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)
Chinese Open Wallets for Quake Aid - BEIJING, May 15 At the headquarters of the Red Cross Society of China, volunteers turned a boardroom into a makeshift cashier's office Thursday, sending tens of thousands of fluttering bank notes through counting machines and handing receipts to people like Cai Lili, 30, who stood in long lines with... (READ MORE)
McCain Sees U.S. Troops Leaving Iraq by 2013 - COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 15 -- Sen. John McCain on Thursday offered for the first time what he hopes will be an end date for the war in Iraq, part of a vision he presented in which his policies lead to peace and prosperity at home and abroad by 2013, the end of what would be his first term as president. (READ MORE)
Women Rise in Rwanda's Economic Revival - MARABA, Rwanda -- Sun-kissed plantations ring this village, renowned in recent years for growing the rich arabica beans brewed and served in some of the world's finest coffee houses. But the secret to success here has had far less to do with the idyllic climate and volcanic soil than with a group... (READ MORE)
War Funding Bill Stalls in House - An odd coalition of angry Republicans and antiwar Democrats yesterday torpedoed a $162.5 billion proposal to continue funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving the House to pass a measure that demands troop withdrawals, bans torture and expands education benefits for returning veterans. (READ MORE)
Bush's Comments In Israel Fuel Anger - JERUSALEM, May 15 -- On an emotional visit to mark Israel's 60th anniversary, President Bush on Thursday compared people seeking talks with Iran and radical Islamic groups to the Nazis' appeasers, provoking a political storm at home and accusations that he was politicizing the celebration. (READ MORE)
McCain widens dialogue on blogs - Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is trying to tap a new audience of potential voters by taking his campaign message straight to liberal and nonpolitical issues-based blogs, which reach millions of readers but don't often delve into conservative politics. (READ MORE)
Passport cards called security vulnerability - The State Department will soon begin production of an electronic passport card that security specialists and members of Congress fear will be vulnerable to alteration or counterfeiting. (READ MORE)
Bush exalts ties to Israel - President Bush brought Israel's parliament to its feet yesterday with a rousing speech that described U.S. ties to the Jewish state as a biblical bond and the two nations as eternal allies in the war against terrorism. (READ MORE)
House GOP strips war funds from bill - The Democrat-led House yesterday passed a war-funding bill that failed to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (READ MORE)
Delay gay marriage, California court urged - Traditional values groups will ask the California Supreme Court to stay its landmark decision legalizing gay marriage until the voters can weigh in in November, warning of a "chaotic" situation if it is implemented sooner. (READ MORE)
'Sweetie' leaves bad taste for Obama critics - The presidential election has veered onto another odd tangent, courtesy of Sen. Barack Obama, who uttered not an epithet nor insult against blue-collar workers — but a term of endearment. (READ MORE)
Uptick splits economic forecasters - A slight improvement in the economy in the past month has touched off a raging debate among titans of the economic world over whether the worst of the housing and mortgage crisis is over. (READ MORE)
Political War Games - Congress's approval rating is at record lows, but who cares? The Democrats who run the joint have made a calculation that voters will blame everything they loathe about Washington on the Republican President. Which is precisely the kind of political immunity that lets Democrats think they can get away with the tax, spend and evade spectacle of this week's war-funding bill. (READ MORE)
Chávez and Colombia - Interpol yesterday issued its findings on the authenticity of the computer files seized from Colombian terrorists in March, and they won't make Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez's day. "We are absolutely certain that the computer exhibits that our experts examined came from a FARC terrorist camp," said Robert Noble, head of the international police agency. (READ MORE)
Gay Marriage Returns - Just when the news was filling with stories about a Republican Party gasping for air, along comes the California Supreme Court's 4-3 decision yesterday legislating gay marriage. The GOP certainly hasn't done anything to deserve such luck. Recall how in November 2003 the Massachusetts Supreme Court, also by a 4-3 vote, issued a similar gay marriage pronouncement. It dogged Democrat John Kerry all the way to Election Day. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Fred Thompson: The Place to Discuss Our Fundamental Principles - Spending some time on the campaign trail has confirmed a couple of thoughts I’ve had before I entered the Republican primary race. First, conservatism is alive and well in America; don’t let anyone tell you differently. And by conservatism, I don’t mean the warmed-over “raise your hand if you believe …” kind of conservatism we see blooming every election cycle. No, I’m speaking of the conservatism grounded in principles based upon enduring truths: an understanding of the importance of human nature in the affairs of individuals and nations. Respect for the lessons of history, the importance of faith and tradition. The understanding that while man is prone to err, he is capable of great things when not subjugated by a too-powerful government. These are the principles that inspired our Founding Fathers... (READ MORE)
Charles Krauthammer: Home for the Lost Tribes of Israel - WASHINGTON -- Before sending Lewis and Clark west, Thomas Jefferson dispatched Meriwether Lewis to Philadelphia to see Dr. Benjamin Rush. The eminent doctor prepared a series of scientific questions for the expedition to answer. Among them, writes Stephen Ambrose: "What Affinity between their (the Indians') religious Ceremonies & those of the Jews?" Jefferson and Lewis, like many of their day and ours, were fascinated by the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and thought they might be out there on the Great Plains. They weren't. They aren't anywhere. Their disappearance into the mists of history since their exile from Israel in 722 B.C. is no mystery. It is the norm, the rule for every ancient people defeated, destroyed, scattered and exiled. (READ MORE)
Hugh Hewitt: Polar Bear Pushback - After 18 years of a law practice devoted to counseling landowners, home builders and commercial interests affected by the long arm and severe penalties of the Endangered Species Act, I am used to incredulous looks and outraged oaths from clients coming to grips with the Act's incredible burdens on impacted private citizens. "Are you telling me I can't build my Burger King because a Delhi Sands flower-loving fly that has never been seen and is above ground only a few days a year might be near-by?" "I can't build a connector road because the noise from construction might damage the hearing of the Stephens' kangaroo rat thus impairing its reproduction?" "All construction in San Diego involving impacts to road ruts which might contain Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp is enjoined? All construction?" Yes, yes, and yes. (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: None Dare Call It 'Appeasement' - Let me get this straight. It's perfectly fair for Barack Obama and his cohorts to repeatedly disparage President Bush's foreign policy as "cowboy diplomacy" but unspeakably horrific for Bush to analogize the Democrats' approach to foreign policy to appeasing Hitler? When Obama compared Hillary Clinton's threats against Iran to President Bush's threatening "bluster" and "cowboy diplomacy," no one batted an eye. But when Mr. Bush, in addressing Israel's Knesset, compared those who want to negotiate with today's terrorists and tyrants to an American senator in 1939 who lamented that Hitler's march into Poland might have been avoided "if only I could have talked to Hitler," Obama, other Democrats and the mainstream media went ballistic. What's wrong with the president assuring our major Middle East ally that, under his watch at least, America will stand by it against our common enemies, such as the Holocaust-denying Iranian regime? (READ MORE)
Kathleen Parker: Democrats Offer Thrills 'n' Chills - WASHINGTON -- Well, at least they didn't kiss. I was bracing myself for the lip lock Wednesday when John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. Don't look at me. None other than David "Mudcat" Saunders, Edwards' former rural adviser, came up with the idea when he said Obama should kiss Edwards on the lips "to kill this 41-point loss," referring to Hillary Clinton's landslide victory Tuesday in the West Virginia primary. Instead, the two men exchanged a manly air-hug to commemorate the moment when Edwards threw Clinton under the upholstered sofa on his grandmama's front porch and anointed the Illinois senator with snake oil left over from his own campaign. As Edwards gave what amounted to a stump speech highlighting his favorite subject -- John Edwards -- and his own anti-poverty initiative, Americans were reminded of why the North Carolina son-of-a-millworker won't be their presidential nominee. (READ MORE)
Donald Lambro: Primary Turnout Claims Turn Out To Be Half-Baked - WASHINGTON -- Democrats are claiming that high voter turnout in their primaries is proof positive that they'll win the White House in November. It is a familiar claim, made by one party or the other, that pops up every four years, but it contains not a morsel of truth. Many studies show no correlation between party primary participation and general election results. Nevertheless, in a memorandum to its supporters and the news media, the Democratic National Committee is crowing, "(R)ecord turnout during the primaries has been transformational for the Democratic Party as record numbers of new voters are being registered." In this equation, new primary voters equal more general election votes. "Democrats are energized all across the country and ... if Democrats show up and talk about our values, we will win," the memo asserts. (READ MORE)
Oliver North: Terror Terminology - LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The term "politically correct" is defined by The American Heritage Dictionary thus: "Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation." Add to that litany of "historical injustices" the title of my New York Times best-seller: "American Heroes in the Fight Against Radical Islam." In recent weeks, the vocabulary police opened a new front in the war on terror by issuing a list of do's and don'ts for terrorism terminology. In an effort to fight a kinder, gentler war on Islamic radicals, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with unnamed Islamic interest groups, has issued a paper titled "Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations From American Muslims." (READ MORE)
Rich Lowry: A Fire Bell In The Night - In 2006, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel had an inspiration: run culturally conservative Democrats in culturally conservative congressional districts. This doesn't sound like the stuff of strategic brilliance, but it meant overcoming the cultural condescension of most national Democrats. In his 2006 book "The Plan," Emanuel knocked "What's the Matter With Kansas?" author Thomas Frank for declaring cultural issues less important than economic ones: "It's insulting to suggest that blue-collar workers are wrong to make faith or conscience, not money, their bottom line." Emanuel's relatively conservative candidates carried districts in 2006 that Democrats had little business winning, and his approach is still working now. In Mississippi, Republicans just lost a special election in a congressional district they thought would be a showcase for the drag Barack Obama will have on his party. (READ MORE)
John McCaslin: Who Needs a TV? - That was a fly on the wall of the greenroom of the Fox News Channel in Washington listening to Frank Luntz, the former Republican Capitol Hill strategist-turned-Fox pollster-pundit, tell network associates that House Republicans are headed for a 20-seat loss in November based on their "inability and unwillingness to drive an effective message." Mr. Luntz, who was exiled by the current Republican minority leadership, but still has close ties to many members, said off-air that congressional Republicans are in even more trouble now than they were in 2006, when he went public before the election to warn that their majority was in real danger. Asked before a taping of the show "Hannity & Colmes" whether things could turn around for the Republicans between now and Election Day, Mr. Luntz's response was emphatic: (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: Obama Says Bush Is 'Politicizing' Israel - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama says President George Bush is engaging in the “politicization of foreign policy” in a speech to celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday Tuesday morning. Before the Israeli Knesset the President said: “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.” The Obama campaign released a statement sharply criticizing Bush for these statements. (READ MORE)
Peggy Noonan: Pity Party - The Democrats aren't the ones falling apart, the Republicans are. The Democrats can see daylight ahead. For all their fractious fighting, they're finally resolving their central drama. Hillary Clinton will leave, and Barack Obama will deliver a stirring acceptance speech. Then hand-to-hand in the general, where they see their guy triumphing. You see it when you talk to them: They're busy being born. The Republicans? Busy dying. The brightest of them see no immediate light. They're frozen, not like a deer in the headlights but a deer in the darkness, his ears stiff at the sound. Crunch. Twig. Hunting party. (READ MORE)
Kimberly A. Strassel: The State of the Union? Furious. - Fans of HBO's "The Wire" know fictional Baltimore Mayor Tommy Carcetti. The reformer spends his first days in office screeching through every public-works unit, railing about an abandoned car here, a leaking hydrant there. Shocked city administrators ask their angry new boss: Where is the abandoned car? Which leaking hydrant? The mayor won't specify. In fear, they mobilize their forces to pick up all the abandoned cars, to fix all the hydrants. The beat-down citizens of Baltimore cheer. Mayor Carcetti smiles. Republicans ought to watch "The Wire." (READ MORE)
James Freeman: Eliot Spitzer and the Decline of AIG - AIG shareholders gathered for the big insurer's annual meeting in New York on Wednesday, and the mood wasn't cheery. After a three-year experiment in Eliot Spitzer-imposed management that has cost them billions, more than a few shareholders were pining for the days of former CEO Hank Greenberg. "He did a heck of a job," said one shareholder heading out of the meeting. "He's a good man," offered another. "He would take firmer action" to address the company's current problems said a third. The 83-year-old Mr. Greenberg will apparently have none of it, telling the Journal this week, "I do not want to return in any official capacity." However, the man who built AIG into a global powerhouse over 38 years isn't going away quietly. (READ MORE)
Joe Queenan: Hillary Is Too Boring to Be President - Journalists like to pretend that it makes no difference to them who gets elected president, but this is a lie. A few years ago, I disclosed in print that I had two handwritten notes from Steve Forbes that would vastly increase in value were he elected to the highest office in the land. Yes, I admired my ex-employer's pluck and thought he had some wonderful ideas about simplifying the tax code. But the main reason I supported his candidacy was because of those two collectibles I could cash in. I may be venal and morally rudderless, but at least I'm honest. (READ MORE)
Leslie Hook: Burma's Junta Will Survive the Cyclone - It's tempting to see the destruction wrought by Cyclone Nargis as a catalyst for democratic change in Burma. After all, other unpopular regimes have been undermined by natural disasters – think Managua in 1972, or Mexico City in 1985. But the key lesson of Nargis's aftermath is that the military junta may be here to stay. The generals have no other goal. Led by Than Shwe, they manage a vast security apparatus of 400,000 soldiers. Education, health care and infrastructure? Ignored. Democratic legitimacy? Who cares. This week, as if to ram this home, state media announced that the country had approved a new constitution enshrining the military's power through a rigged referendum that reported 99% turnout and a 92% "yes" vote. (READ MORE)
A Newt One: It IS Time - The Politico says that there are Six ways the GOP can save itself. In short, here is the list: 1. Get a clue - 2. Cut the crap - 3. Beg for help - 4. Burn the Bush - 5. Change the pitch - and your face - 6. Fan the fear The Mighty Knight and myself had a lengthy discussion yesterday and we were going to talk about these issues on my BTR show last night but, BTR, the sorry platform which it is, tanked and the show was canceled. We discussed what a Winning GOP Strategy would be and why the GOP would not use it. As we were talking and ranting, in the back of my mind the Politico piece was reverberating between my ears, a sometimes scary experience. Nevertheless, whereas I don't whole heartedly agree with the Politico's assessment, there are several crushing truths within the article. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: New York Enacts Noose Display Crime Law - Governor David Paterson signed a noose display crime bill into law. The text of the bill can be found here, and it would make it the etching, painting, drawing or otherwise placing or displaying a noose, a symbol of racism and intimidation, on real property the crime of aggravated harassment in the first degree - a felony. “Nooses were found last year on a black professor’s door at Columbia University, outside a post office near ground zero in Lower Manhattan and in locations on Long Island.” Surprisingly, no one has been charged in connection with the crime at Columbia University, and there have been suggestions that the Columbia University incident was a hoax perpetrated by the professor on whose door the noose was hung,Professor Madonna Constantine, to get another professor in trouble. (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: A Moment Of Silence Per Month In Honor Of The Dead And Injured - A law maker in North Carolina had made a proposal is looking for a way to send a clear signal to the military community, that the members of Congress are aware of their sacrifices. Representative Walter Jones, who himself has served in the North Carolina National Guard, has introduced a resolution calling for a change in House proceedures and he plans to take his cause directly to the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Jones is asking for the House of Representatives to have a moment of silence, one day each month in recognition of the Troops who have been wounded or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. With all of the political grandstanding, when it comes to anything related to the wars, especially in Iraq, it’s often difficult for the Troops to really feel that anyone in Congress supports the Troops or that they recognize the sacrifices that they’re making. (READ MORE)
Neil Netanel: Copyright and the First Amendment - I argued in yesterday’s post that copyright burdens speech. Not all who posted comments agreed, but assuming I’m correct (and I’m not the only one to make that claim; others, including Eugene Volokh, have made similar arguments), what, if anything, should be done about it? Sometimes the law burdens speech for very good reason, such good reason that we favor the law over the speaker. The obvious, regularly noted example is forbidding falsely crying “fire” in a crowded theater. Laws against defamation, false advertising, misleading securities filings, and incitement to immediate violence are others, as are prohibitions on using sound trucks in a residential neighborhood and blasting music above a certain decibel level at an outdoor rock concert. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: Just 'Cos - There's an old Bill Cosby bit that deals with shop class. One of the kids thought it would be funny to put a bullet in the furnace. Then, in the middle of class, the bullet explodes quite loudly. The shop teacher, wanting to find out who did it, starts insulting the student who'd do it. "You'd have to be pretty low-down to put a bullet in the furnace." When that doesn't work, he starts in on the student's mother. "You know, it says something about the mother of a person who would put a bullet in a furnace..." At that point, one student stands up and shouts at the teacher. "I didn't do it, and stop talking about my mother!" I was reminded of that yesterday when I heard that President Bush had denounced appeasing terrorists and the states that back them... (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nuthouse: AREN’T THERE ANY GROWN UPS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY? - That wet spot you see forming under the chair of Will Bunch, Michael D., and even the normally reasonable Joe Gandleman is a sure sign that the brand of diapers these people are using just ain’t cuttin’ it. Might I suggest “Huggies Super Absorbent” for those times – like now – when you need that extra protection against leaks and overflow? What has many on the left squirming in their toddler seats due to the uncomfortable dampness in their tush was a speech made by our President to the Israeli Knesset celebrating the State of Israel’s 60th birthday. Now it is probably a good thing that no one asked our President to blow out the candles on the cake since his wind is probably not what it was a few years ago – having expended all that hot air in the meantime telling us what a success his excellent adventure in Iraq had become. But no matter. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Obama’s Tuzla Dash? Er, maybe - When Hillary Clinton needed to show that she had the courage to become Commander-in-Chief, she concocted the Tuzla Dash, telling a false story on at least four occasions how she had landed in Bosnia under fire when evidence clearly showed she lied. When Barack Obama needed to show that he had political courage, he concocted a story about his reception in Detroit after demanding higher gas-mileage standards. Are these two the same? “Is this another Bosnian sniper incident, where a Democratic candidate for president describes a scene involving some personal courage, but later videotape shows that maybe perhaps it wasn’t really quite all like that exactly?” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: (Video) Democratic women against Obama - I want to believe, but despite their claim of support among legions of women nationwide, I find myself … skeptical. There’s hardly anything on Google about the group and I’m unclear on what exactly their grievance is against Obama or the party itself, aside from their willingness to stand by and let Hillary be smeared misogynistically by “progressives” various and sundry even though she and her campaign haven’t raised much of a ruckus about it themselves. Note to self: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. The Democrats hate you, ladies; there can be but one solution. (READ MORE)
Blackfive: Vets Against the War on Capitol Hell - IVAW brought a few anti-war vets to capitol hill today to testify, not under oath (but they brought lawyers anyway), about war crimes, racism, tons of harsh language, starchy underwear, and really bad army food...oh, and one guy complaining that the military is racist because his unit referred to local Iraqis as Hadji. Over at "The Sniper", you have the run down of events, live blogged by Thus Spake Ortner, in hilarious fashion. The stuff is sad. - Farce in the time of Cholera: The not so under oath testimony of IVAW: “...OK kiddies, here we go. TSO is back in his Attila the Celt chair, ready and eager to listen to the testimony of the heroes of IVAW and give you a blow by blow commentary on the asshattery that will ensue before the Congress. And by ‘Congress’ I of course mean only those Members of the Progressive Caucus that actually go.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Gynephobia - Does Democratic Sen. Barack Obama have female troubles? As an observer of the absurd, i.e, politics, I look for patterns. If a guy writes a paean to a father who abandoned him as an infant instead of the mother and grandmother who raised him, I notice. I grew up under similar circumstances. I’m pretty sure my book would have been called, “Dreams From My Mother.” If a guy faced with the public revelation that his pastor and mentor is a race-baiting hater of the nation then says his grandmother was worse, I notice. If a guy dismisses with a sarcastic “sweetie” a question from a middle-aged female reporter. I notice. Pattern. A guy on Fox last night called it “gynephobia.” (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Appease Porridge Hot, Appease Porridge Cold - In a brilliant speech before the Knesset today, President George W. Bush said the following: “Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.” Almost immediately, Barack Obama reacted with volcanic fury, leaping to the conclusion that the warning against "appeasement" was aimed squarely at him: (READ MORE)
Big Dogs: Why Are the Democrats So Touchy? - The Democrats are up in arms over remarks that President Bush made while in Israel celebrating that country’s 60th anniversary. The President was speaking about terrorists, an appropriate subject given who surrounds Israel, when he made remarks that got the Democrat’s panties in a wad: “In his speech, Bush said: ‘Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.’ The Crypt” Immediately the Democrats assumed that Bush was taking a veiled swipe at Obama who has advocated talking to terrorists. In fact, many people and countries have held this particular belief. France and Germany believed that talking was in order as did many Democrats as they moved to distance themselves from their vote to go to war. (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: The silent city - Bush in Israel says "Masada shall never fall again." And he adds, "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history." Obama says, how dare you speak of me in that way? Peter Wehner at Commentary says: “Obama’s faux anger in reaction to Bush’s speech is ludicrous. For one thing, the President did not even mention Senator Obama in his speech.” (READ MORE)
Ace of Spades: How the Glacier Melted: Hillary's Staff Dishes - More than twelve Hillary staffers, we're told. from low-level grunts to money men to high-ranking senior staff, answered a questionnaire with full anonymity guaranteed. (Supposedly -- this is TNR, I should note.) So-- what went wrong? Short answer: Everything. Apart from the obvious answer that she was a poor candidate running against a good one (or, rather, an exciting one), here are some of the more interesting answers: “Clearly [Obama] was a phenomenon. He was tapping something really different than anyone had ever seen before. ... Months and months before Iowa, he was getting record crowds. I just think they should have really gone after him back in the summer and in the fall. I know it would have been a difficult decision to make back then. She's the leader of the party, the standard bearer, the big dog. Everyone thinks she's gonna win and walk away with it. Why go picking on Barack Obama? But that's just something the campaign should have done sooner.” (READ MORE)
Information Dissemination: Gates on Diplomats, Again... - Consider how strange the times we live in are. The nation has become hyper partisan in an election year with the nation engaged in two wars with challenges emerging on every policy front. Of all the places in government, we continue to observe the current Secretary of Defense, a position that has not had a strong showing for most of the administration, is where the voice of reason comes from most often in foreign policy. Who would have thought it would be the Secretary of Defense leading the charge for more civilian diplomats, definitely a telling sign of our time. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spoke today at the American Academy of Diplomacy and did a 45 minutes question and answer with the audience. Even though we don't always agree with him, we really like Gates. Once again, he makes his Kansas State argument. (READ MORE)
Skippy's List: On A Serious Note (No, Really) - Last week I played a prank on my readers, by leading them along about an unpleasant subject, before turning it into a joke. If you just got here, go ahead and read it now, I’ll wait. I’d say that I am sorry for doing that to my regular readers, but let’s face it. You know that I’m not, and that’s probably why you keep reading my site. Because you know that I have the capacity and the willingness to turn painful emotional turmoil into a bad pun. That’s just the kind of service I like to provide. But it has been pointed out to me that this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed publicly more often. We currently have a suicide epidemic amongst those that serve. Take a look at this article. (READ MORE)
This Ain't Hell: IVAW takes the Road Show to Congress - Well, your intrepid blogger immersed myself once again in the IVAW backwash. Thus Spake Ortner live blogged the hearing off the radio from the comfort of his Playboy Manor so you can probably read a more coherent version there. I’ve cracked open a Saranac Traditional Lager and I’m uploading pictures and suds while I type this. When I arrived - at exactly 7:30 - there was no one else there so I plugged in and started filming just in time to catch Geoff Millard doing what he does best - testing all of the microphones like a good little general’s gopher; But they asked me to leave and wait in the hall. The VVAW already had a guy at the table to the enterance. You remember VVAW - the guys that are babysitting IVAW to give them some leverage and the benefit of IVAW’s vast experience at being blowhards. (READ MORE)
Meryl Yourish: Rocket bombardment continues; Barak says not for much longer - I’ve been reading reports in various Israeli newspapers and other sources about the upcoming Gaza operation. They all seem to have the same background: The IDF will go in, but not in great force. Pinpoint operations to take out the terror infrastructure. If that’s the case, the operation will fail. The IDF went in to do just that months ago, after the bombardment of Sderot and southern Israel increased to fifty-plus rockets per day. The result is what you see now: Hamas and its proxies fire rockets wherever, whenever they want. They lose a crew here or there, but the rockets just keep coming. “‘You need to grit your teeth, but not for many more months,’ Barak told the residents of Ashkelon during a tour of the scene together with Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i and OC Home Front Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan. ‘We won’t allow this to continue for much longer. I am not talking about years or many months. We will do what needs to be done.’” (READ MORE)
Soccerdad: The real Palestinian collaborator - Often you’ll hear Palestinians complaining that Israel was founded due to European guilt over the Holocaust, but since they had nothing to do with the Holocaust, why should the Jews be allowed to create a state that dispossesses them? The Holocaust was European and the Palestinians argue they’re paying the price. While there were many forces at work to allow the return of the Jews to Israel and the (re-)creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East, certainly sympathy for the Jews after the Holocaust played a role. The status of the refugee demonstrated the need for a Jewish homeland. (A point that was emphasized by the expulsion of Jews from their homes in Arab lands after the UN approve the partition plan.) (READ MORE)
Stop the ACLU: Professor Sues Students For Doubting Harebrained ‘Theories’ - She claims that her students violated her civil rights. She says student’s “anti-intellectualism” made her life a living hell. So, this ex-Dartmouth professor is threatening to sue her students for the temerity to have doubted her harebrained theories on “ecofeminism” and the “French narrative theory.” Oh, professor Priya Venkatesan was all in high dudgeon that students would dare question her efforts to “problematize” science all right. She was all discombobulated that her students were “irrational,” and “subversive” with their questions. She even thought them filled with “fascist demagoguery” — after all, isn’t it “fascist” to ask questions and not t just swallow whole what a professor dishes out? Why, it was so horrible for her that she felt she had to consult a physician for her symptoms of “intellectual distress.” Joseph Rago of the Wall Street Journal has some more of the details. (READ MORE)
Loren Heal: The Race Martyr - The strategy is this: vote Obama, or you are a racist. A key element of that strategy is to focus on the voters, and not the candidate. That is why we will hear, for the next six months, that white rural voters are incurably racist and will not vote for Obama because he is black. But that's the wrong lesson to learn. Obama's support comes primarily from two groups: academics including college students, and blacks. But it must be noted that it is the liberal academics and liberal blacks who are voting for Obama. He is the most liberal Senator, which this year makes him the most liberal presidential candidate. Academics and blacks lean heavily to the left, hence their support for Obama. (READ MORE)
ROFASix: The Looming Universal Healthcare Debacle - After posting the video below on prescription prices and the advantages of shopping around, I began to muse what lies ahead should one of the two socialist liberals end up as the next President. First off, the spectre of the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch under control of the same party is a terrifying prospect. The image you get is sorta like staring up the end of a colonoscopy scope. We saw what happened when the "Ripofflicans" controlled both branches. It took them 12 years to reach a level of corruption and arrogance that it took the Dimo's four decades to achieve. The fact that voters might screw up and let is happen again is incomprehensible. If we have learned anything from the 110th Congress, it is simply that gridlock between the two branches offers some protection for the taxpayer from the politicians intent to legislate solutions which really means take more from the taxpayer. (READ MORE)
Matt Sanchez: Wiki-Whacked by Political Bias - With the presidential elections looming, Americans will query the Internet to make a decision on the candidates. Now more than ever, accurate information is key. For almost any query, the chances are that the search engine will turn up a Wikipedia article — and that’s where the problems begin. In 2001, Bernard Goldberg wrote his groundbreaking book Bias to confirm what we already knew: the media colored the news according to a liberal ideology. Today, Wikipedia, the “world’s largest encyclopedia,” has the potential of becoming the liberal left’s largest propaganda machine.Volunteer editors scour the Internet for “reliable sources” (RS in Wiki-speak) and the typical Wikipedia article is better sourced than most subscription-based encyclopedias, according to several studies. But it’s the choice of how to source an article that really shades the news. (READ MORE)
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred: “We were all racists, we admired National Socialism” Just Fine With Barack Chamberlain - “We were all racists, we admired National Socialism, read its books and the sources of its ideas. [...] Who lived in Damascus at that time can understand the inclination of the Arab people towards Nazism, because it was the power who could become the pioneer of our Arab cause. And who is defeated loves the victorious…” - Sami al-Gundi The irony of Arab world obsession with Nazism (and their projection on Israel) is not lost on most of the civilized world. All the frenzied Arab outrage at the Israeli incursion into Gaza attempts to make the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit the impetus for that invasion. There is no mention of the 1,000 rockets fired into Israel since the Hamas ‘truce.’ It matters not one bit that Hamas came to power in a free election, anymore than it mattered that Adolph Hitler made his way to power by way of free elections. Had the civilized world taken action and eliminated Hitler and his coterie of evil, 50 million people would be alive today. Barack Obama is a commercial and nothing more. He believes that if repeated often enogh, his ideas will assume some kind of special merit. (READ MORE)
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