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)
Solzhenitsyn, Literary Giant Who Defied Soviets, Dies at 89 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose stubborn, lonely and combative literary struggles gained the force of prophecy as he revealed the heavy afflictions of Soviet Communism in some of the most powerful works of the 20th century, died late on Sunday at the age of 89 in Moscow. (READ MORE)
Bush tweaks China ahead of games - President Bush's actions and words in the past week promoting religious and political freedom inside China have angered the communist government, increasing tensions for his visit to China this week for the 29th Summer Olympics. (READ MORE)
Beijing walls hide neighborhood's blight - BEIJING The city's Olympic beautification drive has left little unspruced. Forty million potted flowers have been positioned strategically across the city, and reams of canvas depicting gleaming office windows cloak the incomplete facades of buildings under construction near a main shopping district. (READ MORE)
GOP: Lift drilling ban or risk shutdown - The showdown on Capitol Hill over expanding offshore drilling could lead to a threatened government shutdown when Congress returns from its five-week summer break in early September. (READ MORE)
Anthrax DNA linked to suspect - DNA taken from the bodies of people killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks helped lead investigators to Bruce E. Ivins, who oversaw the highly specific type of toxin in an Army lab, a government scientist said Sunday. (READ MORE)
'Sam's Club' voters called key to modern GOP - The man who's helping host the Republican nominating convention and is seen as a shortlist candidate for the vice-presidential nomination has a message for his party: Care about the Sam's Club voter. (READ MORE)
Energy-freedom panel stands empty - Neither President Bush nor Congress has acted to appoint members to a commission intended to boost U.S. energy independence in the three years since Congress enacted a law establishing the panel. (READ MORE)
Obama Leads, Pessimism Reigns Among Key Group - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama holds a 2 to 1 edge over Republican Sen. John McCain among the nation's low-wage workers, but many are unconvinced that either presidential candidate would be better than the other at fixing the ailing economy or improving the health-care system, according to a new... (READ MORE)
What Is a 'Windfall' Profit? - The "windfall profits" tax is back, with Barack Obama stumping again to apply it to a handful of big oil companies. Which raises a few questions: What is a "windfall" profit anyway? How does it differ from your everyday, run of the mill profit? Is it some absolute number, a matter of return on equity or sales -- or does it merely depend on who earns it? (READ MORE)
Obama's Drill Bit - Even as he proposes to arbitrarily soak the profits from oil exploration (see here), Barack Obama is finally beginning to bend on offshore drilling. Late last week he said he could perhaps support more U.S. energy exploration, so long as it was part of a larger "bipartisan" deal that presumably includes more rules for conservation, subsidies for noncarbon fuels, and other favorites of his green backers. (READ MORE)
Anthrax and the FBI - We often disagree with Tom Daschle, but the former Senate Majority Leader had it right yesterday when he said that last week's suicide of a U.S. microbiologist shouldn't end the probe into the 2001 anthrax attacks. Given how the FBI has mishandled this case, the Bush Administration has an obligation to make its evidence and the history of its investigation public. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Mary Anastasia O'Grady: A Dissident's Return to Cuba - On a muggy Friday evening in New York City last month, some 70 people gathered in a midtown office building to hear former Cuban political prisoner Hector Palacios talk Cuban politics. Dressed in a neatly pressed white guayabera shirt and khaki trousers, Mr. Palacios could pass for your average Cuban exile. But he has set himself apart from the rest of his refugee community by declaring his intention to return to his homeland next month. To anyone familiar with his story of torture at the hands of revolutionary enforcers in 2003-2006, this sounds like certifiable insanity. But as I listened to him and later to his wife Gisela Delgado, who was with him that night, I learned that the couple's decision, while not without risk, is also not without reason. (READ MORE)
L. Gordon Crovitz: Free the Web -- From the FCC! - There are a few holy articles among the Web faithful: The Internet is the most liberating force in generations, freeing people to use and share information however they like; the digital world has grown through innovation and risk-taking by entrepreneurs and companies; and government's role is to get out of the way and stay out. We have happily sung from this hymnal for years, but the gospel is breaking down on the issue of government involvement. Many Internet activists now want the federal government to regulate the Web. They do so in the hope of maintaining the open Web. But they should be careful what they wish for, lest they instead get micromanagement, tariffs and a Web clogged by politics. They applaud the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's announcement on Friday that it will replace market solutions with regulatory review. (READ MORE)
Juan Williams: The Race Issue Isn't Going Away - With polls showing the presidential contest between John McCain and Barack Obama getting closer, a question is now looming larger and larger. Is skin color going to be the deciding factor? Just last week, Sen. Obama warned voters that Sen. McCain's campaign will exploit the race issue by telling voters that "he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills." A few weeks earlier, he said they will attack his lack of experience but also added, "And did I mention he's black?" The McCain campaign did not counter the first punch, but after last week's jab -- fearing that Mr. Obama was getting away with calling his candidate a racist -- campaign manager Rick Davis responded to the dollar-bill attack by saying, "Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong." (READ MORE)
Micahel J. Boskin: Obamanomics Clarified - In my July 29 op-ed ("Obamanomics Is a Recipe for Recession"), I was among the many who took Barack Obama's statements that he would "end the Bush tax cuts for the top incomes" too literally. I interpreted this to mean a return to the pre-Bush tax rates of 39.6% on ordinary income and 20% on capital gains. The Obama campaign has now clarified that he proposes to do this for labor earnings, but not for capital gains and dividends. I am told that Mr. Obama declared last year that he would raise these rates to "no more than the Reagan rate," by which he apparently means to 28%, from the current 15%. Mr. Obama would thus raise the tax rate on capital gains by about three times as much as President Bush cut it, but he'd preserve at least some of the Bush reduction in the double-taxation of dividends. (READ MORE)
Joseph Sternberg: Olympics, Inc. - The International Olympic Committee has emerged with a big black eye from the recent controversy over censorship of journalists' Internet access at the Beijing Games. Reporters last week were unable to access "sensitive" sites, like Amnesty International's home page -- a restriction long familiar to Chinese Web users. The Chinese government's move runs counter to its pre-Olympic commitments to allow media freedom. But instead of calling Beijing to account, the IOC appears unfazed by this blatant promise-breaking. During a press conference Saturday, IOC President Jacques Rogge refused to apologize for the censorship. It's all in stark contrast to the noble ideals the Olympics are supposed to represent. Fortunately, there's a better solution than merely bemoaning the IOC's lack of willpower: Treat the committee as the business it is, tax it, and let it get on with the very big business of running a major global sporting event. (READ MORE)
John Boehner: Unleashing America's Ingenuity - The notion that Washington can spend its way out of any problem does not pass what I call "the straight-face test." Rather than parceling taxpayer dollars out to fund a laundry list of government programs that will only paper over the problems facing our nation and the world, let the American people keep the $10 billion. They can use it far more wisely than Congress. Instead, let's unleash America's ingenuity to address the world's challenges and improve the quality of life for every American, as we have throughout our history. And to do that, let's begin by unlocking America's vast energy resources -- from our natural resources like coal, oil and gas to emerging technologies like alternative and renewable fuels. The fact is, the best, easiest way to boost American investment in alternative fuels and lower our nation's dependence on foreign oil won't cost taxpayers a cent. (READ MORE)
Paul Greenberg: Come One, Come All to the Genocide Olympics - In the glow of the Olympics, the regime sponsoring them can hope that some of its more sordid policies will be overlooked. See the triumph A. Hitler scored with the Nazi Olympics of 1936, featuring the New Germany. Willkommen! Pay no attention to those frightened little people being herded away. The 400-meter relay is today and you don't want to miss it. So move along. Schnell!) This year it's the New China that's putting on the Olympics. (Huan Ying! Welcome to the new capitalized, commercialized, cosmeticized and no longer so Communist China. You'll want to see the Synchronized Swimming, the Artistic Gymnastics. Yes, that's Tiananmen Square, but nothing important has happened there since the time of the emperors. Pay no mind to the protesters cordoned off in the corner. We'll deal with them later.) Like other totalitarian Olympics - Berlin, 1936; Moscow, 1980 - all will be in order in Beijing, 2008. And had better be. (READ MORE)
Frank Turek: Jesus and the Case for War - I like to strike up conversations with people I meet while traveling. Last Tuesday, on the way back to San Francisco airport, I asked the driver where he was from. “Jordan,” he replied. In an effort to make a connection, I mentioned that I haven’t gotten to Jordan, but I went to Iran in 2006 and served in Saudi Arabia with the Navy twenty years ago. “What do you do?” he asked. “I’m a writer and a speaker. I co-authored a book defending the truth of Christianity called I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.” “I’m a Christian too,” he said. Then, just as we were pulling into the terminal, he asked, “What do you think about the Iraq war?” With less than 90 seconds left in the ride, I quickly said, “I think it was the least bad choice we had. Saddam used WMD, invaded Kuwait, and then violated 17 straight UN resolutions and the cease fire. What other choice did we have in a post 9-11 world?” (READ MORE)
George Will: If Berlin Can't Close the Deal, What Will? - WASHINGTON -- As the presidential candidates enter the three-month sprint to November, Barack Obama must be wondering: If that did not do it, what will? The antecedent of the pronoun "that" is his Berlin speech. The antecedent of the pronoun "it" is assuage anxieties about his understanding of the need to supplement soft power (diplomacy) with hard power (military force). He spoke in Berlin at the bullet-scarred base -- it was in the crossfire 63 years ago as Russian troops neared Hitler's bunker about a mile away -- of an 1873 monument to German militarism. To be precise, the monument celebrates the Franco-Prussian War and lesser triumphs of the militarism that would help ruin the next century. Anyway, at that monument Obama exhorted Germans -- does the candidate of "change" appreciate how much beneficent change made this exhortation necessary? -- to be more willing to wage war, in Afghanistan. He was right to do so. (READ MORE)
Steve Chapman: Rx For Economic Pain: Deal With Reality - Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm got in trouble when he said Americans are mired not in an economic contraction, but a "mental recession." He soon had to step down as co-chairman of John McCain's campaign for committing the ultimate political sin: telling the truth about a misperception that happens to be very popular. In politics, after all, it doesn't matter who's right -- it only matters who has the most votes. Americans feel as though the economy is in a recession and want the government to do something about it. In reality, it is expanding. In the second quarter, it grew at a respectable inflation-adjusted rate of 1.9 percent, double the pace of the first quarter. Unemployment was up, but it's still a pretty mild 5.7 percent. The recession cures being bandied about by the presidential candidates and others miss the real source of our current pain and what can be done about it -- which is not much. (READ MORE)
Salena Zito: McCain is Forgetting the First Rule of Fight Club - An old political adage says, “He who sets the debate wins the election.” If the presidential election was held tomorrow, it would be hello President Barack Obama because, so far, John McCain is handing him a victory. McCain is better than the campaign he has run so far. Most people admit that McCain is an inspirational figure – even Obama has admitted that – so why isn’t McCain telling voters where he wants to lead them? Instead, his campaign is all about his opponent. “He himself is reinforcing that this campaign is all about Obama,” says Democratic strategist Mark Siegel. “His ads and his message are all negatives. The problem with that is, it is driving his own negatives up as well.” GOP strategist David Carney disagrees; he says the McCain campaign has no choice but to do what it can to bring down Obama by constantly introducing him to voters through his flaws. “There is no positive that will help McCain,” he insists. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Obama Flips Again - Sen. Barack Obama, whose previous position on the Democratic primary debacle in Florida and Michigan was to push that the DNC rules be followed - not seating those delegations, has reversed his position. Actually, he's flipped. And it's for the most ordinary of reasons - he needs their votes and wants to make nice with the Florida and Michigan delegations at a time when polling indicates that whatever advantages he's had over Sen. John McCain have evaporated. The DNC convention in Denver is all but guaranteed of being a circus because of the Florida and Michigan mess, and if the Democrats reverse their decision on Florida and Michigan, it will be yet another sign that the Democrats care nothing for the rules, not even the ones that govern their own party's conduct. (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: Alqaeda Leaving Iraq for Afghanistan? - Greetings, As some of you have already heard, Alqaeda has reportably left their fight in Iraq for the more rugged mountains of Afghanistan. I am here today to tell you that this is a grave trap and a bold new tactic that the terrorists are trying on our troops. Do not believe this for any reason. The aim is to allow U.S. and coalition forces to “simmer down” for a while. If they focus on Afghanistan, the hope is that we here in Iraq will lower our guard and ultimately leave ourselves open for a direct attack. I want everyone to know this scheme and for all of our forces in both Iraqi and Afghani fronts, “Stay alert”. This could be a very serious outcome if we let ourselves get complacent. I don’t believe the stories for one second about Alqaeda leaving Iraq. The truth is, they are just waiting for the right moment to attack with swift and deadly accuracy. (READ MORE)
A Newt One: Since When Is Exposing Truth An Attack? - David Zublick has a piece posted at Heading Right and America Talks. I find it oddly curious that whenever Czarbama is shown to be a liar, crook and charlatan, his handlers and fellow sloths consider it an attack. To me, an attack would be saying something about Czarbama that was not true yet passing it off as Truth. You know, like what Czarbama does to McCain or anyone else that gets in his way. The misleading headlines around the internet that Gore made, Nancy's words not mine, are as follows: Poll: McCain's Attack Strategy Paying Dividends...you can call them attack ads if you so desire but what they actually are is explaining to the American People and the world what an empty suit Czarbama is. David Zublic ends his piece thusly: “[...] As some have stated, this election is not McCain versus Obama. It’s Obama versus himself. And John McCain needs to point out the dangers of electing someone who fancies himself a god.” Czarbama summed up in three sentences is quite a feat. The accuracy of those three sentences are uncanny in their context. I guess we should consider them "attacks"? Not hardly. Truth stings at times. (READ MORE)
Donald Douglas: Bush War Crimes and the Fog of History - There's an intriguing set of articles and responses online today regarding the Bush administration and civil liberties in the war on terror. For me, one of the things that pops out is that the outrage over America's response to terror, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and especially the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, is driven mostly by anger at President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Routinely, I see suggestions that the impairments of civil liberties under Bush are the worst in American history. Much of this, even with the often super-sophisticated scholarly presentations, ends up being Bush derangement leavened with a foggy grasp of U.S. history. We see this in Jonathan Mahler's, "The Fog of War-Crimes Trials," at the New York Times. Mahler compares the Bush administration's military tribunals to the Nazi's Nuremburg war crimes trials. (READ MORE)
Pamela Geller: GO REPUBLICANS! House Republicans to Resume Floor Protest on American Energy Monday - WRITE YOUR SENATORS! YOUR CONGRESSMAN! This is a defining moment, a moment to show the American people what the Democrats really are and who they represent - their special interests. This is the defining election issue that is easy for the American people to understand - the media has blacked out Obama's lack of character, content, background, ties, lies, Rezko blah blah blah BUT Americans know they are being given the shaft on oil. They go to the pumps everyday. This is not just about the White House - we have so many seats up for grabs in the House and Senate this November - it's frightening. Imagine the socialists, commies, and Islamists in control of all three. The nomination of Obama is the triumph of the dumbing down of the American mind. The end of America (as we know it). (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: The Lone Stranger - The suicide of Bruce E. Ivins, a biodefense researcher at Fort Detrick who was suspected of masterminding the 2001 anthrax attacks will raise more questions than it answers. Despite the dark hints that the Bush Administration used the anthrax attacks to “frame” Saddam Hussein and inflame public opinion for the War on Terror, from the very beginning the FBI was hunting for a “lone American”. An April 29, 2002 Weekly Standard article by David Tell laid out the FBI profile of the man they were looking for. It had been their working profile for the previous six months. In other words, the profile had been their guide from the time the anthrax attacks had occured. “Over the past six months, have federal authorities altered their working theory of last fall’s anthrax murders? No, not much. On November 9 last year, even before the anthrax outbreak’s fifth and final fatality had been recorded, the FBI called a press conference to unveil its ‘linguistic and behavioral assessment’ of ‘the person’ purportedly responsible. It was ‘highly probable, bordering on certainty,’ the Bureau announced, that a single ‘adult male’ had prepared and mailed all the contaminated letters at issue.” (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Obama’s Unspoken Comment on Drilling - Barack Obama, faced with flat polls and the inability to put away John McCain, has switched positions on drilling for American oil. Obama had been opposed to drilling and had maintained that it would not provide relief in the short term but now says that he would like to see us drill. This is nothing more than pandering to the majority who want us to drill here and drill now. But what were Obama’s unspoken words? “‘If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done.’ - My Way News” What Obama has indicated, whether he realizes it or not, is that the position of the Democrats and specifically Nancy Pelosi, is obstructive. If he is saying that his change of heart is because he does not want to be so rigid that something can’t get done then he is also saying that those in Congress who hold his previous objections to drilling are being so rigid that we cannot get something done. (READ MORE)
Jeffrey Imm: Pakistan and Delusions about Negotiating on Jihad - Would America find it a shocking news revelation if a white supremacist organization had members supporting Ku Klux Klan terrorism? Would the FBI go to white supremacist political groups to fight the Ku Klux Klan, or seek white supremacist leaders to convince KKK members to change their thinking? But when it comes to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Taliban, and Jihadist organizations around the world, this type of nonsensical thinking has become a common argument among many international relations circles, including American government leadership, because nearly 8 years after 9/11, such leadership continues to refuse to clearly define the enemy threat and ideology. The American media and government seem to think it is major news that members of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan's intelligence organization (ISI) have reportedly been supporting the Taliban and Jihadist activities. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Oil profiteers - CNN: For every $1 that Exxon earned, the government raked in $3. CNN reported that Exxon’s second-quarter profits were $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion — or less than 10% in profits. CNN also reported: “In addition to making hefty profits, Exxon also had a hefty tax bill. Worldwide, the company paid $10.5 billion in income taxes in the second quarter, $9.5 billion in sales taxes, and over $12 billion in what it called ‘other taxes’.” That’s $32 billion in taxes. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s reaction? Obama: “No U.S. corporation ever made that much in a quarter. But while Big Oil is making record profits, you are paying record prices at the pump and our economy is leaving working people behind.” (READ MORE)
CJ: Tyson Foods Replaces American Holiday with Muslim Holiday - Before I begin my rant, let me state for the record that I have not problem with the Islam…to an extent. I won't even lie and say one of those clichés like "I have friends that are Muslim" because I don't. But, it's not for a lack of trying. Having read the Koran personally and continue to own a reference copy, I know what its tenets proclaim about war and peace. While a little more on the edgy side, it is no more violent than our Christian scriptures can be if misinterpreted. With that said… I have no problem with companies giving Muslim employees time off to celebrate their religious holidays. After all, the biggest holiday (and day off) in this country is Christmas - a Christian Holiday (though it's been bastardized into obscurity by political correctness and non-Christians). But, I DO have a problem when Muslim holidays REPLACE American holidays that have been around since 1894: “Food workers at the Shelbyville, Tenn., plant for Tyson Foods, which boasts on its corporate website that it strives ‘to honor God,’ will have time off for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday closing the month of Ramadan, instead of the American tradition Labor Day.” (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Sectarianism fades in Iraq - The violence has not completely disappeared, but the vicious sectarianism that both fed and resulted from it has faded from life in Iraq, according to this McClatchy report. A growing sense of nationalism has returned to Iraq, and references to sectarianism get treated like bad manners now. People feel free to travel and visit old friends and relatives for the first time in years — and they hope it lasts (via Instapundit): “With violence subsiding throughout Baghdad, residents said that sectarianism is becoming less pervasive. They’re starting to think of themselves as Iraqis, not as hostages to hyphenated, sectarian identities. Residents said they visit relatives in neighborhoods of opposite sects. Taxi drivers said they can travel around blast walls to neighborhoods outside their own sect. Sunnis can get medical care at Shiite-run hospitals.” (READ MORE)
Congressman John Campbell: Lights off & Locked Out - Congress has passed no meaningful energy legislation to move us towards lower gas prices and more American energy and now has recessed for a 5 week break. Republicans, including yours truly, wanted to speak more about that on the floor of the House this afternoon. The Pelosi majority took the unusual step of calling for immediate adjournment to prevent these speeches from going forward and turned off the cameras and microphones on the House floor. It’s one thing to not allow a vote on more energy production. It’s another to not even allow people to speak about it. I and several dozen others are speaking on the House floor right now to a gallery full of cheering people to demand that Speaker Pelosi allow a vote on more American energy production. No TVs. No microphones. You can turn off the lights, but you cannot silence the will of the American people. (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: It’s on: House GOP’s oil protest to resume tomorrow; Update: Obama’s flip-flop inspired us, say sources - Said the boss this morning, “Seems to me House Republicans should be holding a public event every day in Washington from now until the end of the Democrats’ vacation to call attention to Nancy’s anti-drilling intransigence and her refusal to hold votes on the issue.” From her lips to the leadership’s ear. Just across from Boehner’s office: “Washington, Aug 3 - House Republicans will be back on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives again Monday to continue the unprecedented protest that began last Friday, when dozens of Republicans joined hundreds of American citizens on the House floor to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) decision to send Congress home for the rest of the summer without a vote on legislation to lower gas prices and move America toward energy independence.” (READ MORE)
Knee Deep in the Hooah! @ VAJoe: Wake Me Up When September Ends - September is fast approaching, and it’s always a sad month for me. I guess the reasons are obvious, but there is more underneath the surface. This year is less stressful than last. Last September I was bracing myself for the sadness of remember 9/11/2001, but I was also bracing myself for an upswing in insurgency violence in Iraq — Diyala to be specific. It was good I was braced for something because on one Friday I got a call telling me my son would be awarded a Purple Heart for a small injury he sustained in battle, and a week to the day I got a call that my husband was in surgery at Ft. Benning. It was quite a month, to say the least. If I get a little passionate at times about the War on Terror it is because I can still remember the feeling of sitting helplessly on my hotel bed watching the news that day. I remember sitting and knowing that we were only yards from the Capitol Building as they announced that Fight 93 had been hijacked. (READ MORE)
John Hinderaker: The Press Tells Us What to Think, But Who's Buying It? - Much of the political news over the past few days has centered on John McCain's ads, "Celeb" and "The One," that mock Barack Obama by portraying him as an empty suit, and on Obama's claim that Republicans are trying to scare voters because he “doesn’t look like all those other Presidents on those dollar bills.’’ The New York Times editorial board predictably weighed in on Obama's behalf, calling the Celeb ad a "racially tinged attack." How can this be, since the ad never mentions race, and has nothing to do with race? Because, the Times instructs us, it begins with image of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. The Times recalls an ad that "Republican operatives" ran against Harold Ford when he ran for the Senate in 2006: “That assault, too, began with videos juxtaposing Mr. Ford with young, white women.” The Ford ad is here; you can judge for yourself whether it was racist. (I think that in this context, "racist" can fairly be translated as "effective.") But does the Times seriously believe that any ad that contains images of both a white woman and a black candidate is racist? (READ MORE)
Paul Mirengoff: Can Obama adjust? - In the post immediately below this one, John shows that Barack Obama's recent attempt to play the race card against John McCain hasn't succeeded. It seems that few thought the McCain ad which apparently caused Obama to invoke his race was racist, while a majority thought that it was racist for Obama to say that he doesn't look like the presidents on the dollar bills. I consider this to be part of a broader problem that plagues Obama's campaign: the approach that won him the nomination is precisely the wrong approach for winning the general election. Obama pulled his remarkable upset over Hillary Clinton by running a messianic campaign and by invoking race-based sympathy when the Clintons tried to bring him down to earth. This approach was perfectly tailored to defeating Hillary. To upset the strong presumptive nominee, Obama had to (1) come off as something extra special and (2) win the black vote by huge margins. (READ MORE)
Pros and Cons: To Be An American - I was talking with John H. over lunch yesterday, and we were commiserating that the United States of America is not exactly being governed the way the founding fathers intended. Witness, e.g. the fact that our senators are directly elected, pursuant to the Seventeenth Amendment, rather than chosen by the legislatures of the individual states as mandated by Section 3, Article I of the Constitution. Is this really significant? Sure — it means that senators are frequently more interested in getting re-elected, rather than focusing on representing the interests of their state. Thanks to the Sixteenth Amendment, se have a direct income tax, which runs directly contrary to Section 9, Article I, which forbids any such tax. Thanks to numerous Senate rules, we now have a 2/3 majority (fillibuster-proof) requirement for any legislation. (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl: A 3-D Congress: Dems On Defense And In Denial - With upwards of 70% of Americans convinced increased domestic oil production may at least help bring down gasoline prices, the Congress became a calamity today as ham-fisted Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, squashed debate to cut and run on five-week paid vacations at home and even abroad in some cases - with all travel and gasoline expenses footed by American taxpayers, many of whom might just be staying home themselves this summer as a result of rising fuel prices. With a party beholden to extreme environmentalist, who have stifled nuclear generation and increases in domestic oil production and refining for decades, the Democrats are in denial if they think the Republicans will not pull out all the stops to place the current gasoline situation squarely in their laps where it belongs. (READ MORE)
Cassandra: Rape in the Military - For the last few decades, activists of all stripes have pressed for the full integration of gays and women into the armed forces. They claim both men and women can sleep, defecate, and shower together in close quarters, on board ship, on submarines, and in the field, inexplicably waving away the age-old problem of attraction between the sexes, without posing any detriment to good order and discipline. Yet here we have Rep. Jane Harmon claiming that fully 40% of female servicewomen are being RAPED or sexually harassed by their male coworkers? Apparently Ms. Harmon has an odd notion of good order and discipline. Activists claim women are fully the equals of men in every sense of the word. They claim women can hold their own in combat. They claim women can fight just as well as men. They claim women are just as mentally tough as men; they claim women can withstand the rigors of war as well as men do, that we will not buckle under the stresses and strains of combat; (READ MORE)
Meryl Yourish: The myth of land for peace - Ehud Olmert insists that the Syrians want peace. Some pundits are claiming that Syria needs only to be torn from its alliance with Iran, given back the Golan Heights, and allowed to continue its domination of Lebanon, and there will be peace between Syria and Israel. But if that’s all it takes, land for peace, well, someone isn’t getting the memo. Or how do you explain these words by the dictator of Syria? “‘The Zionist regime is not strong and the states can obtain their rights through resistance and determination,’ he added. During the meeting Assad stressed that the ongoing indirect talks between Israel and Syria under Turkish mediation would not affect Damascus’ ties to Iran. ‘Syria is working to embolden its relations with Tehran and is determined to maintain its cooperation and coordination with Iran.’” “Resistance,” of course, is the code-word among Arab regimes for war. And Ehud Olmert’s lack of leadership is what has caused Israel’s enemies to say things like this: (READ MORE)
Cassy Fiano: House Republicans revolt! - All last week, I've been calling around my various contacts, asking them what's been going on in the world. I hate being in the dark, so to speak, and hate to think that I'm missing a huge news story. Well, I missed something all right. I only missed the best thing to happen to the House of Representatives since the Democrats took over! House Republicans revolted on Friday to protest when the Democrats adjourning for a five-week vacation without doing anything about the energy crisis. Pioneer Pelosi responded by having the lights, mics, and CSPAN cameras turned off. But Republicans wouldn't be deterred. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House, turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.” (READ MORE)
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