July 31, 2008

Web Reconnaissance for 07/31/2008

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)
The End of Free Trade? - The demise of the Doha trade round is another blow to the struggling world economy, and there's plenty of blame to go around. But the crucial question going forward is whether this is merely a temporary setback, or if it marks the end of the post-World War II free-trade era that has done so much to spread prosperity. (READ MORE)

Mr. Paulson's New Bonds - These days, it's next to impossible to sell a mortgage-backed security -- unless, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you have access to the full faith and credit of Uncle Sam. So this week Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson teamed up with four of the country's biggest banks to jump start an alternative to securitization known as "covered bonds." (READ MORE)

Scandalous Justice - So, let's see: The Bush Justice Department this week indicted a prominent Republican Senator for corruption less than 100 days before he's up for re-election. But we are supposed to believe that Bush Justice is corruptly politicized because some of its dimmer bulbs asked job-seekers about their ideological leanings. (READ MORE)

Gates Sees Terrorism Remaining Enemy No. 1 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says that even winning the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not end the "Long War" against violent extremism and that the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorists should be the nation's top military priority over coming decades, according to a new National... (READ MORE)

Alaskans Fret About a Future Without Help From 'Uncle Ted' - ANCHORAGE, July 30 -- Alaska's vast landscape is littered with federally funded tributes to Sen. Ted Stevens's single-minded promotion of the state, from the brushed steel of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to the $187 million that subsidizes air mail for the one-third of residents who... (READ MORE)

IOC Allows China To Limit Reporters' Access to Internet - BEIJING, July 30 -- The International Olympic Committee and the Chinese government acknowledged Wednesday that reporters covering the Olympics will be blocked from accessing Internet sites that Chinese authorities consider politically sensitive. (READ MORE)

Obama Tries to Show Missouri Concern for Small-Town Issues - UNION, Mo., July 30 -- Sen. Barack Obama campaigned through the conservative heart of rural Missouri on Wednesday, determined to prove that a Democrat can capture this bellwether state by winning over voters in its far-flung small towns as well as in its urban centers. (READ MORE)

N. Korean Food Crisis Spurs U.N. to Act - BEIJING, July 30 -- With shriveled harvests and a cutback in imports, North Korea has slipped back into a serious food shortage that is causing millions of people to go hungry, the United Nations announced Wednesday. (READ MORE)

Olmert Declares Intent to Step Down - JERUSALEM, July 30 -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, facing a widening corruption investigation, announced Wednesday that he will not compete in his party's leadership primary in September. The move will effectively end his tenure as premier and is likely to complicate efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before President Bush leaves office. (READ MORE)

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Leader May Be in Afghanistan - BAGHDAD, July 30 -- The leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and several of his top lieutenants have recently left Iraq for Afghanistan, according to group leaders and Iraqi intelligence officials, a possible further sign of what Iraqi and U.S. officials call growing disarray and weakness in the organization. (READ MORE)

Turkish ruling party secure - Turkey's highest court on Wednesday narrowly rejected an indictment to outlaw the nation's ruling party for Islamist activities - ending months of turmoil that had paralyzed the NATO ally, frightened foreign investors and stalled the nation's bid to join the European Union. (READ MORE)

Ad rips celebrity Obama - Britney, Paris and ... Barack? Sen. John McCain on Wednesday charged that his Democratic presidential opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, is more Cosmo than he is commander in chief, running a stark, harsh and groundbreaking ad that matches him with clips of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. (READ MORE)

Pakistan probes Taliban collusion - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said U.S. concerns about collusion between members of his nation's intelligence agency and terrorists are being taken seriously and "will be resolved." (READ MORE)

Obama supports union organizing - Legislation that would make it more difficult for workers to hold a private ballot vote in unionization drives, which critics say would lead to harassment and intimidation, has spurred a pitched battle between powerful labor unions supportive of Sen. Barack Obama and big business in the presidential campaign. (READ MORE)

Illegals figure drops by 11% - The Department of Homeland Security is claiming success after an independent study released Wednesday argued that stepped-up enforcement efforts have reduced the illegal immigrant population by 11 percent since August. (READ MORE)

Police aware of Maryland's spying - Maryland State Police documents show that the Baltimore Police Department knew of the state's spying on groups opposed to war and the death penalty and once offered backup assistance at a protest. The American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained the documents earlier this month, said Wednesday that it is broadening its investigation into the matter to include more activist groups and more state and federal agencies. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Daniel Henninger: Is John McCain Stupid? - Is John McCain losing it? On Sunday, he said on national television that to solve Social Security "everything's on the table," which of course means raising payroll taxes. On July 7 in Denver he said: "Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't." This isn't a flip-flop. It's a sex-change operation. He got back to the subject Tuesday in Reno, Nev. Reporters asked about the Sunday tax comments. Mr. McCain replied, "The worst thing you could do is raise people's payroll taxes, my God!" Then he was asked about working with Democrats to fix Social Security, and he repeated, "everything has to be on the table." But how can . . .? Oh never mind. Yesterday he was in Aurora, Colo., to wit: "On Social Security, he [Sen. Obama] wants to raise Social Security taxes. I am opposed to raising taxes on Social Security. I want to fix the system without raising taxes." (READ MORE)

Lanny J. Davis: Why Obama Should Pick Hillary - Picking a vice president is obviously Barack Obama's decision to make. He must be comfortable with who he picks. Comfort level between a president and vice president may be the most important factor of all. So I can only offer my argument, based on some facts and subjective impressions, as to why I believe it would be in Sen. Obama's personal and political interest to select Hillary Rodham Clinton as his vice presidential running mate. Not just to enhance his chances of winning -- but, more important, to help him be a more effective president. Let's start with one undisputable fact: Sen. Clinton is the only Democrat who gives Sen. Obama a statistically significant boost in any national poll results. This is not a criticism of other candidates. This is simply a fact -- a product of Sen. Clinton's nearly 18-month national campaign in all 50 states and the 18 million votes she won. (READ MORE)

Karl Rove: Obama's Iraq Fumble - In a race supposedly dominated by the economy, both Barack Obama and John McCain have spent a lot of time talking about Iraq. Why? Because both men have Iraq problems that are causing difficulties for their campaigns. How each candidate resolves his Iraq problems may determine who voters come to see as best qualified to set American foreign policy. If Mr. McCain wins the argument on Iraq, he will add to his greatest strength -- a perceived fitness to be commander in chief and lead the global war on terror. As the underdog, Mr. McCain needs to convince voters that he is overwhelmingly the better choice on the issue. Mr. Obama needs to win the argument because his greatest weakness is inexperience and a perceived unreadiness to be president. That's dangerous. Voters believe keeping America safe and strong is a president's most important responsibility. (READ MORE)

Arthur C. Brooks: Where's the Outrage? Really. - "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." So lectures a popular bumper sticker in my university-dominated neighborhood. And according to an emerging journalistic narrative of this campaign season, ordinary Americans are indeed outraged -- at the Iraq war, at gas prices, and by the fact that their houses are not rising in value. As a July 4 Associated Press headline put it, "Americans' unhappy birthday: 'Too much wrong.'" One does not do well to question the legitimacy of this alleged anger. Former Texas senator and McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm learned this the hard way. Looking at data showing less economic trouble than he felt the gloomy headlines warranted, he said in an interview on July 9 that the U.S. was a "nation of whiners" and that we are merely in a "mental recession." Within a few days he stepped down from a McCain campaign increasingly worried about a possible backlash from supposedly enraged voters. (READ MORE)

Laurence H. Tribe: The Supreme Court Is Wrong on the Death Penalty - It's not often that the U.S. Supreme Court is asked by a state and the federal government to reconsider a case it has just handed down because it missed key evidence. But that is what is happening now in Kennedy v. Louisiana. In that case, the court ruled in late June that Louisiana could not execute someone convicted of violently raping a child. Dividing along familiar 5-4 lines, the court held, speaking through Justice Anthony Kennedy, that the death penalty must be reserved for killers and traitors. To apply it to others, including the most reprehensible violators of young children, would constitute a "cruel and unusual punishment" violating the Constitution's Eighth Amendment. Emphasizing the evolving character of what constitutes an "unusual" if not an unduly "cruel" punishment, the court rested its condemnation of executing the rapists of children largely on what it described as a trend away from the use of death to punish such crimes both here and abroad. (READ MORE)

Ann Coulter: A Baby Daddy for Both Americas - The mainstream media really seem to imagine they can prevent Americans from knowing information by refusing to mention it in newspapers or on TV. For those few Americans without an Internet connection and to whom I have not faxed the National Enquirer stories: Evidence is accumulating that John Edwards is right -- there really are "two Americas." There's one where men cheat on their cancer-stricken wives and one where men do not cheat on their cancer-stricken wives. To put it another way, it would appear that ambulances aren't the only things John Edwards has been chasing lately. Last year, the National Enquirer broke the story about New-Age divorcee Rielle Hunter, formerly Lisa Druck, telling friends she was having an affair with Edwards and that she was pregnant with his "love child." Who knew that "my father was a mill worker" could be such a great pickup line? (READ MORE)

Frank Turek: The Presidency Is Not An Entry-Level Position - Barack Obama’s recent op-ed in the New York Times declares, “It’s time to end this war.” (You remember that Senator McCain tried to respond, but the Times apparently wanted to give McCain his opinion rather than allow him to express his own. Every day I read the New York Times and the Bible just to see what both sides are doing.) Is Obama right? Is it time to end this war? Maybe it is time to begin drawing down our forces and handing-off more responsibility for security to Iraqi forces. This idea is gaining favor in Bagdad and Washington. The problem for Obama is that withdrawal, not victory, has always been his goal. Obama wanted to “end this war” when it would have meant an American defeat. The only reason a slow withdrawal is possible now is because President Bush made the unpopular but wise decision to increase our efforts while Obama and the Democrat party tried to get us to cut and run. (READ MORE)

Larry Elder: A Black Conservative Lament - Oh, no, not another "blacks in America" news special! One of the cable networks recently put together another one of these "specials" on what it's like to be black in America. The network asked a conservative friend of mine to participate. He sent the following letter; and I wrote back. Dear Larry, OK, Larry, I grew up a bit last night. Those (unflattering descriptive deleted) at that news network on cable used me like a two-dollar whore! I interviewed with them for almost 10 hours, and all that talk was whittled down into five-second sound bites that put me in a rather negative light. Part of our talk was about the crack epidemic. I spoke about the way we are fighting this drug war, which we should approach as a health issue as opposed to a law enforcement problem. I talked about the impact single parenthood has on crime rates. … I talked and talked. They edited it all down to, "If you don't want to go to jail, don't sell crack." I am really angry. (READ MORE)

Victor Davis Hanson: What If Iraq Works? - There is a growing confidence among officers, diplomats and politicians that a constitutional Iraq is going to make it. We don't hear much anymore of trisecting the country, much less pulling all American troops out in defeat. Critics of the war now argue that a victory in Iraq was not worth the costs, not that victory was always impossible. The worst terrorist leaders, like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Muqtada al-Sadr, are either dead or in hiding. The 2007 surge, the Anbar Awakening of tribal sheiks against al-Qaida, the change to counterinsurgency tactics, the vast increase in the size and competence of the Iraqi Security Forces, the sheer number of enemy jihadists killed between 2003-8, the unexpected political savvy of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the magnetic leadership of Gen. David Petraeus have all contributed to a radically improved Iraq. (READ MORE)

Ken Blackwell: Freedom Now - Nancy Pelosi wants to the save the planet. That was the House speakers answer to why she is not allowing a vote on expanding domestic oil drilling. Unfortunately, Americans need for an ambitious long-term plan for energy independence is placing a damper on the speakers planet-saving pursuits. The energy issue is taking center stage for the public. If this issue is forced to the next level, Senator McCain might win the White House and Republicans might avoid another election year rout. First, Mr. McCain must outline an ambitious Kennedy to the moon ambitious energy plan aimed at transforming America from an energy importer to an energy exporter. He should start with the obvious. Only conventional sources can address Americas short-term energy needs. The nation has the infrastructure to use coal, oil, and natural gas, and all it needs is additional supply. (READ MORE)

Maggie Gallagher: Everything's Coming Up Nancy - Move over, Hillary, its Nancy's turn to take center stage. This past Monday, Nancy Pelosi was all over your television set, penetrating as many American living rooms as she could with her new message: Girl Power Forever -- aka "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters." Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the most powerful woman of all? Nancy Pelosi showed the Republicans who's boss of the Hill recently. After promising "fairness and open debate," according to David Rogers at Politico.com, Pelosi resorted to hard-knuckle politics to shut down the GOP's chance to offer any policy alternatives to the Dems' official party line. She's not exactly apologetic about it. Rogers reports: "I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet," she says impatiently when questioned. "I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy." (READ MORE)

David Strom: Revealed: Conservatives Have Escape Plan for When They Destroy the Earth - Well, the secret is out. Conservatives' willingness to destroy Mother Earth in pursuit of financial gain now makes sense. The missing fact that helps explain the seemingly inexplicable willingness of Conservatives to destroy the planet was revealed last week by former astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell. You may or may not remember Mitchell as the astronaut who holds the record for the longest moonwalk. Dr. Mitchell has broken a long-standing wall of silence and revealed that our government-and governments around the world-have been in secret contact with alien beings from another planet. Mitchell revealed the aliens to be "little people who look strange to us." Mitchell still refuses to put a name to cigarette-smoking man and other top government officials in on the conspiracy, but details are sure to follow. We can surely know that they are a cabal of neoconservatives. (READ MORE)

Paul Weyrich: A Possible Judicial Solution to Re-imposition of the So-called "Fairness Doctrine" - I have been feeling rather blue. Those who know me know that I never give up without a fight. My problem is with the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," which represents the opposite of fairness. Talk Radio, as we now know it, represents one of the very few weapons in the conservative media arsenal. 630 WMAL's brilliant commentator, Chris Plante, has declared that 2008 is the year that true journalism died in the United States of America. I agree with him. The national media overwhelmingly supports Senator Barack H. Obama (D-IL), the presumed Democratic nominee, for President. How can he lose with the national media all but carrying his bags as he goes abroad? With the exception of Fox News Channel the television media is all in the hands of the left. Fox itself is more Republican than conservative. The left also controls nearly all of the print media. (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: UN Fails Again - The UN is ending its peacekeeping mission along the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, claiming that Eritrea is hampering peacekeeping activities. “Council members and other diplomats said the U.N. had little choice but to withdraw its 1,700-strong force that has been monitoring a 15-mile-wide, 620-mile-long buffer zone between the two nations. The vote means the entire mission will be terminated on Thursday, Vietnam's U.N. ambassador, Le Luong Minh, told reporters after the vote. Belgian Ambassador Jan Grauls told the council that the mission, known as UNMEE, ‘had become impossible to implement’ because Eritreans progressively limited peacekeepers' movements -- including restricting night patrols, supply routes and diesel fuel -- and Ethiopians refused to accept an independent boundary commission's 2002 decision to award the key town of Badme to Eritrea.” (READ MORE)

Ace of Spades: The audacity of fraud - Wexler isn't really a FL resident - Apparently, Fox/O'Reilly had something on this, but it made it above the fold in the print version of the Palm Beach Post today, so the story must have enough traction that even the reliably Bolshevik PBP can't bury it. Wexler is of course a flaming moonbat, high profile Dem attack dog, and staunch supporter of the Messiah. “Acknowledging that accusations that he doesn't really live in Florida are raising ‘concerns’ among his constituents, Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said Tuesday that he will begin leasing an apartment in his congressional district rather than continue to claim residency at his in-laws' home near Delray Beach. Wexler made the announcement on the same day that his two challengers produced records showing Wexler received property tax breaks by declaring his house in Potomac, Md., a ‘primary residence’ from 1999 to 2002. He also signed a loan document with his wife in 2005 describing the house as ‘my/our principal residence.’...” (READ MORE)

Donald Douglas: Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi: From Guantanamo to Martyrdom - Debra Burlingame, at the Wall Street Journal, illustrates how the civil liberties activists of the American left have enabled terrorists and sacrificed lives to the nihilist mayhem of Islamist evil. The story begins with Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi, a one-time detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was released from American custody in 2005. Al-Ajmi returned to the Middle East to commit a suicide bombing in Mosul, Iraq, in March 2008 (as seen below, in the blast photo from the Combat Outpost Inman). It turns out that Al-Ajmi had written poetry while at Gitmo, with one poem mocking the American detention system, and glorifying holy martyrdom under Islam: (READ MORE)

Pamela Geller: Saudi funded Hate School Director Pleads Guilty to Covering Child Sexual Abuse - He plead guilty? According to the Koran, he's innocent. Al-Shabnan's arrest came after police alleged he covered up an incident in which a 5-year-old girl attending the school reported that she was being sexually abused by her father. According to court papers, Al-Shabnan, 52, of McLean, told police that he didn't believe the girl, and advised the girl's parents to put her into counseling. But state law requires school authorities to report alleged child abuse within 72 hours of learning of the allegation. This director of this school curriculum included 12th-grade text on Quranic interpretation that taught students that it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam, according to the investigation by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a panel created by Congress that monitors religious freedom rights around the world. (READ MORE)

Baldilocks: Why Is the Black Vote in the Democrats’ Pocket? - Why do 90% of eligible black Americans vote Democrat and call themselves liberal? A few weeks back, I lambasted prominent black conservatives for even thinking of voting for Barack Obama, a man who embodies only one part of the two-word description “black conservative.” Several black conservatives were quoted in the article to which I was responding. However, the most revealing quote came from former U.S. Representative J.C. Watts (R-OK): “J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who once was part of the GOP House leadership, said he’s thinking of voting for Obama. Watts said he’s still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting the black community. Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that while they might not agree with Democrats on issues, at least that party reaches out to them. ‘And Obama highlights that even more,’ Watts said, adding that he expects Obama to take on issues such as poverty and urban policy. ‘Republicans often seem indifferent to those things.’” (READ MORE)

Dafydd: Congressional Dems: Some Branches Are More Equal Than Others - For months now, Democratic congressional leaders, such as Rep. John Conyers (D-MI, 100%) and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT, 95%), have declared Karl Rove to be in contempt of Congress. Now, had they accused him of having contempt for Congress, they might have a case; but if that is the standard, they will have to refer 82.7% of adult Americans to the U.S. Attorney (USA) for prosecution. Apart from the laughability of Congress demanding that a USA appointed by President George W. Bush prosecute the chief advisor to George W. Bush, merely because Mr. Rove tweaked the Democrats' beards (Squeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Haight-Ashbury, shaves hers off), there is actually a serious question here. According to our constitution, our government comprises three branches: the Legislature (Congress), the Executive (President of the United States), and the Judiciary (Supreme Court and all inferior federal courts). (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: Data point 2 - The European trip is over and Obama is still falling in the Intrade prediction market. AFP writes, “No ‘bounce’ from Obama foreign trip: poll” CNN’s Jack Caffery expresses his bafflement. “It’s a mystery to many: why isn’t Barack Obama farther ahead in the polls? CNN’s poll of polls shows Obama up by 5 points, leading John McCain 45% to 40%. In most polls, he rarely breaks 50%. A new USA Today/Gallup Poll actually shows McCain leading Obama 49% to 45% percent among likely voters. It seems like Obama should be miles ahead of McCain when you consider the political climate.” And what an adulatory climate it was. The Guardian described his “rock star” welcome. “For the man who has brought rock star charisma to electoral politics, yesterday saw the campaign rally as pop festival, a summer gathering of peace, love and loathing of George Bush. Taking what he calls his ‘improbable journey’ to the heart of Europe, Barack Obama succeeded in closing down one of Berlin’s main thoroughfares last night, luring the city’s young in their tens of thousands to stand in the evening sunshine and hear him spin his dreams of hope - not for America this time, but for the whole world.” One story from Bild was filed from a gym where the Candidate was working out. (READ MORE)

Driven @ Blackfive: ...coming forth to carry me home... - Back when I was a PFC, my company was out in the field for a week for MOUT training. The first day was spent practicing reflexive fire. When the sun goes down at Ft. Bragg the humidity rises and the temperature seems to hold steady. Even with the sun's burning stare gone we did not find any relief. An hour before midnight we started our march. We followed a tank trail around the perimeter of the training areas. I could only see the cat eyes (glow in the dark patches we attach to the back of our helmets) of the man in front of me. The night was silent except for the sound of soldiers on the march. There wasn't even a breath of wind as we trudged through the darkness. Loaded down with our equipment and already tired from the day's training we walked in muted silence. At about 2 A.M. the wind picked up and a mummer passed down the line. Everyone knew what was coming. This wind brought no relief, it brought rain. (READ MORE)

Jeffrey Imm: ISNA and MPAC Seek to Silence Steven Emerson at Congressional Hearing - As mentioned in Andrew Cochran's July 28 posting, the Investigative Project on Terrorism's (IPT) counterterrorism leader Steven Emerson will be testifying on Thursday July 31 at a Congressional hearing on "Foreign Aid and the Fight Against Terrorism and Proliferation: Leveraging Foreign Aid to Achieve U.S. Policy Goals." This hearing will take place at the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade this Thursday at 10:30 AM ET in room 2200 of the Rayburn House Building. In the past day, however, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) have been working on a public relations campaign to silence Steven Emerson at this July 31 hearing. ISNA sent out an "Urgent Action Alert" to its membership calling for them to lobby Congressman Brad Sherman to either have "balanced, qualified testimony"... [or demand that] "the session be canceled." (READ MORE)

Flopping Aces: FINALLY! Wartime Opposition to War Is Explained Clearly - Ok, for those of you playing the home game, let’s recap: President Bush invaded Iraq and ended America’s 13 year war with Saddam with the authorization of Congress, and support of Democrats. Even before the war started, Gov Howard Dean ran for President on an anti-war theme (in addition to governor of Vermont, doctor, maple syrup king, and Presidential Candidate, he’s secretly been a middle eastern intelligence operative and the only man in the world who could accurately assess the threat from Saddam…or…so people were led to believe). As soon as Coalition forces crossed the border, Democrats en masse changed their tune, opposed the war like candidate Dean, and they themselves either tested the Presidential campaign waters, or just jumped right in. And so it was that the debate raged, grew, exaggerated, distorted, and became an animal-a monster-in and of itself. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Economic growth doubles - Not good enough for the New York Times, which keeps hoping for a recession. The New York Times headline was dour: “G.D.P. Grows at Tepid 1.9% Pace Despite Stimulus.” It goes on to say this dimmed hopes for a “quick recovery.” Recovery from what? There has been no recession. Perhaps if the Times did not rely on former Enron adviser Paul Krugman for economics advice, its editors would understand the basic definition of a recession. The AP was more positive:
Economic growth picked up in the second quarter as tax rebates energized consumers and exports boosted businesses. The rebound followed a treacherous patch where the economy jolted into reverse at the end of 2007. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the April-to-June period. That marked an improvement over the feeble 0.9 percent growth logged in the first quarter of this year and an outright contraction in the economy during the final quarter of last year. (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Hey, what do you know? Enforcement works! - A report from the Center for Immigration Studies concludes that illegal immigrants have left the US in large numbers, thanks to enforcement efforts at federal and state levels over the past nine months. The change coincides with the rejection of the comprehensive immigration bill considered by Congress and abandoned last July. The CIS contends that this created a disincentive that pushed almost a million illegals back across the border: “A report released yesterday by a Washington think tank that advocates stricter limits on immigration says the number of illegal immigrants in the country appears to have declined significantly over the past year, at least partly because of the chilling effect of stepped-up enforcement. The study by the Center for Immigration Studies based its findings on census data that indicate that the number of less-educated, working-age Hispanic immigrants, defined as 18-to-40-year-olds with a high school diploma or less, has dropped by more than 10 percent, or about 830,000 people, since last August.” (READ MORE)

Fjordman: The Organization of the Islamic Conference and Eurabia - Dr. Andrew Bostom, editor of the excellent book The Legacy of Jihad and the recent book about Islamic anti-Semitism, warns that the 57 Muslim nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference are trying to impose Islamic blasphemy law -- which includes the death penalty for those who "blaspheme" the Muslim prophet Muhammad -- as the universal standard across the world. These sentiments of the OIC were reiterated more brazenly by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. During a sermon in response to the Danish Muhammad cartoons which aired February 3, 2006, Qaradawi demanded action from the United Nations in accordance with sharia-based conceptions of blasphemy: "…the governments [of the world] must be pressured to demand that the U.N. adopt a clear resolution or law that categorically prohibits affronts to prophets—to the prophets of the Lord and his Messengers, to His holy books, and to the religious holy places." (READ MORE)

Quid Nimis: Barry the Redeemer - "[Barry the Redeemer] is going to demand that you shed your cynicism." Well, maybe we can just have a National Day of Shedding, and Obamassiah can join in.Just checked in with Melanie Phillips over at the spectator and she has a trenchant word or two about the Prayer in the Wall scandal. In case you aren't completely up to speed, it appears that when Barack Obama had his pray note stolen by some go-getter seminarian in Jerusalem, it wasn't exactly the scoop of the century, as MP, who is terribly cynical for one so young, points out: “What kind of unprincipled individual would steal such a note and reveal its contents to the world? they fretted. This seemed to me at the time to be remarkably naive. Was it really likely that Senator Obama would have inserted such a note in such a place, with the serried ranks of the world's media lenses pointing at him, without at the very least harbouring the teensiest suspicion that within seconds it would be removed and its contents find their way into a newspaper?” (READ MORE)

John Hinderaker: Racial Progress, Or Stagnation? - It's generally assumed that Barack Obama's nomination for President is a sign of great racial progress in the U.S. Perhaps so. But several stories in the news this week suggest that for many, racial politics are stuck in the same dead end of victimology that has held back African-Americans for decades. Last night, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow. The resolution passed on a voice vote, relieving members of the need to go on record for or against it. But I hope none of our Minnesota Congressmen voted for the resolution. Minnesota became a state in 1858, just in time to send its best men to help preserve the Union and stamp out slavery. We never had Jim Crow legislation here. If anyone should apologize, it's the Democratic Party, which supported slavery and disunion to the bitter end and did its best to preserve segregation in the South long after the Civil War. (READ MORE)

Scott Johnson: Midnight conservative - Early in his career, Jon Voight must have been stationed somewhere on the far left of the Hollywood crowd. When he came up to Dartmouth in the spring of 1970 for a showing of "The Revolutionary," he clearly identified with the film's hero. In the question-and-answer session following the showing of the film, Voight explained in all seriousness that we should know "the revolution" was going to begin in Washington on November 15. Voight's radicalism was obviously no impediment to his livelihood. Indeed, it may well have facilitated a career of great prominence and distinction, including an Academy Award for his performance in "Coming Home." Voight's career withstood his foolish radicalism, but his turn to patriotism and the middle of the road has raised a red flag, so to speak, in Hollywood. In his Washington Times column condemning Barack Obama, Voight speaks from his own experience: (READ MORE)

McQ: Obama, Unions and the secret ballot - If you’re ready to revisit the era of union strong-arm tactics and closed shops (which have seen businesses flee for ’right to work’ states), a vote for Obama is recommended. “‘We’re ready to play offense for organized labor. It’s time we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word “union.” A president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize our workers,’ Mr. Obama told the AFL-CIO in Philadelphia on April 2. ‘I will make it the law of the land when I’m president of the United States,’ Mr. Obama told the labor federation.” Of course, this promise explains why the SIEU is dropping $150 million in the effort to get him elected and why the AFL-CIO has "a ramped-up campaign" to help Obama win. In fact the AFL-CIO is committed to a 600,000 mailing to uncommitted voters on Obama’s, and thereby the union’s, behalf. (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Land, Ho? Try Landstuhl, No! - Well, it's taken about a week or so for enough details to emerge about Senator Obama's canceled visit to the hospital for American troops in Landstuhl, Germany, and it's a smidgen more complicated than originally presented -- and, as is eminently predictable, falls pretty well between the two sides who first started tussling about it. As a bit of backdrop, it's become customary for government officials to visit troops who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush has made numerous trips to Walter Reed, and has met with families of those killed in action. He's also hosted quite a few wounded vets at the White House. It's also become customary (backed up by military regulations) for these visits to be kept largely free of publicity and politics. The only time I can think of Bush's actions in this area getting much attention was when it came out that Cindy "Momma Moonbat" Sheehan, who was demanding a meeting with President Bush, had actually had one... (READ MORE)

The Midnight Sun: CHILD TORTURE AND MURDER ELEVATED AS ‘ART’ - From the British government covering the butt of pedophiles in Britain to the push in the Netherlands for a legal pedophile party, things aren’t looking too safe in the world for children any more. But who’d have thought that artists would now be glorifying the torture and murder of a real toddler? Back in April, we posted on the widespread pedophilia in high places in Britain and a coverup by Tony Blair of the police investigation of many of his staff. I predicted at that time that pedophilia would be legalized, and referred to other posts we’d done previously on the rising drive in Europe for the legal acceptance of pedophilia here, here, here and here. Incredibly, in a matter of months, in Sydney there erupted the scandal of the taking soft-porn shots of a naked 13-year-old girl, and of sick, perverted art critic Robert Nelson going into ecstasies about the ”diabolically sexual” image of his toddler daughter “pleasure sucking” on a dummy/pacifier. (READ MORE)

Kings of War: Putting Munich and Hitler behind us - Jeffrey Record is a scholar whose work on insurgencies and the use of history I very much respect. I recommend ‘Beating Goliath’ to the swelling number of my own students who want to understand how great powers lose lesser wars. But I can’t agree with his latest piece in Parameters. He argues that we should retire the potent historical analogy of Munich, Chamberlain and Hitler, along with the overarching fable about appeasement, which teaches that it is futile to accommodate aggressors, and that only a confrontational strategy is a winning strategy. Record notes that hawkish folk have overused this analogy, pressing it into service with disastrous results in Iraq (not to mention Suez). Further, there was little realistic alternative to a policy of appeasement in the 1930’s. Preemptive intervention with force, say, in 1936 was politically and militarily impossible. (READ MORE)

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