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)
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to resign - ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf announced Monday he was resigning to avoid an impeachment battle with Pakistan's ruling coalition that would harm the nation. (READ MORE)
Resilient Sunni Stronghold Tests the Iraqi Army's Best - SOUTH BUHRIZ, Iraq -- Two Iraqi soldiers stumbled out of the thick, black smoke, their faces bathed in blood that glistened in the sun. They clutched their heads, mumbling "Hamdullah" -- "Thanks to God." They had survived the explosion. (READ MORE)
In Kashmir, Fears of Increasing Militancy - NEW DELHI, Aug. 17 -- On a recent four-month trek through hundreds of Kashmiri villages, separatist leader Yasin Malik called on people to adopt his new Gandhian philosophy of nonviolence. Malik, a secular Muslim, soon became an icon of peace to many youths in this turbulent region that India and... (READ MORE)
Russia Vows Pullout as Troops Dig In - GORI, Georgia, Aug. 17 -- Russia pledged Sunday to begin removing its troops from Georgia on Monday, but the streets of this occupied city reflected a broadening, not a waning, of Russia's military incursion. (READ MORE)
Obama on Clarence Thomas - Barack Obama likes to portray himself as a centrist politician who wants to unite the country, but occasionally his postpartisan mask slips. That was the case at Saturday night's Saddleback Church forum, when Mr. Obama chose to demean Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. (READ MORE)
Wind Jammers - In this year's great energy debate, Democrats describe a future when the U.S. finally embraces the anything-but-carbon avant-garde. It turns out, however, that when wind and solar power do start to come on line, they face a familiar obstacle: environmentalists and many Democrats. (READ MORE)
Banana Republic Behavior, Cont. - Last time we checked on Ecuador, the South American country was making itself notorious for a multibillion dollar legal shakedown of Chevron on bogus pollution charges. Now its President (and Hugo Chávez wannabe) Rafael Correa is lobbying the U.S. to renew Ecuador's preferential trade treatment, which is set to expire at the end of the year. What's Quichua for chutzpah? (READ MORE)
'Our Country Is the Best' - Assorted TV commentators keep opining that the Olympics are all about the brotherhood of man, rather than national ambition or patriotism. But don't tell that to the fanatically nationalist Chinese -- or to Kobe Bryant, the NBA star who is playing with Team USA in Beijing. (READ MORE)
Russians announce troop withdrawal has begun - GORI, GEORGIA (AP) - Russia said its military began to withdraw from the conflict zone in Georgia on Monday, but left unclear exactly where troops and tanks will operate under the cease-fire that ended days of fighting in the former Soviet republic. (READ MORE)
Bush camp battles critics on Georgia response - As the conflict in Georgia unfolded over the past week and a half, the Bush administration has found itself battling a familiar charge — that its response to a major crisis was slow and uncertain. (READ MORE)
GOP builds strength for drilling clash - The Senate Republicans who are trying to force Congress to lift restrictions on offshore drilling say they have 38 senators backing their efforts to force a showdown over the critical campaign issue of energy prices — one that could shut down the government. (READ MORE)
Oil debate lands on Virginia's coastline - The national debate on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas has Virginia lawmakers taking sides on how disruptive the procedure would be to military operations in federally managed waters off the state's coast - including an area thought to hold more than 1 billion barrels of the fossil fuel critical to the country's infrastructure. (READ MORE)
Bibles seized from Americans' luggage - BEIJING Chinese customs officials confiscated more than 300 Bibles on Sunday from four American Christians who arrived in a southwestern city with plans to distribute them, the group's leader said. (READ MORE)
McCain evolves into a supply-sider - LAKE FOREST, Calif. — At a religious values forum this weekend, Sen. John McCain was asked about his biggest flip-flop of the past decade. He pointed to his newfound support for offshore drilling, but his biggest change might have come during the forum itself, when he completed his transformation from class warrior to supply-side tax cutter. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
L. Gordon Crovitz: A Better Way to Free Trade - This tiny outpost of radical thinking is an excellent vantage point for the recent collapse of the multilateral trade negotiations. Hong Kong is essentially irrelevant to trade talks because it practices unilateral free trade, with virtually no tariffs or other barriers. People here understand that imports, exports and the rigors of comparative advantage create individual opportunity and wealth. Enough, in Hong Kong's case, for it to have evolved under almost pure free trade from a rocky harbor into one of the wealthiest places on earth. But don't some industries in Hong Kong seek government protection? Don't some bureaucrats seek to expand their powers? What about antitrade activists? "Unilateral free trade is never an issue," reports Yeung Wai Hong, publisher of the popular Chinese-language weekly Next Magazine. Unilateral free trade remains policy here under Chinese rule, as it was under Britain. (READ MORE)
Ethan Penner: How Low Interest Rates - "What inning are we in?" How many times have we all heard that inane question asked and answered in the credit-driven downturn that we've been suffering through for over a year now? We've heard many answers from financial industry and government leaders, such as "the worst is behind us," or "we'll not need to raise any further capital" -- only to learn in short order that our leaders really did not have the ability to make the market bend to their will. To understand exactly what is happening, one needs to properly understand what occurred in the late stages of the prior cycle. Interest rates had been driven to historical lows in the U.S. and throughout the world. The cause of this can be debated. However, it is clear that economic globalization, with the migration of jobs to low-wage nations, had a profound impact on inflation, and thus on interest rates. (READ MORE)
Benn Steil: We'll All Pay - In the dozen or so years until 2007, it had become as close to a global orthodoxy in economic policy making as we ever see: Central banks should target a low and stable rate of inflation. This replaced earlier orthodoxies -- such as that central banks should maintain a fixed exchange rate with an ounce of gold, which was abandoned in 1971. Though inflation targeting left far more latitude for government officials to expand the money supply, it too ultimately proved too great a shackle on the exercise of central bank wisdom. The U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and other rich-country central banks have generally made 2% inflation, give or take a smidge, the touchstone of good performance. Fed officials have for 20 years paid public obeisance to their statutory "dual mandate," to maximize employment as well as stabilize prices. (READ MORE)
Ronald D. Asmus: NATO's Hour - Russia's invasion of Georgia is a game changer. This war is part of a Russian strategy of roll-back and regime change on its borders. The more evidence that comes in, the clearer it is becoming that this is a conflict Moscow planned, prepared for and provoked -- a trap Tbilisi unfortunately walked into. A core Western assumption since 1991 -- that Moscow would never again invade its neighbors -- has been shattered. As Moscow basks in its moment of nationalistic triumphalism, the West needs to take steps to prevent further Russian moves from spreading instability to others parts of Europe. If they want to contain this crisis, NATO foreign ministers meeting here tomorrow need to focus on two strategic imperatives. The Alliance must take steps to reassure those members fearing Russian pressure that NATO's mutual-defense commitments are credible and real. (READ MORE)
Kevin McCullough: Above my Pay Grade? - Americans have never expected our public servants to be perfect. In fact on many levels it can sometimes be comforting to know they are not. Foibles, mistakes, faux pas all remind us that while they are called upon to lead us through times of tremendous challenge, that at the end of the day they are one of us. They are not from some line of tyrannical despot royalty allowed absolute power. Realizing this however also causes us to understand that while they may make mistakes certain qualities are particularly more helpful, attractive, and necessary when vetting the nation's leadership. Honesty, ethical integrity, and transparent commitment to the ideals of our nation are the non-negotiables that we seek, need, and demand. Barack Obama fails the test on all three levels. Saturday night he demonstrated none of the above - and in the presence of the most recognizable mega-pastor in America. (READ MORE)
Star Parker: Pastor Warren's Politicized Pulpit A Mistake - A number of years ago, John McCain did a hilarious segment on "Saturday Night Live" in which he did a spoof commercial for an album called "McCain Sings Streisand." The "commercial" featured a crooning McCain torturing a number of Streisand hits -- "People," "Memories," "The Way We Were." The senator then pitched, "I've been in politics for 20 years, and for 20 years I've had Barbra Streisand trying to do my job. So I decided to try my hand at her job." Pastor Rick Warren's presidential candidate "Civic Forum" at his Saddleback Church brought this SNL highlight to mind. I'm picturing a segment with Lou Dobbs or Brit Hume preaching a Sunday sermon in a crowded church and then looking into the camera and saying, "Rick Warren is taking a fling at my job, so I thought I'd try my hand at his." (READ MORE)
Michael Gerson: Small Hopes And Large Upsets - WASHINGTON -- It is now clear why Barack Obama has refused John McCain's offer of joint town hall appearances during the fall campaign. McCain is obviously better at them. Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency -- two hours on Saturday night evenly divided between the relaxed, tieless candidates -- was expected to be a sideshow. McCain and Obama would make their specialized appeals to evangelicals as if they were an interest group such as organized labor or the National Rifle Association. Evangelicals would demonstrate, in turn, that they are not rubes and know-nothings. And Americans would turn en masse to watch the Olympics. What took place instead under Warren's precise and revealing questioning was the most important event so far of the 2008 campaign -- a performance every voter should seek out on the Internet and watch. (READ MORE)
Burt Prelutsky: The Marxist Brother - I must confess that I am spending an awful lot of time thinking about Barack Obama. I hasten to add that it’s not, as is the case with Chris Matthews, because the Senator sends shivers up my leg. Rather, it’s because I simply can’t figure out how he’s managed to convince so many people that he should be the President of the United States. It’s a lot like trying to figure out how Las Vegas magicians make lions and tigers disappear. To be perfectly honest, I invariably feel that way about the candidates the Democrats try to foist off on us. But, as a rule, guys like Dukakis, Gore and Kerry are just typical party hacks. But at least none of them attended a racist church, they didn’t associate with known terrorists and they usually didn’t display their contempt for national symbols and the U.S. military quite so blatantly. Liberals have tried to convince me that Obama is brilliant. (READ MORE)
Armstrong Williams: Georgia-Russia Crisis - There’s a crisis in Georgia and the United States and the western world must respond quickly and decisively to stop Russia and bring sanity back to the region immediately. The key here is not just to help defenseless and innocent people, but to bring peace back to a region where peace is quite achievable. In today’s volatile world, nobody can afford another war – big or small – and when international victories are out there to be had, we must grab them with all our might. Georgia is a transcontinental country (it spans more than one continent) in Europe and Asia. It covers nearly 70,000 square kilometers, compared to its northern neighbor Russia, which spans over 17 million square kilometers. In terms of population, Georgia boasts a population of 4.6 million people, whereas Russia hosts 142 million people. My point? We have a true modern day David and Goliath going on over there. (READ MORE)
Dinesh D'Souza: The Prophet At Harvard - When we think of the collapse of the Soviet Union, several names come to mind: Gorbachev, Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa, Margaret Thatcher, Vaclav Havel. But one name is missing: Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It was Solzhenitsyn’s great corpus of work, beginning with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and continuing through The Gulag Archipelago, that opened the eyes of the West to the magnitude of the crimes of Soviet totalitarianism. Marxist-style regimes now survive only in isolated pockets: Cuba, North Korea, and in a qualified sense China. Today it is impossible to deny that Solzhenitsyn was correct about the “evil empire,” and his role in exposing it and bringing it down. But there is another side to Solzhenitsyn that has been largely ignored, and this is his critique of certain trends in Western civilization. Solzhenitsyn raised this subject, no less controversial and for us closer to home, in his famous 1978 Harvard address. (READ MORE)
Janice Shaw Crouse: Child Porn vs. Child Protection - It is symptomatic of the condition of our culture today that the Express, a daily newspaper for commuters published by the Washington Post, can feature a piece in its entertainment section about an indie-rock band known as the New Pornographers without raising any eyebrows. But let someone speak out against pornography and suddenly people get uncomfortable. We’ve reached the point where we blindly ignore gross and horrific child abuse. And we’ve become so comfortable in our upscale communities that we don’t want to acknowledge what the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) calls “the seedy and sophisticated underworld” of child porn. The world of child porn, according to the NCMEC, is exploding around us even though it is illegal to produce as well as to access child pornography. Not only is there more child porn; it is getting worse and worse. (READ MORE)
Mike S. Adams: Who is Davidson Myers? - Welcome back UNCW Students! If you have not yet heard (or read) about me, I am an outspoken Christian professor who has, at times, been critical of certain aspects of evolution. I mention this because it affects the way I see you and the way I will treat you this semester. Rather than seeing you as the mere product of random mutation, I see you as a unique individual who is of infinite worth to his Creator. Each one of you has unique and special talents and along with that a distinct purpose in life that makes you not just unique but irreplaceable. Unfortunately, I sometimes have students who resist fulfilling their God-given potential. Often, they do things in college that hurt their chances of success in life. One good example is a fellow named Davidson Myers whom I first taught in the fall of 1999. (READ MORE)
Mark Hillman: Udall's U-turn on oil exploration - Mark Udall's message to Colorado voters is crystal clear: just tell me want you want to hear, and I'll say it. Udall is a five-term Democrat congressman, vying for perhaps the country's most hotly contested U.S. Senate seat. He's built his reputation as an uncompromising environmentalist, consistently opposed domestic energy exploration, and blocked construction of new refineries to make American energy supplies more secure. Now, Udall wants voters to believe that he's suddenly seen the light. "We've got to produce our own oil and gas, right here in our country," he says in a new commercial paid for by his U.S. Senate campaign. Just what we need: another politician who will sell his soul to attain higher office. Over the years, Udall's record on domestic energy production has been much more dogmatic than pragmatic, more extremist than centrist. He's voted to: (READ MORE)
Terry Paulson: Talking About Race Doesn’t Make Anyone Racist - Barack Obama has promised to be a uniter and to help Americans bridge their racial barriers. But by claiming that Republicans will be trying to scare voters by suggesting that he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills" or stressing his affirmative action experience and the racial challenges ahead, Obama keeps inserting race into his campaign. Barack’s website highlights his experience as an activist: “As a community organizer, Obama helped 150,000 African Americans register to vote. As a civil rights lawyer, Obama litigated employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and voting rights cases." Barack Obama, in a speech at Howard University, highlighted the work yet to be done should he become our next president: “The teenagers and college students who left their homes to march in the streets of Birmingham and Montgomery; (READ MORE)
Sally Quinn: Worlds Apart - When I was little, I had a recurrent dream that there was a terrible earthquake. My father, his body a horse with wings, swooped down from the sky, kneeled so I could jump on his back and flew away just as the earth cracked open beneath me. It was my most comforting dream. I want to live in that world again. I want to live in John McCain's world. My father was a military man. My parents were friends of McCain's parents and lived in the same apartment building. My father's closest friend was Barry Goldwater, McCain's mentor. Those were the days when men were men, when the differences between good and evil were clear, when they knew where they stood on every issue, when life was less complicated, when there was an air of insouciance, no matter how difficult the issues. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Musharraf Resigns - After weeks of threats by the Pakistani opposition to impeach Pervez Musharraf, Musharraf announced his resignation this morning. “Mr. Musharraf, 65, will stay in Pakistan in the immediate future, a request he had insisted on, according to Nasir Ali Khan, a senior member of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, a partner in the coalition. The coalition, led by Asif Ali Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, and Nawaz Sharif, the chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, were scheduled to meet here in the capital Monday afternoon to discuss the way forward, Mr. Khan said.” The big winners in this are Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari, and Baitullah Mehsud. The first two are leaders of their respective political parties, and Mehsud is the most prominent leader of the Taliban, who controls much of the border regions along the Afghan-Pakistani border. Mehsud continues to act as a world unto himself, and instituted Islamic law in the areas he claims dominion over. That's bad news for the Afghans and Pakistanis who aren't nearly as Islamic as Mehsud is. (READ MORE)
Donald Douglas: Ignominy Strikes Obama Camp in Saddleback Aftermath - I've never seen anything like it. The latest controversy has it that Barack Obama did so poorly at Saturday's Saddleback civil forum that left-wing commentators and members of the Obama entourage have made allegations of cheating against John McCain. I first saw the story at Newsbusters, which noted that NBC's Andrea Mitchell suggested to her colleague the possibility of McCain cheating by overhearing Pastor Rick Warren's interview with Obama. Betsy Newmark responded to the Newsbusters piece: “These guys are so full of themselves and their guy's miraculous abilities that they can't imagine John McCain would actually come off as more forceful and prepared than Obama. So they have started whispering that McCain, with his superhuman powers, somehow escaped the ‘cone of silence’ to overhear the questions.” (READ MORE)
DrewM @ Ace of Spades: Obama Camp: Yeah He Was Lying About That Abortion Bill - Obama's been getting a lot of heat for opposing the Illinois version of the federal Born Alive Act, which would have provided protections for babies that survived an attempted abortion. His campaign now says he opposed the bill because it would have undermined Illinois abortion law. The funny thing is, as recently as Saturday Obama claimed that he only opposed the bill as a state Senator because it didn't include language that would have prevented it from undermining Roe v. Wade. “Brody: Real quick, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. I gotta tell you that's the one thing I get a lot of emails about and it's just not just from Evangelicals, it about Catholics, Protestants, main -- they're trying to understand it because there was some literature put out by the National Right to Life Committee. And they're basically saying they felt like you misrepresented your position on that bill.” (READ MORE)
Richard Landes: Incompetence or Bad Faith? Sheehan tries to explain why Bush’s Peace Plan is failing in Middle East - Edward R.F. Sheehan, a former fellow of Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, had an op-ed in the Boston Globe recently that illustrates everything that’s wrong with the kind of “policy” thinking that emanates from both Washington and the major academic institutions. It also represents the kind of editorial the Globe will run, ad infinitum, because it articulates liberal cognitive egocentrism to perfection. This has taken me some time to fisk because it is so relentlessly, discouragingly wrongheaded. Not knowing Sheehan’s other work, I don’t know if it’s stupidity or dishonesty. But it most surely is the kind of advocacy for the Palestinians — indeed for the most irredentist and extremist of the Palestinians — one can find. The Globe should be proud; it has upheld its editorial tradition. (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: The fire in Russia - Most of Russia’s current power and influence comes from its production and control of energy. According to the DOE, “Russia’s economic growth over the past seven years has been driven primarily by energy exports, given the increase in Russian oil production and relatively high world oil prices during the period.” “Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas exports. In order to manage windfall oil receipts, the government established a stabilization fund in 2004. By the end of 2007, the fund was expected to be worth $158 billion, or about 12 percent of the country’s nominal GDP. According to calculations by Alfa Bank, the fuel sector accounts for about 20.5 percent of GDP, down from around 22 percent in 2000. According to IMF and World Bank estimates, the oil and gas sector generated more than 60 percent of Russia’s export revenues (64% in 2007), and accounted for 30 percent of all foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country.” (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Guantanamo Bay, Denver - It appears as if the city of Denver has its own formerly secret prison. The city converted a warehouse into a jail to process and house those who get arrested during the Democratic National Convention. There is no doubt the jail was built for the DNC and not because Denver needed a new jail. Interestingly, the jail was a secret. No one was supposed to know about it and probably would not have until the arrests started but someone found out and exposed it. Civil rights groups are up in arms and claim that this has the potential to lead to abuse of people’s civil rights. I agree that a secret prison would have that potential but since it is no longer a secret it is no different than any other jail. But let us explore the whole secret jail issue. The Democrats knew about it and it was built especially for their convention. (READ MORE)
Dadmanly: Georgia on My Mind - What to make of events in Georgia, or the obviously preplanned depredations of Russia’s Putin in responding to Georgian “aggression”? Are we entering an era of a renewed Cold War? Has history resurrected itself? What to make of Evil that brooks no opposition, nor makes any effort to hide or disguise its true nature? How many times will the world need to relearn the same lesson in different guise? Victor Davis Hanson evaluates reaction from certain quarters of the American political landscape, writing at The Corner: “Once again for the Left, if it is a question of supporting Democratic states and those in them from tyrants—or finding new creative ways of blaming the United States first—well, the answer is a no-brainer. And from paleos one expected a sort of 'Georgia's bigmouth stuck his neck in a noose, so let him hang,' but the near gleeful admiration for the way 'ole Putin 'took care of business' in his backyard was over the top even for them.” (READ MORE)
Noah Shachtman: Russians Promise Pullout; Troops Remain - Surprise, surprise. "Russia's military says its withdrawal from Georgia has begun, but there has been no indication that such a pull back is happening" so far, CNN reports. "President Dmitry Medvedev vowed to "begin the withdrawal of the military contingent" starting Monday," the Washington Post adds. But "Russian leaders have made contradictory and at times clearly false statements about their troops' plans and positions ever since the Georgia operation began." On Saturday, for example, a top Russian general told reporters that his country had no troops in Gori, a city in the heart of Georgia. On Monday, Russia's deputy chief of staff said the pullout of those formerly non-existent forces was underway. (READ MORE)
DiscerningTexan: Stating the Obvious: Russia ALREADY at War with US - As usual, Michael Ledeen drowns the Big Lie with an icy cooler of Gatorade. In stating the obvious--i.e. that the Russians under Putin have been at War with the United States all along--Ledeen rips away the veil that the appeasement-minded pundits, politicians and the other usual suspects on the Left once again find themselves hiding behind. It is so refreshing to see an American writer standing up for what is right--"not because it is easy, but because it is hard..."The Evil Empire is back--make no mistake about that. Once upon a time America had leadership who were not afraid to speak boldly about our enemies, or to boldly call them out for who and what they are. It is what real leaders do; to pretend otherwise, or to try to "positive think" the reality away is to tacitly accept the unacceptable, until the unacceptable devours all in its path. Obama is fond of saying that America can't "drill its way out" of our energy dependence: (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Fisking Pelosi - In opposing drilling, she cited T. Boone Pickens — who actually is calling for drilling east, west and in ANWR. I wrote about Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi squaring off with Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito over the weekend. It was worse than I thought. Not only did Pelosi give pedestrian partisan platitudes about petroleum, but she got her facts wrong. Pelosi: “The Republican ‘drill only’ plan would lower oil prices by only 2 cents a gallon over 10 years. Even Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens says, ‘This is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of’.” T. Boone Pickens: “McCain says, ‘OK off the East and West Coast.’ I say East, West Coast and ANWR – get it all! To get off of foreign oil, that is the enemy. … You’re drilling and whatever you are able to find and put into the domestic system will help us.” Please note whose Web site I linked. (READ MORE)
Gribbit's Word: Try As He Might, Obama’s Case To Tie McCain To Bush Falls FLAT - In the wake of Obama’s poor showing at the Saddleback Church, the Obamassiah went on the attack in a feeble attempt to link McCain to unpopular George W. Bush. First of all, George W. Bush irritates enough Conservatives on his own by not being Conservative enough, but to attempt to tie John McCain to him is like trying to tie Conservatives to George Wallace. They aren’t the same. But you can’t teach an old liberal new tricks. Obama had to come off his poor showing in the face of Rev. Rick Warren with something that the tin foil left could rally behind - and tying anything to George W. Bush is bound to have the bong smokers in a tizzy. Let’s face facts people, Obama showed just how empty of a suit he is on the abortion questions alone. (READ MORE)
Hamilton, Madison, and Jay: Pushing Back Against The "Push-Back" - The Obama campaign is not happy. Jerome Corsi has penned a book -- The Obama Nation" that has his supporters hopping mad. Thomas and I have read his book and while it was interesting it was not nearly as enlightening as David Freddoso's book "The Case Against Barack Obama." The difference here is that his campaign has pulled out the long knives for Mr. Corsi, and we feel it is a tactical mistake. In going after Mr. Corsi they have given him a level of credence that John Kerry refused to give to Mr. Corsi and Mr. O'Neill after the published "Unfit for Command" in 2004. The "Push-Back" piece they have released is here. A good deal of it is wrapped in vague non-defenses, and the 41 page piece ends with an attempt to smear Mr. Corsi with things that are not even related to his book. May I offer a hint to the Obama campaign? Stick to the point of your contention, and do not wade off into a smear campaign. It does not make you look good. (READ MORE)
The Hatemonger Quarterly: Crying Wolf, Crying Racism - The Obama Campaign’s Un-Official Guide - Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic contender for president of these here United States of America, is—as he never tires of telling us—a post-racial candidate. Yes, Sen. Obama (D-Bromides), though a man of mixed racial origins, hopes to transcend race in his campaign for this land’s highest office. And what, you may reasonably ask, makes up Sen. Obama’s post-racial politics? Why, crying racism at every turn, it appears. Ah: How very novel. What a nice change from the divisive rhetoric of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who…cry racism at every turn. We noted this, dear reader, as a result of Sen. Obama’s erstwhile remarks regarding the physical dissimilarities between himself and the US presidents whose faces adorn American paper currency. Yes, yes, yes: Sen. Obama doesn’t resemble George Washington in the least, and the evil Republicans will surely make the most of that factoid. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Do Democrats actually listen to T Boone Pickens? - Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Debbie Stabenow, and the rest of the Senate Democrats have recently begun singing the praises of T. Boone Pickens. Even Barack Obama says that “Pickens is right” when it comes to energy. Why? Pickens has spent a lot of money backing wind power, and these Democrats want to latch onto Pickens’ substantial investment in alternative energy sources to bolster their claim that we can’t produce our way out of a supply crisis. In fact, Pickens has actively endorsed the Republican “kitchen sink” plan. He wants to drill in the OCS, in ANWR, in the interior West for shale, as well as increase efforts to develop mass-production alternatives in energy. Unlike Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, he scoffs at the notion that increasing regulation on “speculators” will produce lower gas prices for American consumers. (READ MORE)
Hugh Hewitt: Obama's Credibility Gap - Large and Growing - The consensus on yesterday's forum at Saddleback Valley Community Church is that Senator McCain had an exceptional night, that Rick Warren pulled off a very difficult job, and that Senator Obama was smooth as usual except for his "above my pay grade" gaffe, which is one of those phrases that will stick and hurt. Obama also had on display yesterday a very troubling slipperiness that is increasingly defining him. The senator has tried, somewhat successfully for the time being, to slip away from his associations with Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. He has also managed to slip into a "reformer" shtick that has zero connection to his hyper-partisan voting record. But yesterday he tried to slip past at least two issues on which such obfuscation shouldn't work --same sex marriage and Senate ethics reform. (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: Sore loser: Obama and Obamedia accuse McCain of “cheating” - No, really. The Obama camp and its media water-carriers are seriously accusing John McCain of “cheating” in his appearance over the weekend at Rick Warren’s Saddleback church forum because he was in his motorcade when the program started– and then escorted to an empty room without media hook-ups. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell spread the unsubstantiated rumor that somehow McCain heard Obama’s questions while on his drive. The nutroots went, well, nuts. The NYTimes piled on (“Despite Assurances, McCain Wasn’t In a ‘Cone of Silence’“). The McCain camp has protested. And now we have the spectacle of the Democrat presidential nominee and his press entourage bleating about the “cone of silence” because he didn’t fare as well as his opponent. Yes, the Obama has just confirmed that it is operating in a cone of abject stupidity. Maybe a little less fun in the sun next time, eh, Barry O? (READ MORE)
The Monkey Tennis Centre: Empty T-shirts for an empty suit - The vapidity of Obama's 'youth appeal' is splashed across two pages in the Review section of today's UK Observer newspaper. The piece is online here. The main article, by Amy Larocca of New York magazine, rehashes all the well-worn points about Obama's popularity among young people – the endorsements by pop and movie stars, the 'cool' factor, his mastery of the internet and so on (although Larocca neglects to mention that the McCain campaign has recently enjoyed great success with its web video ads). Nothing new there, even for British readers. Lines such as 'Obama understood from the start how to use the net' aren't exactly piercing political insight. Accompanying the article are photos of seven suitably hip young Americans, wearing Obama T-shirts and photographed against authentically 'grungy' urban backdrops. And beside the photos are 'vox pops' in which they explain why Obama appeals to them. (READ MORE)
McQ: Keeping an eye on Georgia - One of the questions I’ve been asking since the Russian invasion of Georgia is how the necessary buildup and staging of troops by Russia could have been missed by Georgia. As I’ve noted before, unless troops are prepared and staged to go on order, an army cannot react in the time the Russians did. That means there were signs and indicators that such a move was forthcoming. The NYT provides us with a list of those signs: “If the rapidly unfolding events caught much of the world off guard, that kind of coordination of the old and the new did not look accidental to military professionals. ‘They seem to have harnessed all their instruments of national power — military, diplomatic, information — in a very disciplined way,’ said one Pentagon official, who like others interviewed for this article disclosed details of the operation under ground rules that called for anonymity.’” (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nut House: BORN TO LIE - One of the things that makes close observers of politics so jaded and cynical is the fact that at one time or another, to one degree or another, every politician will lie. Now everyone tells little white lies all the time. Some evolutionary biologists theorize that our ability to lie (usually to spare another’s feelings regarding their self image or self worth) assisted hominids in forming tight knit groups and therefore improved their survivability. Such behavior has been seen among chimpanzees – but in a more “political” way. A less dominant male who has mated with a female will seek to hide that fact from the Alpha male (as will the female). This is lying done to prevent a bad outcome – something with which any American politician is very familiar. Most political lies are transparent. It’s almost as if a game is being played with the voter. (READ MORE)
Rhymes with Right: Obama Damns Himself As Unqualified - By engaging in an attack on Clarence Thomas as having lacked sufficient experience to serve as one of nine justices on the US Supreme Court. After all, consider Thomas' record at the time of his nomination to the High Court. “By the time he was nominated, Clarence Thomas had worked in the Missouri Attorney General's office, served as an Assistant Secretary of Education, run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sat for a year on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation's second most prominent court.” Oh, and what does Barack Obama have on his resume as he runs to be the President of the United States, with all of its military and foreign affairs responsibilities? “Mr. Obama isn't yet four years out of the Illinois state Senate, has never held a hearing of note of his U.S. Senate subcommittee, and had an unremarkable record as both a ‘community organizer’ and law school lecturer.” (READ MORE)
Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.
No comments:
Post a Comment