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)
Did Rush Limbaugh Tilt Result In Indiana? - Even as Barack Obama's campaign celebrated Tuesday's primary results, aides charged yesterday that they would have had an even stronger showing were it not for meddling by an unlikely booster of Hillary Rodham Clinton: the popular conservative radio host and longtime Clinton family nemesis Rush... (READ MORE)
Clinton Spurns Calls to Quit Race - Now facing almost insurmountable odds, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) came under fresh pressure yesterday to end her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination against Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), but she vowed to remain in the race "until there is a nominee." (READ MORE)
Scant Aid Reaching Burma's Delta - BANGKOK, May 7 -- Small quantities of drinking water, food, tents and other vital supplies reached Burma's devastated Irrawaddy Delta region Wednesday, as bodies floated uncollected in swollen rivers and sea-flooded rice paddies five days after a cyclone roared through. (READ MORE)
Zimbabwe Youths Kill Opposition Activists - JOHANNESBURG, May 7 -- Gangs of youths loyal to Zimbabwe's ruling party beat to death 11 opposition activists in a remote town this week in an escalation of post-election violence, opposition party officials and witnesses said Wednesday. (READ MORE)
Clinton Camp Chides NBC - It's no secret that Hillary Clinton's top aides have long been angry at MSNBC for coverage they consider blatantly pro-Obama. But the final straw seems to have come Tuesday night, when Tim Russert, NBC's Washington bureau chief, declared on MSNBC: "We now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be, and no one is going to dispute it." (READ MORE)
FBI Backs Off From Secret Order for Data After Lawsuit - The FBI has withdrawn a secret administrative order seeking the name, address and online activity of a patron of the Internet Archive after the San Francisco-based digital library filed suit to block the action. (READ MORE)
Once-Secret Memos Question Clinton's Honesty - A decade before Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted fudging the truth during the presidential campaign, federal prosecutors quietly assembled hundreds of pages of evidence suggesting she concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for a failing Arkansas savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater probe. (READ MORE)
Clinton Idol McGovern Tells Her To End Race - Sen. Barack Obama's campaign yesterday steered clear of calls for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to quit the Democratic presidential race, letting one of her political idols deliver the message instead. (READ MORE)
Bomber in Iraq Tied to Gitmo - A detainee released from the prison at Guantanamo Bay three years ago is blamed for a deadly suicide bombing in Iraq, highlighting the danger of releasing hard-bitten terrorists from the U.S. facility in Cuba. (READ MORE)
Cyclone Toll Feared above 100,000 - With the death toll expected to top 100,000, Burma's military government blocked international aid workers from delivering relief supplies yesterday as bodies floated in stagnant waters left behind by Saturday's cyclone. (READ MORE)
White House Nixes Meetings in Middle East - The White House yesterday confirmed that it has opposed a meeting between President Bush and Israeli and Palestinian leaders next week in Egypt, and said the peace process can go forward even if Israel's prime minister is ousted from office. (READ MORE)
Vetoing the Verifiers - The State Department is justifying its decision to let North Korea renege on its pledge to give a "complete declaration of its nuclear programs" by promising a strict verification regime. So why is Foggy Bottom cutting its own verification experts out of the loop? (READ MORE)
The Judicial Stakes - John McCain is getting catcalls for his speech on Tuesday declaring his preference for Supreme Court Justices in the mold of John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Various liberal oracles are distressed, while Democratic chief Howard Dean detects a "radical right-wing judicial philosophy." (READ MORE)
World Bank Scorpions - How's this for fighting corruption at the World Bank? On April 21, the bank released the findings of a corruption probe into a $100 million "demobilization and reintegration" scheme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which uncovered "sufficient evidence to substantiate allegations of fraud, corruption and disallowed expenses." The very next day, April 22, the bank announced that it had approved an additional $50 million grant for – drumroll, please – the same "demobilization and reintegration" scheme in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (READ MORE)
1948, Israel and the Palestinians: The True Story - Sixty years after its establishment by an internationally recognized act of self-determination, Israel remains the only state in the world that is subjected to a constant outpouring of the most outlandish conspiracy theories and blood libels; whose policies and actions are obsessively condemned by the international community; and whose right to exist is constantly debated and challenged not only by its Arab enemies but by segments of advanced opinion in the West. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Ann Coulter: One Down, Two to Go - Well, it looks like it's the end of the road for Hillary. Time for her to pack up her pantsuits and go back to ... wherever it is she's pretending to be living these days. Now we just have to get rid of the other two. Perhaps if I endorse Obama ... This week, Bill Clinton lost his second presidential election for a protege. Ronald Reagan was so popular, he not only won a 49-state landslide re-election for himself, but he also won a symbolic third term for his boob of a vice president, George Herbert Walker Bush (who immediately blew it by breaking his own "no new taxes" pledge). (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: Ron Paul Looks Ahead of Convention - Congressman Ron Paul ruled out the possibility of running as a third party candidate in the 2008 election and said he expected support for his candidacy at the Republican National Convention at a private event to discuss his new book Wednesday afternoon. “Theoretically, I could run as an Independent or third party, but realistically I have no plans to do that,” Paul told a small audience of conservatives in Washington. The Texas congressman said a Washington rally was being planned for July 12 and “we will probably have a good gathering in Minneapolis.” (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson: Presidential Pariah - We are in one of the longest presidential campaigns in modern memory -- and haven't even started focusing on the general election. It's been enough to drive most of us mad, but if there's one person in particular suffering the most, it may be President Bush. It's been noted here before that we have not had an election since 1952 in which an incumbent president or vice president was not running in at least partial defense of an existing administration's record. That means Bush is not just a lame duck but an easy target for all three current candidates -- none of whom have any investment in the president’s legacy. (READ MORE)
Robert D. Novak: Obama: Flawed or Fantastic? - WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Buyer's remorse was beginning to afflict supporters of Barack Obama before Tuesday's primary election returns showed he had delivered a knockout punch against Hillary Clinton. The young orator who had seemed so fantastic beginning with his 2007 Jefferson-Jackson dinner speech in Iowa disappointed even his own advisers over the past two weeks, and old party hands mourned that they were stuck with a flawed candidate. The whipping Obama gave Clinton in North Carolina and his near miss in Indiana transformed that impression. (READ MORE)
Cal Thomas: Who's Influential? - Time magazine has published another one of those silly and meaningless lists some in the media occasionally and irritatingly compile to validate their self-importance. It is the 100 "most influential people in the world." I didn't make it, but then I don't make other lists like People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive," which must be an oversight. Time never tells us what qualifies these people as influential. Dictionary.com defines influence as, "the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others." (READ MORE)
Terence Jeffrey: Should We Impoverish the Persian Gulf? - A curious consensus has formed among the presidential candidates that promoting the use of alternative fuels should not only be the policy of the United States in fighting "climate change" but also -- insofar as it would diminish the wealth of Persian Gulf states -- in fighting terrorism. The argument has visceral appeal. Barack Obama may never find bitter people clinging to guns and religion, but he will find them clinging to the hoses of gas pumps as they fill their cars with $4-per-gallon fuel. (READ MORE)
Larry Elder: Recession, Recession, Where's the Recession? - "It's a recession," said former President Harry Truman, "when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours." For people facing home foreclosure, job loss or the struggle of paying high gas prices, the definition a recession seems immaterial and insignificant. True. But during an election year, the media's constant use or expectation of "recession" does matter. Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's likely nominee, already considers the U.S. economy "in a recession." So are we -- at least as economists commonly define the term? No -- not even close. (READ MORE)
John Cornyn: Democrats' Energy Plan: Tax, Sue, and Investigate - More than two years ago, now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues promised what they called a “common sense” energy plan to bring down prices at the gas pump. Since that time, the average cost of a gallon of gas has soared from $2.33 to $3.62, an all-time high. Today, 744 days later, congressional Democrats finally unveiled their grand proposal to the American people. To most Americans, addressing rising energy prices might include at least a bow to the law of supply and demand. (READ MORE)
Michael Medved: Another Campaign Surprise: No Collapse Of The Two-Party System - Concerning the imminent collapse of the two party system, it’s appropriate to paraphrase Mark Twain: reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. The campaign of 2008 has already obliterated the comfortable and conventional assumptions on a number of fronts, demonstrating that money can’t determine primary outcomes (otherwise the GOP would be preparing to nominate Mitt Romney), that race and gender don’t push voters to side with their own (or Clinton wouldn’t enjoy her big support from blue-collar males, and Obama wouldn’t sweep Idaho, Utah and North Dakota), that immigration wouldn’t emerge as a dominant issue (you’ll notice that no candidate is talking about it), or that the front-loaded calendar would produce nominees by Super Tuesday at the latest (it’s three-and-a-half months later and Clinton and Obama are still going at it). (READ MORE)
CJ: Question 21 - “In the last 7 years, have you consulted with a mental health professional (psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor, etc.) or have you consulted with another health care provider about a mental health related condition? If you answered “Yes,” provide the dates of treatment and the name and address of the therapist or doctor below…” This is one of the questions on Standard Form 86, the security clearance questionnaire for national security positions. It is used as a basis for granting access to classified government information and determining one’s allegiance and suitability for such sensitive positions. But, until recently, Question 21 above posed a morale dilemma for many Soldiers about whether or not to seek the help they sorely needed. (READ MORE)
Heather Mac Donald: The Wright Side of the Brain - The list of Afrocentric "educators" whom the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has invoked in his media escapades since Sunday is a disturbing reminder that academia's follies can enter the public world in harmful ways. Now the pressing question is whether they have entered Barack Obama's worldview as well. Some in Mr. Wright's crew of charlatans have already had their moments in the spotlight; others are less well known. They form part of the tragic academic project of justifying self-defeating underclass behavior as "authentically black." That their ideas have ended up in the pulpit of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ and in Detroit's Cobo Hall, where Mr. Wright spoke at the NAACP's Freedom Fund dinner on Sunday, reminds us that bad ideas must be fought at their origins — and at every moment thereafter. (READ MORE)
Jay Cost: What 'Bitter' Reveals - The commentary on the few sentences Barack Obama uttered in San Francisco has clustered around two extremes. Roughly half see them as the revelation of his previously secret disregard for the beliefs of the mass public. The rest see them as self-evidently true, even if the words were poorly chosen. My feeling is that we don't know what he meant. All of this analysis is based on brief, off-the-cuff remarks made behind "closed" doors. It is difficult to tease out a man's inner philosophy from such a slender data set. At best, we can only hope to have a vague sense of the thoughts that inspired the words. So, the quotation has been a bit of a Rorschach test. Commentators have seen what they are inclined to see. (READ MORE)
Karl Rove: It's Obama, Warts and All - Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each took a state Tuesday. But the result was a damaging loss for the woman who was once the overwhelming front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Here are some observations on the race: - Mr. Obama is now the prohibitive favorite. Tuesday night, he took at least 94 delegates to Mrs. Clinton's 75 and leads the former First Lady by 176 delegates in the AP tabulation. He has 1,840 of the 2,025 delegates needed to win. Mr. Obama needs only 185 – or 38% – of the 486 outstanding delegates (217 to be elected in the six remaining contests, and 269 superdelegates yet to endorse a candidate). Mrs. Clinton needs 341, or 70% of those left to be awarded. (READ MORE)
Daniel Henninger: Obama vs. McCain: Let's Get It On - Barack Obama, the first "postracial candidate," is heading to the Democratic nomination almost entirely because of his near-universal support from black voters in the Democratic primaries. In both states Tuesday, his share of that vote was 90% or more. If one resets the black vote to the norm of earlier elections, Hillary Clinton is the nominee. The idea that Obama was a postracial politician dates to his famous keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. He set the postracial template himself in the speech's third sentence, describing his father born in a small Kenyan village, herding goats, etc. His mother was "born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas." (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Carla Katz in the News Again - Carla Katz, a major domo at the CWA Local 1034 who also happened to be a one-time squeeze of Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey (D), has apparently found enemies within her union who are not above pointing out potential wrong-doing by making improper donations to another Democrat, Newark Mayor Cory Booker in his campaign to win that office. “The battle between state labor leader Carla Katz and opponents in her own union has escalated again with allegations Katz used union money to make an improper $20,800 donation to the 2006 campaign of Newark Mayor Cory Booker.” (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Stephen King's Patriotism Has Never Been Questioned... - Last month, Stephen King, famous author of bloated horror novels that run 800, 900, 1200 pages long, made this Kerryesque statement while talking to some kids about the importance of reading: “I don’t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s not as bright.” Two days ago, King was called on the carpet by Noel Sheppard, American Thinker author and blogger at NewsBusters; Sheppard wondered why King, a former teacher, would bash the military (telling schoolchildren that the American Army is staffed with illiterates) during wartime. "Shut up," King explained. (READ MORE)
The Captains' Journal: The Effects of the Long War on Military Readiness - We have previously argued for properly resourcing the long war. This argument was primarily based on multiple deployments and the affect that they have on warrior morale. Said a different way, consider Ernie Pyle. For a generation that has been raised on video games, World of Warcraft and rap, Ernie Pyle is unknown. Yet his prose serves as some of the best philosophical analysis of war that has ever been published, and should be required reading in professional military programs. Pyle had previously described the belief of World War II veterans that the only way home was through Germany. Winning the war meant going home, and permanently so. Going home for modern day warriors means being deployed again in a year with all of the stress and strain on troops and their families. (READ MORE)
Matthew Levitt: Highlighting al-Qaeda's Bankrupt Ideology - According to recent U.S. government reports and senior U.S. counterterrorism officials, contesting al-Qaeda's message is no less important than capturing or killing the group's operatives. And as the administration prioritizes its agenda for the last eight months in office, recognizing the need for a refocused communication plan to highlight the bankruptcy of al-Qaeda's ideology is a critical -- albeit overdue -- part of a reengineered counterterrorism strategy. The State Department's 2007 Country Reports on Terrorism and recent speeches by senior officials indicate that the U.S. government's communication strategy for combating al-Qaeda's ideology has shifted considerably in two respects. (READ MORE)
Animesh Roul: Pakistan, Taliban and Politics of Peace Accords! - History is against any peace deals with the Taliban. At least three such initiatives (so called ‘peace deals’) had been signed with the Taliban in the past, only to be collapsed soon after. When Rehman Malik, adviser to Pakistan’s Prime Minister on internal affairs welcomed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud‘s latest offer for truce and peace talks, many observers (including me) thought that the newly crowned civilian government in Pakistan shouldn’t feel excited about these peace initiatives, especially when it involves Taliban militants. At the outset it seemed that the government was in a hurry to show the world that they have better counter terror tools to deal with Taliban or Islamic threat at large, than erstwhile Musharraf regime and US led collation. (READ MORE)
Crazy Politico: Spin Cycle - The spin cycle has gotten running so fast on the elections that I think I'm stuck in my washing machine. If you don't believe it, go to the Washington Post editorial page, where there are five by-line columns devoted to the idea of the campaign, four of them on the fate of Hillary Clinton. Depending on your angle, Hillary has to drop out to save the party, should stay in to save the party, should fly to the moon to save the party. Harold Meyerson over at the WaPo has written the liberal view on what a lot of conservatives have been saying about the final outcome of the Democrat's process in "Titans On The Mat". (READ MORE)
Flopping Aces: Computer Models On Global Warming Wrong Again - To go along with Mike’s post “Southern Sea Ice at Historic Levels!” comes this news from the southern hemisphere: “Antarctica hasn’t warmed as much over the last century as climate models had originally predicted, a new study finds. Climate change’s effects on Antarctica are of particular interest because of the substantial amount of water locked up in its ice sheets. Should that water begin to melt, sea levels around the globe could rise and inundate low-lying coastal areas. The new study, detailed in the April 5 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, marks the first time that researchers have been able to give a progress report on Antarctic climate model projections by comparing climate records to model simulations (these comparisons have been done for the other six continents). Information about Antarctica’s harsh weather patterns has traditionally been limited, but temperature records from ice cores and ground weather stations have recently been constructed, giving scientists the missing information they needed.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Joblessness down - The economy insists on denying reporters that recession they want. From the AP: “The Labor Department reported today that applications for unemployment benefits fell to 365,000, a decline of 18,000 from the previous week. Economists had been looking for a much smaller decrease of around 5,000.” I’m guess ing that’s a joblessness shortage to those who suffer BDS. Martin Crutsinger of the AP insisted on adding this paragraph: “Many economists believe that a prolonged housing slump and severe credit crisis have pushed the economy into a recession. For that reason, they believe job layoffs will rise in coming months as the unemployment rate climbs higher.” The unemployment rate is 5%. Wake me when it hits 6%. (READ MORE)
Baron Bodissey: Distributed Emergence: Networking the Counterjihad - The mission of the Counterjihad is to organize action to resist sharia and roll back Islamization in the nations of the West. This purpose will be accomplished via a number of strategies that can operate together or separately, consecutively or concurrently. They may include some or all of the following: Legislative initiatives, mounted locally or nationally - Constitutional challenges to sharia law, or to the mandates of the EU and the UN - Legal defense funds for people sued or criminally charged for speaking out. The formation of political parties - Putting pressure on existing political parties to induce them to include anti-sharia planks in their platforms - Public demonstrations - “Street theater” events, such as the veiling of statues - Media outreach... (READ MORE)
SFC MAC: The New PC Homeland Security Manual - They have to be out of their minds. “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is refusing to identify the ‘influential Muslim Americans’ and ‘leading U.S.-based scholars and commentators on Islam’ who met with Secretary Michael Chertoff in helping shape a softer approach to government lexicon about terrorists and their ideological motivations. ‘Our policy is we don’t comment on the Secretary’s private schedule,’ spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told the IPT. Nor would she identify any of the participants’ organizational affiliation. DHS and the State Department’s Counterterrorism Communications Center each issued reports urging government employees to avoid words like ‘jihad,’ ‘mujahedeen’ or any reference to Islam or Muslims, especially in relation to Al Qaeda. The Investigative Project on Terrorism is making the documents available for the first time here: (READ MORE)
Outlaw 13: It's A Small World After All... - As I've stated below I'm in Alabama attending an Army school. This is the place it really all started for me (although I went to basic training at Ft. Sill, OK). Every time I come back here, I get this queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. As I drive past the buildings I lived in for about a year, I think of the things we did...endured really...for the goal of my wings. I drive down the same street we ran down in the pre-dawn darkness, on my way to class and pass the chow hall DFAC, were the smell of greasy bacon assaulted us on what was usually mile four of some death march for our aerobic benefit. In the end it was worth it, and I truly felt I had earned something when I left here for my first asignment...but I hold no fond memories of this place, and I for the most part do not like to come back here. Which all brings me to this... (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Big push coming in Sadr City - Iraqi soldiers have begun evacuating families from portions of Sadr City, a sign that a large offensive will start shortly against the Mahdi Army militia that have long controlled the sector of Baghdad. Two stadiums have been secured for sheltering the evacuees as the government of Nouri al-Maliki attempts to break Moqtada al-Sadr’s last stronghold and end mortar attacks on the Green Zone. Maliki also wants to end Iran’s influence in Iraq, which caused Iran to cut off security talks with Maliki and the US: “Iraqi soldiers for the first time warned residents in the embattled Sadr City district to leave their houses Thursday, signaling a new push by the U.S.-backed forces against Shiite extremist who have been waging street battles for seven weeks.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: (Video) Pro-life memorial destroyed because abortion’s a right and you’re not allowed to challenge that - This principle was codified, I believe, in the “You’re Not Allowed to Disagree Act of 2002.” In defense of our hero, he’s just following his political instincts: He sees something that challenges his beliefs and, voila, down it goes. Think of it as the Fairness Doctrine for campus protests. And before you ask, no, your right to free speech that he’s challenging doesn’t count. Exit question one: This sort of makes sense by Doug Kmiec standards, no? Exit question two: “If there’s a student on this campus that … might be having an abortion, might be going through this, you’re going to put this up in front of them? Are you crazy?” (READ MORE)
Neal Boortz: STUBBORN OR JUST REFUSES TO LEARN - Here we go with Cynthia Tucker again. She's the liberal (naturally!) editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. She's a little torqued about the Supreme Court's decision to allow – of all things – states to require voters to show a picture ID before they cast a vote. With 20 million illegal immigrants in this country, Ms. Tucker can't see why in the hell we would want to verify identity before a vote is cast. The reason, of course, is that she's a Democrat. Democrats don't like voter ID laws for the very reason that they're afraid that it will keep people who are not entitled to cast a vote away from the polls. Anyway .... So Cynthia starts reading some of the responses to her AJC column, and gets upset with all of those people who are telling her that there is non Constitutional right to vote in a federal election. She retaliates by posting this comment online: "Ultra-conservatives and a few other fringe activists have come up with a new interpretation of voting rights. They claim there is NO right to vote in the U.S. Constitution. Who knew?” (READ MORE)
Neptunus Lex: Milestones - There are two sets of paperwork sitting on my desk just now. One is a packet of documents formalizing an offer of post-naval employment. The other is a packet of documents that will end my active service. I can’t seem to make a start on either of them. I rationalize to myself that my last day in the uniform of the country I have served for the last 30 years is not yet certain - my approved retirement date is 1 AUG 2008, but I’ve requested a modification to those orders moving it up to 1 JUL 2008. It’ll be approved of course. No reason for them not to approve it. Probably on the way. But it’s not here yet, and so I dither. [...] But the fact of the matter is that there are far higher priority fills than that attaché job in Sweden, which will probably be packaged as a “bundled deal” for someone willing to gut the hard job out in Al Asad or in “The Building” first, God bless him and keep him safe. And for me, it’s time. Time to start taking things home from the office. Pictures. Files. The flight jacket that drapes across my chair. It’s coming down to lasts. (READ MORE)
McQ: Clinton - "there’s a pattern emerging here" - Yes there is, and I want it noted that it is a pattern among Democratic voters. “Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed Wednesday to continue her quest for the Democratic nomination, arguing she would be the stronger nominee because she appeals to a wider coalition of voters — including whites who have not supported Barack Obama in recent contests. ‘I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,’ she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article ‘that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.’ ‘There’s a pattern emerging here,’ she said.” As an aside, I’ve always loved the characterization that blue-collar workers are the only "hard-working" Americans (that’s who Clinton appeals too and is talking about). (READ MORE)
Right Truth: Iran: It's now or never ... - Iran will go nuclear by the end of this year, 2008, according to several folks in the know. If they are correct, what should the United Stated do, what should Israel do, and when should they do it? The answer to all those questions seems to ride on this: How would a U.S.-Iran confrontation play out in the presidential campaign here in the United States? Sad but true my friends. It doesn't seem that the safety of Americans in Iraq, or the safety of Israel, or the safety of American interests within Iran's reach, are determining factors in whether to take out Iran's nuclear facilities -- it's politics. John Bolton, America’s ex-ambassador to the United Nations, has called for US air strikes on Iranian camps where insurgents are trained for war in Iraq. (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: The Daily Kos Post Of The Day: Am I Supposed To Love America? - If you want to know why Barack Obama didn't hold his hand over his heart while the National Anthem was playing or why he made such a big deal out of not wearing a flag pin, it was so he could appeal to the sort of people who read the Daily Kos. Is that a stretch? Well, read this excerpt from a post by Daily Kos diarist Tsukasa Buddha; “Am I supposed to love America? I mean, I think it is rather silly when politicians say it is the greatest country in the world. ...Now, of course I realize that politicians are merely engaging in fluffy, feel good hyperbole, but it is just a pet peeve of mine. ...But I don't understand how you are expected to love your country. It really just doesn't make any sense to me; it is like dividing by zero. Patriotism also seems largely irrational to me.” (READ MORE)
Sister Toldjah: The MSM’s dereliction of duty in its coverage of Dem primary race angle - As has been written numerous times by many serious-minded political junkies/media watchers, over, including myself, the mainstream media’s hand-holding, pillow-offering coverage of Barack Obama’s candidacy is representative of a staggering dereliction of duty on the part of the people we are supposed to be able to trust to give us fair, unbiased news coverage. You’d think that it couldn’t possibly get any more biased than it already is, right? If so, you thought wrong. The narrative that started back in January when Obama lost New Hampshire to Hillary Clinton was that a substantial number of white, working class Democrats “had to be racist” in NH because what the polls were indicating prior to the NH primary contrasted significantly with the way the vote happened when all was said and done. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: A Chilling Effect - It seems the more news I read about "global warming," the more it comes across as a cult and not a scientific theory. For example, last year we were supposed to have a record hurricane season because of global warming. Instead, it was a very mild season -- but that's proof of the theory. Last winter, we had one of the snowiest winters on record. The cold was proof of global warming. We are repeatedly told that single incidents or seasons can't be used as arguments against global warming -- but Myanmar's recent cyclone disaster (death toll: 100,000 and rising) is proof for the theory. (READ MORE)
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