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)
Yep still no NEWS.
On the Web:
Daniel Henninger: Forget the Planet, Retrofit the Earth - Looking at images of nearly all Iowa underwater got me thinking about the difference in politics between fixing the here-and-now and fantasizing about the future. One began to suspect our public officials might be drifting toward the clouds when many started referring to Earth as "the planet." Democrats especially of a certain environmental stripe talk only about "the planet." Of late, one might ask: Which planet are they living on? The Earth is about the here-and-now. The Planet is about the out-there. This week John McCain sounded like an Earth guy and Barack Obama like a Planet man. (READ MORE)
Christopher Cox: A Brave New World for Financial Regulation - The Fed's opening of new lending facilities to large investment banks this spring, after financing the sale of Bear Stearns, has helped restore confidence to financial markets. It has also posed some difficult questions. How can a government-provided liquidity backstop be made consistent with strong market incentives for risk management? And what system of regulation for investment banks makes the most sense? These questions are especially challenging because the model of commercial bank regulation is difficult to apply to investment banks. (READ MORE)
Roger Bate: Mugabe Vows to Hold Power - Robert Mugabe, the increasingly belligerent and unstable 84-year-old Zimbabwean president, has a warning for those who might vote for Morgan Tsvangirai in next week's presidential runoff: "We fought for this country, and a lot of blood was shed," he told the state-controlled Herald newspaper here. "We are not going to give up our country because of a mere X. How can a ballpoint [pen] fight with a gun?" Still, Zimbabwe's dictator is using every means at his disposal to assure that all the Xs go by his name. The surge of violence and voter intimidation in urban and rural areas is clearly being orchestrated by Mugabe's army. (READ MORE)
Karl Rove: Obama and McCain Spout Economic Nonsense - Barack Obama and John McCain are busy demonstrating that in close elections during tough economic times, candidates for president can be economically illiterate and irresponsibly populist. In Raleigh, N.C., last week, Sen. Obama promised, "I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills." Set aside for a minute that Jimmy Carter passed a "windfall profits tax" to devastating effect, putting American oil companies at a competitive disadvantage to foreign competitors, virtually ending domestic energy exploration, and making the U.S. more dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas. (READ MORE)
Michael B. Oren: Israel's Truce With Hamas Is a Victory for Iran - Proponents of an Israeli-Palestinian accord are praising the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect this morning. Yet even if the agreement suspends violence temporarily -- though dozens of Hamas rockets struck Israel yesterday -- it represents a historic accomplishment for the jihadist forces most opposed to peace, and defeat for the Palestinians who might still have been Israel's partners. The roots of this tragedy go back to the summer of 2005 and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The evacuation, intended to free Israel of Gaza's political and strategic burden, was hailed as a victory by Palestinian terrorist groups, above all Hamas. (READ MORE)
Larry Elder: If 'The Media' Dislike Hillary, How Do They Feel About Those ----- Republicans? - "I was struck when I got to Iowa and New Hampshire in January," said Joan Walsh, editor-in-chief of the liberal Web site Salon.com, "by how our media colleagues were just swooning over Barack Obama. That is not too strong a word. They were swooning. The downside, though, is that they hate -- hate Hillary Clinton, most of them. Hate is not too strong a word." What, media bias in favor of Obama, a leftist Democrat? Yet the same left-leaning media "hates" Hillary Clinton? Really? How about a little evidence? From January 2007 through May 2007, Harvard, along with the Project for Excellence in Journalism (part of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press), examined 1,742 presidential campaign stories. The stories appeared in 48 print, online, network TV, cable and radio news outlets. Their conclusion? (READ MORE)
Ann Coulter: Justice Kennedy: American Idle - After reading Justice Anthony Kennedy's recent majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush, I feel like I need to install a "1984"-style Big Brother camera in my home so Justice Kennedy can keep an eye on everything I do. Until last week, the law had been that there were some places in the world where American courts had no jurisdiction. For example, U.S. courts had no jurisdiction over non-citizens who have never set foot in the United States. But now, even aliens get special constitutional privileges merely for being caught on a battlefield trying to kill Americans. I think I prefer Canada's system of giving preference to non-citizens who have skills and assets. If Justice Kennedy can review the procedures for detaining enemy combatants trying to kill Americans in the middle of a war, no place is safe. It's only a matter of time before the Supreme Court steps in to overrule Randy, Paula and Simon. (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson: Obama Promises Change - But What Kind? - By this point in the presidential campaign, the public knows that a charismatic Barack Obama wants sweeping "change." While the national media have often fallen hard for the Illinois senator's rhetoric -- MSNBC's Chris Matthews said he felt a "thrill going up my leg" during an Obama speech -- exactly what kind of change can Obama bring if he's elected in November? FOREIGN POLICY Take Obama's foreign-policy pronouncements, which promise a break with the unhappy past. Two doctrines are most prominent. One is to engage our enemies and be nicer to our allies. The other calls for leaving Iraq on a set timetable. The problem with the first is that key allies like the conservative French, German and Italian governments -- unlike the days of rage in 2003 -- now embrace pretty much the same policies that we do. (READ MORE)
Hugh Hewitt: Obama and The Don't Drill Democrats To America: Don't Drive. Just Shut Up and Sweat In Your Dark House - When Barack Obama told a Pennsylvania audience this past weekend that "We can't drill our way out of this," he was repeating the same line that Nancy Pelosi used days earlier and that Harry Reid used on Wednesday. The Big Three Democrats are thus all agreed that their party has given up on bringing down the cost of oil and thus the cost of gas at the pump. Because demand for oil isn't going to drop due to growth around the globe, the only way to bring the cost of a gallon of gas at the pump down is to increase the supply of oil. The only way to increase the supply of oil for the present is to explore for more oil and then bring it to market. That means drilling. In the U.S. that means drilling on the outer continental shelf, more than 50 miles from the nearest coastline. (READ MORE)
Steve Chapman: Terrorized by the Supreme Court - A lot of people who strongly believe in the war on terror are not above sowing a little terror of their own. From the reaction to last week's Supreme Court decision on Guantanamo, you would think the detainees were all going to be trained, armed and set free at Ground Zero, with free shuttle service to the nearest airport. John McCain denounced the ruling, which said inmates may ask for federal court review under a procedure known as habeas corpus, as "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country." Former Bush Justice Department official John Yoo warned that henceforth, captured enemy fighters will be read their Miranda rights. The irrepressible Wall Street Journal had a cartoon with a judge atop a cage labeled "Gitmo" watching masked inmates stream out wearing suicide vests and lugging AK-47s. All this outrage builds on the dissent registered by Justice Antonin Scalia. (READ MORE)
Johnnie B. Byrd: Congress: The Real Speculators - U.S. Senators are blaming oil speculators for our pain at the pump. The truth is Congressional leaders speculated that continued access to low-cost foreign oil would allow them to appease the environmental lobby indefinitely. Now, the American consumer is left holding the bag. These Senators are really, really good—at the blame game. To paraphrase P.T. Barnum, no politician ever lost an election by underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Under the gun for high energy and food prices, Senator Lieberman seems to be the most willing to throw the commodities markets under the bus. Lieberman makes the case by opining that, “This unbridled growth raises justifiable concerns that speculative demand—divorced from market realities—is driving food and energy price inflation, and causing a lot of human suffering.” (READ MORE)
A Newt One: What a Difference a Day Makes--Chessani Update - Cross Posted from Miss Beth's Victory Dance here: Yesterday, those of us who have been following the Haditha Marines case were rewarded with the news Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani had all charges against him dismissed. And about time, too. That's seven out of eight, with one Marine left to be cleared. Today, on the heels of the news Chessani was looking into the possibility of suing not only Rep. John Murtha (an ex-Marine himself who threw these Marines under the bus by smearing them publicly by stating they were "cold blooded killers" and thereby tainting any possible jury pool and thereby effectively denying the Marines due process under the Constitution), but also Time magazine reporter Tim McGuirk, it came to light the government has filed an appeal in the case. (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: SouthCom Chief Encourages Military Members To Blog - It’s a well known fact that the Military powers that be haven’t always been very fond of Military members publishing personal blogs. Especially if those military members are blogging from the war zone. Just a few days ago, our good friend CJ with A Soldier’s Perspective, posted here and here when he discovered that his blog wasn’t accessible from Military computers in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on bases here in the United States. Like, CJ I’m not sure how the military determines which blogs are acceptable to be accessed from military computers and which ones aren’t. I know that up until last November, ASM was accessible from military computers and now it’s not. I also don’t know if which ones are allowed and which ones aren’t, vary from installation to installation, though it does appear that it does. So, when I read on Army Times that the Chief of SouthCom encourages military members to blog, it caught my eye. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: McCain Goes Nuclear - Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain has offered up his latest idea for how to improve the energy situation in the US. He proposes the construction of 45 new nuclear power plants across the nation. That would increase the number of plants by 50% to 149. This, a day after his speech in which he called for offshore drilling, hits home the energy policy of doing nothing - which is what Congress and the Administration have done for decades. Even President Bush has come around to call for the end of the moratorium on offshore drilling because of the price of oil. Watch for Obama and others to complain that nuclear power is not the answer. Sen. Harry Reid has an important say on any nuclear power plant construction since he's blocked the use of the nation's only nuclear waste repository from going live at Yucca Mountain. (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Pooh on the Presidency - Note that one of the categories for this post is "Liberal Lunacy"... and in this case, I really do mean lunacy. As in mental derangement. I know others have already discussed this. I tried to resist; really, I did. But in the end, I couldn't stop myself from looking at the train wreck. And now I must say something. I think we all should. America is poised (perhaps) to elect a man whose pick for National Security Advisor gets his national-security gestalt from -- yes, you already heard, so you know I'm not ribbing you -- from Winnie the Pooh. There, I said it. I'm not proud, but I said it: The stuffed bear which doesn't actually exist (it's a fictional stuffed bear). Here's the full monty: (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Democrats Brazenly Move Toward Socialism - It is no secret among thinking people that the Democratic Party is a socialist group. Most of them mask their Socialistic or Communistic tendencies but they are moving closer and closer to everything being run by the government and redistribution of all wealth except for the wealth of the ruling class. They will remain rich and try to control our lives. Barack Hussein Obama is a Socialist. He believes in class warfare and he believes it is up to government to take money from the wealthy and give it to the poor. He is a regular liberal Robin Hood. The Democrats have moved in this direction for quite some time and they are often aided by Republicans who have some strange desire to pander to the left rather than espousing good conservative principles. They give tax “rebates” to people who paid no taxes. They take money in the form of taxes and spread it out across the country in the form of earmarks. (READ MORE)
Blonde Sagacity: Obama Editing Campaign Appearances... - There were rumors many months ago about Obama's wife and his staff hand-picking who would be on the stage behind the candidate. Who makes the camera shots with the Presidential hopeful. Here in PA it was an all-white crowd on the stage, along with campaign commercials where not a single Black person was found. I am sure the stage was predominately African-American in areas were the "Black vote" was needed. I realize all the candidates probably do this, but it just seems so unseemly spelled out like this. All this premeditated pandering is just so untoward... "...Two Muslim women at Barack Obama’s rally in Detroit on Monday were barred from sitting behind the podium by campaign volunteers seeking to prevent the women’s headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate. (READ MORE)
The Captain's Journal: U.S. Marine Style Counterinsurgency - We have covered the hard core, robust kinetic engagement of the U.S. Marines in the Helmand Province in and around the city of Garmser, Afghanistan. The British drove them to the fight, everyone else watched and the Taliban died. But is this all there is to U.S. Marine style counterinsurgency? Not even nearly. Michael M. Phillips of the Wall Street Journal has given us a thinking man’s discussion of counterinsurgency in After Battle in Afghanistan Villages, Marines Open Complaint Shop. During a month of house-to-house combat, First Lt. Steven Bechtel’s men fired about 500 mortar rounds at Taliban insurgents. Now, he’s paying the price. “Just two days after the main Taliban force was routed, Lt. Bechtel put aside his weapons and opened what amounts to a wartime complaints desk in a mud-brick hut. The lieutenant and his men spend their time cataloging the destruction and issuing vouchers to compensate villagers for their losses, whether caused by U.S. missiles or Taliban grenades.” (READ MORE)
Bill West: Are There Lessons To Be Learned At USF? - Today, Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, an Egyptian student in Tampa, Florida, entered a guilty plea in Federal Court in Tampa to one count of providing material support to terrorists. The plea stems from the case wherein he and a cohort, Youssef Megahed, who is another student at the University of South Florida (USF) and whose charges are still pending, were stopped by Sheriff’s deputies near a US Naval facility in Charleston, South Carolina. During the traffic stop, their vehicle was found to contain explosives material and jihadist training materials on Mohamed’s computer. Mohamed’s plea relates to the circumstances of that traffic stop and what he told investigators were the purpose of those training materials...namely to assist terrorist fighters in their jihad against the “invaders,” who Mohamed identified as US military personnel in Muslim lands and those who assisted them. Mohamed now awaits sentencing and faces up to fifteen years incarceration. (READ MORE)
The Daily Ramble: Baitullah's House - Currents events between Talibanistan, the Land of the Pure and Afghanistan are arching towards something faster than gossip and rumours in the last 48 hours before Prom. Pakistan's #1 Taliban fan is Baitullah Mehsud. Playing Pakistan's newly elected gov for igmo shorties and victims, Baitullah's posse Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is a fanclub miltia of outlaws, smugglers, slavers and time traveling intolerants that routinely bring battle from Talibanistan to insurge chaos into neighboring Afghanistan. What does it mean? Prime Minister Hamid shares what it means (The vid is awesome - way better than the quote) "This means that Afghanistan has the right of self defense. When they cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same. Therefore, Baitullah Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house." (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Contrast - While Michelle Obama was fixing her image on “The View,” Cindy McCain was in Vietnam and working for children with facial deformities. Children like her daughter, Bridget. Mrs. McCain was in Vietnam today working on Operation Smile which gives plastic surgery, gratis, to children born with cleft palate. “This is what I do, and this is what revitalizes me, personally,” she said. “The campaign is extremely important, of course, but this is also important to me, and so you try to balance everything.” Politics aside, this is a wonderful charity. There are those who are born to wealth and good looks on the outside, and then there are those who are rich and beautiful on the inside. Mrs. McCain seems to be both. (READ MORE)
Baron Bodissey: The Dog Didn’t Bark at the Elephant in the Room - Fjordman has written numerous articles about the immigrant rape wave in Sweden. See the bottom of this post for links to his posts on the topic. He has emphasized repeatedly that the authorities in Sweden are in denial about the nature of the rape epidemic, and that they attempt to explain it away without ever mentioning the number of rapes committed by Third World immigrants, especially Muslims. The latest batch of statistics from Sweden confirms the pattern: the incidence of rape has increased dramatically in the last decade. Sweden, a historically peaceful country with a low rate of violent crime, is undergoing an unprecedented epidemic of rapes. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Taliban flees Kandahar after putting up a big show - Earlier this week, the Taliban announced that it had taken over the area surrounding Arghandab, a district near Kandahar in the southern part of the country where the rebels have had success before. That success didn’t last long as NATO forces quickly responded, sending the Taliban reeling with hundreds of losses: “Hundreds of Taliban militants streamed into several villages in Kandahar days ago, after 400 militants escaped from prison in a daring and well-executed jailbreak. In response, NATO aircraft dropped hundreds of leaflets advising residents to stay inside and saying that troops were ‘coming to remove the enemies of Afghanistan.’ Then military convoys rolled into the district. Afghan soldiers and police, along with NATO-led forces, started the military operation Wednesday. At least 34 militants were killed and another 60 wounded in the early stages of the assault, Afghan police said.” (READ MORE)
neo-neocon: Keeping our hands clean: what the law has to say about it - I was listening to a talk show last night in the car and heard an impassioned defense of the SCOTUS decision in Boumedine (see yesterday’s post for my opinion of the merits of the case). The caller was not only in favor of the Court’s ruling to extend habeas corpus rights to noncombat enemy aliens in Guantanamo, he was clearly very moved by what he felt this meant for the country and the world. I’m paraphrasing, but his statement went something like this: “This decision is a wonderful day for our country, not because of the legal issues or what it does for the prisoners. It’s about who we are as a country and a people. It’s about the fact that we haven’t lost our souls, that we champion human rights around the world, that we are a beacon for freedom, that fear has not stopped us from that. If we surrender those rights we become as bad as the enemy. We become what we hate.” This is what I have come to think of as the “clean hands” argument... (READ MORE)
Scott Johnson: Does Obama know what he's talking about? - Speaking in unscripted environments on important issues, Barack Obama betrays a troubling lack of knowledge. He does not appear to know what he's talking about. In his interview with ABC's Jake Tapper earlier this week, for example, Obama advocated an approach to combating terrorism that is supposedly more attuned to legal issues than the Bush administration's: “It is my firm belief that we can track terrorists, we can crack down on threats against the United States. But we can do so within the constraints of our Constitution. Let's take the example of Guantanamo. What we know is that in previous terrorist attacks, for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.” Andrew McCarthy (the lead prosecutor of the perpetrators of the 1993 WTC attack) comments: (READ MORE)
McQ: Why is gas $4 a gallon - well let me tell you why... - So where are we in the discussion about using present energy sources (oil) while we get our ducks in a row concerning replacement alternative (and renewable) fuels? In a word: nowhere. It should come as no surprise to anyone, that like Social Security and Medicare, politicians on both sides of the isle have ignored the looming energy crisis for decades. Well guess what, it is no longer a “looming” crisis – it’s here. And what have we to show for it? Record prices, increasing global demand for the only fuel presently available in quantity to meet that demand and an “energy policy” which can only be described as absolutely unresponsive to the public need. Or, if your prefer, pure garbage. (READ MORE)
Darleen Click @ Protein Wisdom: Bullies of the Living Constitution - It was only a month ago, after California’s Supreme mullahs Court Justices issued a diktat that sexual orientation was a suspect class, I wrote wondering when the next shoe would drop. While California same-sex marriage advocates were coy when questioned, others were quite forceful in what they wanted to see done to any evil person who dared believe marriage between a man and a woman should remain the ideal. “A representative of the largest Michigan gay-rights group, known as the Triangle Foundation, and openly gay Washington State Sen. Ed Murray both told me that any person who continues to conduct himself as if what he thinks is God’s definition of marriage is correct, instead of the gay community’s definition, should be fined, fired and even jailed until he relents. ‘If you are a public accommodation and you are open to anyone on Main Street that means you must be open to everyone on Main Street. If they don’t do it, that’s contempt and they will go to jail,’ says the Triangle Foundation’s Sean Kososky.” (READ MORE)
Daniel's Big Trip: Beware the black helicopters!! - Hello everyone! I'm a day late in posting this because I've been busy.... I set up shop at the AOK (used to be a KOA but apparently they broke off...) in Coeur D'Elaine, Idaho next to a spiffy shallow non-moving lake and prepared for the imminent attack. Amazingly, in spite of the fact that the 'skeeters were thick as clouds, they never went on the offensive and I made it out unbitten. Maybe that B-vitamin complex thing is working. The next morning RTD and I loaded up and headed for Portland, Oregon. I stopped off in Spokane, WA with the intent of typing out the Nu-skin story, but instead encountered an interesting individual, the Conspiracy Theorist. (READ MORE)
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