Web Reconnaissance for 07/22/2008

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)
An Energy Sarbox - The political class needed to blame somebody for the run-up in energy prices, and settled on "speculators" as the designated villains. The mob grew to include everyone from Barack Obama to John McCain, and Bill O'Reilly to Hugo Chávez. Congress held over 40 hearings this summer. It was cynical, sure, but serious people assumed that the politicians were in on the conceit. (READ MORE)

Mr. Mukasey's Modest Proposal - We had not known previously that among Attorney General Michael Mukasey's skills was the satirical bite of Jonathan Swift. Only a Swiftian wit could have come up with Mr. Mukasey's proposal in a speech yesterday that the Solons of Congress solve the legal riddles of the Supreme Court's recent Boumediene decision on the rights of Guantanamo detainees. (READ MORE)

Iran Has Earned Nothing - In its waning days, the Bush Administration seems to be veering toward a policy of détente with Iran. Recent moves include a face-to-face meeting with Iran over its nuclear program and the likelihood of reopening a diplomatic mission in Tehran for the first time since -- well, you remember. Iran responded to these gestures on the weekend by rebuffing the West's latest set of carrots while refusing once again to give up its uranium enrichment. (READ MORE)

Russia increases weapon sales to Chavez - Russia is showing its irritation with U.S. intervention in its back yard by selling more weapons to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Mr. Chavez is to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday with a reported billion-dollar shopping list of armaments, including submarines and helicopters. (READ MORE)

Pickens sounds alarm over energy policy - Oil prices could hit $300 a barrel if the United States does not take drastic action to reduce its heavy dependence on foreign oil, but neither of the top presidential candidates is addressing the crisis, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said Monday. (READ MORE)

Consensus builds for Iraq exit - KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine Republican Sen. John McCain on Monday drew closer to his Democratic presidential opponent's timetable on Iraq, saying that U.S. troops could be "largely withdrawn" in two years, even as Sen. Barack Obama met with Iraqi leaders who now embrace his withdrawal time frame and with the architect of the troop surge he opposed. (READ MORE)

Probe: Currie's ties to developer strong - The federal investigation into state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie extends beyond his consulting work for Shoppers Food Warehouse to include one of Prince George's County's most powerful developers and his $3.7 billion Westphalia project in Capitol Heights, according to documents recently released by the state. (READ MORE)

Speculation rife in VP sweepstakes - There will be breathless speculation, short lists and long lists as Democrats and Republicans in the veepstakes are vetted and weighed in the next two months. Yet the choice for the No. 2 slot rarely matters. Pundits will analyze demographics and states that might just swing for one candidate with the right choice. (READ MORE)

Judge bars evidence from war crimes trial - GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - The judge in the first American war crimes trial since World War II barred evidence on Monday that interrogators obtained from Osama bin Laden's driver, ruling he was subjected to "highly coercive" conditions in Afghanistan. (READ MORE)

Guantanamo Judge Blocks Use of Some Statements - GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba. July 21 -- Prosecutors in the trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver cannot use as evidence some statements the defendant gave interrogators because they were obtained under "highly coercive" conditions while he was a captive in Afghanistan... (READ MORE)

Monument Honors Civil Rights Pioneers - RICHMOND, July 21 -- In 1989, Virginia became the first state to elect a black governor. Last year, the General Assembly passed a resolution apologizing for the state's role in the slave trade. (READ MORE)

Iraq Points to Pullout in 2010 - BAGHDAD, July 21 -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama conferred with senior Iraqi leaders, U.S. officials and military commanders Monday, as a spokesman for the Iraqi government declared that it would like U.S. combat forces to complete their withdrawal by the end of 2010. (READ MORE)

Zimbabwean Rivals Agree to Negotiations - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed Monday to start urgent negotiations toward forming a new government, a first but very tentative step toward ending the nation's political stalemate. (READ MORE)



On the Web:
Wesley Pruden: A new airlift to feed the frenzy - The early precincts are in, and it looks like a landslide. Unfortunately for Barack Obama, these are only the early precincts. America votes later. The public-opinion polls show the American idol winning by extraordinary margins in the precincts of the fantasists: by 51 percent in France, 49 percent in Germany, and 30 percent even in Britain, where voters speak English and understand American politics a little better than in the rest of Europe or, for that matter, the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Here at home, where there are early, tentative signs that Americans are beginning to come off a roaring drunk, he's effectively tied with John McCain. The American idol, who has been hanging out with generals and diplomats in Afghanistan and Iraq to practice his salute and indulge in a little make-believe as commander in chief, is itching for Thursday and his big speech in Berlin. (READ MORE)

Bret Stephens: Al Gore's Doomsday Clock - Al Gore gave a speech last week "challenging" America to run "on 100% zero-carbon electricity in 10 years" -- though that's just the first step on his road to "ending our reliance on carbon-based fuels." Serious people understand this is absurd. Maybe other people will start drawing the same conclusion about the man proposing it. The former vice president has also recently disavowed any intention of returning to politics. This is wise. As America's leading peddler of both doom and salvation, Mr. Gore has moved beyond the constraints and obligations of reality. His job is to serve as a Prophet of Truth. In Mr. Gore's prophesy, a transition to carbon-free electricity generation in a decade is "achievable, affordable and transformative." He believes that the goal can be achieved almost entirely through the use of "renewables" alone, meaning solar, geothermal, wind power and biofuels. (READ MORE)

William McGurn: Humanizing al Qaeda, Demonizing the Bush Team - David Addington and Omar Khadr are two names that will forever be linked to the war on terror. Mr. Addington is chief of staff to Vice President Richard Cheney and a former colleague of mine. He's the son of a West Point man who earned a bronze star in World War II and went on to become a general. Before coming to the White House, David put in stints at the CIA, at a congressional intelligence committee, and at the Pentagon -- all giving him an expertise on intelligence and national security issues only a handful of others can match. Then there's Mr. Khadr. He is the son of a man who helped found and finance al Qaeda, and who died in a 2003 gun battle with Pakistani troops near the Afghan border. (READ MORE)

Shelby Steele: Why Jesse Jackson Hates Obama - A few weeks ago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson made something of a fool of himself. There he was -- a historical figure in his own right -- threatening the castration of Barack Obama. It was sad to see. If I have often criticized Mr. Jackson, I have also, reservedly, admired him. He is a late 20th century outcropping of a profoundly American archetype: the self-invented man who comes from nothing and, out of sheer force of personality, imposes himself on the American consciousness. If he never reached the greatness to which he aspired, he nevertheless did honor to the enduring American tradition of bold and unapologetic opportunism. But now -- not looking old so much as a bit lost within the new Obama aura -- it is clear that Jesse Jackson has come to a kind of dénouement. Some force that once buoyed him up now seems spent. (READ MORE)

David Gratzer: American Cancer Care Beats the Rest - "Your accomplishment of [universal access] is the envy of every U.S. citizen who understands what you've done," Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) told a Canadian audience in 1996. This week, a major international study confirms that Mr. Kennedy is right to stay at home for his own cancer care: U.S. medicine bests the cancer treatment available to people in 30 other countries. The Concord study compares five-year cancer survival rates for several malignancies: breast cancer in women; prostate cancer; colon and rectal cancer in women and men. Combining the efforts of some 100 researchers, drawing data from almost two million cancer patients in 31 countries, the study, to be published in the August issue of The Lancet, is groundbreaking. Who's on top? Arguably Cuba, which records the best overall outcomes for breast cancer and colorectal cancer (in women), and seems to beat U.S. health care in three out of the four categories. (READ MORE)

Al Hubbard & Noam Neusner: A Better Way to Support Home Buyers - Congress and President Bush are working to keep the U.S. housing-finance market from seizing up in the short term. But we also should be thinking beyond the emergency at hand -- and asking how the U.S. government should support housing finance in the long run. When the crisis is over, will we want or need Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Fannie and Freddie were created to make the mortgage market liquid. They've succeeded in this task by purchasing mortgages originated by other lenders, and then securitizing and selling them to other investors. This success came with a price tag to taxpayers. Fannie and Freddie enjoyed an implicit guarantee that the federal government would be a backstop for them, so they were tempted to take risks on securities that other lenders would not. (READ MORE)

Ann Marlowe: Afghanistan Doesn't Need a 'Surge' - Afghanistan needs many things, but two more brigades of U.S. troops are not among them. Barack Obama said: "We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there." Mr. Obama should have supported the surge in Iraq, but that doesn't mean that advocating one in Afghanistan makes sense. Afghanistan's problems are not the same as Iraq's. Its people aren't recovering from a brutal, all-controlling tyranny, but from decades of chaos and centuries of bad government. Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, is largely illiterate and has a relatively undeveloped civil society. Afghan society still centers around the family and, for men, the mosque. Its society and traditions are still largely intact, in contrast to Iraq's fractured, urbanized and half-modernized population. (READ MORE)

Dennis Prager: Will Israel Attack Iran? - It is difficult to imagine Israel attacking Iran. It is, however, more difficult to imagine Israel not attacking Iran. Consider three questions: First, does Iran mean what it says about destroying Israel? When its leaders repeatedly call for Israel's annihilation, after referring to it as a cancer and using other rhetoric not heard on a national level since the Nazi regime's depiction of Jews, is this just rhetorical flourish? Or do they really hope and plan to destroy Israel? Second, can Iran do it? One can hope and even plan to do something outrageous, but that does not necessarily mean that one can accomplish it. So, the second question is whether Iran can destroy Israel or at least murder a high enough percentage of its population and destroy enough of its infrastructure to enable surrounding Arab states to invade and do the rest of the job that the majority of Arabs favor (even if some of their governments have a peace treaty with Israel). (READ MORE)

Thomas Sowell: Bankrupt "Exploiters" - In one of those front-page editorials disguised as "news" stories, the New York Times blames "the lucrative lending practices" of banks and other financial institutions for helping create the current financial crisis of millions of borrowers and of the financial system in general. It must take either a willful determination to believe whatever they want to believe or a cynical desire to propagandize their readers for the New York Times to call "lucrative" the lending practices that have caused many lenders to lose millions of dollars, some to lose billions and some to go bankrupt themselves. Blaming the lenders is the party line of Congressional Democrats as well. What we need is more government regulation of lenders, they say, to protect the innocent borrowers from "predatory" lending practices. Before going further down that road, it may be useful to look back at what got us into this mess in the first place. (READ MORE)

David Limbaugh: Obama: Milking His Failures - Isn't it enormously ironic that Barack Obama now finds himself the unintended beneficiary of the Iraq surge that he so vocally -- and wrongly -- opposed? It seems that Obama's untimely calls for a withdrawal timetable have lingered long enough to have some merit in the eyes of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki told Der Spiegel, a German magazine, that U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq "as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes." Assuming al-Maliki said it, and there has been some dispute, it doesn't make Obama right -- even now. But it's hard to imagine al-Maliki would be saying anything helpful to Obama's campaign today if the United States had followed Obama's disgraceful surrender policy instead of implementing the surge in 2007 -- over his strenuous objections. (READ MORE)

Chuck Norris: What the Bleep?! - Jesse Jackson (on an off-air mic before "Fox & Friends") and Whoopi Goldberg (and another host on "The View") have raised the cultural language debate to a new level: Who has the right to say the N-word? Their answer: Blacks can, but whites can't. Unfortunately, this derogatory debate has degraded into Don Imus on steroids. I agree with a lot that Whoopi had to say about the imbalances between the races. But I disagree with her for going off on an intentional N-word marathon, which was bleeped out repeatedly in order to demonstrate her point. There's a reason her diatribe was bleeped and our society still veils our full expression of the N-word: because it still is regarded by most as derogatory and demeaning. (Even among blacks, the N-word obviously can be defamatory, as Jesse Jackson proved when he used it in the same breath he used to describe how he would like to cut off Barack Obama's genitalia.) (READ MORE)

Carrie Lukas: Connecting the Dots on Energy Policy - Most policy debates seem to be a war of competing theories: Will lower tax rates really stimulate greater economic activity? Do generous government welfare programs actually discourage people from seeking employment? Each side marshals data supporting its side and voters have to sort out whose case seems most compelling. Often it’s hard to connect those policies with the decisions that you make in your own life. After all, we take into account numerous factors when we make big decisions, like how much to work or whether to try to open a business. Corporations, too, consider the particulars of their industry, specialty, and business environment when deciding how many jobs to offer or where to locate. It’s hard to isolate the affect that one policy, or even set of policies, has. Yet Americans increasingly seem to be connecting the dots between national energy policy and its impact on their lives. (READ MORE)

Cal Thomas: An Innocent Abroad - I remember the first time my wife and I visited Europe and the Middle East. The trip resembled Sen. Obama's current version of speed travel, but without the entourage, security and network coverage. Armed with Arthur Frommer's "Europe on $5 a Day," we crammed as much as we could into 18-hour days, hitting the museums, art galleries, cathedrals and restaurants. When the tour ended, we had impressions and a slightly better view of the world. There is a difference, though, between a view of the world and a worldview. A view of the world means you might like London and I might prefer Paris, but each preference can be equally valid because it is a matter of individual taste. A correct worldview is a way of not just looking at other countries and people, but having an intellectual and moral center that allows one to distinguish between good and evil; right and wrong; sound economic, social and political policies and bad ones. (READ MORE)

William Rusher: We Must Break Our Dependence on Oil - T. Boone Pickens is one of America's biggest independent oil producers, so he could be forgiven if he simply chose to sit back and pile up his profits. But the Texas entrepreneur is convinced that America must break its dependence on oil as a major source of energy, and has announced that over the next few weeks he is going to outline in the major media a plan for doing exactly that. He is right on the money, and I am going to listen carefully to what he has to say. There is no doubt that this country is deeply hooked on oil. It is, after all, the source of the gasoline on which America's cars and trucks run, and a national economy in which oil didn't play a major role is virtually inconceivable. But we are deep in a dilemma in which the tail is, for all practical purposes, wagging the dog. Our foreign policy, in particular, is bent out of shape by our desperate need to keep Middle Eastern oil flowing to us and to our European allies. (READ MORE)

Ed Feulner: Constitutional Confusion - Every president, every senator, every member of Congress and every Supreme Court justice takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. The way some of them behave, though, you have to wonder if they’ve ever read it. The Constitution is clear and understandable. It gives Congress, the legislative branch, the responsibility of passing our laws. It gives the president, head of the executive branch, the responsibility of enforcing those laws. And it gives the courts, headed by the Supreme Court, the responsibility of interpreting them. Yet in recent years, leaders of all three branches have expressed confusing -- and incorrect -- ideas about the Constitution. Take the members of Congress who filed a brief with the Supreme Court urging it to strike down Washington, D.C.’s gun ban. Fortunately, the Court agreed. But Congress had the power to defend D.C. residents’ gun rights all along. (READ MORE)

Karin Agness: The Villains of Victimhood - Superwoman made a curious appearance this weekend, gracing the program cover of the National Organization for Women (NOW) National Conference, which was themed, “No Capes, No Masks, No Boundaries: Feminist Super-Women Unite!” “The concept of feminist superheroes is not much of a stretch,” Kim Gandy, President of NOW, said. “Both feminists and superheroes are dedicated to fighting injustice, while facing off against corrupt, malicious villains out to dominate the world (Bush and Cheney, anyone?). What makes feminists special is that they do this without superhuman powers-just a lot of pride, passion and patience.” Besides revealing an inflated view of their own organization, the superhero analogy demonstrates the destructive attitude dominating feminism today. It is the attitude that everyone is against women, out to get them. To feminists, women must take on the entire world. (READ MORE)

Paul Weyrich: A Persistent Threat to Second Amendment Rights - In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court ruled that the District of Columbia's highly restrictive ban on guns is unconstitutional. The ruling was anticipated across the nation. It was the first time the Court made a direct judgment about the right of individuals to keep and bear arms since the adoption of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. One would think that under these circumstances the D.C. government would get the message. Not a chance. The Washington D.C. City Council lives in its own world. In a unanimous vote, the Council refused to repeal the handgun ban. Instead, it created a new exception under which the handgun ban does not apply to a person who seeks to register a pistol for use in self-defense in the home. (READ MORE)

Chuck Colson: What's the Matter With Canada? - How is this for irony? Recent actions by Canadian human rights groups have observers alarmed for the state of human rights in Canada. That is because the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal do not give a fig about protecting human rights. Their mission is suppressing free speech. Maclean’s magazine was hauled before these two “quasi-judicial” bodies when it published excerpts from Mark Steyn’s popular book America Alone. Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress charged that the content of these excerpts about the expansion of radical Islam “subjects Canadian Muslims to hatred and contempt.” The Canadian Human Rights Commission dismissed the complaint, but the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal got in on the act. (READ MORE)

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Energy Freedom - A wag once famously observed that, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” The same has generally been true about gas prices. At least until this week. The hosing of American consumers (hilariously satirized in a new video by Hollywood icons David and Jerry Zucker at www.NozzleRage.com) and the attendant destruction of our economy has finally gotten the attention of the political elite in Washington and especially the Congress. Legislators are palpably in a panic at the prospect of facing voters in a few months having done nothing meaningful to bring down prices at the pump. Don’t get me wrong. Even now, even in the face of such “Nozzle Rage,” many on Capitol Hill are more interested in posturing than doing something practical. Some leading figures in both parties continue to play to their respective constituencies. (READ MORE)

Guy Benson: When Obama Attacks - What angers Barack Obama? The answer to this question may not be entirely clear, but at least a partial answer lies within the pages of the current New Yorker magazine. The controversial edition has generated far more attention for the political cartoon on its cover than for the content of the accompanying article. This often overlooked cover story includes two telling anecdotes. One story recounts Obama's explosive reaction to being "embarrassed" on the floor of the Illinois state legislature, and the other explores Obama's tepid reaction to the carnage of September 11, 2001. Both stories illustrate Obama's tendency to reserve his harshest attacks for perceived political affronts while treating true outrages with heavy doses of nuance. According to the New Yorker article, State Senator Barack Obama ignited a verbal dispute with a colleague during a 1997 legislative session in Springfield. (READ MORE)

Harry R. Jackson, Jr.: Stop the War on the Poor - Last Tuesday (July 15) I stood with Niger Innis of CORE and just under 100 people from around the country at a press conference in Washington, DC. The group was comprised of congressmen, senators, grassroots organizers, and clergy. We descended on Washington to announce a bold cry for affordable energy for the poor. Our campaign is simply called “Stop the War On The Poor.” Although some leftist groups have already called our efforts partisan, nothing could be further from the truth. Many of us have realized that most legislators on the Hill are advocating ideologically-based approaches to our energy problems. While Washington plays politics with American energy supplies, people are hurting – and the poor are hurting the most. The only hope the average poor person has is that gas prices won’t rise to $6.00/gallon. The poor cannot afford to hire advocates or lobbyists. (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: And Again: Another Jerusalem Terror Attack - A terrorist got his hands on a front end loader from a Jerusalem construction site and attempted to overturn a bus and rammed cars, before he was killed by security forces. The bulldozer reportedly left a construction site near Yemin Moshe near King David Street, crashed into a city bus and hit two cars, wounding one person seriously and several more lightly. The wounded were evacuated to Sha'are Tzedek Hospital in the capital. According to initial reports, the driver was first shot by a civilian, but continued his attack before he was shot dead by border policemen. This is a developing story, but apparently, the attack occurred down the street from the hotel where Sen. Barack Obama was due to stay when visiting Israel later this week. At least 11 people were injured. (READ MORE)

Gabriel Malor @ Ace of Spades: Louisiana Files for Rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana - It would take a majority vote for the Supreme Court to reconsider the case which blatantly misconstrued public opinion about the death penalty for child rapists and which failed to discover a federal law imposing such a penalty. It is extremely rare for the Court to do so. Louisiana's petition is here (PDF). We discussed the likelihood of a rehearing a few weeks ago. I continue to believe that the justices need to grant this petition---even if they know they're going to come to the same decision---if only to straighten out the horrendous reasoning in the majority opinion. Justice Kennedy's claims about "national consensus" and "the Court's own judgment" make a farce out of our entire system of justice. Even if he's too set in his thinking to overturn such ridiculous Eighth Amendment standards, certainly he can do a more credible job supporting his conclusions. (READ MORE)

The Anchoress: Bravo, Drudge! Free Speech for McCain! - So, apparently the New York Times, on the heels of this Rasmussen Report which suggests that the voting public is finding the press just a tad too “in the tank” for Sen. Obama, has rejected a John McCain op-ed meant to respond to Obama’s Times-featured op-ed from last week. Glenn says, “People are going to start to think the press is in the tank for Obama or something. Oops, too late!” Not only did the Op-Ed editor, David Shipley, a former Clinton staffer, reject the thing…he was a bit condescending about it: “‘It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece,’ NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley explained in an email late Friday to McCain’s staff. ‘I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written…I’d be pleased, though, to look at another draft.” (READ MORE)

The Barnyard: America Knows The MSM Is Biased Towards Obama - America's voters are not stupid by any means and they recognize blatant bias when they see it as the latest Rasmussen poll highlights very well. The majority of Americans believe the MSM is trying to ram Obama down our throats. Gee do ya think all the fawning coverage of the Lightworker and ignorance of his multitudinous gaffes have anything to do with that perception? Not to mention the alphabet network's main talking heads falling all over themselves to join the Obamassiah on his historic world tour to heal our image around the world with his mere presence. “The idea that reporters are trying to help Obama win in November has grown by five percentage points over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, taken just before the new controversy involving the Times erupted, found that 49% of voters believe most reporters will try to help the Democrat with their coverage, up from 44% a month ago.” (READ MORE)

Uncle Jimbo @ Blackfive: Obama wrong from the start on Iraq - Let's put an end to the march Obama and his handlers are attempting to steal about leaving Iraq. They would love to ignore all of his statements opposing the surge and saying it would make things worse, they even scrubbed them from his website and tossed them under his bus. It makes absolutely no difference that Maliki or any other Iraqi says we could have combat troops out of the country in 2010, Obama was wrong before and this doesn't make him any righter. NRO compared it to two doctors, one who prescribes medicine and one who says a patient doesn't need them and isn't worth saving. The medicine works, the patient gets better and now doesn't need medicine and the second doctor then saying "See, he doesn't need medicine, I was right". You can expect to here about how Obama's cunning plan is now exactly what Iraq needs and the press to completely ignore how wrong he has been all along. (READ MORE)

Madeleine Gruen & Frank Hyland: The Threat Here - 2008: Setting the Scene - This is the second article in the series by Madeleine Gruen and Frank Hyland, portraying the seriousness of the threat of homegrown terrorism in the United States for readers of The Counterterrorism Blog. We hasten to say right off the bat that regular readers of CT Blog are already the recipients of a detailed and continuing supply of very useful information on the threat of terrorism here in the United States. We are grateful for our CT Blog colleagues Steven Emerson, Doug Farah, Jeff Imm, Mike Cutler, and on and on. Nothing in this series is intended to supplant their excellent work. If anything, we hope to draw even more attention to their (and others’) fine efforts in the past and in the future. Our goal is to draw together in this one series the signs of the continuing, emerging threat here so that policy makers and citizens of Main Street US alike will be better able to assess the true threat. (READ MORE)

McQ: Just show up naked - The lede: An Obama campaign ban on green clothing during the candidate's visits to Israel and Jordan has created wide puzzlement among observers of the Middle East. “Most have sad ‘Whaaa? Never heard of such a thing.’” The Obama campaign says, "We just wanted to be respectful, because, you know, green is the color most associated with Islam". Of course, the Irish disagree. But here was the most important point. The Obama campaign just made an issue out of something that was a non-issue before. And that led too: “‘Our folks in Jerusalem and the USA have no idea what this is about,’ said an official of one major American Jewish organization. ‘We have not ever suggested that people not wear the color green. During the disengagement from Gaza, the color orange was the color of the anti-disengagement folks, so we did advise folks not to make an unintentional political statement by wearing orange.’ Jeff Ballabon, a Republican consultant active in pro-Israel causes, was also baffled by the explanation of the link between green and Hamas. ‘Why didn't he also ban the use of yellow, which is Hezbollah's color?’” Brilliant. (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Gergen: We only have one president at a time - CNN political analyst David Gergen believes that Barack Obama made a political mistake in engaging Nouri al-Maliki on the question of the American presence in Iraq. He stepped over the line in explicitly admitting what amounts to negotiations with an American ally during wartime, a role that rightly belongs to the executive under all circumstances. Gergen calls this the first real political mistake of Obama’s trip — but will anyone notice? “David Gergen: ‘I think it was the first — Barack Obama made the first mistake of his trip, in my judgment, in releasing a statement in which he said exactly what Maliki had said in those conversations. We have a long tradition in this country that we only have one president at a time. He’s the commander in chief and the negotiator in chief. I cannot remember a campaign which a rival seeking the presidency has been in a position negotiating a war that’s under way with another party outside the country.’” (READ MORE)

Flopping Aces: Obama Abandons Commitment to Iraq Withdrawal Timetable - Senator Obama refuses to be boxed in between what he considers two “false choices”, either: 1) …On such and such date, come Hell or high water we’ve gotten our troops out, and be blind to anything that happens in intermediate months 2) …completely defer to whatever the commanders on the ground say (because his military and strategic knowledge is better than theirs) By dismissing out of hand the absoluteness of a calender date by which all Americans will be out of Iraq, Senator Obama has just capitulated the political left’s dogma for the past six years (a debate that started in 2002 before the invasion in 2003). Since the time of the DLC Conference in early 2002, Democrats have demanded a deadline for the war, a schedule, and President Bush has resisted. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Antiwar Dem confesses - Lanny Davis: “Is it possible, I wondered, that Iraqis truly did want democracy and freedom and the right to vote and government of the people, just as we Americans do?” While I am convinced that most Democrats were anti-Bush and not antiwar, Lanny Davis made the case today in the Washington Times that he really truly believed the war in Iraq was unnecessary. He wrote: “We had Saddam surrounded.” But we went in, won the war (and promptly lost the peace) and on Jan. 30, 2005, the Purple Finger Gang showed up. That got Davis to thinking maybe the war was right. He wrote: “Is it possible, I wondered, that Iraqis truly did want democracy and freedom and the right to vote and government of the people, just as we Americans do? And were willing to fight for it, with our help? “Wouldn’t that be a good thing? Even a great thing?" (READ MORE)

Right Wing Nut House: THE TIMELINE IS STILL A SUCKY IDEA - I know I’m bucking a trend here but there has to be a reason Petreaus and Odinero are dead set against initiating a timeline for withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, something they told the messiah to his face yesterday. Are they Bushbots who simply don’t recognize the overpowering genius of our future savior? Maybe they’re war lovers and get off at the sight of dead Americans? Perhaps they’re “Manchurian Candidate” jihadists who want America to stay in Iraq so their friends can kill more of our troops? Or maybe – just maybe – they know a helluva lot more about what’s going on in Iraq than anyone else in the American government (including a wet behind the ears junior senator from Illinois) and have a view of how best to end this thing shaped by experience and not by what might play well on the hustings. (READ MORE)

ShrinkWrapped: Globalization's Paradoxes - Discussions of the benefits and costs of globalization tend to focus on the most parochial. Politicians pander to the fears of anxious voters and promise to stop exporting jobs overseas and protect domestic markets from the dangers of lower priced imports. They do not tend to offer any details about how they will accomplish such legerdemain, but when pressed either step back from the brink or set forward policies that, if enacted, would likely lead to the 1930s redux. There are much broader risks and benefits of globalization that get left out of these domestic political debates. In his article yesterday, Tom Barnett points out some of the unmistakable benefits of globalization: “Globalizations means fewer wars, less death - Two new reports about our world reiterate the overwhelmingly positive impact of globalization upon our planet, making it more peaceful and more just. The ‘Human Security Brief 2007,’ compiled by Canada's Simon Fraser University, details the continuing overall decline in global conflict that began with globalization's rapid expansion around the planet in recent years, to include the complete absence of classic state-on-state war since 2003.” (READ MORE)

Cassandra: Obama: The Audacity of Branding - When it comes to propping up his supersized ego, is any move too audacious for the Obama campaign? “At a discussion with a dozen Democratic governors in Chicago on Friday morning, each of the governors was identified with a small name plate but Senator Barack Obama sat behind a low rostrum to which was attached an official-looking seal no one had seen before. It is emblazoned with a fierce-looking eagle clutching an olive branch in one claw and arrows in the other and is deliberately reminiscent of the official seal of the president of the United States. ...Just above the eagle’s head are the words ‘Vero Possumus,’ roughly translated “Yes we can.” Not exactly E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One), the motto on the presidential seal and the dollar bill. Then again, Mr. Obama is not the president.” Ah but we live in hope, do we not? Currently the candidate for Change We Can Believe In has embarked upon a whirlwind tour of the MiddleEast in his very own chartered jet. Obama's exact whereabouts at any given point in time are a closely held secret. Due to security concerns, the candidate declined to release his itinerary to the press. Fortunately for Obama watchers worldwide, he shouldn't be too hard to spot since before leaving on this highly secure trip, Obama had his stealth plane ostentatiously emblazoned with his logo and the moniker, "Obama One". No doubt keeping Bill Keller and Eric Lichtblau in the dark as to his whereabouts will be all the protection Obama needs: (READ MORE)

David Kopel: The United Nations vs. the Second Amendment - Over at Opinio Juris, Kenneth Anderson has an interesting post about last week's gun control conference at the United Nations, and a New York Times puff piece thereon, written by C.J. Chivers. After noting U.S. concerns about the U.N. becoming a venue attacks on American gun ownership, the Times explains: “The United Nations and advocates of gun control have said that such fears are unfounded, and that there is no effort to impose standards on nations with traditions of civilian ownership, or to restrict hunting. The programs, they said, apply largely to areas suffering from insurgencies or war. ‘States remain free to have their own national legislation,’ said Daniel Prins, chief of the Conventional Arms Branch of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. ‘This document does not try to regulate gun ownership in the whole world. This is an instrument that allows states to focus on regions in conflict and the weapons that illicitly get there.’” But Anderson was present at the beginning of the U.N.'s campaign against gun ownership. He recalls: (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Con Job - One of the more common criticisms of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate is his very, very thin resume'. The guy just hasn't done very much that gives us a solid indicator of what he believes, what he thinks, how he thinks, how he performs. One of the points on that resume' is his tenure as a professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where he taught for twelve years. Very little has come out about Obama as teacher, but I have to say that based on his statements in the last year, I have some serious doubts about his qualifications to teach that subject. When the Heller case challenging the Washington, DC absolute gun ban was wending its way to the Supreme Court, Senator Obama said that he supported the measure. He said, on numerous occasions, that he thought that the 2nd Amendment did not prevent the District of Columbia from preventing individuals from owning handguns. (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: McCain And The Surge. Bush And Homeland Security - Ironically, one of the reasons George Bush's approval rating is so low is that he has done such a fantastic job of protecting America from terrorist attacks since 9/11. After 9/11, if you had told people that Bush would prevent another major terrorist attack against the US for nearly seven years and would have an approval rating under 30%, they'd have thought it was crazy. However, because Bush has done such an incredible job, most people have gotten complacent. They've deluded themselves into believing that; Al-Qaeda is no longer a serious threat, we don't need tough security measures, and that Bush really doesn't deserve a lot of credit for keeping another 9/11 from occurring. Well, Jonah Goldberg is making a similar argument about Iraq and the surge: (READ MORE)

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