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)
FCC Chair To Support XM-Sirius Merger - Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin said yesterday that he will support a merger between the nation's sole satellite radio operators, XM and Sirius, a decision that could remove the last regulatory hurdle in the lengthy and heavily criticized move to make the companies one. (READ MORE)
Congress Pushes to Keep Land Untamed - INDEX, Wash. -- With little fanfare, Congress has embarked on a push to protect as many as a dozen pristine areas this year in places ranging from the glacier-fed streams of the Wild Sky Wilderness here to West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest. By the end of the year, conservation experts... (READ MORE)
Panel Urges G-8 to Increase Africa Aid - A panel of prominent figures led by former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan is warning that the Group of Eight industrialized countries must step up their assistance to Africa or risk breaking their promise to double aid by 2010. (READ MORE)
Aides to Sadr Refine Stance On Elections - BAGHDAD, June 15 -- Aides to anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said Sunday that although his movement will not field an official slate of Sadrist candidates in upcoming elections, it could support individual Sadrists running for office. (READ MORE)
Rice Urges Israel to Desist on Settlements - JERUSALEM, June 15 -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday pressed Israeli officials to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem but failed to win any concessions as she continued to push for a Middle East peace deal by the end of the year. (READ MORE)
Beltwaywide Financial - The Countrywide Financial sweetheart loan scandal continues to grow, spreading to Senators and other Beltway potentates. We are about to find out if Congress's passion for investigating business ethics extends to conflicts of interest and cash that involve fellow Members. Take Senator Kent Conrad, the North Dakota Democrat whose office issued a Friday statement saying that "I never met Angelo Mozilo." (READ MORE)
Afghan Prison Break - The Supreme Court ruled last Thursday that the writ of habeas corpus should apply to non-American terrorist detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. The Taliban delivered its own commentary on the ruling the very next day, when it busted into a prison in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and freed 1,150 prisoners, of whom 400 are Taliban members and the other 750 easy potential conscripts. Call it habeas corpus, Taliban-style. (READ MORE)
Fields of Water - If the terrible Midwest floods have a silver lining, it is the grit and self-reliance that residents have shown in coping with the disaster. Iowans in particular haven't blamed everyone else for their version of Katrina. They've been following orders on when to evacuate, volunteering to lay sandbags to protect still-dry areas, and are already planning how they'll clean up the mess when the floodwaters subside. (READ MORE)
Hope for Boeing pact lies with GAO - A Government Accountability Office report on a contentious tanker-plane deal, scheduled for this week, could give new ammunition to lawmakers on Capitol Hill who wish to reverse the Air Force's decision to award the contract to a European-American team. (READ MORE)
'Maverick' McCain bedevils Democrats - Sen. John McCain's reputation as a maverick who regularly bucks the conservative wing of his party will be a formidable obstacle for Sen. Barack Obama as he seeks to persuade moderates to vote for him in November. (READ MORE)
Covert board called crucial to presidents - Presidents need to rely on a little-known group of intelligence advisers that since the 1950s has helped guide policies and oversee the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy, according to a report by former intelligence officials. (READ MORE)
Bush: U.S. can help calm Afghan border - LONDON (AP) – President Bush said Monday that the United States can help calm the "testy situation" between Afghanistan and Pakistan, but he refused to endorse Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's threat to send troops across the border as a means to target terrorists. (READ MORE)
Obama camp: Win without Ohio, Fla.? - FLINT, Mich. (AP) – Barack Obama's campaign envisions a path to the presidency that could include Virginia, Georgia and several Rocky Mountain states, but not necessarily the pair of battlegrounds that decided the last two elections – Florida and Ohio. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
L. Gordon Crovitz: Inherently Risky Business - As the first anniversary of the credit crisis approaches, it's clear that a major part of the problem was a spectacular failure of information, with complex asset-backed securities turning out to be far riskier than anyone thought. But as sophisticated as we consider ourselves, this is just a contemporary example of what might be called the Problem of the Oblong Dice. The first game of dice, played by ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, used astragali, animal ankle bones that are more oblong than square. Yet rolls of the dice got the same score whether the dice ended up on a narrow face or on a wide face. Anyone who understood that the odds of landing on a narrow face were much lower would have been a big winner, but instead for centuries our ancestors treated all sides of an oblong as equal. There was no concept of probability, perhaps because "zero" was not understood by most educated Westerners until about the year 1000. (READ MORE)
Mary Anastasia O'Grady: Why Brazil Isn't Ashamed to Exploit Its Oil - Petrobras CEO José Sergio Gabrielli was flush with bullish insights when he stopped by the Journal's New York office last week to talk about the Brazilian oil company. One reason for Mr. Gabrielli's optimism is last year's discovery of the offshore Tupi field, which is said to contain between five billion and eight billion barrels of black gold. Another, equally important reason is that, according to Mr. Gabrielli, neither environmentalists nor Brazilian politicians have raised concerns about exploiting oil in the waters off the Brazilian coast. That's quite a contrast with attitudes in the U.S., where offshore exploration and development has been all but shut down save in the Gulf of Mexico. One company official explains the difference by saying that Brazilians understand the importance of energy to their future, while Americans do not. (READ MORE)
Keith Marsden: New Evidence on Government and Growth - In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan embraced the ideas of a small group of economists dubbed "supply-siders." They argued that lower taxes and slimmer government would stimulate growth, enterprise, harder work and higher levels of saving and investment. These views were widely ridiculed at the time, dismissed as "voodoo economics." Reagan did succeed in lowering some taxes. But a Democrat-controlled Congress weakened their impact by raising government spending sharply, resulting in large budget deficits. A quarter of a century later, many more countries have cut taxes and reined in heavy-handed government intervention. How far have they gone down this path, and with what success? My study, "Big, Not Better?" (Centre for Policy Studies, 2008), looks at the performance of 20 countries over the past two decades. The first 10 have slimmer governments with revenue and expenditure levels below 40% of GDP. (READ MORE)
Natan Sharansky: Democracies Can't Compromise on Core Values - As the American president embarked on his farewell tour of Europe last week, Der Spiegel, echoing the sentiments of a number of leading newspapers on the Continent, pronounced "Europe happy to see the back of Bush." Virtually everyone seems to believe that George W. Bush's tenure has undermined trans-Atlantic ties. There is also a palpable sense in Europe that America will move closer to Europe in the years ahead, especially if Barack Obama wins the presidential election. But while Mr. Bush is widely seen by Europeans as a religious cowboy with a Manichean view on the world, Europe's growing rift with America predates the current occupant of the White House. When a French foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, declared that his country "cannot accept a politically unipolar world, nor a culturally uniform world, nor the unilateralism of a single hyper power," President Clinton was in the seventh year of his presidency and Mr. Bush was still governor of Texas. (READ MORE)
Robert Costa: Russert's Career Advice: Just Do It - Sitting in RFK stadium in Washington, D.C., one evening in 2006, I was watching the Philadelphia Phillies lose to the lowly Washington Nationals when I spied Tim Russert going to get a beer. I had to say hello to my Sunday-morning hero, so I hustled to the concession stand for a soda. Russert approached, hulking in an orange golf shirt. "Keep grillin' those S.O.B.s," a passing man yelled as Russert stepped into line behind me. He laughed while grabbing a bag of peanuts. I introduced myself as "Bob Costa, a big fan from Notre Dame." "Notre Dame?" said Russert, smiling. "Didn't we just beat you guys two years ago?" Yes, the Fighting Irish football team had been clobbered in 2004 by Boston College, where his son Luke was attending college. I told him I was interning at ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "Why isn't an Irish kid like you working for us?" he asked while tipping the beer guy. (READ MORE)
Frank Turek: Why you OUGHT to Judge - At least one lesbian is not happy with me for the case I made last week against same-sex marriage on our TV program. She wrote me this ALL CAPS e-mail with “VERY JUDGEMENTAL” in the subject line: ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE ME AND I AM A CHRISTIAN LESBIAN AND HAVE BEEN FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS. STOP JUDGING AND MOVE ON!!! I AM SO TIRED OF ALL YOU UPTIGHT, DO RIGHT, SINNERS JUDGING PEOPLE. I wrote her back asking her why she was judging me for judging. It seemed like a fair question. After all, if I am not to “judge” her, why is it OK for her to judge me? And if she’s a Christian, doesn’t she know that God has already judged homosexual behavior as immoral? I mean, I didn’t make the judgment that homosexual behavior was wrong. God is the standard of morality, not me. But the main point is that my lesbian pen pal did what most liberals do when they are faced with arguments they don’t like—they misuse Jesus’ apparent command not to “judge” in order to shut you up. (READ MORE)
Robert D. Novak: The Fed Doesn't Raise - WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Speculation that the Federal Reserve is about to begin inflation-fighting interest rate increases appears to be dead wrong. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is worried more about runaway oil prices contracting the global economy than inflating it with a wage-cost spiral. According to sources close to him, America's leading central bank has no plans for a raise. That conflicts with the recent announcement that the European Central Bank would raise interest rates to combat what it considers a tide of inflation presaged by rising food and oil prices. Because the Europeans themselves are divided about what to do, the promised rate hike next month is described as modest -- no more than a quarter of a percentage point. Nevertheless, the prospect of the world's two most influential central banks going in opposite directions reflects an unusual difference in outlook on the global economy by Bernanke and Jeane-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank. (READ MORE)
Paul Greenberg: Moment of Truth - There is no test of character quite like running for public office. For in any political race of consequence, there always comes that moment of truth when the candidate must decide just how far he will go to curry favor with the voters. How much principle, or just simple dignity, is he willing to sacrifice? That's the moment aficionados of moral drama look for. It reveals so much. About character, about the awful wanting to win, about the person's moral priorities versus the candidate's sheer ambition. In the quadrennial passion that is an American presidential election, there will always be those who conceive of their candidate as perfect in every way. Listen to the messianic nominating speeches at national conventions. Hear the roar of the adoring crowd. Remember the wave of Obamamania that swept the country earlier this year? People get swept away. It's natural enough. (READ MORE)
Carol Platt Liebau: "Change You Can Believe In" -- Or "Change You Just Won't Believe"? - Barack Obama may be lacking in judgment and experience – most recently demonstrated by the selection of former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson to vet his veeps (along with Eric Holder, who signed off on Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich). But he’s a quick study, and he knows there’s a lot he doesn’t know. Because revealing the gaps in his understanding could be devastating to Obama's presidential hopes, understandably he's doing everything he can to conceal them. That involves not only stiff-arming the same Democrat and media establishment that has rushed to embrace him. It also undermines the reformist overtones of his slogan of “change you can believe in.” Just this week, Obama announced plans to move key elements of the Democratic National Committee operation to his own home turf of Chicago, where presumably he’ll have more mastery over it. The decision is revealing. (READ MORE)
Peter J. Wirs: Who Cares if the Mouse Bit a Snake? - In the midst of getting up one morning, the radio was airing a story about a mouse biting a snake. Even worse, this all occurred 31 years ago. Is a mouse biting a snake what James Madison had in mind when writing the First Amendment? I don’t think so. KYW is Philadelphia’s all-news radio station. In fact, it is the nation’s second oldest such station, starting soon after its sister station, 1010 WINS went "all news" in New York City. Those who regard themselves as intelligent adults wake up to KYW, listen to KYW while driving to and from work, and more times than not, end the night with KYW. There’s traffic on the twos, sports at 15 and 45 minutes, business news at 25 and 55, and so on. Russ Limbaugh, which has a major influence in almost every major media market, is hardly a blimp in Philly, because KYW so dominates the AM airwaves. Just as KYW is the leading radio station, so is the WPVI’s Action News the leading local TV news program in the Philadelphia market. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Mugabe Running Headlong Towards Dictatorship - As I've been reporting for some time now, Robert Mugabe has been running headlong towards turning Zimbabwe into his personal dictatorship. He's destroyed the economy, threatened and murdered opposition leaders and their relatives, and has outright stated that he will not abide by the results of the June 27 runoff elections with Morgan Tsvangirai should the opposition win. Some countries are trying to get Zimbabwe's neighbors to pressure Mugabe into accepting the results of the runoff elections should Mugabe lose, but that's going to be tough given that South Africa is running interference for Mugabe and is providing him with sufficient support so as to make it impossible for anyone to accept that the elections will be held fairly and openly. The US and British governments want Mugabe to allow international monitors to oversee the elections, but that's not likely to go anywhere despite what British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had to say: (READ MORE)
Richard Landes: Pallywood? No: Report on Jewish attack on Arabs in West Bank - I have often been accused of using Pallywood as a way to a) dismiss Palestinian suffering, and b) exculpate Israel. My response to the first is to point out that Palestinian suffering is real, but to a significant — terrifying — extent the product of the behavior of Palestinian elites, and that when people “buy” the Pallywood line — look how Israel makes us suffer! — they empower the very group that exploits Palestinian suffering so that they can blame Israel. My response to the second, is that if a Palestinian “lethal narrative” about dastardly Israelis is not Pallywood, I’ll admit it. The BBC ran an article using exclusive footage of an attack by four armed youths on a group of Arabs in the West Bank. The footage comes from cameras supplied by the Israeli Human Rights group Btselem to chronicle the ways in which Israeli settlers make life miserable for the Palestinians. (READ MORE)
Atlas: Fjordman: The Execution of Britain - "I do verily believe that a single, consolidated government would become the most corrupt government on the earth." - Thomas Jefferson And of course if the corrupt EU, the UN ( "a crime-fighting committee whose board of directors includes the leading gangsters of the community"), and the glut of multiculturalist clowns get their way, this is the very course they would take. My question, of course is, if there is only one world government, where would one escape to? When the government regulates more and more of our lives, arbitrarily, absent from objective law and gives more and more more power to government agencies, then where is our freedom? The developments described by Fjordman, by Ezra Levant in Canada, and Robert Spencer here in the US are profoundly disturbing. The extent to which men have moral character is the extent to which they are doomed (paraphrasing Rand). (READ MORE)
Big Dog: SCOTUS Ignores History in Decision - The Supreme Court ruled this past week that terrorists at Gitmo had the same rights as American citizens even though they are not in our country and they are not citizens. In so deciding, the majority, comprised of the liberals on the court, and the new Sandra O’Connor, Anthony “Swing Vote” Kennedy decided that they would ignore centuries of legal precedent. Amazingly, Democrats like Chuck Schumer are not jumping up and down and screaming at the court. You see, Schumer was one of the libs who grilled John Roberts in his confirmation hearing on the subject of abortion. The concept of stare decisis came up and Roberts agreed that it was important. Stare decisis is a doctrine that says courts will follow previous judicial decisions unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise. Schumer wanted to make sure Roberts understood that the Democrats viewed the issue of abortion settled law and they wanted Roberts to affirm his belief in the settled law, the principle of stare decisis. (READ MORE)
Jeffrey Imm: Don't You Know There's A War On? - I am sending U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy a framed copy of a photograph of the remains of the World Trade Center West building after the 9/11 attacks with a note "Don't You Know There's A War On?". The Real Headline: "U.S. Supreme Court Doesn't Think We Are At War with Jihad" On June 12, 2008, the majority on the Supreme Court ruled in "Boumediene v. Bush," that habeas corpus rights guaranteed to American citizens under the Constitution will be extended to foreign Jihadist enemy combatants currently held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority of the Supreme Court stating that "[i]t is true that before today the Court has never held that noncitizens detained by our Government in territory over which another country maintains de jure sovereignty have any rights under our Constitution." (Justice Kennedy Majority Opinion, page 41). (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Peer review - Real leaders know George Walker Bush is great. The sniping from the left aside, Bush is one of the best presidents ever. His tour of Europe shows that. He stood up to terrorism and made the world safer. Other world leaders know this. They appreciate the leadership that America again is showing the free world. The AP reported: Tea with Queen Elizabeth II. She dined with Bush in the White House. Now this. Five state dinners in five countries. The French elected L’Americain. The Germans bounced their lefties for the Ostie. Forget the rating on his job performance — which is not the same as popularity — back home. The left was w3rong about Iraq. Where are the thousand Mogadishus? Where are all the 9/11s? Al-Qaeda is on the run. (READ MORE)
Flopping Aces: SCOTUS opinion: The aftermath commences - We didn’t have to wait long to see what’s coming. Defense attorney’s are gearing up for fresh battles, and prosecutors assume they are going ahead with military commissions as planned. Without clear due process and legal guidance, it’s as if the process were a severed earthworm, with both halves crawling off in opposite directions. Tho it was made abundantly clear the concurring justices viewed the Military Commissions Act as un Constitutional, the opinion does not address the fate of the CSRTs/military commissions that were created with Detainees Treatment Act. Are they necessary anymore? Are they legal proceedings in the court’s eyes? “‘It is an open question whether the military commissions, as they currently exist, satisfy the requirements of the Constitution,’ said Michael Dorf, a law professor at Columbia University. The military lawyers said they would use the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling to argue that if detainees have the right to habeas corpus, they are also entitled to other constitutional protections. (emphasis added by MH)They say the Constitution would bar the planned trials, asserting that legal procedures at Guantánamo violate basic legal protections.” (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: AP: On second thought, maybe we like Internet traffic - The Associated Press tried rewriting the concept of fair use last week in an intimidation campaign against the blog Drudge Retort, threatening legal action for copyright infringement for linking to its stories and including two or three sentences from the text. The New York Times reports that the blogospheric response — a boycott of links to the AP — has the wire service acknowledging its “heavy-handed” response. Thankfully, the AP will now determine at what threshold it wants to start its intimidation tactics in the future: “Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to remove seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words.” (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: Fight Their Smears: ABC News, Bob Beckel, Time, AP, Guardian, and NYT slime the Right - Time lies. The NYTimes slimes. AP distorts. ABC News, the Guardian, and the blithering Bob Beckel have all now piled on, too. They are at it again. Smearing conservative bloggers and talk radio. Because they think they can get away with it. Like Barack Obama, the MSM has adopted the “Yes, we can!” mantra. Oh, no, they can’t. As I reported on Friday, the ogling Obamedia is spreading the lie that conservative bloggers and talk show host Rush Limbaugh are responsible for perpetuating the Michelle Obama videotape rumor, whose dubious provenance is far left Hillary shill and disgraced disinformation operative Larry Johnson. Over the weekend, ABC News attributed Johnson’s rumor to “conservative bloggers” without even the most cursory mention of Johnson’s role in lighting the fire on May 16... (READ MORE)
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