August 19, 2008

Web Reconnaissance for 08/19/2008

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Musharraf leaves doubts - The long-anticipated resignation of President Pervez Musharraf on Monday may not hurt the U.S. war on terror because the Pakistani leader had not done a particularly good job of confronting al Qaeda and the Taliban, U.S. counterterrorism officials and Pakistan analysts said. (READ MORE)

Georgia, Russia exchange war prisoners - IGOETI, Georgia (AP) – Russia and Georgia on Tuesday exchanged prisoners captured during their brief war, a move that may reduce tensions and, Georgia hopes, hasten the promised withdrawal of Russian troops. (READ MORE)

Obama risking pro-life backlash - Barack Obama's pursuit of evangelical voters has pushed the abortion issue to the fore of the campaign debate and risks mobilizing pro-life voters - who so far have been apathetic about Republican John McCain - to oppose the Democrat. (READ MORE)

Georgia hackers strike apart from Russian military - Hacker attacks that accompanied the Russian military offensive in Georgia were not the work of the Russian government as Georgia claimed, but of a loose network that had previously targeted pornography and gambling sites, Internet experts say. (READ MORE)

Rice warns of new Iron Curtain - Despite harsh warnings by U.S. officials, Western nations have a slim range of options for punishing Russia for invading Georgia without damaging international institutions and their own interests, former U.S. officials and analysts say. (READ MORE)

Musharraf Exits, but Uncertainty Remains - ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 18 -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation Monday signaled the beginning of a new round of political uncertainty as the country's civilian government tries to reshape the legacy of nearly nine years of military rule. (READ MORE)

Who's No. 2? Obama Keeps Everybody Guessing. - This is Veep Week. That, in reality, is about all that anyone outside Sen. Barack Obama's inner, inner circle knows -- that sometime before next week the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee will announce his running mate. Beyond that, the political world is in a zone of fevered speculation. (READ MORE)

No Sign of a Russian Departure in Georgia - ZUGDIDI, Georgia, Aug. 18 -- Russian troops remained camped out Monday in a Georgian military base in this western city and in a nearby house said to be the Georgian president's vacation retreat, showing no sign of leaving on what Moscow called Day One of a pullout from Georgia. (READ MORE)

Scientists: FBI destroyed Ivins' matching anthrax sample - WASHINGTON — Contrary to initial reports, Bruce Ivins did give investigators a sample of the anthrax the FBI has identified as the same type used in the attacks, but they destroyed it because it didn't meet their standards for evidence. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Anne Applebaum: Russia's Flashback To 1968 - Forty years ago this week, on the night of Aug. 20-21, 1968, thousands of tanks and hundreds of thousands of Soviet and Warsaw Pact soldiers entered Czechoslovakia. The goal of the invasion was straightforward: to prevent a Soviet satellite from carrying out democratic reforms that, had they been allowed to succeed, could have threatened the legitimacy of the governments of other Soviet satellites and, indeed, of the Soviet Union itself. Superficially, it has to be said, the events of August 1968 do bear some resemblance to the events of August 2008, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has observed. For yes, not only are tanks with Russian commanders again rolling over the territory of another sovereign country, the invaders' intentions are in some ways similar: Once again, Russians are punishing a former satellite whose reforms, if successful, could challenge their own political system. (READ MORE)

Ahmed Rashid: Beyond Musharraf - ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The resignation of President Pervez Musharraf yesterday after nine years in office is a major victory for Pakistan's long-battered and still fragile democratic forces. But particularly given the meltdown the country has endured in recent weeks, there are still many obstacles to effective civilian governance. Although the United States will expect things to change in a hurry, they are unlikely to do so right away. Three of Pakistan's past four military rulers have been driven from power by popular movements, but the politicians who followed the military all failed to take advantage of the people's desire for democracy and economic development and were eventually forced out by the military on charges of corruption and incompetence. (READ MORE)

Richard Cohen: Is Ossetia Essential? - Last year, Brent Scowcroft described to the Council on Foreign Relations his "most difficult judgment call" as George H.W. Bush's national security adviser. It entailed preparing Bush for an early morning news conference regarding an attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. Later on, Scowcroft was asked about the first Bush administration's decision to look the other way as Saddam Hussein's attack helicopters slaughtered Shiites in the south of Iraq. He seemed unmoved. It is not for nothing that he is called a "realist." Now I, too, would like to become a realist -- if just for a day. I'd like to ask who among us is willing to fight to bring South Ossetia back into the Georgian fold? How about Abkhazia? These are the ethnic enclaves that Georgia claims and Russia -- not to put too fine a point on it -- supports. They are the immediate reasons for the recent war. (READ MORE)

Thomas Sowell: Georgia On Our Mind - What is happening in the republic of Georgia is all too reminiscent of what happened back in 1956, when Russian tanks rolled into Hungary-- and the West did nothing. An argument might well be made that, realistically, there was nothing the West could have done-- then or now-- that would have forced the Russians out. But there was bitterness, then as now, that the West may have encouraged people to risk their lives, relying on us, when we knew from the outset that we were not about to risk armed conflict with a nuclear superpower over Hungary then or Georgia now. The West has a long history of doing nothing, utilizing the United Nations, and before that the League of Nations, to create the illusion that they are doing something, when they make speeches and pass resolutions. Neither speeches nor resolutions are going to make any difference to the Russians, to the Iranians or to any other belligerent nation. We know it, they know it and the world knows it. (READ MORE)

David Limbaugh: Pro-Choice McCain Veep Equals Political Suicide - I hate to rain on John McCain's parade right after he trounced Barack Obama at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church forum, for which I heartily applaud him, but McCain's trial balloon consideration of a pro-choice running mate demands a response. The prospect of an Obama presidency is so horrifying that many conservatives have temporarily put aside their misgivings about McCain to focus on defeating Obama. They hold their noses on McCain's immigration record, his campaign finance reform zealotry and his newfound acquiescence to the propaganda narrative of environmental extremists. But they are profoundly appreciative of his tougher stance against tax increases and mindful of his undeniable superiority over Obama on foreign policy and national defense. Recent world events, including Russia's naked aggression against Georgia, magnify this already-glaring contrast. (READ MORE)

Mike S. Adams: Fat Lesbians on Crack - So this lesbian goes walking into a counselor’s office to get help with her same-sexed relationship. Actually, it sounds like the start of a really bad joke but it isn’t. The counselor’s name is Marcia Walden. In addition to being a counselor she is a devout Christian who believes it is immoral to engage in same-sex relationships. So she faced a tough decision when Jane, her prospective client, sought help resolving problems in her lesbian relationship. Rather than misleading her, Marcia decided to tell Jane about her religious conflict, indicating that it would be unfair for her (Jane) if she were to serve as her counselor. But she remained helpful and offered to refer Jane to another counselor named Ken Cook. Jane met with Mr. Cook just ten minutes later and even acknowledged that her counseling experience was “exemplary.” Mr. Cook told Marcia she had done the “right thing” by making the referral. For awhile everyone seemed happy, if not gay. (READ MORE)

Chuck Norris: Butting Heads at the Border - This past week, a 10-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol shot and wounded a man in the left buttock who assaulted agents at a violent stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite the fact that the man was among a group that was trying to enter the United States illegally and was throwing rocks and concrete chunks at agents, officials at the Mexican Consulate in San Diego are criticizing the agent and demanding the U.S. conduct a full investigation. Consul General Remedios Gomez Arnau said: "Any kind of shooting toward Mexican territory is rejected by the Mexican government. They should have waited for response of the Mexican authorities." Are you kidding me? Do I smell another Compean-and-Ramos case in the making? Do illegals think border crossing is nothing more than a game of cat and mouse? Do Mexican officials think we only are playing "rock, paper, scissors" at the border? (READ MORE)

Dennis Prager: If There Is No God - We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion -- intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of "heretics," holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion. What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism -- the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies. For all the problems associated with belief in God, the death of God leads to far more of them. So, while it is not possible to prove (or disprove) God's existence, what is provable is what happens when people stop believing in God. (READ MORE)

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist Problem - Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama’s appearance before a large evangelical congregation in Orange County over the weekend underscored an evident imperative of his campaign: Emphasize his Christian faith and put to rest insistent rumors that he secretly adheres to the Islamic creed of his father and youth. The effort to minimize any grounds for fearing Obama has an abiding, if covert, attachment to Islam has prompted him to risk offending Muslims in order to avoid off-message controversies and photo ops. It is, therefore, curious in the extreme that he is giving a prominent role at next week’s Democratic convention to a leader of an organization identified by the Department of Justice as a Muslim Brotherhood front organization and an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism financing conspiracy. Dr. Ingrid Mattson is the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA): (READ MORE)

Harry R. Jackson, Jr.: Faith, Science, and Public Policy - Is climate change a greater threat than freezing the jobless in the dark? This is a real question for both today’s priests and politicians. Energy policies that protect the poor should be the highest priority for both the clergy and lawmakers. As our culture awakens to the changing dynamics of our environment, we cannot forget our history. In 1900, there were no airplanes or computers, and virtually no cars, telephones or electricity. Wood and coal heated drafty homes. Tuberculosis and other diseases killed millions. The average American life expectancy was only 47 years old. Thanks to affordable energy and the indomitable American spirit, the average American now lives to age 78. He or she travels our nation and world at will, and lives better than royalty did a century ago. We’ve eradicated killer diseases and developed technologies even Jules Verne couldn’t imagine. (READ MORE)

A Newt One: Saddleback: The Refrain - Senator Barack Hussein Obamas' performance at the Saddleback Valley Communty Church Forum was exceptional on 16 AUG 08. Yes indeed. It was exceptional on many fronts but the most revealing of the exchanges between the Presidential Aspirants and Pastor Rick Warren was the way that the would-be First Czar of the United Socialist States of AmeriKKKa was thoroughly taken out behind the woodshed and ultimately spanked by that "crazy white-haired dude". Senator Obama proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is not only incapable of running this nation, he may not be ready until he is a crazy white-haired dude. Even that is doubtful. The first thing he needs to work on is actually knowing just what he is talking about instead of a blithering dunce. Those which support Senator Obama and those that now used to support Senator Obama were so stunned by the dismal performance that this poor slog had to write Parts 2 and 3 in utter la-la land in its guy, The One. (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: NYS Legislators Call For End Of National Guard Deployments - Two New York legislators have decided that they're going to burnish their anti-war credentials by proposing legislation that will require the state to bring home those National Guard troops deployed to Iraq and to prevent future deployments. “Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan) and Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn) unveiled the measure yesterday at a news conference. They joined Military Families Speak Out, an anti-war organization, in front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Times Square. However, Perkins said, neither he nor Adams has found any Republican co-sponsors so far for the legislation - practically a requirement in a GOP-controlled Senate. Nor have they found a potential sponsor in the Democratic-led Assembly. Perkins said the legislation is still in its infancy. Both senators are facing re-election in November, along with the rest of the legislature.” In other words, this has no chance to actually move forward. It's a publicity stunt. Nothing more. (READ MORE)

A Soldier's Mind: Wounded Warriors Aim For The “Top” - I’ve always said that anything you set your mind to, you can achieve, with a bit of determination and hard work. Every day, many of our Wounded Warriors are proving that correct, in the things they undertake. So many of them have injuries that have altered their lives, yet, they’ve not let those injuries stop them from living full and productive lives. In fact, for many of them, the challenges they face in regards to their injuries, are just the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to the things that they challenge themselves with. In the state of Alaska, a team of wounded warriors are currently training to reach the “top.” You might wonder what I’m referring to, so I’ll tell you. The team of wounded warriors are currently training to reach the top of Mount McKinley. Their hopes are that next summer, they will spend a good portion of the time assaulting the mountain. (READ MORE)

Donald Douglas: Resurgent Declinism in International Relations - Robert Lieber, at World Affairs, offers an essential rebuttal to the resurgent thesis of American decline in international relations theory. Lieber notes that claims of America's relative international decline have ideological foundations, usually gaining popularity amid periods of robust assertions of power in American foreign affairs. As with past episodes, today's arguments of American decline ignore the realities of the balance of world power, and thus undestimate the endurance of U.S. preponderance: “Is America finished? Respected public intellectuals, think tank theorists, and members of the media elite seem to think so. The scare headline in a recent New York Times Magazine cover story by Parag Khanna titled ‘Waving Goodbye to Hegemony’ asks, ‘Who Shrunk the Superpower?’ Almost daily, learned authors proclaim The End of the American Era, as the title of a 2002 book by Charles Kupchan put it, and instruct us that the rise of China and India, the reawakening of Putin’s Russia, and the expansion of the European Union signal a profound shift in geopolitical power that will retire once and for all the burden of American Exceptionalism.” (READ MORE)

Bar Kochba: Spitting on the Ashes - Of the most disgusting and absurd charges levelled against Israel is the charge of genocide. It is made particularly reprehensible by the term "Palestinian holocaust". The soldiers of the IDF are often slandered as "occupiers", "racists" and of course "Nazis". It is not uncommon to hear comparisons between Israel's defensive actions and the sadistic tortures of the Nazis. Unfortunately, in a world without a moral compass, any brutal act of anti-semitism can be legitimized. The Holocaust was unique in the annals of human history. Never before had mass murder been perpetrated so methodically and bureaucratically, and on such a widespread scale. The Germans used state-of-the-art technology to exterminate the Jewish people. Trains ran like clockwork from as far north as Norway and as far south as Greece to transport Jews to their deaths in death camps in Poland. (READ MORE)

Blonde Sagacity: Obama VS. McCain - "Last weekend's McCain-Obama protodebate made it clear why Obama won't keep his promise to debate McCain "anywhere, anytime." McCain, with a robust resume and details at his fingertips, won big. ...After what happened at Lake Forest, Calif.'s evangelical Saddleback megachurch Saturday evening, we may have found that debating is Obama's Achilles' heel..." (source) It would seem that both candidates have decided on their Veep choices. Barack is rumored to let his pick be known as early as this Wednesday. And McCain will divulge on the 29th. Obama's got a great cyber-scam running right now: supporters can sign up to be the first to know the VP choice via email alerts and text messages. While you are signing up (via his website) to garner this exclusive knowledge, you are also agreeing to be sent all kinds of other campaign SPAM with no way of opting out. (READ MORE)

Big Dog: MD Senator Currie Wrong On Gun Ownership - Maryland State Senator Ulysses Currie of the 25th district (who is under federal investigation for illegal activities) wrote a piece about gun control. Currie is upset that the Supreme Court reaffirmed what our founders stated by ruling that the Second Amendment is an individual right. Currie takes exception to this and indicates that no other court has ruled this way. Actually, no other court has looked at this issue. The 1939 Miller case is held by gun control advocates as a bellwether for a militia interpretation but the ruling had nothing to do with the issue at hand. It dealt with interstate commerce and a weapon, not who had the right to carry it. Currie is very upset that the SCOTUS overturned the DC gun ban and, like Chicken Little, cries “the sky is falling.” He asserts that we will have more murders in DC and he further goes to point out that states with more lenient gun control laws have higher death by gun rates. (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: The Library of Babel - Stanley Kurtz at the National Review Online describes how he was first granted and then denied access to the records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a fund worth $50 million led by Bill Ayers and chaired at one point by Barack Obama. Kurtz’s research purpose was to discover the extent of Barack Obama’s relatinship with Ayers, and the part the Candidate played in Chicago educational politics. The Wikipedia entry notes that the Challenge suggests that its story and the role it played in the politics of education in Chicago promised to be an interesting one. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Demonizing McCain - Reporters are letting Democrats smear Republican Sen. John McCain. Not that I’m complaining. Just pointing out the obvious. This spring, a Cincinnati radio talk show host introduced McCain to the crowd by calling his opponent Barack Hussein Obama. McCain immediately denounced that host. McCain took the high road. Democratic Sen. Obama? Not so much. He’s out there smearing McCain as a smear artist. And reporters for the Old Line Media are buying into it. Obama is not attacking McCain. Instead, he is “defending” himself. From imaginary attacks. Karen Tumulty of Time: “Barack Obama seems to have gotten the message about his message. In the past few days, amid growing concerns among Democratic allies, Obama has begun campaigning in a different gear, one that is more aggressive in attacking John McCain and more focused on the economic concerns of struggling Americans.” The headline: “Obama Sharpens the Message.” (READ MORE)

Jules Crittenden: Two Down - In two days for Mashpee, Massachusetts. A pair of remarkable young men: USMC PFC Daniel Maguire, 19, Mashpee High class of 2007, was killed in a firefight in Fallujah August 14. He was an Eagle Scout and a top student who enlisted to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps, and becuase, his friends say, he very much believed in what America is trying to do in the world. “‘I’m very proud of my son and what he was doing,’ said Dan McGuire, 45, of Mashpee. ‘He went from high school straight into the Marine Corps. His grandfather was a Marine, and joining the Corps was a desire of his for a long time.’” Army PFC Paul E. Conlon, 21, Mashpee High class of 2005, was killed August 15 by an IED in Afghanistan. Another top college-bound student who opted to enlist. He reportedly had the opportunity to leave when he was wounded earlier in his tour but refused. “‘I can’t leave my brothers,’ he reportedly told his mother, who is quoted saying her son ‘died doing what he always wanted to do.’” (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: Pat Buchanan: “If Cold War II is coming, who started it, if not us?” - For a man willing to blame Britain for World War II, this is an easy call. Kevin Drum has already addressed the stupidity of the idea that the U.S., in Buchanan’s words, might have given Georgia “a green light” to invade South Ossetia, so read him for that. I’m more interested in the two strands here. One is the isolationist point that it’s foolish and dangerous for the U.S. to commit itself to defending foreign powers by admitting them to NATO; whether NATO membership for Russia’s neighbors would increase or actually reduce the risk of war is debatable, but on its own terms that point is fair enough. It’s the second strand that carries the distinctive Buchanan odor. Tell me if I’m wrong to read this — particularly the tender description of Putin as a “Russian patriot” — as a none-too-veiled attempt to defend Russian expansionism: “Should America admit Ukraine into NATO, Yalta, vacation resort of the czars, will be a NATO port and Sevastopol, traditional home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, will become a naval base for the U.S. Sixth Fleet. This is altogether a bridge too far.” (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Obama: Gee, a single-payer health-care system would be sweet - If Barack Obama had his druthers, he told an Albuquerque audience yesterday, he’d have a single-payer system for managing health care. Unfortunately, the transition would throw a lot of HMO employees out of work, so Obama says we have to fix the present system instead. Or, perhaps, just first: “Barack Obama said he would consider embracing a single-payer health-care system, beloved by liberals, as his plan for broader coverage evolves over time. ‘If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system,’ Obama told some 1,800 people at a town-hall style meeting on the economy.” Can we breathe easier, knowing Obama doesn’t want to overthrow the American system of medicine? Not really: (READ MORE)

This Ain't Hell: Obama at the VFW (UPDATED) - I just caught snippets of Obama’s speech at the VFW this morning and I just want to make some comments to clarify that which he has muddied. Obama claimed that he opposed the war in Iraq at a time when it was politically difficult for him to do so. That’s Horseshit. It hasn’t been politically difficult for anyone to oppose the war in Iraq since 1990. The entire Democrat caucus held GHW Bush hostage for tax hikes while troops were on the ground in the Middle East facing Hussein’s armies. I remember three congressmen standing on the roof of one of Saddam’s palaces and say that Hussein was more trustworthy than President Bush while they opposed the war in Iraq. At no time in our recent history has it been politically difficult to be against any war. Obama claimed that he knew that the war in Iraq would give rise to Islamic extremism in the region. (READ MORE)

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