hurts, you can do two things: Get angry at the messenger, or fix the situation so the truth won’t hurt anymore. Recently, Defense Secretary Robert Gates engaged in some truth-telling that hurt some of our allies. When asked about the progress of the war in Afghanistan (which is officially under NATO control), he told the Los Angeles Times, “I’m worried we have some military forces that don’t know how to do counterinsurgency operations.” Gates later made it clear that he respected the contributions made by troops from specific nations, including Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. But his overall criticism is valid. (READ MORE)
George Will: The Clintons Are Everywhere - WASHINGTON -- In 1976, Fred Harris -- a populist precursor of this year's version of John Edwards, championed "the little people." When he finished fourth with just 10.8 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, he cheerfully explained that the little people were too little to reach the levers on the voting machines. Soon Edwards will join Harris in the book of presidential trivia. (What presidential candidate was known as "Little Lyndon from Lawton"? Answer: Former Sen. Harris from Lawton, Okla.) Meanwhile, note this: (READ MORE)
Cal Thomas: The Republican Retreat - The aptly named Republican "retreat" last weekend at the ritzy Greenbrier resort in West Virginia should have included Democrats because Republicans are behaving just like them. There was President Bush arguing for his "bipartisan stimulus package" and supporting government handouts with borrowed money. Republicans can always cut a bipartisan deal if they behave like Democrats. House Republican Leader John Boehner implored his fellow Republicans to "sacrifice" by agreeing to a one-year moratorium on earmarks to "prove" that Republicans are the party that can fix Washington. (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: "Billary" Versus Obama - Whatever one may think about Barack Obama as a candidate or as a potential President, his candidacy has brought something new to the American political scene. His stunning victory in the Iowa caucuses, in a state where more than 90 percent of the population is white, was an unmistakable signal that racism is not the invincible thing that some seem to think it is. Unlike Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton before him, Obama has not been running as a black candidate for symbolic purposes but as a serious contender who happens to be black. (READ MORE)
Dennis Prager: A Response to "What You Have To Believe To Be a Republican Today" - For four years, a list of alleged Republican positions -- "What You Have To Believe To Be a Republican Today" -- has been circulating on the Internet and forwarded in countless e-mails. In this presidential election year, it is important to respond to these charges. If people want to vote for a Democratic president, they should not do so based on falsehoods about Republicans. Given space limitations, I cannot respond to all of them. I have decided to respond to the 13 most significant. "What you have to believe to be a Republican today": (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: SOTU Earmark Plan is a Lame-Duck Promise - White House aides are promising that President Bush will announce “unprecedented” action against earmarks in his last State of the Union address this evening, but there are grumblings that it’s nothing more than a lame duck promise. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters Monday, “We are confirming this morning that the President in his State of the Union will announce unprecedented steps he’s taking to reform and reduce the amount of earmarks. The President will say that if these spending items are worthy, Congress should debate then in the open and hold a public vote.” (READ MORE)
Donald Douglas: John McCain and the Irrational Right - In yesterday's post, John McCain, the Irrational Right, and the Politics of Immigration Control, I provided a critical analysis of the McCain campaign's controversial hiring of Dr. Juan Hernandez as Latino Outreach Coordinator. The entry generated some emotional remarks and exchanges in the comment thread. But readers should remember, first and foremost, I disagree with the Hernandez appointment: "McCain's made a big mistake, at least in terms of courting the secure-borders conservative base." I think it's a gamble to rile the party's base, even if the campaign's adopted a strategic perspective of appealing to particular demographic constiuencies in the primaries. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: New York Times Finds Bush Economy Was Good Before It Went Bad Two Weeks Ago - The New York Times can't help itself. It is a phenomenon that was observed by Ace and others for years. Even as the economy was going gangbusters and people were doing well, the Times and other media outlets were constantly engaging in doom and gloom prognostications that the sky was falling and recession and hard times were around the corner. Mr. Bush has spent years presiding over an economic climate of growth that would be the envy of most presidents. Yet much to the consternation of his political advisers, he has had trouble getting credit for it, in large part because Americans were consumed by the war in Iraq. (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Will Sharpton Require Clinton to Quit? - The Reverend Al Sharpton, our aging antisemitic race baiting poverty pimp makes a name for himself by going after white folks who say things that he thinks are racist. He recently got himself involved in the business of the Golf Channel when one of their female reporters used the word “lynch” while discussing Tiger Woods. Woods took no offense and said it was a dead issue but Sharpton started in. The reporter got 14 days off. Then of course, there was the Don Imus incident where he referred to a women’s basketball team as a bunch of “nappy headed hos”, a remark that brought Sharpton out in full force. Imus went on Sharpton’s radio show and applied his pursed labia to Sharpton’s ample gluteals but that was all for nothing because Sharpton raised a stink and CBS fired Imus rather than risk losing sponsors to a Sharpton protest and Jew killing spree. This leads me to Bill Clinton. (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: Unspoken - Claudia Rosett continues to follow the saga of Hesher Islam versus Stephen Coughlin. Coughlin was an expert on Islam at the Pentagon who was allegedly fired because "made it his mission to set aside the feel-good assumptions about Islam which have been guiding U.S. strategy, and take an unblinkered look at facts". “In a thesis accepted last year by the National Defense Intelligence College, entitled ‘To Our Great Detriment: Ignoring What Extremists Say About Jihad,’ Coughlin came up with heavily documented findings that Islamic law, to a dangerous extent, supports the global spread of Islamic extremism, through both violent and non-violent means. In presentations to the military, based in part on court documents connected to the case of the Holy Land Foundation, Coughlin warned of Muslim Brotherhood plans to subvert the U.S. system via front groups, and ‘destroy western civilization from within.’” (READ MORE)
James Gordon Meek: Special Ops Fighting Each Other in the Sandbox? - Do America’s secret soldiers play well together? There is fresh evidence that the post-9/11 military still is plagued by inter-service rivalries that may be impacting critical counterterrorism operations. The revelations have come out in the extraordinary case unfolding in a tiny makeshift courtroom at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where a Marine “court of inquiry” - the first convened in a half-century - is probing the killings of at least 19 Afghan civilians the morning of March 4, 2007, by a company from the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command. On Sunday, I reported in the New York Daily News that at the time of the alleged shooting spree, the unit’s commander, Maj. Fred Galvin, was trying to offer up his small force of specially trained Marines to the CIA for secret counterterrorism missions along the Afghan-Pakistan border. (READ MORE)
Crazy Politico: Sometimes It Takes Years... - Sometimes it takes years for a point to get across. You may have the greatest arguements in the world to pose to your adversaries, and they just don't (or refuse) to get it. A few things 17 years in the making are starting to become clear to people who ignored them that whole time. Harken back with me, to the last century, circa 1991, and the beginning of the Bill Clinton Era. Conservatives and liberals remeber that time frame differently. Democrats saw the dawning of the "New Camelot", Republicans saw the opening stanzas of "Liars Club". When the right (rightfully) said that Bill Clinton would say or do anything to get into office, and provided numerous examples we were brushed off by the media and the left as "bitter" over Clinton's plurality election win(s). (READ MORE)
Dadmanly: Political Adultery - The New York Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW) reveals their leadership lacks any concept of irony, in the manner of their public spleen-busting over Sen. Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama for President. The Albany Times Union reports on a statement made by NOW-NY, which reacted to Kennedy’s endorsement with the claim: “Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal.” The Corner picked up the story, as did Drudge, and now the TU server has been driven off line. Courtesy of the Corner’s Kathryn Jean Lopez, here’s the statement in full: (READ MORE)
Fjordman: An Open Letter to Expo and the Expressen Newspaper - The newspaper Expressen in Sweden recently published an article claiming that two members of the Sweden Democrats party have ties to neo-Nazi organizations. First of all: If these people really do have neo-Nazi connections, they do not belong in a civilized party and should in my view be expelled immediately. The SD will never be taken seriously if they have people like this in their party and they do not deserve to. That is, however, not the only issue at stake here. The source quoted in this article is the organization Expo. Expo has released a warning against the rise of “organized Islamophobia.” A number of blogs with content that “should probably be banned” were mentioned, among them Gates of Vienna and Little Green Footballs. (READ MORE)
Gribbit's Word: The “Bush Lied Men Died” Bamboozle Debunked - With President George W. Bush’s final State of the Union Address coming tonight, it would be prudent to pay a little attention to a common misconception dominant in the minds of the politically apathetic American lemming*, namely “Bush lied about Iraq’s WMD’s”. There is no evidence that President George W. Bush lied about anything. Did he act on incomplete or inaccurate data? I think that is a more accurate explanation rather than the blanket indictment that has been allowed to ferment and rot the minds of those politically apathetic American lemmings* for the past 4 1/2 years. Dinesh D’Souza of the Hoover Institute has written a post at TownHall.com that deals with this very topic. (READ MORE)
Knee Deep in the Hooah!: He teacheth mine hands to fight … Part 4 - … or “Audacity, Audacity, Awwww-nuts!” Now that our class Company was divided up into platoons with leadership in place, (Cadre, Student PL, Student Platoon Sergeant, Student Squad Leaders) our first order of business was the infamous packing list shake down. Anybody who knows OCS also knows that attending is not cheap. A student has to shell out some cash for required non-issue items. Such things as better boots are optional. Other items are not. Patches, protractors, books, extra uniform items, in my case better boots, and innumerable class room items. It all adds up. Moreover, these items are required such that a shake down is taken when you first arrive. (READ MORE)
Congressman John Campbell: Why Earmarks Need to be Reformed - I have been an outspoken critic of earmarks, and I frequently blog about some of the most egregious ones on this very blog, but this story by Sheryl Attkisson, from CBS Evening News perfectly articulates why earmarks are unfair and why the system must be reformed. Attkisson highlights the relationship between Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Randy Best, founder of the “Voyager” reading program. In 2001, Sen. Landrieu earmarked $2 million of taxpayer funds to put the “Voyager reading program” in D.C. public schools. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Questions - Keith Ryan, Homeland Security attache to the United States Embassy in Islamabad, is dead. Local boy, son of a top Boston Globe sports columnist. Shot in the head. The initial official word is suicide, but that is now in question. Horrible and tragic. And very strange. Keith Ryan, who studied law of the sea at Boston College Law and was a U.S. Coast Guard officer, appears to be the same one who penned this brief examining the practical rights of detainees before tribunals. Officially he’s part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which falls under Homeland Security. U.S. officials have declined to discuss what he did in Islamabad, but I’ll take a wild guess that it may have had something to do with U.S. involvement in the interrogation of al Qaeda suspects by Pakistani authorities. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Missile strike in North Waziristan kills 12 - A suspected Taliban hideout in North Waziristan was hit with missiles as peace negotiations in North Waziristan are underway between the Taliban and the provincial government. Twelve have been reported killed in the strike, according to AFP. The attack occurred in the town of Khushali Tari Khel near Mir Ali on the Pakistan-Afghan frontier. "The identities of the dead are not ascertained but we had reports that suspected them of being linked to the Taliban," an intelligence official told AFP. Locals claimed "tribesmen" were visiting the home of a "local elder." The Pakistani military has not confirmed or denied the incident. (READ MORE)
CDR Salamander: Words to get fired over - Though good 'ole Steve isn't allowed to talk to anyone about what is going on it seems, we should let his thoughts speak for him. To get an idea what Mr. Islam may have "issues" with, you can read Coughlin's thesis "To Our Great Detriment": Ignoring What Extremists Say About Islam for yourself (I am). That was going to be the extent of my post until a little birdie sent my way over the weekend an article that makes things much more interesting. Claudia Rosett at National Review Online has been digging....and digging...and the smell gets worse with every shovel full. (READ MORE)
Neal Boortz: Stimulating the Useless - The Democrats in Washington want to make sure of one thing ... if you are going to try to stimulate the American economy, you have to include the freeloaders who haven't been paying income taxes. Now I'm not talking about retired folks here, I'm talking about those of working age who have so squandered their American birthright that they can't even manage to ear enough money to pay a dollar in income taxes. Democrats are now stepping forward with their own economic stimulus plan .. a plan targeted at people who tend to vote Democrat. (READ MORE)
Scott Johnson: A speech divided against itself - The first half of President Bush's State of the Union swan song brought together a hodgepodge of disconnected themes and proposals. Devoted to domestic issues, the first half of the speech barely alluded to the war in which we are engaged. The discussion of taxes -- the proposal to make his tax cuts permanent, the vow of no new taxes, the request that those who support higher taxes send their checks and money orders to the IRS -- was the highlight of the first half. But would an average citizen watching the first half of the speech even understand the subjects the president was addressing in such a telegraphic style? (READ MORE)
Pros and Cons: Anyone still feel bad about removing Saddam Hussein? - From his interrogator’s description (see also here), the guy was a more avuncular Stalin, or a more bloodily vicious Benito Mussolini. Nothing he did on this earth became him so well as his leaving of it. In happier news, here is news and perspective on the rapid growth of Iraqi defense forces. With luck, that growth and news like this, this (note the links at the bottom of the article, and remember it’s from al-Reuters - good news indeed) and this should obviate too many more headlines like this, or Al Qaeda goes north Police chief killed in Mosul though clearly it’ll take a few years to really reduce even the headlines. (READ MORE)
The Redhunter: Afghanistan Update - Whither Waziristan? - There may be some good news across the border, for the government of Pakistan may be getting ready to start a major new offensive into South Waziristan, the lawless area of that country where so many al Qaeda and Taliban are holed up. Stanley Kurtz reports that it's all terribly complicated, though, because of the significant sympathy for the Taliban and al Qaeda in the government, and indeed throughout Pakistani society. On the one hand Musharraf wants to defeat the terrorists, but on the other if he is too blatant about military operations he could lose control of his country. Unfortunately, too many here in the United States do not seem to have an appreciation for the precariousness of Musharraf's rule. Kurtz concludes by noting: (READ MORE)
Right Michigan: URGENT ACTION ALERT: CMU to hold expulsion hearing on conservative student - It wouldn't be a new semester if Central Michigan University weren't attempting to censor free speech and political thought on campus. Wait, that's not entirely true. They don't have a problem with free speech and political thought from the left. It's just the conservatives they have a problem with. By now we all know the story of Dennis Lennox. There's not much I can add that hasn't been more eloquently stated by Mike Volpe and Chet Zarko in recent days. The kid has almost single-handedly raised the Gary Peters issue to national prominence. But just because Dennis thinks that Peters should choose between campus and Congress (in a District hundreds of miles away while violating federal campaign laws that prohibit public employees from pursuing office) doesn't mean the nut-job administrators at Central agree with him. (READ MORE)
Charlottesvillain: Taking redlining to a whole new level - Back in the day before anyone with a pulse could qualify for a mortgage loan well beyond their means, banks and mortgage originators were sometimes accused of redlining, the practice of drawing lines around certain neighborhoods, usually of certain ethnic and/or socioeconomic status, where they would not lend. To combat this practice, Congress railed against the banks and ultimately enacted the Community Reinvestment Act, the purpose of which was to encourage lending in these neighhborhoods. (READ MORE)
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