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)
United Way to Target Health, Education and Income - The United Way of America, alarmed at the nation's fraying safety net, will announce today that it will direct its giving toward ambitious 10-year goals that would cut in half the high school dropout rate and the number of working families struggling financially. (READ MORE)
After String of Losses, Republicans Face Crisis - House Republicans turned on themselves yesterday after a third straight loss of a GOP-held House seat in special elections this year left both parties contemplating widespread Democratic gains in November. (READ MORE)
U.S. Has Detained 2,500 Juveniles as Enemy Combatants - The United States has detained approximately 2,500 people younger than 18 as illegal enemy combatants in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay since 2002, according to a report filed by the Bush administration with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. (READ MORE)
Venezuela Offered Aid to Colombian Rebels - CARACAS, Venezuela, May 14 -- High-ranking officials in Venezuela offered to help Colombian guerrillas obtain surface-to-air missiles meant to change the balance of power in their war with the Colombian government, according to internal rebel documents. (READ MORE)
Bush denounces Mideast extremists - Marking the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding, President Bush criticized the deadly tactics of extremist groups and denounced anti-Semitism, especially by those who want to wipe the nation "off the map." (READ MORE)
GOP to rally around McCain - House Republicans yesterday said Sen. John McCain is the cure to what ails them and that they're essentially pinning their electoral hopes on his coattails and credentials as a straight-talking spending-cutter. (READ MORE)
Nuclear lab fails terrorist exercise - Armed security agents posing as terrorists broke into a secure area at a nuclear weapons laboratory during a recent test, exposing flaws in the protection of stockpiles of plutonium and uranium coveted by terrorist groups and rogue nations seeking to become nuclear powers. (READ MORE)
Void of leadership, Palestinian movement loses momentum - More than any other time since it placed the cause of Palestinian sovereignty at the top of the world agenda, the Palestinian national movement finds itself in a deteriorating state of paralysis. (READ MORE)
Bush recognizes threat to polar bears - The Bush administration yesterday declared global warming a threat to polar bears but took steps to ensure that the long-awaited decision would not threaten businesses and oil drilling that environmentalists blame for the species' decline. (READ MORE)
Polar Bear Melodrama - Polar bears are not the fragile, vulnerable creatures of liberal iconography. They have thrived in the Arctic for thousands of years, both through periods when their sea-ice habitat was smaller, and larger, than it is now. They will continue to adapt – and the Endangered Species Act can't make the slightest difference. (READ MORE)
The Republican Panic - If there is such a thing as a useful election defeat, then Tuesday's Republican loss in a special House election in Mississippi would qualify. Maybe this thumping in a heretofore safe GOP seat will finally scare the Members straight, or at least less crooked. (READ MORE)
Israel at 60 - President Bush, Tony Blair and a host of other dignitaries are in Jerusalem today to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday. Meanwhile, their host, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, faces potential indictment over bribery allegations. We take no view of the substance of the claims, except to say that the very possibility that they could be brought is itself a tribute to the state Israelis have built. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Daniel Henninger: Democracies Don't Let People Die - Next to Hillary Won't Quit, the least surprising news yesterday morning was the headline: China Rejects Quake Aid. Reasons on offer were that China wanted to prove its "self-reliance," difficult roads, blah, blah, blah. A virtual army of high-tech, highly skilled relief teams are ready to go into Wenchuan County, where mountains literally have fallen onto villages. Meanwhile, even as a second storm headed toward the same Burmese people hit by last weekend's cyclone, its military junta, a government of almost cartoonlike cruelty, continued to tell the helping world to get lost. (READ MORE)
Jason L. Riley: Keep the Immigrants, Deport the Multiculturalists - So, whatever happened to immigration as a presidential campaign issue? In the early caucus and primary states – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina – the media assured us that immigration was foremost on the minds of voters. You couldn't watch a Republican debate without the issue dominating a good chunk of the discussion. And when Hillary Clinton appeared to endorse a proposal in New York state to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, it was considered a major stumble, and the senator spent weeks trying to clarify her remarks. (READ MORE)
Dick Armey: The Republican Health-Care Surrender - Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations may have died in North Carolina last week, but her most famous bad idea is alive and well in Washington, D.C. With likely increases in Democrat ranks in the House and Senate, and a Democrat (possibly) in the White House, plan on a big fight in 2009 over who – you or the federal government – will control your family's health-care decisions. We won this fight last time around. One of the GOP's shining moments was our principled opposition to HillaryCare in 1994. The first lady's overreach helped lay the groundwork for the Republican takeover of Congress that November. (READ MORE)
Karl Rove: The GOP Must Stand for Something - Tuesday's election results highlighted challenges for both Democrats and Republicans. Republicans received a hard shot in Mississippi. Greg Davis (for whom I campaigned and who was a well-qualified candidate) narrowly lost a special congressional election in a district President George W. Bush carried four years ago with 62% of the vote. Democrats pulled off the win by smartly nominating a conservative, Travis Childers, from a rural swing part of the district who disavowed Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and hit Mr. Davis from the right. (READ MORE)
Mia Farrow & Nancy Soderberg: The Way Forward on Darfur - Next month the United States will assume the presidency of the U.N. Security Council, and not a moment too soon. The Bush administration will have perhaps its final opportunity to address the Darfur genocide, preserving its legacy as an architect of the imperiled U.N. peace agreement for Sudan. In the past few weeks, the carnage in Darfur has escalated. Government bombing campaigns continue apace, with tens of thousands of terrified survivors joining the more than 2.5 million people already displaced. (READ MORE)
Ken Blackwell: The Obama Gamble - Even with Hillary Clinton’s wide margin win in the West Virginia primary, Barack Obama will be the Democrat standard bearer in November. However, Democrats may well have buyer’s remorse. Their rush to nominate Mr. Obama, the least vetted presidential candidate in memory, will likely cost them the fall election. The voters, who many believe, Mr. Obama needs for victory in November are trending to John McCain. Obviously, Team Obama is looking at a different trail to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. West Virginia is thought of as a reliably Democrat state. Democrat Governor Joe Manchin won office in a massive landslide, and both U.S. senators—Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller—are completely safe as Democrat incumbents. (READ MORE)
Ann Coulter: The Democrats' Hybrid Pickup Trucks - On the very day of a special election to fill a vacated congressional seat this week in Mississippi, The New York Times accused the Republican candidate of running racist ads against his Democratic opponent. Talk about dirty tricks! By The New York Times, that is. The Republican thus accused of racism narrowly lost the election the night the Times article appeared, so I guess the Times can proclaim: "Mission Accomplished." The ad in question, on behalf of Republican Greg Davis, pointed out that Barack Obama had endorsed Davis' opponent, Travis Childers -- another in a long line of fake-American goobers claiming to be "conservative Democrats," but who get to Congress and promptly vote to ban guns, surrender in Iraq and fund full-term abortions. (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: Too "Complex"?: Part III - In one of those typical San Francisco decisions that makes San Francisco a poster child for the liberal left, the city's Board of Supervisors is moving to block a paint store from renting a vacant building once used by a video rental shop. That paint store is part of a chain, and chain stores are not liked by a vocal segment of the local population. Chain stores are already banned from some parts of San Francisco, and at least one member of the Board of Supervisors plans to introduce bans on chain stores in other areas. Chain stores have been disliked for decades, at both local and national levels. Taking advantage of economies of scale that lower their costs of doing business, chain stores are able to charge lower prices than smaller independent stores, and therefore attract customers away from their higher-cost competitors. (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: Bush Caves to Polar Bear Ploy - The Bush Administration named the polar bear to the “threatened species” list based on computer predictions of the anticipated loss of sea ice due to global warming Tuesday. “Computer models predict sea ice is likely to recede in the future,” said Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. “They [polar bears] are in my judgment likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future, in this case 45 years.” Kempthorne used a series of slides showing images of decrease polar sea ice while making his announcement. They are available here. The polar bear’s classification as “threatened” is a step below “endangered”—a classification which would trigger massive environmental protections that would prevent energy and oil exploration in Alaska. (READ MORE)
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann: No Veep Slot for Hillary - It would be an act of terminal insanity for Barack Obama to name Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential candidate. It would not help him get elected, it would drag all the Clinton controversies into the general election, and having her down the hall in the West Wing would be a recipe for disaster, dissension and civil war. Other than that, it’s a hell of an idea! Start with the election. There are two kinds of people who backed Hillary in the primaries: her original supporters and those who joined her later in the game. Her original backers are all solid Democrats whose arms would fall off before they would back anyone who is pro-life. They are true believers, feminists, pro-choice advocates, older party loyalists who would prefer Hillary, may have doubts about Obama, but will always fall in line and vote Democratic. (READ MORE)
Rebecca Hagelin: Climate Control: A Costly Proposal - Think energy is expensive now? Wait until Congress plugs in the “Climate Security Act of 2007.” That’s the leading piece of legislation on Capitol Hill designed to combat "climate change." Lawmakers have cooked up an expensive solution to a hyped-up rallying cry against a "problem" that scientists can't even agree exists in the first place. Of course, Congress is doing what Congress seems to do best -- pass laws in response to the latest craze. In this case, if the politicians are successful, you may find yourself nostalgic for the days of $3.60 gasoline. And that would be only the start. The overall economic costs could be staggering. Economists at The Heritage Foundation rolled up their sleeves and got under the hood of current proposal. They’ve run the numbers -- and what they found will make all Americans want to buckle up. (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson: The War Over the War - The war in Iraq is in its sixth year -- and we, the public, are in our sixth year of reading warring accounts about it. The most recent is Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez’s “Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story.” Sanchez, a senior ground commander in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, faults L. Paul Bremmer, the top civilian in Iraq from mid-2003-4, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for the errors and mishaps of the occupation. The new Sanchez book follows Douglas Feith’s new book “War and Decision.” The former undersecretary of defense, who oversaw many of the original plans for the postwar reconstruction of Iraq, makes the case that the State Department and Bremmer thwarted Defense Department efforts to hasten Iraqi autonomy and form a new Iraqi army. (READ MORE)
Peter J. Wirs: Stop Griping Conservatives, This is It - As promised, this is it. We delivered. The future of the Republican Party is now available for your inspection, by clicking on http://www.GOPonDemand.com. This is the public "beta" version of GOP onDemand,™ the gateway to your constitutional right to guide and instruct your Republican Party. You, the loyal readers of Townhall.com are the very first to see, to critique, to interact with GOP onDemand.™ Please note, various pages are still under construction, and features still must be added. But that's because we want, and need, your input as to what you think Republicans want to see on GOP onDemand.™ If a page’s not clear, if something else is needed, or can be made better — let us know. (READ MORE)
George Will: Housing Doesn't Need an Artificial Floor - Lewis Carroll, call your office. Or, better still, the author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" should call Washington, where the government's determination to solve the housing "crisis" produced this lead paragraph in a recent New York Times story: "Federal agencies are intensifying a criminal investigation of the mortgage industry and focusing on whether some lenders turned a blind eye to inflated income figures provided by borrowers." Perhaps some lenders who were lied to were culpably indifferent to dishonesty because they planned to sell to others mortgages that the lenders knew were risky. But the victimization narrative that is turning turbulence in the housing market into a morality tale involves borrowers victimized by "predatory" lenders. (READ MORE)
Cal Thomas: McCain Joins Global Warming Cult - In an effort to win over those "moderates" who believe that global warming is about to destroy the planet, Republican presidential candidate John McCain spoke Monday at a Portland, Ore., training facility for Vestas Wind Technology. He claimed, "The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington." There certainly is more "hot air" on this and a lot of other subjects in Washington, but that isn't what he meant. The era of big government is so not over, as Bill Clinton claimed it was in 1996. It is just beginning and increasingly the political contests seem to be about who will manage its growth, not who will reduce its size, cost and reach. (READ MORE)
Michael Farris: 'Obama Knows Best' - In his May 12 column entitled "McCain's Christian Problem," (The Washington Post) Robert Novak used a single, unnamed source to insinuate that I somehow favor an Obama presidency because it would somehow bring biblical judgment for the country’s sins. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. Mr. Novak's unnamed source is flatly wrong. I have never said nor do I believe that an Obama presidency is a good idea for any reason, biblical or otherwise. On the contrary, I have every reason to believe that an Obama presidency would be incredibly and particularly harmful to the American family and homeschool community. For starters, Obama supports the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty that would have disastrous consequences for the American family. (READ MORE)
Allison Kasic: Title IX Not the Answer for Scientific Men’s Club - Graduation season is upon us. In the coming weeks thousands of American students will celebrate their accomplishments, reflect on four years’ of memories, don silly robes and hats, and graduate from college. The majority of those students will be women, who nationally make up 6 in 10 college students. Women have made tremendous strides in all aspects of life over the last few decades, but perhaps none is as pronounced as in higher education. In 1970, only 42 percent of undergraduate students were female. Women now dominate campus life, raking in the majority of bachelor’s and master’s degrees awarded each year. But those tremendous accomplishments won’t stop those dedicated to convincing women they are victims. (READ MORE)
Cassandra: This Deeply Unpopular War - It's dawn again outside my little home in the woods somewhere in western Maryland. How many posts, over the years, have begun with those lines? Hard to say. Time was when those words signaled an impending storm. They were an almost infallible sign that some tinder had ignited the passion that drove me to bouts of 4 a.m. keyboard bashing in furious denunciation of something-or-other: defeatism, dishonesty, the venom of those who champion reason and tolerance by practicing their opposites. I have so little passion left. I'm running on fumes now; five years of war have left me feeling strangely drained. Now all that's left, it seems, is determination. That, and anger over the unrelenting drumbeat of negativity surrounding what the media love to call "this deeply unpopular war": (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: It's Official: We're Screwed - Well, in the face of constantly-rising gas prices in the United States (good lord! They're almost up to the levels Europe pays!), Congress has valiantly swung into action to the defense of the American consumer and done... well, nothing. With great fanfare and much bloviating and boasting, Congress passed -- by huge, veto-proof margins -- a measure suspending additions to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a stockpile of about 700 million barrels of oil. Currently, the government buys about 70,000 barrels a day and sells about the same, keeping the stock "fresh." (Why a product that's been sitting in the ground for millions of years has an apparent "shelf life" is something I don't quite understand, but that's what they do.) For comparison, the United States uses about 21 million barrels of oil a day. (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: The Arab Mind: Part XIII - [All posts in this series can be found at The Arab Mind archive.] There was a lively discussion after the last post in this series which centered around the question of how relevant the Arab Mind is to understanding our present day conflict with the Arab and Muslim world. As well, and not for the first time, I was taken to task for underestimating or ignoring the role of Islam in the formation of Arab culture. For the first part, I would suggest that beyond the ad hominem argument put forth in an effort to invalidate this series, Nina, the commenter took the position that since her experiences in an Islamic country (she did not specify which country) did not match what I was describing, the series could have no validity. Perhaps she had not read the entire series, including several disclaimers, but I have tried to be clear that the Arab Mind represented a distillation of an "ideal" Arab/Muslim developmental line as epitomized by the Saudis. (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: "Helping" Black College Students Or Helping Black College Students Fail At Life? - Take a look at this excerpt from a story about Norfolk State University and tell me who has the best interests of these college students at heart: the professor who was fired for flunking too many of them or the administrators who want them to be given passing grades despite the fact that they're not showing up for class: “A subtext of the discussion is that Norfolk State is a historically black university with a mission that includes educating many students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The university suggests that Aird — who is white — has failed to embrace the mission of educating those who aren’t well prepared. But Aird — who had backing from his department and has some very loyal students as well — maintains that the university is hurting the very students it says it wants to help. Aird believes most of his students could succeed, but have no incentive to work as hard as they need to when the administration makes clear they can pass regardless.” (READ MORE)
McQ: Those endangered polar bears - I'm certainly not averse to taking steps to save a real endangered species - reasonable steps of course. But I prefer the species actually be endangered, not just one which fits in nicely with the overall scheme of an agenda - like AGW. That description, as far as I can tell would fit polar bears: “Polar bears are not the fragile, vulnerable creatures of liberal iconography. They have thrived in the Arctic for thousands of years, both through periods when their sea-ice habitat was smaller, and larger, than it is now. They will continue to adapt - and the Endangered Species Act can't make the slightest difference.” The WSJ's point is important as it points to a movement really just getting started within our legislative process. Polar bears are only a sign of what is to come if any of the three present presidential candidates gain office. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Judgment - A Spanish court finally exercises some. Murder charges dropped against three American soldiers in the Hotel Palestine incident. BBC: “A Spanish court has thrown out murder charges against three US soldiers accused of killing a Spanish cameraman during the war in Iraq.” Best wishes and congratulations to my friends and companions in the invasion of Iraq, 1st Platoon tank commander Gibson, A Company commander Wolford and 4/64 battalion commander deCamp, on the removal of the burden of these accusations. As I’ve stated before, I witnessed numerous examples of Wolford and the men under him, on his orders, withholding fire and placing themselves in danger to avoid needlessly endangering civilians, and other acts of compassion. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Want to save the GOP? Stop voting for bills like this - Politico offers Republicans six ways that they can save the GOP, but yesterday provided them at least one concrete opportunity that they squandered. The House passed the latest farm bill with a veto-proof majority, bloating the budget with subsidies during a period where crops receive record prices. Instead of trimming fat from the budget, House Republicans joined Democrats in feeding special interests: “The House yesterday passed a final version of a new five-year farm bill by a vote of 318 to 106, a margin large enough to override President Bush’s promised veto of the nearly $300 billion measure.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: Surrender: Lebanese government caves to Hezbollah’s demands - They moved on Beirut after the government had the temerity to shut down their communications (i.e. spy) network and fire their stooge from overseeing security at the airport. Problem solved: The network has been restored and the stooge is back at work, thanks to a “settlement” brokered by the Arab League in which Hezbollah gets everything it wants and the opposition maybe gets some token rhetoric about disarmament one of these days. No wonder there was celebratory gunfire in Hezbollah-controlled areas after the deal was announced. What’s the practical effect of all this? As I understand it, there was only one national institution that had earned the trust of Lebanon’s various sects: namely, the army. (READ MORE)
Confederate Yankee: Gripes of Wrath - Liberal bloggers and journalists put their inability to focus on substantive issues on display yesterday along with a blind hatred for President Bush, thanks to a catalytic interview yesterday by Mike Allen of The Politico and Yahoo News. The interview was entitled "Bush warns of Iraq disaster," and in it, President Bush warned of the regional consequences of the kind of a premature, headlong retreat from Iraq. Such a retreat is favored by Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who has pledged to withdraw American forces in 16 months. Such a withdrawal window is not logistically feasible without abandoning costly American military equipment and supplies, and the cost of destabilizing Iraq's security is feared as a threat by every country in the region, and cannot be overemphasized. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Situational outrage - Liberals want us to invade Myanmar, replace its brutal regime and convert them to democracy. First it was Bosnia. We bombed the heck out of it so NATO could take over and install a democracy. 10 years later, NATO still has troops there, although they are not getting shot at. Liberals want us to “do something” about the Sudan. Military action? Perhaps. Now in the wake of a cyclone, liberals want us to take over Myanmar. Pulitzer Prize winner Trudy Rubin wrote: “Right now the Burmese junta is focused on holding a national political referendum on May 10 that will redo the country’s constitution in its favor. Their obsession with this appears to trump any effort to prevent massive outbreaks of disease.” (READ MORE)
Uncle Jimbo @ Blackfive: How to exploit the success in Iraq - The goals in COIN shift considerably when you transition from kinetic operations to a strategy that aims to change minds, put simply a move from breaking things to fixing things. The first part of that is a large reason why we gave ourselves the insurgency we did. The Thunder Run to Baghdad and the complete disappearance and dissolution of Saddam's army failed to deal the Sunnis who supported him any serious blow to their prestige or will. It's much easier to make peace if you have defeated your enemy, ours just stepped out of the way and put on track suits. They simmered in Sunni tribal regions and with no livelihoods and no love for us the insurgency began. (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: The missile misses - Maybe the providers of rockets and mortars that have been used to fire on the Green Zone have just upped the quality of their arms shipments. The NYT reports: "Missile Is Fired at Copter Over Baghdad, U.S. Says". “BAGHDAD — A surface-to-air missile was fired on Saturday at an American Apache helicopter flying over the Sadr City section of Baghdad, American military officials said on Monday. The attack, which had not been disclosed previously, represents the first time that a helicopter has come under missile attack in Sadr City since fighting erupted in the Shiite enclave in March. The missile missed the aircraft. But the attack was sufficiently worrisome that the American military changed the route of an aerial tour of Baghdad it had arranged for a group of reporters, television cameramen and photographers on Monday. Two helicopters were to fly over or near Sadr City, but an official said the route had been changed because of the missile threat.’ Or maybe the incident was simply reported in conjunction with the reporter's trip so the media might put 2+2 together about Iran. Nah. (READ MORE)
Matt Sanchez: The Way They See Us - Americans generally couldn't care less about what goes on outside the country, hell, we barely care what goes on in a neighboring county or city much less something that happens a continent away. Curiously, non-Americans are VERY interested in what happens in the United States. The Way They See Us scans the news for points of views and lets you, the disinterested, learn what they are saying about us. In today's segment of "The Way They See Us", we examine how the CBC, the Canadian version of PBS, reported on the actions of the Marine in Khandahar. (READ MORE)
Information Dissemination: The Slow Burn in Burma - The UN finally read their own homework, and has raised estimates across the board regarding the unfolding tragedy in Myanmar. We pulled statistics sourced to the United Nations from 2005 earlier this week when when we attempted to highlight the region hit by the storm appears to have impacted around 4 million people. We based that assessment on storm track, satellite imagery, and data population data sourced to the UN and the CIA. It appears our calculations were off, not as many have been flooded out as we assumed, but it also appears the media is catching up to the level of catastrophe. “The United Nations said on Wednesday up to 2.5 million people might have been affected by the Myanmar cyclone and proposed a high-level donors conference as the Myanmar junta again limited foreign aid.” (READ MORE)
Roy Spencer: Arctic Fairy Tale - The polar bear isn't threatened, but Big Oil should be - The decision on Wednesday by the U.S. Interior Department to declare the polar bear a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act is a major victory for environmentalists who have been looking for a back-door legal mechanism to limit carbon-dioxide emissions. The decision was made after nine U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) studies looked into the possibility that the polar bear might be faced with extinction late in this century. Polar bears need a sea ice environment for most of the year to thrive. But summer sea extent has been receding for the last 30 years that we have been monitoring it with satellites, and as a result, two of the 13 subpopulations of polar bear have seen population declines. The other eleven subpopulations have been stable or growing. In all, the total polar-bear population is believed to be at or near a record high — 20,000 to 25,000. (READ MORE)
Jerry Bowyer: Recession? Not So Fast, I Say - The Wall Street Journal — daily watering hole of the market bears — titled its Wednesday page-one economic report: “Recession? Not So Fast, Say Some.” With a question mark safely inserted before the bull case, and the idea of a non-recession safely relegated to “some say,” the Journal’s status as pessimism central remains intact. But as a member of the “some say no recession” camp, I’m here to say the economy still looks pretty good. Before I explain why, allow me to summarize the recessionista case: “Consumers use their homes as giant ATM machines, spending beyond their means in response to the wealth effect of higher home prices. As home prices plunge into a giant suck hole of depreciation — according to the Case-Shiller index (the only index worth watching) — the consumer will simply stop spending.” You know the rest: It’s the 1930s all over again… (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Israel Prepping For New Gaza Offensive? - Well, some reports are suggesting as much. I predicted as much a couple of days ago, given the murder of two Israelis in rocket attacks this past week, and that was before the rocket attack on Ashkelon that injured 15 people when an Iranian-made Grad rocket slammed into a health clinic at a shopping center. President Bush, in his speech before the Knesset today, spoke of a Middle East free of oppression. Fine words, but unless you're willing to fight for it and stave off the likes of Hizbullah with more than rhetoric, it simply will not happen. That article, courtesy of the AP's Jennifer Loven, couldn't help but show its disgust with Israel's very existence at every turn - throwing heaping scorn on the fact that President Bush chose not to speak about the Palestinians at length and instead focused on Israel and its achievements. (READ MORE)
Blonde Sagacity: Carter's "Trust" and Obama's "Change" - Last night I was thinking that there were a lot of similarities between America's worst president, Jimmy Carter and America's worst candidate, Barry Hussein. I Googled "Jimmy Carter + Barack Obama" to see if anyone else had the same thought. I found a few articles making the case for the Carter-Obama comparison: "...Actually, the similarities between Carter and Obama are considerable. Like Obama, Carter’s resume included service in a state Legislature (rare for a president), and only a very brief stint in high-profile office, his single term as Georgia’s governor from 1970 to 1974. Obama, of course, has only been in the U.S. Senate since 2005, after an eight-year run in the Illinois state Senate. Most significantly, both men came along at exactly the right time. (READ MORE)
Democracy Project: SCOTUS Allows Major Intrusion Of “International Law” - To now, the Executive and Congressional branches have had exclusive authority to set US foreign policy, and trade policy. Today, the Supreme Court failed to hear a case, due to the stock holdings of several Justices causing the absence of a majority, allowing a two-century old law to be tested for whether it allows a tort suit against major US corporations for “aiding and abetting” the former South Africa’s apartheid. News summaries of the matter can be read at Associated Press, Bloomberg, SCOTUS blog, and best of the four at Christian Science Monitor. The amicus brief filed by major US trade organizations lays out well the confused state of the law and precedents. Carter Wood summarizes the issues, from the standpoint of critics of the suit. (READ MORE)
MountainRunner: Of budgets and priorities and the War of Ideas - It has been noted that the whole of the U.S. Government is not engaged in the War of Ideas. This war, the inappropriateness of the noun "war" notwithstanding, is a war of information, of understanding, discourse, perceptions, and confidence. It is, at its essence, a psychological struggle that requires a holistic effort and intelligent staffing and budget priorities. However, increasing budget numbers can only do so much if the whole picture isn't being considered. Success for an Information Age economy requires strength, stability, and confidence. The gravest threat to the United States is not a weapon of mass destruction, but weapons of mass disruption. This type of WMD is not restricted to "dirty bombs" or attacks on unprotected chemical industries, water supplies, or food supplies. It can, and will likely, be more subtle. (READ MORE)
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