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)
Vladimir Bonaparte - The farther Russia's tanks roll into Georgia, the more the world is beginning to see the reality of Vladimir Putin's Napoleonic ambitions. Having consolidated his authoritarian transition as Prime Minister with a figurehead President, Mr. Putin is now pushing to reassert Russian dominance in Eurasia. Ukraine is in his sights, and even the Baltic states could be threatened if he's allowed to get away with it. The West needs to draw a line at Georgia. (READ MORE)
Chinese Faith - President Bush attended church in Beijing on Sunday, worshipping with Chinese Christians and singing "Amazing Grace." But what happened outside the church says more about the state of religion in China. Earlier that morning, Hua Huiqi, the pastor of an illegal underground Christian church, was detained by police as he was biking to the service that Mr. Bush was to attend. (READ MORE)
Fixing the Unfriendly Skies - Here's your political puzzle for the day: Whose side would you be on in a tussle that features the Federal Aviation Administration and New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg squaring off against Texas GOP Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey? (READ MORE)
Russia halts military action in Georgia - TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Russia ordered a halt to military action in Georgia on Tuesday, after five days of air and land attacks sent Georgia's army into headlong retreat and left towns and military bases destroyed. (READ MORE)
Iraqi prisoners reformed, released - BAGHDAD - U.S. military authorities in Iraq are crediting prisoner review boards and programs for Iraqis accused of terrorism-related offenses or security violations for an uptick in detainee releases this year and a recidivism rate that they say is as low as 1 percent. (READ MORE)
Soldiers pay bag fee on travel to war - American Airlines is charging troops for their extra baggage, a practice that forces soldiers heading for a war zone in Iraq to try to get reimbursement from the military. One of the country's largest veterans groups is asking the aviation industry to drop the practice immediately. (READ MORE)
Georgia clash imperils Europe's fuel flow - Russia's military incursion into Georgia, a former Soviet republic, signals that it intends to play a much bigger role in the distribution of Central Asia's huge oil and gas reserves to European markets, analysts said Monday. (READ MORE)
Fat and healthy not an oxymoron - It could be weighty news for the chubby. "Overweight" doesn't always mean unhealthy, according to research published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a publication of the American Medical Association. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
William McGurn: That's Not Blight. It's New Jersey - When one lives in New Jersey, one sets one's expectations accordingly. We are a people, after all, whose two pro football teams still call themselves "New York." Whose governor responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by appointing a man he later said was his lover to be the state's adviser for homeland security. Whose most famous mayor -- Jersey City's Frank Hague -- left office more than 60 years ago but is still remembered for having a special desk drawer he could push out like a bank teller, the easier for those sitting before him to deposit their cash. Whose . . . well, you get the point. The point is that these aren't aberrations. These more or less represent business as usual in our beloved Garden State. So when the good guys actually win one, it's big news. (READ MORE)
Kyle Wingfield: Why Tony Blair - When Gordon Brown returns home from his summer vacation, he may find that the locks at 10 Downing Street have been changed. The downward political spiral of Britain's prime minister quickened after a special-election loss in his native Scotland last month. Meanwhile, Labour backbenchers are bickering and ministers are not-so-subtly jockeying to replace him. For the first time in nearly two decades, the Tories are ascendant. And somewhere, Tony Blair is having a good laugh. Blairism, so reviled as the root of Labour's problems -- and by extension of Britain's -- remains the driving force in U.K. politics more than a year after its namesake's retirement. It, more than party lines, is what divides Westminster these days. First consider post-Blair Labour. Mr. Brown's premiership, which began in June 2007, might be summarized as one long spell of dithering: (READ MORE)
Gary Schmitt & Mauro De Lorenzo: How the West Can Stand Up to Russia - Given the cutthroat politics Moscow has practiced at home and abroad in recent years -- with only the softest protests from the U.S. and its allies -- no one should be surprised by Russia's decision to conquer the two breakaway regions of Georgia. Nevertheless, it should once and for all disabuse policy makers in Washington and Brussels of hopes that Russia intends to become part of the post-Cold War condominium of democratic peace in Europe. The point of the Kremlin's invasion of Georgia, which now threatens the capital city of Tbilisi, is to demonstrate to the world how impotent that security order has become. For Moscow, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's mistake in finally taking the bait of Russian provocations and ordering his troops in South Ossetia last week was the opening they sought -- and for which they had been planning for some time. (READ MORE)
Bing West: The War in Iraq Is Over - The war I witnessed for more than five years in Iraq is over. In July, there were five American fatalities in Iraq, the lowest since the war began in March 2003. In Mosul recently, I chatted with shopkeepers on the same corner where last January a Humvee was blown apart in front of me. In the Baghdad district of Ghazilia -- where last January snipers controlled streets awash in human waste -- I saw clean streets and soccer games. In Basra, the local British colonel was dining at a restaurant in the center of the bustling city. For the first time in 15 trips across the country, I didn't hear one shot or a single blast from a roadside bomb. In Anbar Province, scene of the fiercest fighting during the war, the tribal sheiks insisted to Barack Obama on his recent visit that the U.S. Marines had to stay because they were the most trusted force. (READ MORE)
Rick Perry: Texas Is Fed Up - At what price will corn be so expensive that the federal government will decide that it is time to stop driving up the price of food? Three years ago, Congress imposed a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate that has forced the gasoline industry to mix massive amounts of corn-based ethanol into the nation's fuel supply. In 2007, Congress nearly doubled that mandate to require nine billion gallons of ethanol be blended into gas in 2008 and even more in 2009. But, as a safety valve, Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the power to waive the new mandates if they turn out to have unforeseen, negative consequences. As we can see now, the diversion of our corn supply from grocery stores to gasoline pumps has caused the price of corn to spiral out of control. Corn prices were once driven by market forces. (READ MORE)
Randall J. Larsen: What If the FBI Is Right - If the FBI theory on the man responsible for the anthrax attacks of 2001 is correct, then the threat of bioterrorism is far more troubling than we have imagined. I am not a scientist, and will leave the debate on the scientific evidence against Bruce Ivins to the sort of thorough, independent examination recommended by Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa). But such an examination is crucial. It could have profound national security implications, which have been missed in most public discussions of the case. Here's why: In the years since 1999, while I've provided an executive-level course on the threat of bioterrorism to more than 3,000 senior military officers, plus scores of other presentations, lectures and seminars, one of the most frequent questions asked is, "If the Unabomber had been a biologist instead of a mathematician, could he have produced a sophisticated bioweapon?" (READ MORE)
Josef Joffe: Welcome Back to the 19th Century - Wait a minute, isn't this the 21st? Chronologically, it is. But last Friday, Russia -- like the mad scientist Emmett Brown in "Back to the Future" -- thrust us backward by about 150 years in the Caucasus: into the age of imperialism and geopolitics, resource wars and spheres of influence. It was strictly 19th-century when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin casually announced that "war has started." In the old days, such pronunciamentos were routine; war, to recall Clausewitz, was just the "continuation of politics with the admixture of other means." (For the specifics, look up: the Crimean War, Prussia's conquest of Germany, the Balkan Wars; then go farther afield to the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese wars.) But this is the 21st century, isn't it? At least in that vast swath extending from Berkeley to Berlin and to Beijing (with an outrigger in Moscow), anything "geo" could only refer to "economics." (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: The Galbraith Effect - Many years ago, when I was a college student, I took a course from John Kenneth Galbraith. On the first day of class, Professor Galbraith gave a brilliant opening lecture, after which the students gave him a standing ovation. Galbraith kept on giving brilliant opening lectures the whole semester. But, instead of standing ovations, there were now dwindling numbers of students and some of them got up and walked out in the middle of his lectures. Galbraith never got beyond the glittering generalities that marked his first lecture. After a while, the students got tired of not getting any real substance. Senator Barack Obama's campaign this year reminds me very much of that course from Professor Galbraith. Many people were ecstatic during the early primaries, as each state's voters heard his glittering generalities for the first time. (READ MORE)
George Will: What Is It About August? - WASHINGTON -- Asked in 1957 what would determine his government's course, Harold Macmillan, Britain's new prime minister, replied, "Events, dear boy, events." Now, into America's trivializing presidential campaign, a pesky event has intruded -- a European war. Russian tanks, heavy artillery, strategic bombers, ballistic missiles and a naval blockade batter a European nation. We are not past such things after all. The end of history will be postponed, again. Russia supports two provinces determined to secede from Georgia. Russia, with aspiring nations within its borders, generally opposes secessionists, as it did when America, which sometimes opposes secession (e.g., 1861-65), improvidently supported Kosovo's secession from Russia's ally Serbia. But Russia's aggression is really about the subordination of Georgia, a democratic, market-oriented U.S. ally. This is the recrudescence of Russia's dominance in what it calls the "near abroad." (READ MORE)
Dennis Prager: Why I Am Not a Liberal - The following is a list of beliefs that I hold. Nearly every one of them was a liberal position until the late 1960s. Not one of them is now. Such a list is vitally important in order to clarify exactly what positions divide left from right, blue from red, liberal from conservative. I believe in American exceptionalism, meaning that (a) America has done more than any international organization or institution, and more than any other country, to improve this world; and (b) that American values (specifically, the unique American blending of Enlightenment and Judeo-Christian values) form the finest value system any society has ever devised and lived by. I believe that the bigger government gets and the more powerful the state becomes, the greater the threat to individual liberty and the greater the likelihood that evil will ensue. In the 20th century, the powerful state, not religion, was the greatest purveyor of evil in the world. (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: The 'Making Abortion Rare' Hoax - ABC reports that the group "Democrats for Life," whose title gives new meaning to "oxymoronic," decided last week not to press the Democratic Party to restore a life-tolerant "conscience clause" to its party platform. Isn't it time the party quit this charade that it wants to make abortion "rare"? The "conscience clause," which appeared in the 1996 and 2000 platforms, at least paid lip service to tempering the platform's express support of a woman's "right to choose," stating: The "Democratic Party is a party of inclusion. We respect the individual conscience of each American on this difficult issue, and we welcome all our members to participate at every level of our party." But the party ended all pretense of inclusion in 2004 by replacing the "conscience clause" with a statement that Democrats "stand firmly against Republican efforts to undermine" abortion rights. (READ MORE)
Phyllis Schlafly: Who Will Protect Us Against Invasion? - President George W. Bush, in China attending the Olympic Games, responded promptly to Russia's invasion of Georgia with the caveat that "territorial integrity must be respected." We're still waiting to hear the Bush administration's response to this month's invasion of Arizona's territorial integrity by the Mexican military. More than 40 times this year, the Mexican military has crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. The Mexicans even held a U.S. border guard at gunpoint. How long are we going to put up with Mexican impudence and federal neglect of duty? One of the most emphatic duties set forth in the U.S. Constitution is that the federal government "shall protect each of them (every State) against invasion." Some pretend there is a "misunderstanding" about exactly where the border is. But border guards say there is a barbed-wire fence at the point where the Mexican military entered the United States. (READ MORE)
Ashley Herzog: College Classes for Conservatives to Avoid - When school starts in the fall, many college students will be paying exorbitant tuition to universities that offer a silver platter of worthless courses: classes in Marxism, prostitution (Sociology of the Sex Industry is all the rage), “queer theory,” pornography, and rock and rap music. While some of these classes are easy to spot as non-educational, others masquerade under legitimate-sounding names in mainstream academic departments. As an Ohio University senior who has sat through plenty of college junk courses—many of which were required for graduation—I’ve compiled a list classes for incoming freshmen to avoid. 1. Don’t register for English classes that revolve around the writings of some allegedly oppressed group, such as “Gay and Lesbian Literature” or “Women and Writing.” These classes typically have nothing to do with great, or even good, literature. (READ MORE)
David Strom: Idiot Economics - It has become popular for politicians to advocate going after oil companies for their seemingly outsized profits. Otherwise rational people turn red-faced with anger when they think about the tens of billions of dollars flowing into the coffers of “big oil.” The most often talked about “solution” to—really punishment of—big oil’s big profits is the imposition of a “windfall profits” tax. Such a tax would set an arbitrary limit to what oil companies can make and then slap an extra tax on profits if they exceed that limit. Now set aside the question of whether it makes sense for politicians to determine what profits companies should earn; a belief that politicians should be the arbiters of economic rewards seems to be a continually recurring idiocy that we will have to fight indefinitely. Also set aside the fact that oil company profits are actually much more modest than the profits in other industries... (READ MORE)
A Newt One: Beware Republicans! Don't fall into the trap! - During the long draw up to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Saddam was fond of playing a little cat and mouse game of indicating that he was about to comply, only to dig his heels in yet again. Eventually, America and it's allies had to brush aside his empty words and simply examine his actions. Now comes word that another enemy of America- Nancy Pelosi- is signaling her acquiescence; “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday night dropped her staunch opposition to a vote on offshore oil drilling in the House. Republicans, reacting to high gas prices, have demanded a vote on additional oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf, where drilling is currently blocked by a moratorium. Until now, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted the idea as a ‘hoax.’ But in an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, she indicated that she was open to a vote.” (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Another Faked Episode From Beijing's Opening Ceremony - Yesterday we learned that the Chinese computer enhanced and manipulated the video showing fireworks dancing across the sky. Today, we learn that the voice of one of the Chinese girls who sang during the opening ceremony was dubbed over by another girl. The Chinese wanted to have the perfect opening ceremony, so they picked the prettiest girl to appear and had the girl with the best voice sing over her. “Acoustics had nothing to do with it. Under pressure from the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party to find the perfect face and voice, the ceremony’s production team concluded the only solution was to use two girls instead of one. Miaoke, a third grader, was judged cute and appealing but ‘not suitable’ as a singer. Another girl, Yang Peiyi, 7, was judged the best singer but not as cute. So when Miaoke opened her mouth to sing, the voice that was actually heard was a recording of Peiyi.” (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: Veterans Helping Iraqi Refugees - As a result of the war in Iraq, many citizens of that country fled their homes, often going to different countries, to escape the threats of violence from insurgents, who demanded their cooperation, or would threaten they and their families if they thought they were cooperating with coalition forces. Many, who’ve chosen to immigrate to the United States, have found difficulties with the process, which is often very lengthy. One such refugee, Ali Salah fled with his family to Jordan. Several months after the invasion of Iraq, by coalition forces, Salah volunteered to work with US Troops as an interpreter. By doing so, he put his life and that of his family in danger. Some Iraqis, especially those siding with the insurgency, branded him a traitor who was collaborating with his enemy. “‘I felt I wasn’t safe, and that meant that my family wasn’t safe,’ said Salah, who worked with the Americans at the Al Waleed border crossing, which sits at the point where Jordan, Iraq and Syria meet.” (READ MORE)
Donald Douglas: The End of Consumerism? - I'm still trying to figure out if this "phony recession" is really as significant as earlier eras of American economic dislocation. Sure, housing's collapsed, credit markets and banking institutions have face bailouts and shakeouts, and unemployment is up near 6 percent. Yet, the economy grew in the 2nd quarter at 1.9 percent of GDP, which is more than double 0.9 percent growth rate for the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, the Dow-Jones industrial average is pushing 12,000, as international oil markets have seen a pull-back in petroleum costs. I know many families are facing the strains of the subprime fallout and the drop in housing prices, so it remains to be seen how it all ends up, but there's a resiliency in the economy that has kept things rolling along. (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson: Moscow’s Sinister Brilliance - Lost amid all the controversies surrounding the Georgian tragedy is the sheer diabolic brilliance of the long-planned Russia invasion. Let us count the ways in which it is a win/win situation for Russia. The Home Front - The long-suffering Russian people resent the loss of global influence and empire, but not necessarily the Soviet Union and its gulags that once ensured such stature. The invasion restores a sense of Russian nationalism and power to its populace without the stink of Stalinism, and is indeed cloaked as a sort of humanitarian intervention on behalf of beleaguered Ossetians. There will be no Russian demonstrations about an “illegal war,” much less nonsense about “blood for oil,” but instead rejoicing at the payback of an uppity former province that felt its Western credentials somehow trumped Russian tanks. (READ MORE)
DrewM @ Ace of Spades: Thank Obama...Russians Accept Cease Fire Agreement In Georgia - Virgina Governor Tim Kaine, my candidate in the Obama Veepstakes Pool, says it was Obama's intervention that lead to a cease fire between Russia and Georgia. “It was a bad crisis for the world. It required tough words but also a smart approach to call on the international community to step in. And I’m very, very happy that the Senator’s request for a ceasefire has been complied with by President Medvedev.” This will of course come as news to French President Nicholas Sarkozy who actually flew to Moscow to talk to the Russians. “President Sarkozy won the Kremlin's agreement today on the conditions for a cessation of hostilities in Georgia that would see both sides return to their initial positions before fighting erupted last week. A six-point plan endorsed by President Medvedev during a visit by the French leader to Moscow calls on both Russia and Georgia to end all hostilities and allow free access for humanitarian assistance.” (READ MORE)
Ace of Spades: Another Racist Attack from McCain - So where's the racism? Surely you know. But if you missed it, let Talking Points Memo explain it: “‘We know he doesn't have much experience, and isn't ready to lead, but that doesn't mean he isn't dreamy,’ says the announcer, followed by footage of two women at rallies -- both of whom are white, mind you -- complimenting Obama's looks. How long until ‘Barack, call me’ ends up in a McCain paid TV ad?” That last bit about "Barack, call me" is a reference to another putatively "racist" ad, that one about Harold Ford's partying it up with Playboy Bunnies, which ended with an actress playing a Playboy Bunny saying "Harold, call me." And. She. Was. White. I'm just curious -- if, hypothetically, the McCain camp begins showing black people going bananas over Obama, how soon will the left begin claiming that by showing black people McCain is attempting to underscore the fact that Obama is (half) black and attempting to sow racial animus that way? (READ MORE)
Richard Landes: Edwards, the MSM and the Sounds of Silence: More Poop on the Augean MSM - Among the elements of MSM control, perhaps the most important is their role as gateway to the public sphere: one of their most important functions is deciding what gets “published” and what doesn’t. Unlike some critics of the MSM, I think this is a perfectly legitimate function: not only does the MSM have the right to do this; it has the obligation. Indeed, the mainstream media is precisely there to make sure that it filters out the wild and crazy and often terribly destructive “information” that circulates freely in less presitigious arenas. But like all such matters, this power — and it is an enormous one — comes with an accordingly heavy responsibility. Abusing this power to keep legitimate news out, or by letting illegitimate news in, or by refusing to correct the inevitable errors that any MSM will commit over time, constitutes one of the worst abuses of journalistic privilege on record. (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Georgia On My Mind - I admit up front my innate antipathy for Russia, dating from the days of the Soviet empire. I took a wait and see attitude following the breakup of the USSR, and I certainly cheered on that drunken sot, Boris Yeltsin, as he climbed atop a tank and dismantled Communism. I was even fooled at the beginning by Vlad "the Impaler" Putin -- who evidently fooled President George W. Bush as well. But for a number of years now, I have thought that Putin's spy-eye view of Russia made it the second gravest threat facing the United States, ahead of China and North Korea and second only to the Iran/al-Qaeda Axis. Thus, the moment I heard about Russia's invasion of the democratic, free-market nation of Georgia, I knew who was the aggressor and what side I was on. I'm quite gratified that John S. McCain is on the side of the angels. I'm not shocked that Barack H. Obama cannot make up his mind but leans towards the creeping totalitarianism of Russia, in which he perhaps sees a good model for America under himself. (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Obama Supports Private School Choice, for His Kids… - Barack Obama, like most Democrats, opposes school choice and voucher programs. He believes that all children should be forced to attend the public school system where they will be properly indoctrinated into the mindset of government run everything. The Democrats are in bed with the teacher’s unions and therefore have to support programs that require all children to attend a public school system that is failing miserably mainly because the unions care more about teacher pensions and less about child performance. Yes, the Democrats believe that parents should not be allowed to send their children to private schools on a voucher program because, to them, the public system is adequate. Adequate for everyone else’s children. It is no secret that many politicians send their children to private schools. (READ MORE)
Blonde Sagacity: Michael Moore's Advice to Barack Hussein - From the new issue of Rolling Stone, How the Democrats Can Blow It...in Six Easy Steps by Michael Moore: “For years now, nearly every poll has shown that the American people are right in sync with the platform of the Democratic Party. They are pro-environment, pro-women's rights and pro-choice. They don't like war. They want the minimum wage raised, and they want a single-payer universal health-care system. The American public agrees with the Republican Party on only one major issue: They support the death penalty...” I thought I'd do Mike a favor and be his editor for an hour or so, since Rolling Stone obvioulsy didn't afford him one... "They are pro-environment." A recent poll done by ABC News, Planet Green, Stanford University poll concluded that a majority of people find environmental issues only "somewhat important." And that more than half say that a Presidential candidate that is an environmentalist will have little effect on how they choose to vote. (READ MORE)
The Captain's Journal: Georgia Pleads for Help Against Russian Brutality and Hegemony - It’s important to understand what the war in Georgia is about - and what it’s not about. The news accounts, blogs and blog comments are adrift with Russian-made propaganda. The Russian machine has saturated the media with its own account of the situation in Georgia, the bulk of it lies with what little truth there is being stripped from proper context. The war isn’t about Georgian violations of humanitarian law. To assume that Russia has a right to “protect its own borders from instability” is utterly to miss the point. The war isn’t about escalation by the Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, or some dream of grandeur he has. The war isn’t even about an oil pipeline, per se, although that makes a nice catch in the process and increases their control over the region’s oil supply. Control over the oil pipeline results from Russian hegemony rather than causes it. (READ MORE)
Noah Shachtman: U.S. Embassy in Russian Hackers' Crosshairs? - The American and British embassies in Georgia are on the target list for Russian hackers, IntelFusion discovers. So far, the embassies' sites haven't been hit -- Georgian targets appear to be the priority. But it's another wrinkle in a complex online conflict that's mirroring the bombs-and-bullets war in the Caucasus. And maybe the most confusing part of all is figuring out who the hackers -- and their backers -- really are. "Investigators assisting the Georgian government landed on the Russian Business Network as a potential suspect," the Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Gorman reports. They did it "by tracing back the sources of the attack, which are computer servers that have been used by the organization." (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Just drill - The Washington Post debunks the anti-energy propaganda. In an editorial today, the Post stripped bare the false information being fed by the left to a public that knows little about offshore drilling. My favorite debunking is this: “The oil companies aren’t using the leases they already have. According to the MMS, there were 7,457 active leases as of June 8. Of those, only 1,877 were classified as ‘producing.’ As we pointed out in a previous editorial, the five leases that have made up the Shell Perdido project off Galveston since 1996 are not classified as producing. Only when it starts pumping the equivalent of an estimated 130,000 barrels of oil a day at the end of the decade will it be deemed ‘active.’ Since 1996, Shell has paid rent on the leases; filed and had approved numerous reports with the MMS…” (READ MORE)
Gribbit: Is Articulate Rhetoric A Presidential Qualification? - That seems to be the question of the season. Many on the left (and right for that matter) use George W. Bush’s problems with vernacular as a measure of his intelligence and attempt to equate his problematic use of language (rhetoric) to his ability or qualification to lead. This is a false assumption. Many can speak eloquently but don’t have the practical ability to lead a lemming to the sea. This truth brings up the question of Barack Obama’s qualifications to become leader of the free world and Commander-in-Chief of THE most powerful military force known to man. Is is qualified to lead? He has never served in the military, never run any size private enterprise, never served on a board of a corporation, held office as a mayor of any city or governor of any state. His time as a state Senator in Illinois seems to be lackluster as he voted “Present” more times than taking a definitive position on any issue... (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Did Obama amplify pork for bundlers? - Barack Obama claims to be a reformer, and even accomplished one particular achievement with the Coburn-Obama bill creating a federal spending database to keep Senators and Representatives accountable for their pork. Obama may wish he’d accomplished slightly less, as The Next Right has done some checking on Obama’s own earmarks, and found some very interesting connections between fundraising and pork. The Adler Planetarium has found a lot more money since its trustees began bundling for Obama: “The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Frank Clark, stands out amongst Obama supporters. On Sen. Obama’s website, Mr. Clark is listed as a bundler who raised in excess of $200,000 for the Senator’s Presidential campaign. In 2004, Mr. Clark donated $5,000 to the then State Senator Obama’s U.S. Senate bid. In 2005, Mr. Clark became the Chairman of the Board at Adler Planetarium, and in 2006 Sen. Obama earmarked $300,000 to the Planetarium.” (READ MORE)
Political Vindication: California Initiative Seeks To Send Last Of Rich Running - This is astounding. California is one of the world’s largest economies - it rivals whole countries. Economies depend on investment, an educated labor pool and a rewarding business environment. Government’s influence on the business climate can be counter-productive, considering that a zero tax rate would maximize investment and a punitive tax rate would repel it. What condition is California in? Investment is fleeing, educational quality is poor, and the government seems to think businesses are here to fund government. We’re heading for a 16 billion dollar deficit, we still don’t have a budget after months of haggling, and the only answers we’re getting from the Democrats who control the state and the governor who takes orders from them is to raise taxes, lower the threshold for passing budgets and increase spending. But it may get even better. (READ MORE)
McQ: Moonbats, Rove, South Ossetia and Iran - For some, everything is a conspiracy to keep Democrats out of office (Because, you know, it couldn’t be about the message. That wouldn’t be enough to keep them out.). And if they have to twist a bit to make it fit, well, they don’t mind. Today from Blake Fleetwood, a HuffPo post entitled "What a Convenient Little War for the Republicans". Yes, somehow the all powerful Republicans, who stand a good chance of being shut out of both the legislative and executive brances of government this fall, have managed to get Pooty-poot to act in their behalf. “What is most interesting is that McCain’s chief foreign policy aide, Randy Scheunemann,has been advising/lobbying for pro-western Georgia for the last four years. Can’t you just imagine what happened?” (READ MORE)
Right Truth: Whistle Dixie 'till the Mahdi Comes Home - Iran continues to stall for time until the Mahdi comes. " At the same time, aware of the serious possibilities of a mass uprising by a population already hit badly economically, in case of further sanctions decided by the United Nations Security Council and respected by the international community, the regime tries, by taking one step forward and two backward, to protract as much time as possible the negotiations with the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany concerning its controversial nuclear activities." (Safa Haeri, Iran Press Service) “‘The problem with Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is that not only he himself do not understand anything about modern economy, but because of his firm belief that Mahdi, the Muslim Shi’a’s twelfth imam would soon reappear and arrange everything to the liking of the Iranians, he has no confidence in economic experts and listen to no one, except yes men,’ explains a source close to him, speaking on condition of anonymity. According to Shia’s, Imam Mahdi went into hiding in a well about eight hundreds years ago, at the age of eight, to re-emerge when the world is ‘saturated with sin, corruption, mismanagement and disillusion.’” (READ MORE)
UrbanGrounds: NBC Reporters — Spinning Success into Failure - NBC — just like their cohorts at ABC and CBS — has spent so much time and effort trying to spin American military victories in Iraq into losses, that it’s affected their coverage of US victories in the Olympics. NBC reporters just don’t know how to report US victories as victories — instead they try to find a way to spin them into losses of failures. Thankfully, our athletes are having none of it. Like when Andrea Kramer was interviewing swimmer Katie Hoff after she had won the bronze in the 400 IM (after she had broken the US record the day before). Kramer asked her “So after yesterday’s disappointing performance, what are your thoughts for today?” Hoff got this weird look on her face and said, “I didn’t think my performance yesterday was a disappointment.” Seriously…the girl had just set a US record and won a bronze medal. And she’s supposed to be “dissapointed”? (READ MORE)
Information Dissemination: Observing the Russian Offensive - Reuters is reporting on the offensive inside of Georgia. “Russian troops have entered Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti, an oil and cargo shipping centre, Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said on Monday. ‘According to our information, Russian troops have entered Poti, as well as being in Senaki and Zugdidi,’ he said in a televised address, referring to two other towns in western Georgia.” I have circled these cities on the map using the rather crude mspaint, so forgive my sloppy display. I have also put up the map without markings for comparisons. Note the railroads and the roads. Russian ground strategy appears to be very well coordinated. As we have been surfing the Russian blogs, diaries, and news sources, some things have been popping up that have caught our attention. (READ MORE)
Talisman Gate: Apologies, and a quick note - So I'm finally in a place where I can rest a bit, and have some more time for blogging. But here's a quick note on all that's happening in Iraq concerning the Provincial Elections Law, the Oil Law, and Kirkuk: the question that everyone should be asking is "Will this political turmoil lead to violence?" and answer is that the potential for increased violence in minimal. It's politics, folks. Why should Americans involve themselves in the nitty-gritty details of Iraqi politics? It is all being sorted out in heated bargaining and deal-making. Should Iraqis concern themselves with the pork-barreling and congressional re-districting of the U.S. Congress? No, they shouldn't. The Iraq story is getting boring, and that's a good thing. (READ MORE)
Melissa Clouthier: Russia's Conquering Georgia: Why Does The Left Always Side With The Abusive Husband? - Well, it only took a day or two. I'm surprised how long it took, actually. Fred Kaplan does an excellent job, though, of bringing the irrational rage and absolute venom of the Left towards President Bush to the fore: “Regardless of what happens next, it is worth asking what the Bush people were thinking when they egged on Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's young, Western-educated president, to apply for NATO membership, send 2,000 of his troops to Iraq as a full-fledged U.S. ally, and receive tactical training and weapons from our military. Did they really think Putin would sit by and see another border state (and former province of the Russian empire) slip away to the West? If they thought that Putin might not, what did they plan to do about it, and how firmly did they warn Saakashvili not to get too brash or provoke an outburst?” (READ MORE)
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