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)
Debate still rages on impact of tax cuts - At a White House event last week commemorating the fifth anniversary of the 2003 tax cuts and the seventh anniversary of the 2001 tax cuts, President Bush hailed the "52 months of uninterrupted job growth" that commenced shortly after the 2003 tax cuts were passed. (READ MORE)
Obama presidency could dismay anti-Bush Europe - To many in Europe, President Bush is still a pariah, and Barack Obama is a phenom. But as Mr. Bush heads to the continent Monday for a weeklong goodbye tour, the little known fact is that his administration has done much to repair the trans-Atlantic relationship in his second term. (READ MORE)
DeLay warns GOP faces long rebuilding process - Two years after he resigned from the House, former Republican leader Tom DeLay says conservatives haven't bottomed out from their 2006 election losses, Democrats are "cleaning their clock," and it will take years before the Republican Party can compete with the operation Democrats have built. (READ MORE)
Abortion stance hurts Gilmore - Virginia Republican Senate nominee James S. Gilmore III's stance on abortion and his ties to a company that makes morning-after pills present formidable challenges to his campaign, some conservatives say. "Conservatives in Virginia have already demonstrated they're willing to leave the ballot blank if they're convinced the candidate is not with them on the issues..." (READ MORE)
Senate Votes To Privatize Its Failing Restaurants - Year after year, decade upon decade, the U.S. Senate's network of restaurants has lost staggering amounts of money -- more than $18 million since 1993, according to one report, and an estimated $2 million this year alone, according to another. (READ MORE)
Blogging Without Warning - Mayhill Fowler says she never planned to ask Bill Clinton the question that unleashed a decidely unpresidential tirade. But in the crush of the crowd in South Dakota last Monday, when she raised "that hatchet job" on him in Vanity Fair, Clinton called the article's author "slimy," "sleazy" and a "scumbag," tightly gripping Fowler's hand the whole time. "I'm sure he had no idea who I was," the 61-year-old Tennessee native says. (READ MORE)
'She Touched a Lot of People' - DUNCANSVILLE, Pa. -- Five family members gathered last Thursday afternoon in their living room, shades drawn, to remember. They sat in big, cushioned chairs and shared stories to fight their sadness. There was the time Hillary asked them for money, and they cobbled together about $50 even though they couldn't spare it. (READ MORE)
Iranian leader: US military is Iraq's top problem - TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's supreme leader told the visiting Iraqi prime minister Monday that the U.S. military presence is the main cause of Iraq's problems, according to Iranian state television, making clear his opposition to a U.S.-Iraqi security pact. (READ MORE)
That Stagflation Show - Friday's market rout in employment, oil, the dollar and stocks was not the end of the world, but it is a warning. The message is that the current Washington policy mix of easy money and Keynesian fiscal "stimulus" is taking us down the road to stagflation. (READ MORE)
Cap and Burn - For months, Democrats and the environmental lobby promoted last week's Senate global-warming debate as a political watershed. It was going to be the historic turning point in U.S. climate change policy. In the event, their bill collapsed in a little more than three days. (READ MORE)
Stock Futures Point to Higher Open; Lehman Outlook Stems Gains - U.S. stock-market futures were pointing to the upside Monday, setting the stage for a potential rebound after ending last week with a steep fall in the wake of a dismal May jobs report and a jump in crude-oil prices to new all-time highs. But news of an expected loss from Lehman Brothers stemmed recent gains. (READ MORE)
Gasoline Hits Average of $4 a Gallon - The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hit $4 a gallon for the first time Sunday, the latest milestone in a run-up in fuel prices that is sapping consumer confidence and threatening to nudge the nation into recession. (READ MORE)
IRS Targets Billionaire's - The Internal Revenue Service is fighting with billionaire Philip Anschutz to force the Denver-based mogul to pay back taxes totaling $143.6 million. The court battle is part of a broad attempt by tax authorities to crack down on complex transactions used to defer paying capital-gains taxes. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Judy Shelton: The Weak-Dollar Threat to World Order - Imagine how Americans would feel if we suddenly realized that our most trusted trade partners have been slowly but inexorably imposing a tariff against U.S. goods since 2002 – a tariff now in excess of 50%. What really stings is that these same trade partners are also our most important allies, in both military and ideological terms. We like to think we share the same moral values when it comes to defending democracy and the virtues of free market capitalism. How disillusioning to discover that the leading proponents of open global trade – the ones who insist on a "level playing field" – think nothing of adopting policies that render our products overly expensive for their consumers, even as they proffer their goods around the world at inordinately discounted prices. Now you know how members of the European Union feel these days. (READ MORE)
E. Fuller Torrey: Compassion, Compulsion and the Mentally Ill - The debacle of deinstitutionalization continues to worsen with each passing year. In 1955, there were 559,000 individuals in America's state mental hospitals. By 2005, there were only 47,000 state hospital beds left in the country, a number that continues to fall. Numerous studies have documented the tragic effects of releasing hundreds of thousands of seriously mentally ill individuals from state hospitals while failing to ensure that they receive treatment. The latest, carried out by Jason Matejkowski and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, found that individuals with serious mental illnesses are responsible for 10% of all homicides in Indiana. That translates into approximately 1,700 out of 17,034 total homicides in the U.S. in 2006. (READ MORE)
Al From: Confessions of a Pro-Trade Democrat - Where are the pro-trade Democrats? America won't increase middle-class incomes and create jobs without them. From jobs and incomes to gas and food prices, Democrats are absolutely right that the Bush years have been a disaster for the forgotten middle class. Every homeowner in America knows that we're poorer than we were eight years ago. But if Democrats are serious about turning the economy around, we have to be willing to tell people that job and income growth depends on Washington's willingness to get its fiscal house in order, invest in people and technology, and, yes, expand trade. History proves that expanding trade and productivity help create growth. We learned that the hard way when the Smoot-Hawley tariff helped crush trade and exacerbate the Great Depression. (READ MORE)
John Al Hall: The Khmer Rouge Tribunal's Rebirth - Eight months ago the United Nations-sponsored Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh didn't look like it was worth funding. The United Nations Development Program, which distributes donor funds to the Cambodian side of the tribunal, had tried and failed to suppress an embarrassing audit, first revealed on these pages. The Open Society Justice Initiative's Phnom Penh office brought to light various irregularities at the tribunal, including damning allegations that Cambodian tribunal staff and judges were required to kickback part of their salaries to keep their jobs. Now the cash is running out. This week, the tribunal is expected to ask donor nations for around $100 million to fund its activities for the next three years. (READ MORE)
L. Gordon Crovitz: A 'Finest Hour' for Presidential Candidates? - In the late 1970s, Citibank adopted a tagline that captured its sun-doesn't-set brand promise, "The Citi Never Sleeps." This was dropped a decade ago, succeeded by several forgotten taglines. Now, Citibank has a new one: "Citi Never Sleeps." Is a deleted "the" all that smart marketers can show for creativity since the beginning of the Internet era? The answer is yes. We're in an era of message drench, with Americans seeing some 3,000 advertising messages daily. Yet just when people trust only messages that seem authentic, it's more rare for words to express a company, product or political message honestly. Getting a message out is harder than ever in this digital era – a fact that could be key to the presidential race now that it's down to two candidates, especially if either one aims to focus on policy differences. (READ MORE)
Mary Anastasia O'Grady: Morning in Colombia - It's just past 5:30 and the wide, indigo-blue sky that has been darkening all afternoon has finally torn open. Sheets of rain are sweeping across the grassy plains; from time to time gusts of tropical wind carry the downpour sideways and make the leaves of the aceite trees stand straight up. The storm is spectacular, but we are safe and dry under the porch of the ranch house, sipping wine. A neighbor has ridden some eight kilometers on horseback for an evening visit. As often happens in Colombia these days, the talk turns to the wonder of the peace that has finally settled in after years of unspeakable terror. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to allow a vote on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement because she says that President Álvaro Uribe has not done enough to quell political violence in this country, particularly against unionists. In large numbers, Colombians challenge that assertion. (READ MORE)
Fred Thompson: Adhering to the Principles that Keep America Prosperous & Free - I was privileged to spend some time with fellow conservatives, Republicans and concerned citizens in Hershey, PA., last Friday, where I addressed the state GOP. Here's what we discussed. We are not here tonight just because we are Republicans. We are here because we know that we have the strongest, freest and most prosperous country in the history of the world, and that if we adhere to the traditional principles of the Republican Party, which are the first principles of our country, we will keep it that way. We know that we were given a country based upon certain eternal truths–the wisdom of the scriptures and the wisdom of the ages … the fact that there is such a thing as human nature that has to be taken into account when governing … and most fundamentally, based upon the fact that people are meant to be free. (READ MORE)
Mary Grabar: Obama’s Presidency: Victory in the Culture Wars - An Obama presidency would signal the final salvo by the Left in the culture wars. Obama’s advance troops have already taken over our college campuses, have bound and gagged our conservative professors, have ravished our virgins, have pillaged our stores of wisdom, and have ensconced themselves in the thrones of power in deans’, presidents’ and department heads’ offices. The victory cry is heard across the land in the cheers of Obama’s constituency on college campuses. This has been going on under the very noses of the Republicans. Claes G. Ryn, in the Fall 2007 50th anniversary issue of Modern Age, accurately attributes the decline of intellectual conservatism to an abandonment of tradition, philosophical foundations, and artistic expressions, for a focus on political pragmatism, manifested in a fondness for economics and business. (READ MORE)
Jon Sanders: Really Stupid But Consistent Ways for Colleges To Celebrate D-Day - On the sixth of June, 1944, Operation Overlord commenced — the largest air, land and sea operation ever undertaken — with Allied Forces landing at the Normandy coast of France. Over 5,000 ships, over 11,000 airplanes, and over 150,000 service men fought their way onto the continent through continuous fire, hellacious fighting, and thousands upon thousands of casualties. The bold invasion was crucial to breaking Nazi Germany's hold on the continent, and its success deprived Germany of important seaports and access to resources while giving the Allies a base upon which to launch incursions into the German heartland, eventually bringing about the defeat of the Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. To this day, June 6 is hallowed as D-Day, as grateful citizens the free world over remember the sacrifices that preserved their liberty. (READ MORE)
Armstrong Williams: Money Money Money - I grew up in a modest home, so trust me; I know the importance of money. I’ll be the first to tell you to get your retirement fund in order, or invest in real estate, or ditch the Starbucks lattes for home-brewed coffee to save a few bucks. But I’ll also be the first to tell you that money in it of itself will not make you happy, successful, or satisfied. In fact, it can do just the opposite if you let it. And I will continue to remind people that we must not judge one’s character based on the size of their pocket book, because really, one’s wealth does not determine who they are. In the last few years I’ve penned many articles about how the average person can build and sustain wealth. I’ve discussed various strategies about ways working class people can buy a second home, invest in the stock market, or put away more for their retirement years. (READ MORE)
Burt Prelutsky: Striking Oil - Sometimes, I swear, when I see what our tax dollars get us in Congress, I feel like asking for my money back. But, other times, I find myself thinking that the laughs those clowns provide us nearly, but not quite, make up for their incompetence, hypocrisy and mendacity. The Marx Brothers, at their goofiest, couldn’t hold a candle to these self-important bumblers, although I’m sure that Groucho would have been sorely tempted to try. You see nincompoops like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and John Murtha, bloviating on TV and you realize that when poll after poll indicates that these political hacks have an approval rate only half as high as George Bush’s and only a point or two higher than measles, they somehow assume we don’t have them in mind. Because of their arrogance and pomposity, they can’t help being amusing, but they are never more hysterical than when they hold hearings and sit in moral judgment of those they regard as lesser beings. (READ MORE)
Jerry Bowyer: What the Media Didn’t Tell You About Friday’s Unemployment Spike - It wasn’t Bush, it wasn’t greedy corporations, or free trade, or history’s most over-predicted recession. It was not the oil companies, income inequality, or the excesses of cowboy capitalism. None of these things caused the unemployment rate to jump a half a percentage point in one month. Ask yourself a few questions: Why did unemployment surge at a time when unemployment compensation claims are historically low? More to the point, how could unemployment spike this much without a coinciding spike in corporate lay-offs? The answer to all of these questions is same: because very few people lost jobs last month. This huge jump in the size of the unemployed comes from new entrants to the economy – hundreds of thousands of them. In short, well over 600,000 people who were not job seekers in April became job seekers in May. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Obama Thinks Funding For "Unproven" Missile Defense Systems Should Be Cut - Funny, but they look proven to me. Indeed, they worked pretty damned well when we needed them to work in a test that went beyond their original capabilities when we had to take out an errant satellite. Some American ingenuity and hard work by the US military, and we took out that satellite, and we've been conducting tests of anti-missile systems for some time now with good results. Yet, Sen. Barack Obama continues the Left's long tradition of undermining US national security by claiming that we should cut these programs even as nations like North Korea and Iran pursue long range missile systems that could eventually mate with their nuclear programs. The full speech can be found here. The key bit is below, with a little extra emphasis and background: (READ MORE)
Donald Douglas: Approaching Victory in Iraq - Last November I published, "Victory in Iraq? The War Has Been Won," which cited Andrew Bolt's essay arguing the case for an American triumph in the war. There have been some difficult months in Iraq since then, but the facts of declining violence and increasing political progress augur well for the Iraqi people. Arthur Herman suggests that the evidence of a shift to victory in Iraq is so compelling, only the most die-hard antiwar skeptics will refuse the news: “The Bush administration has taken heaps of abuse for its Iraq policy, including its decision to launch the ‘surge’ last December. Now the strategy, which our nation's ‘best and brightest’ regularly dismissed as a failure, has cleared the way for the establishment of a secure democracy in Iraq and a lasting peace.” (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Jimmy Obama, Meet Barack Carter - Thanks to long-time caller, first-time listener KarmiCommunist -- wait, I think I mean long-time reader and commenter -- we have a thought-provoking window into the heart of Barack H. Obama. Who would have guessed that he turns out to loath the military and dismiss the necessity of defense? On Friday, the Investor's Business Daily published an editorial that recalled this pledge that Obama made, way back before the Iowa caucus propelled him into the front ranks of the Democratic nomination army... and began the long, slow, humiliating collapse of the Hillary Clinton campaign. Before reading further, please watch this video; it's about a minute and a half long: (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Obama Website Cover Up; Is Google Helping? - here is currently a lot of buzz throughout the blogosphere regarding Barack Obama’s website. Obama had a couple of items on his site that were disturbing to say the least. Pam at Atlas Shrugs has a list of the items with screen shots. The screen shots were necessary because as soon as the information started making the rounds it started disappearing from Obama’s site. The Obama folks have worked to have every trace of the offensive items disappear and there is word, though I have yet to see proof, that the lefty loons at Google are helping to get rid of the offensive stuff. Obama’s site had items up with statements about Jews that one might expect from an anti Semite such as Mahmoud Amadinejad or about any other Muslim. It was typical stuff about Jews owning the media, Jews owning Congress, how politicians better do what the Jews say or else and all that kind of stuff. (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: Sent - University of Santa Clara Law School professor Steve Diamond asks, "who sent Barack Obama". He explains the context of the word "sent". In Chicago politics a key question has always been, who "sent" you? The classic phrase is ... from an anecdote of Abner Mikva's, the former White House Counsel (Pres. Clinton) ... As a young student ... he walked into the local committeman's office ... and was immediately asked: "Who sent you?" Mikva replied, "nobody sent me." And the retort came back from the cigar chomping pol: "Well, we don't want nobody that nobody sent." So it is reasonable to ask, who "sent" Barack Obama? In other words, how can his meteoric rise to political prominence be explained? (READ MORE)
Uncle Jimbo: Judgment to lead- Us off a cliff - Barack Obama likes to make a big point out of the fact that he was against the war when being against the war wasn't cool. If you are going to be fair he has been consistent although his statements to radical lefties in 2002 hardly exposed him to much political danger. When his self-vaunted judgment comes into question is once US troops were committed to war by a vast majority of Congress and he joined that body. Since then he has been extremely consistent and that is consistently wrong. It was one thing to say invading Iraq and deposing Saddam was unwise and that is a reasonable position to have taken. Once we already deposed him and were in the process of turning chaos and hatred into freedom, calling for retreat in the face of several of our enemies was and still is exceedingly bad judgment. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: The Olympics nobody wanted - AP asked: “Will the Olympics Not Be Televised?” It’s not just the Tibet protest, although that has diminished the vale of of the Beijing Olympics. it is the technical and political problems. “Differences over a wide range of issues — from limits on live coverage in Tiananmen Square to allegations that freight shipments of TV broadcasting equipment are being held up in Chinese ports — surfaced in a contentious meeting late last month between Beijing organizers and high-ranking International Olympic Committee officials and TV executives — including those from NBC,” Stephen Wade reported. AP obtained minuted from a May 29 International Olympics Committee meeting, in which Olympics official Gilbert Felli said: “I think what I have heard here are just a number of conditions or requirements that are just not workable. There are a number of things that are just not feasible.” A Chinese official then asked for specific complaints in writing. (READ MORE)
Flopping Aces: Increasing animosity towards AQ a result of Iraq war? - Abul Taher’s UK Times Online article today - al Qaeda: The cracks begin to show - is yet another in successive articles that document the growing disfavor of the jihad movements because of their brutal rules of engagement. While the iconic villains remain Osama Bin Laden and Zawahiri, the shared goals by other movements who are not card carrying AQ associate members, are not excluded in the world’s growing disenchantment with jihad in general. Taher’s article is a nicely written overview of a subject many of us are already aware of. Certainly worthy of a personal read from end to end. Touched on are increasing sermons from Mosque pulpits, condemning the murders of fellow Muslims; AQ’s increasingly desperate attempts to replace their dwindling suicide bomber numbers by reaching out to 13 year olds (plus the disabled and women he neglected to mention); (READ MORE)
Hamilton, Madison, and Jay: What happened to John McCain when he went down in 1973? A first-hand account - We know there are those out there that still detest John McCain. We really can't blame them all that much. In fact, readers will remember that we're not exactly big fans of the guy either. We're not happy with how he stuck his thumb in the base's eye for eight years, and jumped into bed with the Democrats on some of the most asinine issues. But the man is our nominee, like it or not. What gets is the visceral dislike and slander we've seen from some of those on the Right with regard to his military service. A few like to joke about his ability to fly, or that he "sold out" the other POWs while in the five-and-a-half years of Hell he endured at the hands of his North Vietnamese captors. US News and World Report reprinted their initial first-person account of his years as a POW back in January of this year and it's well worth the read. (READ MORE)
Libertarian Leanings: War and Decision - One big disappointment with this 2008 election campaign is the lack of debate on the Iraq war, so far. Maybe that will change now that we are headed into the general election. We can hope. So far, the media narrative has managed to drown out opposing views, and the media and Democratic party narrative is that the war was a mistake, that Saddam Hussein did not pose an "imminent threat" as argued by the Bush administration. But the Bush administration did not argue that Saddam posed an imminent threat. “Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late.” A welcome voice in the debate is Douglas Feith's War and Decision. As Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2001 to 2005, Feith was intimately involved in shaping our strategy for the war on terror. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: So when will Congress act on gas prices? - Across the nation, gas prices have shot over $4 per gallon, and there appears to be no ceiling in sight. The economic shock continues to appear across the broad spectrum, raising retail prices on any goods coming to market, while wages cannot keep pace. As the buying power of Americans continues to erode, will Congress finally act to broaden supplies? “The average price of regular gas crept up to $4 a gallon for the first time over the weekend, passing the once-unthinkable milestone just in time for the peak summer travel season. Prices at the pump are expected to keep climbing, especially after last week’s furious surge in oil prices, which neared $140 a barrel in a record-shattering rally Friday.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: Noted imbecile Mark Morford: Obama is a “Lightworker,” an “enlightened being” - Via LGF. Ace mocks it as an especially Morfordesque example of Morford’s oeuvre, which does indeed embrace so many conservative stereotypes of the San Francisco liberal as to make one wonder if he’s not doing it for attention, but is his logic here really that off base? Liberals might reasonably favor Obama for his policy positions but how else do you explain, say, Doug Kmiec’s incoherent affection for him but in precisely these terms? No experience, no particularly impressive displays of judgment save for Iraq, which is itself being diminished daily by his surge naysaying, nothing at all to commend him really except his youth, his rhetorical ability, his uniquely American racial background, and the fact that he craps honey and flowers and communes with the cherubim and seraphim on a celestial plane attainable only by him. (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: The First Lady in Afghanistan…and the unabated hatred of the Left - First Lady Laura Bush made a surprise visit to Afghanistan over the weekend to push for more world aid for the war-torn country and to lobby for women’s rights/education. She met with Afghan president Hamid Karzai and greeted US troops at Bagram. Unlike some first ladies, she doesn’t need to embellish reports of her trip with tall tales of sniper fire. This is her third trip to Afghanistan–and the second time she has traveled to the war front solo without President Bush. She flew to one of the poorest provinces, Bamiyan, which is now headed by a female governor. At Bamiyan, she met female police recruits and New Zealand troops. America should be proud of her work. Will Mrs. Bush’s travels and activism abroad lessen the personal hatred the Left has shown her? Of course not. (READ MORE)
neo-neocon: The problem of pre-emptive strikes against evil empires: how to deal with Iran? - Michael Ledeen writes in the WSJ about the problem the Allies had in recognizing, taking seriously, and then mobilizing against the danger represented by the Nazis prior to WWII. He likens this inaction to the current muddled response of the West to Iran, and locates the problem in our presumption that people and regimes are generally the same (like us, that is), are basically good rather than evil, that anti-Semitism still thrives, and that there is a tendency towards inertia and inaction in democracies. Although I certainly think Ledeen’s points are well taken, I think he’s leaving out some important factors that also militate against the West doing anything against Iran until some unequivocal and terrible step is taken by that country. The problem is that we don’t see many good options against Iran. (READ MORE)
Neptunus Lex: Jihad 2.0 - The New York Times reports that a public and increasingly personal debate is being waged within think tanks and across the media on the changing nature of the terror threat. On the one hand are those like former CIA analyst Dr. Mark Sagerman, now employed by the NYPD as an éminence grise, and who believes that the al Qaeda threat has been vastly diminished by the US-led war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan as much as it has by the grotesque character of the Bin Laden Club for Misfit Boys’ tactics. “(Sagerman’s) new book, ‘Leaderless Jihad,’ argues that the main threat no longer comes from the organization called Al Qaeda, but from the bottom up — from radicalized individuals and groups who meet and plot in their neighborhoods and on the Internet. In his camp, he said, are agents and analysts in highly classified positions at the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation…” (READ MORE)
Political Pistachio: What Would Be A Liberal's Candidate for Abortion Lives a Full Life - Hillary's recent concession speech, which finally gave Barack Obama the Democratic Nomination (well, not really, she only suspended her campaign just in case __________ [you fill in the blank]), was filled with typical Liberal politics and ideas. The prevalent message was articulated early on in the speech. She said at the very start that she thinks public service is about ". . . helping people solve their problems and live their dreams." Sounds nice, don't it? Everything you ever wanted, and government will hand it to you since you aren't good enough to achieve it yourself. Well, no thank you. The Socialist/Liberal idea of government taking care of my woes does not appeal to me. I have this funny thing about being responsible, working hard, solving my problems, and living my dreams through self-sufficiency. I know, it sounds a little crazy, but I prefer not to be dependent upon the government. (READ MORE)
Scott Johnson: Opportunism knocks, part 3 - Barack Obama's speech at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington this past Wednesday provides insight into the cynicism with which he has treated substantive, indeed deadly serious, issues of policy before the American electorate in the presidential election. Casting a backward light on his primary-season presentation of his candidacy, the AIPAC speech shows Obama to be an old-fashioned politician of the kind that the public esteems about as much as it esteems journalists and used-car salesmen. Although the McCain campaign took the opportunity to explore the nature of Obama's calculations, few have followed. Recall that in his speech at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington on Wednesday, Obama called for "boycotting firms associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, whose Quds force has rightly been labeled a terrorist organization." (READ MORE)
McQ: The "objective" media - According to Rasmussen, if public perceptions are any indication, an objective media doesn’t exist: “Just 17% of voters nationwide believe that most reporters try to offer unbiased coverage of election campaigns. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that four times as many—68%—believe most reporters try to help the candidate that they want to win. The perception that reporters are advocates rather than observers is held by 82% of Republicans, 56% of Democrats, and 69% of voters not affiliated with either major party. The skepticism about reporters cuts across income, racial, gender, and age barriers.” With Chris Matthews having little thrills run up his leg, one doesn’t have to go far to find examples of advocacy. (READ MORE)
Protein Wisdom: The Chicago Way: Mr. Hyde Park - The meteoric rise of Barack Obama will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed. And it has people trying to better understand The Chicago Way. It brought Andrew Ferguson to explore Hyde Park, which Obama called home for most of adult life (before investing in a property in the Kenwood neighborhood with Tony Rezko). Although Ferguson paints an accurate picture of how isolated Hyde Park is from the rest of the city, due to an extensive urban renewal program and the enormous influence of the University of Chicago, he underestimates how out of touch the Hyde Park menatlity is to most other places. One of his sources is Rabbi Arnold Wolf: (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nut House: ENEMIES OF AMERICA! BE OF GOOD CHEER - HOPE IS ON THE WAY! - You know, it’s just not fair that our enemies have had such a rough time lately. In Iran, even milquetoast IAEA Chief ElBaradei is getting sick and tired of the regime’s evasions about their nuclear program. I mean, if there’s nothing to hide why not open up and allow the nuke inspectors in so that they can do their job unimpeded? Why not open the history of your program so that we can see how truthful and honest you’ve been with the world about never, ever (cross your heart and hope to be beheaded) wanting nuclear weapons? But take heart President Ahmadinejad. Stay strong Supreme Leader Khamenei. Hope is on the way. America is about ready to elect a president who can’t decide whether you are just a “tiny country” with a tiny defense budget that offers no threat to the United States or whether you are – as he has “always” said – a grave threat to US security. (READ MORE)
Rhymes with Right: Hatemonger Aravosis Attacks McCain Over Military Disability Pay - I'd like to say I cannot believe that John Aravosis would ask such a question -- but his lack of shame knows no bounds, nor does the lack of shame of many of his commenters. “First off, I find it fascinating that John McCain, who is refusing to vote for the GI Bill for our troops because ‘it's too generous,’ is himself getting $58,000 a year, tax-free, from the US government for his military service. Had McCain been getting that amount every year since Vietnam, that would total $2,000,000 for the man who isn't into overgenerous government. I just find that interesting. His staff responded with the classic ‘he was tortured for his country.’ Yeah, we get it. The torture card. It's to McCain what 9/11 was to Giuliani's candidacy - the never-ending name-drop. Though what McCain's staff actually said was downright, um, we're being nice to Clinton now, so I won't say Clintonian. Here's the quote:” (READ MORE)
Melanie Phillips: This blog and (some of) its readers - I have noticed a persistent complaint by some readers posting comments on my blog entries which I think requires some comment and clarification. Referring to my last entry on Barack Obama, they appear to find it objectionable that I singled out his attitude towards Israel for criticism. They seem to believe that it is wrong for me to write about Israel as often as I do, not least because they think that, since I am writing on the Spectator website, I have some kind of duty not to write about it so much. Some of these readers, as is painfully obvious from their comments, simply have a big problem with Jews – at least, Jews who identify with and defend the Jewish people. But others, whose instincts may be rather more decent, seem to be labouring under one or two misapprehensions. So let me make a number of things clear. First, this is my personal blog and it represents my own views and interests and mine alone. (READ MORE)
The Torch: Deserters, Iraq, and the UN--and our ignorant politicians - Related to those who sign up, for whatever reason, to serve in armed forces. The opposition parties on June 3 combined in the House of Commons: “U.S. soldiers who have deserted the military because of the war in Iraq should be allowed to stay permanently in Canada, the House of Commons voted in a nonbinding motion yesterday. The three opposition parties, which together hold a majority of seats in the House, backed a motion that said the government should allow conscientious objectors and their families ‘who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations [emphasis added]’ to stay in Canada...” But only the actual invasion of Iraq was not sanctioned by the UN Security Council. The US and coalition military presence, and use of force, have in fact been fully authorized by the Security Council since this resolution of October 16, 2003 which states: (READ MORE)
TigerHawk: Gasoline prices, party politics, and distributive justice - Not surprisingly, the morning papers are fairly bursting with stories about gasoline prices. They raise some interesting political questions, including whether the policies pushed most aggressively by the most affluent constituencies within the Democratic party may be doing the most damage to the very people the Donks like to brag about helping, the deserving poor. First, the New York Times devotes front page space to the impact of $4 gasoline on working people in rural parts of the country, many of whom have to drive long distances in inefficient vehicles to jobs that do not pay well by urban standards. “Across broad swaths of the South, Southwest and the upper Great Plains, the combination of low incomes, high gas prices and heavy dependence on pickup trucks and vans is putting an even tighter squeeze on family budgets.” (READ MORE)
Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.
No comments:
Post a Comment