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)
New Auto Rescue Plan Focuses on Oversight - Congressional Democrats are drafting legislation that would give the teetering Detroit automakers at least $15 billion in emergency loans early next week and grant the federal government broad authority to manage a massive restructuring of their operations. (READ MORE)
A Bench More White, Male and Conservative - As other presidents have vowed, President Bush said in 2001 that he would not impose an ideological litmus test for his appointees. He said he would demand only their understanding that "the role of a judge is to interpret the law, not to legislate from the bench." (READ MORE)
Indian Minister Denies Making Menacing Call, Blasts Pakistan - NEW DELHI, Dec. 7 -- India's foreign minister accused Pakistan on Sunday of trying to deflect attention from the role of its citizens in last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai by leaking word of a hoax phone call to the Pakistani president's office that reportedly forced its air force to go on... (READ MORE)
Ray Kelly's Wiretap Alarm - India's three days of carnage stand as another warning about how easily terrorists can perpetrate a major attack. So when top New York City counterterrorism officials declare that U.S. intelligence laws are shackling their powers to prevent the next Mumbai, it ought to raise more than eyebrows. (READ MORE)
Prime Mumbai Suspect Arrested - One of the suspected senior planners of the Mumbai attacks was among several Lashkar-e-Taiba activists arrested in a raid by Pakistani forces. (READ MORE)
Obama Preserves Capital for Stimulus - Barack Obama's transition team is resisting Bush administration overtures to coordinate more on the financial-sector rescue. (READ MORE)
Taliban Expanding Foothold in Afghanistan - WASHINGTON -- The Taliban have expanded their footprint in Afghanistan and now have a permanent presence in nearly three-quarters of the country, according to a new report. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
A Soldier's Mind: Honoring Fallen Texas Warriors, One Portrait At A Time - When the life of a Soldier is lost in combat, their untimely death leaves a huge gaping hole in the lives of their loved ones. Many of our fallen, are very young and have just began to experience the joys that life can bring. Recognizing this, Texas artist Phil Taylor has taken on the tremendous task of creating a portrait of fallen Texas heroes. His unique style of utilizing pastels, pencil and acrylic on canvas, creates a lasting memory of the fallen warrior for their loved ones. Using his talent, he is able to capture the personality of the fallen warrior. His hope is that by doing so, he can bring some solace and peace to the grieving families of these fallen Texas Heroes. Phil began his labor of love, shortly after his youngest daughter attended prom in May 2007. Her prom date was killed in a motorcycle accident, just a few days short of graduating from high school. (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Obama Illegitimate Until He Proves Otherwise - There has been an issue with Barack Obama since well before the general election and that is, is he qualified to serve as president? This issue does not deal with his skill to hold the job (in that case he is definitely unqualified), no in this instance it deals with his qualification under the Constitution. Is Barack Obama a natural born citizen as required by our Constitution or has the biggest con game in America been perpetrated by the man who wants to move us to Socialism and his henchmen in the DNC? Before we go any further let’s dispense with the fraud that his supporters will undoubtedly bring to light. No you morons, Obama did not provide a copy of his birth certificate and his BIRTH CERTIFICATE was not verified by anyone. A Certificate of Live Birth (COLB) was released. It was verified as real, big deal. A COLB is just proof that a birth is registered in Hawaii, not that the bearer was actually born there. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Progressively disappointed - They told me that if I voted for John McCain,our troops would remain in Iraq, the tax cuts for the rich would stand, and we would get a third term of Bush at the Pentagon. I did. And they were right. Ah yes. The first version I heard of this was 40 years ago. It went: They said if I voted for Goldwater, there would be a half-million troops in Saigon. I did and they were right. The impracticality of the liberal — progressive — socialist ideas he espoused during his 2-year siege on the White House are coming home. And more than a month before he takes office the complaints are coming. I have posted on this already, but Politico had an interesting story on this. It quoted Tim Carpenter, national director of the Progressive Democrats of America: “He has confirmed what our suspicions were by surrounding himself with a centrist to right cabinet. But we do hope that before it’s all over we can get at least one authentic progressive appointment.” (READ MORE)
Dymphna: The Best Presents Don't Cost You Anything - This is an intensely memorable weekend for many Americans, especially those in the military and their families. Yesterday was the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. President Bush was in attendance as Navy shut out Army, 34-0. There is intense rivalry between the two teams who are students at their respective military academies at Annapolis and West Point. It was, and always is, a particularly poignant game for the first year students; they play their final match against one another before graduation next year. And today, of course, is the 67th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Until September 11 2001, the attack on Pearl Harbor was the closest that war had come to the U.S. Both attacks share some similarities: they were sudden, literally out- of-the-blue strikes from the air. Both attacks caused horrible destruction and both left our country permanently changed. (READ MORE)
Heading Right: Mumbai and the Deepak Dilemma - In Mumbai, a terrorist attack unfolded that created a firestorm of debate. Sanitized media coverage, led by the New York Times, obscured facts and minimized known facts about the situation on the ground. In a hail of gunfire at least 172 people were killed in cold blood, hundreds more were injured. Much like an Al Qa’ida operation, the spectacle included multiple sites - a lot of gore - and a PR roll out. Some friendly islamic extremists noted the murderers were targeting British and Americans and other foreigners. Of course, we now know they also targeted Jews. A couple of the murderers visited the Nariman House, a Chabad center led by Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah. What happened at Nariman House was different than the attacks on the Taj hotel, the Oberoi Hotel, the railway station, the hospitals, and Cafe Leopold. In those locations, the carnage was rather obvious. Indiscriminate butchery of fellow human beings. (READ MORE)
Yankeemom: Patriotic Musicians - I received an email the other day about a father and daughter who have a band. I love that! We have musician friends whose kids decide that they want to learn the guitar or drums and to watch the pride in “Dad’s” or “Mom’s” face as their son or daughter rock out with them is just precious. Well, this Dad and daughter are not only really good, but they love this country and the ones who defend it! With all the nonsense coming from so many bands out there about how bad this country is and how our military are just hired killers, it is always so heartening to me when I find out about a band that feels just the opposite. And that’s why I want to share them with you. They are Michael Darwin and his daughter Sophie. Go here to see photos. Go here to read their story. Now they have written and produced a song called “I believe in America”. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: When pork puts our troops at risk - In the new asymmetrical wars we fight, the concern over chemical warfare has heightened, and the US military has tried to prepare for that danger. They now issue a resin powder that absorbs deadly chemicals, but a much better product has been in use for years in Canada and has been approved for use in the US since 2003. The Department of Defense would like to replace the resin with the new lotion, but Congress has forced the Pentagon to buy the old product — through earmarks: “Scientists have discovered a lotion that can save the lives of U.S. soldiers exposed to chemical weapons — a product vastly superior to the standard-issue decontamination powder. Naturally, the Defense Department wants to scrap the powder and switch to the more-effective lotion. But there’s a problem: After being lobbied by the companies making the powder, several members of Congress pushed through two earmarks worth $7.6 million that forced the military for the past two years to keep buying the inferior product.” (READ MORE)
Quid Nimis: Up in smokescreens - I, unlike many of the chattering classes, did not view Obama's cabinet appointments with relief. I didn't spend a millisecond thinking, "Well, we have to give him a chance..." I know, from experience, that people as steeped in the Alinsky model as he is are dissemblers, masters of disguise. The work of the Alinskiite "organizer" is always to disguise the actual purpose, to obscure the goals of the work in progress. I read the posts in "Commentary" that were mildly approving of the likes of Summers and Hillary; I read the more approving words of Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard. I read the gushing of David Brooks. When you think about it, how plausible do you find the idea that a man as obviously narcissistic as BO would just go for a freshened-up Clinton cabinet, unless it served some ulterior purpose? (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Haj A Good Time - Hate to suggest anyone mix religion and politics. But how about religion and morality. More than two million Muslims in town for the Hajj, all due to head home with enhanced status as Hajjis. How about someone preaching a little peace. Terrorism is bad. Murder in the name of Allah is a sin. Something like that. Maybe they do. Doesn’t sound like it, though. UK Telegraph: “Despite a ban on political activities at haj, a senior Iranian cleric gave a speech at Arafat to a group of pilgrims, who chanted ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’, Iran’s state television showed. Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, head of Iran’s haj mission, told the pilgrims some Muslims had despaired ‘in the face of Western civilization’s onslaught’ but that today there was a ‘resurgence of Islam’.” Sounds a little like that guy’s mixing religion and politics. So, I know the Sauds are more concerned with the pushing and shoving, but how about giving that guy the bum’s rush? (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: The Danger of "Terrorism as a Police Problem" Approach - Since 9/11 it has been fashionable to frame the disparate approaches to the war on terror as a false dichotemy. According to the liberal POV, the Bush administration approach to Islamic terror is primarily (if not completely) military, and includes alienating the entire Muslim world in the service of American militarism. In opposition to the military approach, John Kerry famously described terrorism as primarily a police matter, which could be approached by coordinating police work across the globe. From this followed many of the liberal talking poionts, such as Gitmo as a gulag, where torture and denial of rights was ubiquitous, the Iraq war as counter-productive and in opposition to Iraqi freedom fighters (yes, that is a caricature, but it is also the logical conclusion to those who supported a policy of immediate withdrawal), and our support of Israel as instrumental in fostering Mulsim anger toward the West. (READ MORE)
J. D. Pendry: We Stink - According to Democrat Senator Harry Reid we are little more than putrid peasants. On opening the new Capitol Visitor’s Center, the Senator was most grateful that he would no longer have to smell the Americans who wished to visit the palatial digs they paid for with their blood and tax dollars. Sadly, I fear Senator Reid is not alone in his aristocratic view of the peasantry. Yes Senator Reid there is a stench emanating from Washington. I suggest that to locate the source of it, you begin searching in increasingly larger concentric circles around your own little piece of the Capitol building. The peasantry will have to tolerate Harry Reid et al as long as the people keep sending them back to Washington. Harry Reid is an insignificant man who, if history remembers him at all, will recall that he declared a victory in Iraq as a lost war and went on to lead the most ineffective and least popular Congress our nation has ever known. (READ MORE)
Joseph B. White: Electric-Car Makers Struggle Companies Face Similar Problems as Detroit Auto Makers -- And Some Others - The heads of the struggling Detroit auto makers aren't the only car makers looking for help from Washington. The electric vehicle industry has its hands out, too. If anything, representatives of the electric and electrified vehicle business jumped ahead of the "legacy" auto industry in the transportation bailout queue that formed in the nation's capital last week. A conference sponsored by the Electric Drive Transportation Association attracted a crowd of electric vehicle manufacturers and their boosters to Washington's convention center during the first half of the week. Officials from the Department of Energy on Monday presented tips to attendees on how electric vehicle companies could apply for federal loans. The CEOs of the legacy car industry – General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC -- didn't get to town with their begging bowls until Thursday. (READ MORE)
Holman W. Jenkins Jr.: The Obama-Gore Consensus - Barack Obama's great virtue is his ability to behave like a cynical politician without getting a reputation as a cynical politician. The latest example is his left-pleasing promise during the campaign for a windfall oil tax, now quietly removed from his transition Web site. Explained an aide, the tax was all along meant to apply only if oil prices are over $80 a barrel. "They are below that now and expected to stay below that." Mr. Obama here makes a choice in favor of good economic policy. But there's something else going on. He's a student of the late radical thinker Saul Alinsky, who argued that you do or say what's necessary in a democracy to gain power, while keeping your true aims to yourself. Mr. Obama's novel contribution has been to turn this exploitation on his supporters on the left (who admittedly are so wedded to their hero that, so far, they don't seem to mind). His next big challenge is an upcoming conference updating the Kyoto targets. (READ MORE)
Learned Foote: Why Columbia Should Welcome ROTC - For nearly four decades, Columbia University has excluded Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) from its campus, a decision made in the wake of student unrest in the late 1960s. But this Sept. 11, candidates John McCain and Barack Obama reignited the debate before a crowd of 8,000 students when they both came out in favor of ROTC's return. Last week, this latest argument over ROTC ended when results of an undergraduate referendum were tallied. The pro-ROTC side lost by 39 votes. A few gay students, I among them, publicly supported the return of ROTC. Today, opposition to ROTC's return focuses predominantly on the federal law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which prevents gay people from serving openly in the armed forces. Columbia Students for Naval ROTC, a coalition of roughly 30 students, included four gay people. Notably, the other three gay members were veterans, men and women who had served under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." (READ MORE)
Nicole Gelinas: How to Do Public Works Right - President-elect Barack Obama has announced the "single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s." Getting this once-in-a-generation opportunity right doesn't involve reinventing the wheel, but rather leadership and competence at all levels of government. Anybody with a car, a mass-transit pass, or a house in a floodplain knows that the nation's crucial infrastructure has been catastrophically deteriorating, crowded out by social spending and political earmarking. In cities and suburbs served by overcrowded freeways and mass-transit systems, economic growth is physically constrained. It's important that the elected officials view public works investment not as a short-term stimulus for stimulus' stake, or a vehicle for politically driven job creation. (READ MORE)
Mary Anastasia O'Grady: Canada's Conservatives Overreach - On Oct. 14 Stephen Harper won re-election as Canada's prime minister. In most modern liberal democracies that would be interpreted as a voter preference for Mr. Harper's leadership to continue. But soon after election day, Canada's hard-left New Democratic Party and the separatist Bloc Quebecois Party began plotting to overthrow the PM in Parliament. And last week, with the help of the Liberal Party, they tried to schedule a vote of no-confidence to carry out their plan. Mr. Harper fought back by appealing to the governor general for permission to suspend Parliament until Jan. 26, and on Thursday she granted his request. His survival now depends on whether the anti-Harper coalition holds together over the next seven weeks. This power grab on the heels of Mr. Harper's victory, though perfectly legal, is one for the record books in staid Canada. (READ MORE)
Max Boot: Pirates, Terrorism and Failed States - Ever since the end of the Cold War, there has been much chatter about the problem of failed states. Now we are seeing some of the terrible consequences of state failure on the periphery of the broader Middle East. In Pakistan, terrorist groups such as the Taliban, al Qaeda, and Lashkar-e-Taiba have established themselves as a state within a state. They have virtual free reign in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and a lesser but still substantial amount of leeway in the Northwest Frontier and other provinces. That makes it all too easy for them to launch attacks such as those that killed more than 170 people in Mumbai. Or other attacks that kill NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. Across the Indian Ocean, pirates are terrorizing passing ships. The International Maritime Bureau reports that 92 ships have been attacked and 36 hijacked this year off the coast of Somalia and Yemen. (READ MORE)
Burt Prelutsky: Career Guidance - Isn't it odd how commonplace it is to have laws dictating a minimum age for drinking, driving and getting married, but not for selecting a career? How is it that teenagers are not only allowed to make such momentous decisions, but actually encouraged? High schools hold career days just to make certain that 17-year-olds will determine what they'll be doing forty or fifty years down the road. Am I the only one who finds the practice bizarre? Even terrifying? Most adults, after all, wouldn't trust these kids to pick out a tie or to pre-set even one button on the car radio, but they're expected to have sufficient judgment to select an occupation? In this single, all-important, area, the maturity and wisdom that they've displayed in no other area of their lives is suddenly taken for granted! (READ MORE)
Jerry Agar: Political Games - Don’t you hate it when the referee steals the game from your team? A crucial call on the goal line robs your team of a touchdown when you can clearly see that your hero was over the white line. Or the opposing player was called safe at home when you could tell that he was out by a mile. Sometimes the referees mess up. They are only human. More often it is our perception, we just hate to see our hopes dashed, our championships deferred (I am writing from Chicago, Cubs territory) and our wants and desires denied. But some people need help from the referee in order to win. Activist jurists and politicians have judged themselves capable of rewriting the rules for a cause. Several examples are at hand today. Norm Coleman, Republican candidate for senate in Minnesota keeps winning the recounts, but the Democrat, Al Franken, throws the red flag after every review, waiting for the refs to “get it right.” (READ MORE)
Mike S. Adams: No Child Molester Left Behind - Alan Colmes has changed a lot since the election of Barack Obama. To be specific, he’s gotten a lot dumber – so much so that I’m thinking about boycotting the “Hannity and the Other Guy” show that features him at 9 p.m. EST on Fox. Does anyone know if Keith Olberman has a show in that time slot? Colmes, whom I’ve always admired and respected (really), gave a disappointing interview to a couple of young women who work for an organization I admire called Students for Life America, or SFLA. By calling them a “radical anti-choice organization,” Colmes was arrogant and disrespectful to the young ladies, one of whom is only a teenager. Colmes, like other so-called liberals, doesn’t understand that the pro-life position is not “anti-choice.” By opposing one choice (the choice to abort) pro-lifers are supporting the over one-million choices the fetus is likely to make if it can escape the scalpel and suction tube: (READ MORE)
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann: Obama Tries the Parliamentary System - Why has Barack Obama appointed three of his defeated opponents to top jobs? Why did he put Hillary in the State Department? And why has he filled other posts with people from other factions in the Democratic Party -- and a secretary of defense from the Republicans? One even doubts that a majority of Obama's Cabinet voted for him in the primaries! There is method to his madness. Obama believes that the Democratic Party's total power -- everything but the courts -- means that if he can control the party, he can run the government. So he has amassed a Cabinet more akin to a European parliamentary model than to an American presidential system. Rather than appoint advisors and loyalists, he has named people who represent all wings of the party and its key players. Any Democrat might have appointed a similar Cabinet. He has nominated what, in a parliamentary system, would be called the shadow Cabinet: (READ MORE)
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