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)
Fiscal Pressures Lead Some States to Free Inmates Early - NEW YORK -- Reversing decades of tough-on-crime policies, including mandatory minimum prison sentences for some drug offenders, many cash-strapped states are embracing a view once dismissed as dangerously naive: It costs far less to let some felons go free than to keep them locked up. (READ MORE)
The Willie Horton of the 2008 Campaign? - Conduct a thought experiment: Imagine that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor to presidential candidate Barack Obama and preacher with controversial views, was not an outspoken black man but a white woman who penned her controversial ideas in a scholarly journal. (READ MORE)
Cyclone Will Not Delay Burma Vote, Military Says - BANGKOK, May 5 -- Burma's military junta vowed Monday to push ahead with a controversial national referendum on a new constitution, even as the country was reeling from the impact of a cyclone that killed more than 350 and left tens of thousands homeless. (READ MORE)
'Tough' Obama wins seen - Sen. Barack Obama will win the Indiana and North Carolina primaries tomorrow, a top supporter and former Hillary Rodham Clinton backer declared yesterday, prompting the former first lady's campaign to crow that if he doesn't, she deserves to be the nominee. (READ MORE)
Democrats lose footing for gains in November - "Saturday Night Live" veteran Al Franken should have had an easier run for U.S. Senate in Minnesota against an embattled Republican incumbent but is being dogged by $70,000 in unpaid taxes and is slipping in the polls — just one of the topsy-turvy races clouding Democrats' expectations of big gains in November. (READ MORE)
Abbas despairs on foils to peace - Aides to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that he is "depressed" by the lack of progress in negotiations with Israel and views President Bush's summit with Arab leaders this month as a crucial test for U.S.-brokered peace efforts. (READ MORE)
Jindal: 'I'm exactly where I need to be' - He is the future of the Republican Party, some say, and has risen so high for the age of 36 that his name is tossed about as a vice-presidential pick. But Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he wants to keep his job, although he expects to lose popularity as he pushes his ambitious two-term plan to remake his state. (READ MORE)
An Education in Bailouts - Congratulations! You and your fellow taxpayers will soon be the proud owners of a multibillion-dollar portfolio of student loans. And a leading Member of Congress promises that this pretty bundle of debt comes to you with no cost and no risk. President Bush apparently agrees. Recently we told you about Congress's feverish effort to clean up the mess it made in the student loan market. (READ MORE)
Labour Gets Old - Prime Minister Gordon Brown just got the worst electoral thumping meted out to a Labour leader in 40 years, and last week's results in local elections may foreshadow a political and generational realignment in Britain. The 43-year-old Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, can now build on this triumph by giving the "new" Tories a clearer identity, while Mr. Brown faces long odds to resuscitate Labour's fortunes. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Star Parker: McCain is right on health care - A gold star to John McCain for his just released plan for reforming American health care. Analysts will pick apart details and surely will find shortcomings. But directionally, McCain's approach is on the money. Contrary to the vaporous rhetoric of change offered by the Democrats, he has proposed real structural health care reform. The plan boldly takes on key problems in how we deliver health care that have contributed to out-of-control cost escalation. According to a recent University of Minnesota study, health insurance premiums have increased over recent years ten times faster than personal incomes, and by 30 percent from 2001 to 2005. (READ MORE)
Mike S. Adams: Caution! You Are About To Enter A Gun Free Zone - I don’t have to remind my readers that I spend a good bit of my time disagreeing with campus leftists. Nor do I need to remind them that most of these disagreements are with leftist professors. But, until now, I haven’t written about one of the subjects upon which we frequently disagree. That is the subject of whether deterrence theory “works.” Conservatives and leftists (I have a hard time calling them liberals because of their fascistic tendencies) have a fundamentally different view of human nature. Leftists see humans as innately good. That is why they think rehabilitation works. It is also why they think the United Nations is a good idea. If people are innately good then, surely, they can talk out their problems without resorting to war. (READ MORE)
Carol Platt Liebau: Hillary Clinton: When Elitism Is as Elitism Does - In recent weeks, Hillary Clinton has won a “strange new respect” from legions of Americans who have despised her since she emerged on the national scene in 1992. As Barack Obama has been pinned between the twin controversies of Jeremiah Wright and Bittergate, Clinton’s tenacity has won plaudits, some grudging, from many of her long-time detractors. And in a development that speaks volumes about the public’s perception of Obama’s place amid the elites on the leftward end of the American political spectrum, she’s actually succeeded in repositioning herself not just as a moderate, but as “just folks” – the very antithesis of elitism. We’ve seen this movie before. (READ MORE)
Robert D. Novak: Czar Nancy's Rule - WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Operating outside public view, the House Democratic majority is taking extraordinary steps to maintain spending as usual while awaiting a Democrat as president. Remarkably, the supine House Republican minority hardly resists and even collaborates with its supposed adversaries. There has been little or no public Republican protest over seizure of the appropriating process by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her clique. For the second straight year, no appropriations bill other than defense is scheduled for passage. Instead, spending details are crafted in the Speaker's Office, negating President George W. Bush's veto strategy. (READ MORE)
Harry R. Jackson, Jr.: The Way That Seems Wright - Last Monday morning, Rev. Jeremiah Wright confirmed to the world that concern about his theology and worldview was justified. In response to his critics he said that criticism of his opinions was part of a media attack on the black church. As an African-American preacher, I was surprised at Reverend Wright’s presumption and hubris. Throughout his press conference, he equated his defense of the black church to defending his mother in a grade school squabble. He made it clear that he felt that part of the trouble people had with him was an ingredient of a mainstream media disdain for and lack of appreciation for the black church. (READ MORE)
John Andrews: Who's Afraid Of Ideas? - To fear an idea, any idea, is unworthy of a free society. To suppress an idea from debate is more cowardly still. How does our country measure up? Americans pride themselves on being free-thinking and open, and we generally are. But five instances to the contrary recently hit the news. The utterance of forbidden words had polite opinion caterwauling like spinsters who saw a mouse. It was a bad show. We can do better. The would-be censors targeted a radio host’s glee, a political party’s advocacy, a wartime nation’s realism, a legislator’s bluntness, and a black man’s heresy. Amid the Washington cherry blossoms, Jefferson’s statue wept. French seismographs detected Voltaire spinning in his grave. It was not a good week for free expression. (READ MORE)
Peter J. Wirs: No, No, No, Don’t Tell Me to G-- D--- America - Although the Civil War’s individual military records were never known for their accuracy, my fifth-great grandfather, John Arms, was apparently in the 72nd Pennsylvania regiment, stationed in reserve behind the 69th (the "Fighting Irish") and 71st Pennsylvania regiments of the Philadelphia Brigade, responsible for manning the "Angle," the turn in the stonewall that took the brunt of Pickett’s charge on the afternoon of July 3rd in Gettysburg. What is certain is that my fifth-great grandfather was shot in the leg by a Confederate bullet, taken to the rear, bit on a bullet to offset the pain while the surgeons sawed off his leg (amputation was the only reasonable surgical procedure since musket rounds splattered upon impact), given a shot of whiskey and sent home. (READ MORE)
Fouad Ajami: Iran Must Finally Pay a Price - We tell the Iranians that the military option is "on the table." But three decades of playing cat-and-mouse with American power have emboldened Iran's rulers. We have played by their rules, and always came up second best. Next door, in Iraq, Iranians played arsonists and firemen at the same time. They could fly under the radar, secure in the belief that the U.S., so deeply engaged there and in Afghanistan, would be reluctant to embark on another military engagement in the lands of Islam. This is all part of a larger pattern. (READ MORE)
Scott Gottlieb: Obama's Health Care Record - Laughing gas can be useful during complicated dental procedures, but should every health plan be required to cover it and should health insurance cost more because of it? Barack Obama thinks so. As a state senator in Illinois, he voted to require that dental anesthesia be covered by every health plan for difficult medical cases. Today, the requirement is one of 43 mandates imposed by Illinois on health insurance, according to the Illinois Division of Insurance. Other mandates require coverage of infertility treatments, drug rehab, "personal injuries" incurred while intoxicated, and other forms of care. (READ MORE)
Joseph Rago: Dartmouth's 'Hostile' Environment - Often it seems as though American higher education exists only to provide gag material for the outside world. The latest spectacle is an Ivy League professor threatening to sue her students because, she claims, their "anti-intellectualism" violated her civil rights. Priya Venkatesan taught English at Dartmouth College. She maintains that some of her students were so unreceptive of "French narrative theory" that it amounted to a hostile working environment. She is also readying lawsuits against her superiors, who she says papered over the harassment, as well as a confessional exposé, which she promises will "name names." (READ MORE)
Gary Rosen: A Reading List For Democrats - The seemingly endless contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is, among other things, a referendum on that perennial question: What ails the American left? Is the problem a failure to offer clear alternatives to the corporate coziness of the Republicans, or is it a lack of cultural and religious sympathy with the heartland? Is it a matter of substance or style, of insufficiently "progressive" policies or bicoastal swagger? To this stale discussion Susan Neiman brings a new thought: The problem with our liberal elites, she insists, is lame metaphysics – a lack of philosophical nerve. What they need is a bracing dose of the Great Books. (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: Returning Home - We’ve often heard from protesters that our Troops are not accomplishing much in Iraq and that the Iraqi people are worse off than they were, before our Troops toppled Saddam’s reign of horror. We’ve made sure to show the things that our Troops are accomplishing in Iraq, to show a side that the media, for the most part, has completely ignored. The rebuilding of communities, the increased safety for residences and the provision of medical services for the people, who may not have had those things in the past. Recently, in the village of Chalabi, residents of this village, which is located about 25 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, are returning to reclaim their homes, after being forced to abandon their homes by al-Qaeda and Iraq extremists, over a year ago. (READ MORE)
A Newt One: War News: Money For The Revolution! Money For The Revolution! - Imagine that! How long have I been saying this? How long have my partners at A Newt One been saying this? How long have the plethora of those "in the know" been saying this? As for me, I have been saying this for YEARS and applying it to both Hillary Rotten Clinton and Barack Islami Sympathizer Obammy and his lunatic drone wife. What am I babbling about? I am so pleased you asked. John Perazzo at FrontPageMag has once again, out penned himself. In a piece entitled Democrats' Platform for Revolution, he writes he following (among other things): “[...] Americans are unaware, however, that when Obama and Clinton speak of ‘change,’ they mean change in the sense that a profoundly significant, though not widely known, individual -- Saul Alinsky -- outlined in his writings two generations ago. Alinsky helped to establish the confrontational political tactics, which he termed ‘organizing,’ that characterized the 1960s and have remained central to all subsequent revolutionary movements in the United States. Both Obama and Clinton are committed disciples of Alinsky's very specific strategies for ‘social change.’ [...]” (READ MORE)
Blackfive: MSG Brendan O'Connor - Someone You Should Know - Every single man in the fight described below displayed uncommon valor and extreme acts of courage...LL sends this story: On June 22, 2006, a patrol of nine Special Forces soldiers (2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group) leading a team of eight American and forty eight Afghan soldiers, were moving through a village about twelve miles southwest of Kandahar. Their mission, Operation Kaika, was to capture or kill a Taliban commander. The SF Soldiers set up a patrol base and entered the village at dusk on the 23rd. What they didn't know was that the village housed a compound of several hundred Taliban armed to the teeth, and they were waiting to ambush the Americans. The Taliban had set up a perfect Little Bighorn scenario. (READ MORE)
Gabriel Malor @ Ace of Spades: Guns Are Back; Dems Are Easy Targets - This type of thing cracks me up. Two democrats with identical records when it comes to guns (ban them!) and identical policy proposals for next year (let states and localities do the dirty work) are bashing each other in the hunt for votes from gun owners. Neither can actually claim to be good when it comes to gun rights--no one would believe them if they tried--so both are trying to cast the other as quite bad. This never would have happened if the Democratic contest had ended on Super Tuesday. Obama and Clinton are scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for atypical voters--for Democrats, anyways. This is great news for Republicans. (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Obama Sounds Like George Bush - Barack Obama has made a lot of noise about his opposition to the Iraq war and he has chided Hillary Clinton for her vote on the matter. He has also told America that Clinton (and John McCain for that matter) are part of the old politics in DC and that he was the candidate of change. Obama touts himself as a DC outsider who will do things differently. Today he stated that Hillary Clinton sounded a lot like George Bush because of a statement she made last month. Hillary Clinton was asked what she would do, as president, if Iran attacked Israel. Clinton stated that the US would attack Iran in retaliation and she stated that they should know we would obliterate them. At the time Iran claimed that her words were a violation of UN charter. Seems that when Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the map that is not a violation but when we threaten to do the same it is. Typical Muslim thinking. (READ MORE)
Jeffrey Breinholt: Gut Check for the "Close Guantanamo" Crowd - Part of the public campaign to close Guantanamo involves the claim that it houses many innocent people who were swept up from the battlefields where the U.S. military is operating. Now Reuters is reporting that someone released from Guantanamo has died in a suicide attack in Iraq. Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti national, reportedly killed himself in an attack in Mosul. He had been held in Guantanamo until his 2005 release and repatriation. Fortunately, we have not recently suffered the spectacle of prominent Americans traveling to enemy territory to announce their hope that they will succeed in defeating the United States, like Jane Fonda’s notorious trip to Hanoi. This suggests that even Americans who are critical of our foreign policy are careful to stop short of expressing their hope that Iraqi insurgents kills their fellow Americans. (READ MORE)
Discerning Texan: More on Gas Prices and Our Broken Congress - Glenn Reynolds has hit another of my hot buttons tonight with this post (and link) about our gutless, broken beyond repair government, and its role in prolonging our cycle of dependence on foreign oil: “I'VE MENTIONED BEFORE that I think we have a dysfunctional political class in this country. Here's more evidence: ‘This tiff over gas and oil taxes only highlights the intellectual policy confusion – or perhaps we should say cynicism – of our politicians. They want lower prices but don't want more production to increase supply. They want oil "independence" but they've declared off limits most of the big sources of domestic oil that could replace foreign imports. They want Americans to use less oil to reduce greenhouse gases but they protest higher oil prices that reduce demand. They want more oil company investment but they want to confiscate the profits from that investment. And these folks want to be President?’ Sadly, one of them will be.” (READ MORE)
Democracy Project: Where’s The Left When They’re Needed On Vietnam? - If, as ‘60’s and ‘70’s and today’s opponents of the US’s forces in Vietnam argued, the US was opposing Vietnam’s human right to “liberation,” then why don’t they argue that today's catering to Vietnam’s sorry human rights record isn’t correct. It seems a natural for those searching for any reason to oppose President Bush, whose administration has catered to Vietnam. But, such speaking out from the Left would reveal what they wrought 33-years ago. The other day, Vietnam voted along with China, Russia, Libya, Burkina Faso, and Costa Rica on the UN Security Council, against the US, Britain and France for a U.N. special envoy and a voluntary arms embargo of Zimbabwe. (READ MORE)
Dr. Sanity: A 'SELF-INFLICTED CATASTROPHE' - This historical article in Commentary-- "1948, Israel, and the Palestinians—The True Story-- is extremely fascinating in its implications. Much of the early history of the Arab-Israeli is casually glossed over or completely ignored in most discussions of the catastrophe that exists in that part of the world. The article was written by Efriam Karsh, head of Mediterranean Studies at King’s College, University of London. Karsh is also the author of Islamic Imperialism: A History (Yale). Here is an excerpt from the end of the article: “Sixty years after their dispersion, the refugees of 1948 and their descendants remain in the squalid camps where they have been kept by their fellow Arabs for decades, nourished on hate and false hope. Meanwhile, their erstwhile leaders have squandered successive opportunities for statehood.” (READ MORE)
GayPatriotWest: Arianna’s Prominence: a Sad Sign for Political Discourse - On Friday while working away on the step-master at my gym, I glanced up to see Arianna Huffington puffing away on CNN (or was it MSNBC?), calling into question John McCain’s national security credentials. This former McCain supporter claimed her one-time candidate has made repeated public statements showing he doesn’t understand the difference between Sunni and Shi’ite Islam. Posturing for the netroots, Arianna is merely repeating a notion propagated on the left (most notably by the New York Times) about the presumptive Republican nominee’s confusion of the two leading Muslim sects. A number of conservative bloggers have exposed this MSM interpretation for that fraud that it is. Simply put, it twists McCain’s statements out context (See e.g. these two Powerline posts: here and here). (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Pakistan’s peace with terrorists hits another snag: shari’a - The leaders of the new Pakistani government insist that only peaceful negotiations will end the strife with radical Islamists in the frontier areas of western Pakistan. The Taliban has other ideas about peace and coexistence; they don’t like them. A leading Taliban military commander has issued a threat to men who shave their beards, warning of violent consequences: “A Pakistani Taliban leader has warned local tribesmen to grow beards within the next two months in accordance with Islamic teachings or face harsh punishment, residents said Monday.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: How Bad Does the U.N. Have to Get? - That’s a good question. Mull that while reading Daniel Hannan in the UK Telegraph on the challenge to Kumbayah-singing UN fans posed by the news that the UN may be encouraging elephant poaching in the Congo. I dunno, if you can stomach the mass graves and child rape … “Here’s a nice dilemma for Lefties. What if UN peacekeepers in the Congo turn out to have been encouraging elephant poaching? Would they continue to give the organisation their unconditional support? The UN gets away with an extraordinary amount. Because it is thought to embody a lofty ideal, many liberal-minded people are prepared to overlook what it actually does.” (READ MORE)
John Hinderaker: The Truth Laces Up Its Shoes - This is a pretty good example of how events in the Middle East get reported: last Monday, Israeli aircraft fired at armed terrorists in Beit Hanun, a town in Gaza near the border with Israel. Tragically, a mother and four of her children were killed when their house was struck by an explosive device. When the incident was initially reported, black and white hats were firmly in place. AFP headlined: "Four children among victims of Israeli strikes on Gaza." AFP assigned responsibility for the children's deaths as a matter of fact: AFP quoted, without qualification or reservation, the account of the children's father: (READ MORE)
Cassandra: OMG!!! They're So Meeeeeeeean!!!! - Teh Patriarchy is at it again, damn their guts and livers! When we first read this horrifying story, we didn't know whether to run from the room, black out, or throw up. Thankfully, we remembered the sterling example of one Nancy Hopkins, MIT professor of biology and proved our irrefutable equality with men by forcing them to walk on verbal eggshells in our presence, lest they bring on a sudden attack of those gender-specific vapors which should in no way indicate inferiority (much less cause one to treat us any differently -- unless of course we want you to!). In a tale fit to freeze the very marrow of your bones, not only the administration of Dartmouth College, but those 18-22 year old intellectual bully-boys have inexplicably managed to make a fully-equal and intellectually capable female professional look like a complete idiot: (READ MORE)
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