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)
Bundler Collects From Unlikely Donors - The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lou... (READ MORE)
FBI to Show How Genetics Led to Anthrax Researcher - The FBI today will begin to unveil how it exploited the rapidly advancing science of genetics to link a single bioweapons researcher to samples taken from the victims of the 2001 anthrax attacks and to powder from the letters that killed them. (READ MORE)
White House Denies Author's Accusations of Document Forgery - The Bush administration joined former top CIA officials in denouncing a new book's assertion that White House officials ordered the forgery of Iraqi documents to suggest a link between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the lead hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (READ MORE)
Iran Seeks Details on Nuclear Offer - UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 5 -- The Iranian government said Tuesday that it is ready to respond to an incentives package that the United States and five other world powers have offered in exchange for suspension of its uranium-enrichment program. (READ MORE)
Tales of Addiction, Anxiety, Ranting - Late last fall, Bruce E. Ivins was drinking a liter of vodka some nights, taking large doses of sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs, and typing out rambling e-mails into the early morning hours, according to a fellow scientist who helped him through this period. (READ MORE)
Outspoken '06 Medalist Cheek Has Visa Revoked - BEIJING, Aug. 6 -- The Chinese government on Tuesday revoked the visa of 2006 Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek, effectively barring the speedskating champion and social activist from attending the 2008 Beijing Games. (READ MORE)
Bush: China must ensure freedoms - BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- The same day of his arrival in Beijing for the Olympics, President Bush plans to pointedly express "deep concerns" about the state of human rights in China and urge the communist nation to allow political freedoms for its citizens. (READ MORE)
'Retrievers' keep petitioners off Beijing streets - BEIJING The street outside the State Bureau of Letters and Visits in the south of Beijing is packed with about 200 unconvincing actors. Most are middle-aged men, and some are armed with sightseeing props: (READ MORE)
Growing doubts weaken Obama, polls show - Growing doubts among white working-class and independent voters blunted the momentum of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential run in recent days, leaving him in a tight contest with Republican candidate Sen. John McCain, pollsters say. (READ MORE)
Anthrax victims to get some answers - Authorities investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks begin meeting with victims' families Wednesday to discuss the case, family members said, an indication that some lingering questions in the investigation may soon be answered. (READ MORE)
Oil price plunge ignites market - Oil prices fell below $120 a barrel for the first time in three months Tuesday, helping to spark a stock rally that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring 331 points. After a nearly 20 percent drop in oil prices from record highs in the last month, gasoline prices are down 20 cents from records near $4.10 a gallon nationwide. (READ MORE)
11 indicted in wireless theft from stores - Albert Gonzalez and his cohorts needed only a laptop computer to perpetrate one of the worst credit card scams in history, federal investigators say. The unsecured wireless computer systems of the nine retailers they passed on Route 1 in Miami... (READ MORE)
Families to meet with FBI today - As the FBI meets today with victims' families and survivors of the 2001 anthrax mailings, the Frederick Police Department is beginning an investigation into claims made by a therapist who testified Fort Detrick scientist Bruce Ivins tried to poison people as early as 2000. (READ MORE)
Friends portray Ivins as funny, caring - As survivors and relatives of victims express skepticism about Bruce Ivins' guilt in the 2001 anthrax attacks, more personal vignettes surface that portray the accused scientist as a warm, funny, outgoing guy. (READ MORE)
'I'm scared to death' of Ivins, Duley testifies - Jean Duley testified that she was "scared to death" of Bruce Ivins after he left her a string of harassing phone messages, according to an audio recording taken during a July 24 peace order hearing. (READ MORE)
'This is different:' Son of scientist who died in 1953 compares cases then and now - Eric Olson knows a little about government scientists. His father, Frank Olson, was an early researcher in the biological warfare program at Fort Detrick until he died in 1953. At the time, United States government officials said Olson's death was a suicide, and that Olson jumped or fell to his death from a high-rise hotel in New York City. (READ MORE)
Moqtada Packs It In - Good news out of Iraq is becoming almost a daily event: In just the past week, we learned that U.S. combat fatalities (five) dropped in July to a low for the war, that key leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq have fled to the Pakistani hinterland, that troop deployments will soon be cut to 12 months from 15, and that Washington and Baghdad are close to concluding a status-of-forces agreement. (READ MORE)
The Green Hornet - Al Gore said the other day that "the future of human civilization" depends on giving up fossil fuels within a decade -- and was acclaimed as a prophet by the political class. Obviously boring reality doesn't count for much these days. Even so, when Barack Obama wheels out an energy agenda nearly as grandiose as Mr. Gore's, shouldn't it receive at least some media scrutiny? (READ MORE)
A Cheney Snub? - If John McCain wants next month's GOP convention in the Twin Cities to be about Dick Cheney instead of his own candidacy, his campaign is on track. On Monday the American Spectator reported that the Vice President would not be appearing at the GOP convention. Asked about this, McCain spokespersons sidestepped the question, while a spokeswoman for Mr. Cheney noted that the veep's schedule for that week remains open. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Phyliss Chesler: The Balkan Mess Has Just Gotten Messier: Information Versus Disinformation - Who can understand Balkan history-that cursed region whose fiery nationalisms led to World War One? Not I. East Europeans remember how especially brutal Muslim Nazi- and Arab-empowered soldiers were during World War Two. Yes, there once were some pockets of European-style assimilation and sophistication among Caucasus-based Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the region. Has anyone read the incomparably charming and popular novel, Ali and Nino: A Love Story written by the very Jewish Lev Nuissimbaum whose pen name was Khurbain Said? The romance captured everyone's longing for operatic harmony between Christians and Muslims. (For the Jews, it was always more complicated). Tom Reiss has written a must-read biography of Nuissembaum titled The Orientalist: Solving The Mystery of A Strange and Dangerous Life. (READ MORE)
The Tygrrrr Express: Vets For Freedom–Back To Iraq - I had the honor and privilege recently of interviewing three men from the group Vets For Freedom. Jason Meszaros heads the Minnesota chapter. Nathan Martin runs the Ohio Chapter. Pete Hegseth heads up the entire organization at the national level. I had the pleasure of meeting Jason and Pete at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in San Francisco several months ago. I have emailed with Nathan and Jason, and visited their blogs. The link to this radio interview is below. “Eric: ‘Pete, what is going on in Iraq. Give us the facts. Arianna Huffington says we are losing.’ Pete: ‘The surge, and more importantly, the new counterinsurgency strategy in 2007, is the driver behind the progress. Iraqis are prepared to maintain security gains because Americans fought so dearly. It is important that we get the word out. Jason is a particularly effective advocate. We have to get the word out that we are succeeding, and why we are succeeding.’” (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: What America's Daughters Need To Know About Nancy Pelosi - The Democratic Speaker of the House and a co-author hired to try to add flavor to bland Beltway establishment oatmeal have penned a self-help book for "America's daughters" to help them "Know Your Power." It's a dreadfully pedestrian text ("As long as we recognize the power within us, we will continue to have choices, and we will continue to lead."), surpassed in its dreadfulness only by the timing of its publication. With congressional approval ratings at an all-time low and the Democratic Congress under fire for taking a five-week vacation instead of working on energy policy, perhaps this wasn't the best time to send Nancy Pelosi jetting from coast to coast to tell our daughters how to save the planet, manage our households and run our government. Sorry, Nan. There aren't enough carbon offsets to compensate for this tree-wasting dud and its accompanying gas-guzzling, hot air-emitting publicity tour. (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: The Gratingest Generation - If our era could have its own coat of arms, it would be a yak against a background of mush. This must be the golden age of endless and pointless talk. Every sports events seems to be preceded by all kinds of talk -- whether by athletes repeating cliches that we have heard a thousand times, announcers making pseudo-profound sociological observations, or fans rambling on incoherently. Then after the contest come the childish celebrations, the second-guessing and still more cliches. Even when the action is going on at grand slam tennis matches, there are interviews with celebrities who happen to be in the stands, while the play on the court is ignored by both, even though it is shown on the screen. Theatrical hype on the part of both the interviewer and the celebrity are common. (READ MORE)
Kathleen Parker: Musings From the Mountaintop - GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN, N.C. -- It's always good to take a break from the madding crowd, but especially now that American politics has surpassed itself in self-mockery. After four days avoiding television, blogs, YouTube and cell phones, it is possible to wonder how we get so exercised about the insignificant. Not that politics isn't important. The debate about what role government should play in our lives is no small thing. And while we can't all kick back at once and hope that our enemies work out their anger issues, a little perspective is salutary and productive in a fallow field kind of way. Some made fun of Barack Obama recently when he spoke of needing "think time." He was chatting with Britain's Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, who asked Obama whether he ever gets a vacation. (READ MORE)
John Stossel: The Sky Isn't Falling - In this column I often take a skeptical look at liberal scare-mongering about global warming and cancer threats from pesticides, Teflon frying pans, plastic bottles, cell phones, etc. The liberal scaremongers' solution is always: more government. But conservatives scare people, too. When I was growing up, most everyone agreed that it would be a terrible thing if young people were exposed to sex. It must be kept out of sight. When an obviously pregnant Lucille Ball appeared on "I Love Lucy," it was a controversial television breakthrough. Yet the word "pregnant" was never uttered. Simply saying the word was taboo. When I was 11, the innocent movie "Pillow Talk" was attacked because Rock Hudson and Doris Day argue about "bedroom problems". Reviews said, it "comes close to the forbidden border." (READ MORE)
Walter E. Williams: A Nation of Thieves - Edgar K. Browning, professor of economics at Texas A&M University, has a new book aptly titled "Stealing from Each Other." Its subtitle, "How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit," goes to the heart of what the book is about. The rise of equalitarian ideology has driven Americans to steal from one another. Browning explains that certain kinds of equality have been a cherished value in America. Equality under the law and, within reason, equality of opportunity is consistent with a free society. Equality of results is an anathema to a free society and within it lie the seeds of tyranny. Browning entertains a discussion about when inequalities are just or unjust. For example, college graduates earn income higher than high-school dropouts. Some people prefer to work many hours and earn more than others who prefer to work fewer. (READ MORE)
Ben Shapiro: The Democrats' Big Problem: The War In Iraq Wasn't About Oil - This 2008 presidential election cycle has been jam-packed with irony. John McCain has been forced to rely on the 527 groups he so despises; Barack Obama has been denounced by members of the black community but embraced by upper class whites; the Clintons have been rejected by the very media that put them in power. But perhaps the most ironic fact of the 2008 election cycle is this: John McCain will win the 2008 election because the war in Iraq was not a war for oil. Since the liberation of Iraq in March 2003, liberals have been screaming that the war to remove Saddam Hussein and his henchmen was a facade. They have been shouting for years on end that the real reason for U.S. presence in Iraq was to secure resources for the Exxon/Mobils of the world. They have been shrieking that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, oilmen both, hijacked American foreign policy to pad their pocketbooks. (READ MORE)
Brent Bozell III: Doubting Helen Thomas - At a screening of a forthcoming HBO documentary honoring liberal journalist Helen Thomas in Washington, Thomas was asked whether most White House reporters are liberal. "Hell, no!" she thundered. "I'm dying to find another liberal to open their mouths [sic]. Where are they?" Is this Grande Dame of Journalism serious? The answer, of course, is yes. Since Ms. Thoms is dying to find vocal liberals in the news media, the least we can do is point her in the right direction. Let's see ... ABC's Claire Shipman says the taxpayers, not the politicians, should sacrifice to close the budget deficit: "If every American were to pitch in $2,000, we could pay off this year's deficit. Or, if we handed over, each of us, 500 gallons of gasoline or, in terms we could all really understand, if every American gave up 666 lattes for a year, we could pay off this year's deficit." (READ MORE)
Amanda Carpenter: Boehner Calls Blue Dog Bluff - House Minority Leader Republican John Boehner (R.-Ohio) is calling on rank and file House Democrats to defy Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) and join the GOP to force a stand alone vote on offshore drilling. After a contentious weekend with the GOP over energy, Politico reported Monday that Pelosi had indicated to some Democrats that they should position themselves as pro-drilling if it would help them win upcoming election races. Boehner told those Democrats to “put it in writing.” “If you aren’t willing to put it in writing, you’re fooling no one,” Boehner said. “You’re siding with the Speaker of the Drill-Nothing Congress and radical special interests that favor higher gas prices at the expense of energy-strapped American families.” The GOP believes there are enough moderate Democrats and conservative Democrats, commonly called Blue Dogs... (READ MORE)
Jonah Goldberg: Forgetting the Evils of Communism - Alexander Solzhenitsyn is dead. Peter Rodman is dead. And memory is dying with them. Over the weekend, Solzhenitsyn, the 89-year-old literary titan, and Rodman, the American foreign policy intellectual, passed away. I knew Rodman and liked him very much. We were partners in a debate at Oxford University last year. He provided the gravitas. A former protege of Henry Kissinger and high-ranking official in two Republican administrations, Rodman was one of the wisest of the wise men of the conservative foreign policy establishment. Calm, elegant, dryly funny, brilliant, but most of all gentlemanly. He died too young, at 64, of leukemia. Solzhenitsyn was, of course, a landmark of the 20th century, one of the few authors capable of elevating literature to the stuff of world affairs. (READ MORE)
Austin Bay: "Rheostat Warfare": An Interview With Gen. David Petraeus - Victory in war is tough to define. Hollywood's version of victory in World War II provides a finality that history lacks. Gen. MacArthur meets the Japanese emissary on the battleship Missouri, and the curtain falls. Except trouble brews in Korea, China's civil war continues, the Soviet Union imprisons Eastern Europe and the triumph of World War II -- dancing in Times Square on V-E Day -- slouches toward the Cold War and its thermonuclear brink. A soldier and scholar like Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, knows history is never over, but judgments must be made. This week, I spoke with Petraeus in a half-hour interview that touched on numerous difficult subjects, including establishing the "Rule of Law" in Iraq and the Iraqi Army's "surge" in professional capabilities and numerical strength. (READ MORE)
Eric Cantor: Dems Skip Town: Empty Promises Revealed - “This leadership team will create the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.” -Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nov. 16, 2006 These kinds of promises are easy to make when the wind is at your back. That was then, in the wake of midterm elections, before $4-plus gasoline. It was before high energy costs helped drive our consumer-based economy into a tailspin. But most importantly, before the American people lifted their voices in outrage over the recklessness of an ironclad Democrat policy that willingly outsources our energy needs to the whims of foreign oil producers. Right now middle-class Americans are suffering from expensive-energy induced inflation. We all know the adverse consequences pain at the pumps has wrought. So what does “the most open” House majority of all time do when a fair and honest debate over drilling doesn’t exactly help them? (READ MORE)
Johnnie B. Byrd: No Time for an International Lightweight - “WASHINGTON—American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan’s powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials.” As the situation in Iraq stabilizes, the front line in the war on terror will be moving. Do your homework. Start the research. Learn the players. Get ready to shift your attention—to Afghanistan. If you do, you’ll probably know more about the region’s issues than “acting president” Barrack Hussein Obama. Both presidential candidates know that American troops will continue to be immersed in the region for years, if not decades, but have differing rationales for the commitment of troops. Since Obama and the Democrats have used Afghanistan as one excuse for their opposition to the Iraq War, they are wed to the political idea of a buildup in the region. (READ MORE)
Asra Muhammad: You Still Can't Write - Starting in 2002, Spokane, Wash., journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage. When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of "The Jewel of Medina" -- a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem. It's not going to happen: In May, Random House abruptly called off publication of the book. The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world. Random House feared the book would become a new "Satanic Verses," the Salman Rushdie novel of 1988 that led to death threats, riots and the murder of the book's Japanese translator, among other horrors. (READ MORE)
Martin Feldstein: The Tax Rebate Was a Flop - Congress enacted the tax rebate program earlier this year because it perceived a growing risk of recession. In addition, it feared monetary policy alone would not be effective because of the dysfunctional credit markets. As American taxpayers know, most of the rebate checks have now been mailed and cashed. Those of us who supported this fiscal package reasoned that the program would boost consumer confidence as well as available cash. We hoped the combination would cause households to spend a substantial fraction of the rebate dollars, leading to more production and employment. An optimistic and influential study by economists at the Brookings Institution projected that each dollar of revenue loss would increase real GDP by more than a dollar if households spent at least 50 cents of every rebate dollar. The evidence is now in and that optimism was unwarranted. Recent government statistics show that only between 10% and 20% of the rebate dollars were spent. (READ MORE)
Donald Douglas: The Charge of Ethnic Cleansing in Iraq - This entry updates my morning post on Stephen Biddle, Michael O'Hanlon, and Kenneth Pollack's new article at Foreign Affairs, "Standing Down as Iraq Stands Up." As noted, the piece isn't all that impressive. Most of the analysis seems somewhat behind the curve of events, and the conclusion's basically the authors' attempt to curry favor within the Democratic foreign policy establishment by re-floating the "Bush lied" meme on the origins of the deployment. Well, the antiwar bloggers aren't too happy no matter what the motives. Indeed, this liberal warhawk-neocon triumvirate is being attacked just like the old days, although not just as war cheerleaders for the GOP's "imperialist project," but as enablers of American war crimes in Iraq to boot! (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Obama's Hapless Energy Policy and Media Protectors - This week, Obama said that we can reduce the amount of oil consumed daily if we take the time to make sure that our vehicles tires are properly inflated. In fact, he claimed that we could reduce the amount consumed by an amount roughly equal to that which could be obtained from drilling. The AP proceeding to fact check the claims, and claimed that Obama was spot on. Too bad Don Surber notes that the AP fact checkers failed math class. I'd further note that Obama didn't pay attention to federal law and regulations. It establishes a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard that requires the installation of tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMSs) that warn the driver when a tire is significantly under-inflated. The standard applies to passenger cars, trucks, multipurpose passenger vehicles, and buses with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less, except those vehicles with dual wheels on an axle. (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: Climate change - A senior Australian climatologist who reviewed the evidence for the anthropogenic global warming model at a lecture I attended and laid out in detail what he felt were the certain, plausible and questionable parts of the AGW case, like a man surveying a building for soundness. He concluded that while there were some points in its favor, AGW was not proved (partly because very large parts of the climate system are only now being studied, partly because parameters in the computer models have been grossly misestimated, etc) but finished with an interesting remark that could have been the subject of another lecture in itself. He said (and I paraphrase) “[…]
What does it mean when, in the name of reducing carbon emissions, we reduce our civilizational energy sources and thereby reduce our resilience? Who has thought this through?” (READ MORE)
Baldilocks: Super Speaker - As it turns out, the Speaker of the House of Representatives has instructed House Democrats whose seats are hotly contested this November to publicly oppose her stance on domestic/offshore drilling in order to get elected. One presumes that said representatives would resume opposition to drilling after they’ve successfully hoodwinked their constituents been re-elected. This shows that Pelosi knows that she’s going against the will of the People. She does not care, however, because she has a “higher calling”; in her own words, she’s “trying to save the Planet.” Apparently the messiah syndrome is quite the contagious disease. What I want to know is this: are Nancy Pelosi’s actions in this matter in line with the job description of the Speaker of US House of Representatives? Is it her job to Save the World? If it is, is she supposed to do it by bringing the economy of her country to ruin? (READ MORE)
Dafydd: An Army of Apathetics: Registration Legislation and Nonvoters - The Democratic National Committee has found a "new" crusade -- that hardy, hoary perennial: voter registration of traditionally Democratic constituencies, such as blacks, Hispanics, unmarried mothers, and the homeless. By targeting such "potential voters," notes the Wall Street Journal, groups such as ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the National Council of La Raza ("the race"), the Urban League, and other partisan shills masquerading as civic-minded community organizers hope to pack the Senate with a filibuster-proof majority, the House with a conscience-proof majority, and propel fellow "community organizer" Barack H. Obama into the White House... all to usher in a new era of government of the downtrodden, for the downtrodden, and by -- the anointed elite. They plan to register an additional 1.2 million welfaristas, felons, and bums before the November election: (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Don’t Let Obama Fool You About Donors - Barack Obama likes to talk about how he has received so many donations under 200 dollars and all the regular people who are donating to his campaign. There are certainly quite a few people who donated $200 or less but they are not the people who make up the bulk of the donations. Obama claims he is an outsider and that he is not taking money from special interests but there is no doubt that he is getting money from lawyers who work for companies that have lobbying branches, hedge fund managers, Hollywood (of course), and even BIG OIL (say it isn’t so). Obama has a number of bundlers who have raised $50,000 to $1 million. These are people who will expect something in return for their work and despite what Obama says, he knows it and he will give them what they want. (READ MORE)
Noah Shachtman: Sadr: Surrendering, or Playing Possum? - Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr "intends to disarm his once-dominant Mahdi Army militia and remake it as a social-services organization," the Wall Street Journal reports. But is this a real shift -- or umpteenth example of Sadr playing possum? No one knows, for sure. The Journal has its hands on a new Sadrist "brochure," which "states that the Mahdi Army will now be guided by Shiite spirituality instead of anti-American militancy." Some folks say the announcement signals "crash and burn for the Mahdi army." But Sadr has appeared to give up many times before, Spencer Ackerman notes. Like "standing down from the August 2004 Najaf battle; going to study in Iran; the August 2007 ceasefire." Which means there's "an alternative explanation" for that new brochure. It "would hold that Sadr is making yet another of his endless tactical retrenchments and is embedding his movement ever deeper within the fiber of Shiite Iraqi society... (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Obama’s coal cars - He proposes $11 billion in loans and subsidies to build 1 million cars by 2015, half of which will be run on coal. It sounds good. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama wants Detroit to build 1 million plug-in hybrid electric cars by 2015. He’ll loan the auto industry $4 billion. And to make sure that there are customers for these 1 million cars, he will give $7,000 to every customer, reported autobloggreen. See how green it is? It saves energy by going all lower case. Great. Wonderful. The PDF to the plan is here. Now then, let’s go to my back yard. You see those cooling towers there? They are for the John Amos Plant, the 10th largest coal-fired electric plant in the country. Seriously, this is what it looks like. Coal provides half the electricity in the USA. That’s what half these cars will plug into. Not windmills. Not solar cells. Coal. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Obama really doesn’t like a debate - Barack Obama got stung by a challenge from a Las Vegas reporter on his energy policy, and specifically on his efforts to paint John McCain as a lackey of Dick Cheney. Jon Ralston asked Obama about the contradiction inherent in this strategy — the fact that Obama voted for Cheney’s energy bill in 2005 while McCain voted against it. Obama stammered out an accusation that Ralston was a proxy for McCain: “RALSTON: I guess what the American people want to know though Senator, is what is the real difference between you and John McCain. You are running this ad tying him to the industry saying that he has taken all of these contributions, but as you well know there is a story out today about how you supported the Dick Cheney bill and he opposed it. That bill gave subsidies to the oil and gas companies, John McCain opposed the bill saying those are tax breaks for those companies, Barack Obama favored it.” (READ MORE)
Dadmanly: The People's Call - A concerned group of alarmed Leftists, noting Sen. Obama’s many flip flops on issues of critical interest to them, wrote an open letter to the presumed Democratic nominee for President. In addition to obligatory foreign policy positions on Iraq and terrorism, as well as a completely unrestricted right to abortion, they identify a panoply of aged socialist ambitions, from which Obama dare not dissent, for risk of straying from Marxist orthodoxy: “A response to the current economic crisis that reduces the gap between the rich and the rest of us through a more progressive financial and welfare system; public investment to create jobs and repair the country's collapsing infrastructure; fair trade policies; restoration of the freedom to organize unions; and meaningful government enforcement of labor laws and regulation of industry.” One can only imagine what a “more progressive financial and welfare system” would look like. (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: New third-party ad: Obama no longer the biggest celebrity in the race; Update: Her plan’s better than Obama’s, says McCain camp - She’s got a sense of humor, a thoughtful energy policy, and nearly as much federal legislative experience as Barry O. If grotesque overexposure and grandiose ego are now prerequisites for the presidency, then the choice is … actually, the choice still isn’t clear, is it? Exit question: Way better than Bob Barr, though, right? In the unkindest cut of all, McCain’s spokesperson Tucker Bounds tells TMZ that on the subject of energy, Paris is deeper than Barack. He says, “Sounds like Paris is taking the ‘All of the Above’ energy approach that John McCain has advocated — both alternatives and drilling. Perhaps the reality is that Paris has a more substantive energy plan than Barack Obama.” (READ MORE)
MountainRunner: New Media and Persuasion, Mobilization, and Facilitation - There’s a lot of talk about the Internet as a tool to broadcast information. For many groups today, the media is as essential as oxygen, without it they suffocate and fade away. Not only do they need the media to highlight their cause and influence decision makers, but more importantly they need it to build support for their actions and propagate their message. In other words, it is for advertising the cause and intimidating the competition. How is the “new” different than the “old”? The “old” method of mediated communication, notably newspapers, required significant overhead and was vulnerable to disruptions in getting supplies and distribution of content. In the late-1940s, when newsprint and presses were in short supply in Europe (and access was limited in the East), radio filled a void. Of course listening required both electricity and, of course, radios. (READ MORE)
Political Pistachio: In back-room meetings Pelosi tells "at-risk" democrats to back drilling to get elected - Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refused to bring the "drilling for domestic oil" issue to a vote, and took vacation and went on her book tour instead. Many of the Republicans protested this, believing the country is more important than the vacation, and that unfinished business needs to be completed. Besides, Pelosi doesn't want to bring it to a vote. She is not even interested in working on bringing down prices, or do anything to bring relief to Americans. Why should she? She is confident that Democrats will own Washington in November and come the first of the year all of her warped policies will be enacted. She would rather "save the planet" from mythical ailments, than address the fact of rising oil prices, and the need to drill domestically. (READ MORE)
Warner Todd Huston: Lefty WaPo Columnist Quits Olbermann’s ‘Countdown’ Over Dispute With Host - It appears that Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has dumped his appearances on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” Host Olbermann issued a DailyKos diary explaining the dust up on Monday, August 4. According to Olbermann, the problem came in when Milbank violated Keith Olbermann’s well-known journalistic standards. Of course, I jest about that… not that there was a disagreement but that there are any journalistic standards in the Olbermann camp. Now, for a man that is supposed to make his mark with words and for a man the left constantly claims is eloquent, Olbermann’s diary explanation is quite badly written. But, the gist of the matter is that Olbermann has supposedly been asking Milbank for “nearly a week” if an Obama quote in one of his Washington Post stories was sourced and reported accurately. Apparently Milbank took exception to having his own journalistic integrity questioned by a sports guy. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: The Presidency Is No Laughing Matter - I've spent a bit of time talking about the senses of humor of presidential candidates, both this time and last time, and I like to think I've made myself into a little bit of an expert on the topic. It's become a bit of a fixation to me -- largely because there aren't many others who have chosen to talk about it, so I have, I guess by default, become "the" go-to person on the topic. I've said before that, historically, the presidents with good sense of humor have been better than the ones who seemed to lack a funnybone. And while I am careful to avoid the "correlation means causation" fallacy, I think there is a link between the two. Moreover, when I think about it, those people with a poor or no sense of humor are among the scariest people in the world. (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: The Ad I Wouldn't Run: Cindy McCain -- Drug Dealer - Since I am a capitalist who generally has no problem with letting liberals waste their money on ads at RWN, I generally approve just about every ad that comes down the pike. However, there have been several exceptions over the years. For example, a few weeks back I declined a t-shirt ad that pictured Barack Obama as a monkey. That was just over the line in my book. Well, I have now declined a 2nd ad this year. It featured a pothead group running this ad. Now, I could have simply done the same thing in this case that I did with the United Nations: I took the ad and then I mercilessly mocked the UN on RWN. (READ MORE)
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