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)
Obama's Carbon Busters - After the selection of a largely centrist economic team, liberals have been asking when President-elect Obama would give them a seat at the table. Well, now we know, and Americans should strap themselves in. Mr. Obama is stocking his energy shop with the greenest of greens who want to move fast on a very aggressive climate agenda. Here come the carbon busters. (READ MORE)
China's Democratic 'Charter' - China's democracy movement has moved in fits and starts since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. But a manifesto issued this week marks a brave new chapter in the fight for political freedom. More than 400 Chinese citizens living inside China published "Charter 08" on the Internet. (READ MORE)
Wasting Paul Volcker - Lately everyone seems to have a job for Paul Volcker. The former Federal Reserve Chairman earned a reputation for toughness and political independence when he broke inflation in the early 1980s. Now some Democrats want to make him their "car czar," but Mr. Volcker's talents would be wasted by entering that political morass. (READ MORE)
Auto Bailout Talks Collapse as Senate Deadlocks Over Wages - An eleventh-hour effort to salvage a proposed $14 billion rescue plan for the auto industry collapsed late last night as Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on the timing of deep wage cuts for union workers, killing the legislative plan and threatening America's carmakers with bankruptcy. (READ MORE)
Obama, Lawmakers Expanding Health Measures in Stimulus Plan - President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are devising plans to significantly expand the health provisions in next month's economic recovery legislation, arguing that pouring billions of dollars into an array of health programs will not only boost the economy but also make a... (READ MORE)
Report on Detainee Abuse Blames Top Bush Officials - A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere. (READ MORE)
Russians Who Invested in 'People's IPOs' See Their Savings Vanish - MOSCOW -- Anatoly Sisoyev always considered himself a patriot. As a child, he lost his father to an accident in the Soviet space program. As an adult, he served 30 years in the military, retiring at the rank of major. His son followed him into the army and was killed in Chechnya at the age of 18. (READ MORE)
10 Green Berets to Receive Silver Star for Afghan Battle - After jumping out of helicopters at daybreak onto jagged, ice-covered rocks and into water at an altitude of 10,000 feet, the 12-man Special Forces team scrambled up the steep mountainside toward its target -- an insurgent stronghold in northeast Afghanistan. (READ MORE)
N. Korea nuke talks end without deal - The Bush administration's five-year push to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program collapsed Thursday when U.S.-led talks with the communist regime fell apart in Beijing - leveling another blow against President Bush's hopes for a signature achievement on his way out of office. (READ MORE)
Vatican forbids designer babies - Designer babies, human/animal hybrids, cloning, stem cell research and a whole range of common biomedical innovations are forbidden, the Vatican said Friday in a document about procreation and genetic technologies. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Donald Douglas: U.S. Extended Deterrence to Israel - According to Fox Newsand Haaretz, the coming Barack Obama administration may offer Israel a nuclear guarantee vis-à-vis Iran. The proposal amounts to the offer of "extended deterrence" to Tel Aviv, and a key problem with such guarantees is the credibility of commitment: Would the U.S. go to war over an Iranian first-strike nuclear attack on Israel? If so, the outbreak of hostilities in a localized Middle East conflict would turn into a global one. Other nuclear powers, such as Russia and China, would move to full battle readiness, particularly Moscow which may see its vital national interests threatened by the real-time extension of U.S. strategic power in his geopolitical backyard. (READ MORE)
Blue Star Chronicles: Malika El-Aroud: Captured al-Qaeda Living Legend - Malika El-Aroud is the widow of an al-Qaeda suicide bomber and a terrorist in her own right. She has been arrested today in Belgian. Malika El-Aroud was arrested today, December 11, 2008, in Belgian. She is suspected to have links to terrorism. She calls herself a holy warrior for al-Qaeda. She is one of the most prolific and prominent internet jihadists in Europe. She writes in French under the name of Oum Obeyda and spends her time in internet chat rooms and forums waging jihad against the West. El-Aroud is a Belgian muslim of Moroccan descent and lives in Brussels, Belgium. She is the widow of Dahmane Abd al-Sattar. He was one of the men who killed Ahmad Shah Massoud of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan just two days before the attacks of September 11, 2001. She was tried and cleared of complicity in the murder of Massoud in Belgian courts in 2003. (READ MORE)
Nathan Hodge: It's Now Law & Order: Baghdad for U.S. Troops - BAGHDAD, IRAQ -- When the new U.S.-Iraq security pact takes effect on January 1st, one of the biggest changes will be a shift to what's called "warrant-based targeting." Under the agreement, U.S. forces will no longer conduct unilateral operations -- and must hand over detainees to "competent Iraqi authorities" within 24 hours of detention or arrest. In practice, that means U.S. commanders will need to secure warrants from Iraqi judges. Lt. Col. Rich Wilson, the commander of the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, told me his unit is setting up "meeting engagements" with the local police and judges to build relationships before the agreement takes effect. "Since October, we've been working these combined security meetings, working with [national police counterparts] on warrant-based targeting. ... we need to make sure they have someone lined up to go to court if needed." (READ MORE)
Noah Shachtman: Nature: Shut Down Army's 'Human Terrain' - Over the summer, one of the world's leading scientific journals gave a cautious thumbs-up to the Human Terrain System, the U.S. Army's combat zone cultural studies project. Today, in an editorial that can only be described as scathing, Nature says the $130 million program is "failing on every level" and "needs to be closed down." The relationship between the Human Terrain program and the academic social science community has been strained from the start. The executive board of the American Anthropological Association, for instance, was calling the program unethical while there were only a handful of Human Terrain Teams on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. What kind of social science research can take place, the Association asked, when everyone involved is carrying a gun? (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Should they fire Keith Smith? - Does someone who bans the American flag from an American courthouse deserve a paycheck from the American people? Keith Smith is the new director of Active Criminal Records in Philadelphia. In September, he e-mailed an underling to take an American flag (and a pirate flag) down from his computer, Wendy Ruderman of the Philadelphia Daily News reported. The underling, Ralph Silvestro, is a veteran and he did not like it. Of course, Silvestro must obey his boss. Except in this case. It is a federal building. Anyone who works for the American people should respect the flag. If Keith Smith is ashamed or offended by the American flag, maybe he should go work somewhere else. Mary Catherine Roper, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia office, naturally sided with Keith Smith. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Economic hypocrisy - After years of decrying “tax cuts for the rich,” the New York Times demands a bailout of 3 of the companies that make automobiles in the USA. Perhaps in the hopes of someday getting a bailout of its own. In an editorial today, the NYT decried fiscal prudence by Senate Republicans who blocked a $15 billion bailout of 3 companies, including a subsidiary of the highly profitable Cerberus company, which really should op[en its books before it receives a dime. With breathtaking arrogance not seen since the NYT demanded an immediate withdrawal from Iraq even though — as the Times put it — “there could be reprisals against those who worked with American forces, further ethnic cleansing, even genocide” — the Times today demanded a bailout, “Nobody — including the carmakers — fully understands the depth of Detroit’s problems or how much money it will take to dig them out. (READ MORE)
Baron Bodissey: Finlandization - “Findlandization” describes a process in which a small and vulnerable country — for example, Finland — voluntarily adjusts its political behavior to reflect the reality of a much larger and more powerful neighbor — for example, the USSR — which is in a position to inflict grave damage upon the smaller country with impunity. Finland was a relatively ethnically homogeneous country until quite recently. It had fallen behind its fellow members of the European Union in the latest multicultural fashions. But it’s making up for lost time. It (or at least the elite Finnish governing class who steer the ship of state) has determined that the Finns are not pulling their weight in the Multicultural Project, and are obligated to do more. More immigrants, more asylum, more people of color, more Muslims — time to get with the program! (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: Federal judge orders South Carolina to stop making Christian license plates - Remember this? SC wanted to offer custom plates with crosses on them, but in order to minimize the Establishment Clause risk, they figured they should eliminate the normal practice of letting some group profit by sponsoring the plates. Solution: The Christian plates ended up being nine-tenths cheaper than the others, thereby giving them special treatment in the form of a competitive advantage. Anyway, no dice. Smells like … victory: “A federal judge says South Carolina must stop marketing and making licenses plates that feature the image of a cross and the words ‘I Believe.’… U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie said the case needs to be heard in court. In the meantime, the judge said the Department of Motor Vehicles cannot take any more orders for the plates…” (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Unions start to get the message - Maybe the UAW should take note of the SEIU’s belated recognition of the economic situation in California. After blowing up a potential compromise on the auto bailout last night by refusing to compromise on concessions, the union all but guaranteed that one or more of the Big Three will declare bankruptcy and potentially void their labor agreements. SEIU California has begun to show more flexibility: “Has California’s growing budget mess pushed public employee unions into retreat? Take Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents 95,000 state workers in a wide variety of jobs. Last week local President Yvonne Walker told The State Worker, ‘There are going to have to be cuts. We’re going to have to raise taxes’ to address the state’s cash crunch.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Bill Ayersed - Such a rich fisking of Ayers and his nonsense, it deserves a new verb: Washington Post editorialist Charles Lane ayers* the unrepentant ex-terrorist. Sorry, dishonest narrative, make that unrepentant failed terrorist. Lane gets bonus points for getting Ayers to beclown himself: “Ayers told me this week that he did not know about the nail bomb in advance — and condemned it afterward. I take him at his word. So why obfuscate in the Times? Editors cut the article, he protested — before conceding that his original version left it out, too.” You could call that competition between the opinion sections of the nation’s two premier political newspapers. Sour grapes for the one that didn’t get Ayers. Or you could thank the J gods we still have competition, and wonder why the Gray Lady fell for a pathetic old man’s ineptly couched and manipulative effort to redefine himself, his time and the crimes he was a party to. Either way, you will want to read the whole ayersing. (READ MORE)
Mountain Runner: For many of us, the fun is just beginning... who will be the next Under Secretary? - Now that President-elect Obama has selected his Secretary of State, the word on the street about the critical job of Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs varies. The U/S role has been radically invigorated by Jim Glassman over his too brief tenure (made even briefer by Sen. Coburn). He had and continues to enjoy bipartisan and interagency support. Of course this was easier since he was able to pick his battles carefully and avoid the landmines in order to focus on getting things done in the short time he had. He has made it a point recently that “R” (the DoS name for the public diplomacy organization unit) has improved to the point Congressional confidence should increase and be demonstrated by increasing R’s funding. So now the big question is who will be the next Under Secretary? (READ MORE)
ROFASix: "Devil's Excrement" Skewers Hugo Chavez - Last year, when Hugo Chavez addressed the UN General Assembly after President Bush, Chavez made comments about lingering smell of sulphur - leading to Chavez calling Bush "The devil." But Chavez got it wrong, backwards as it turns out. More likely the smell was from his walking through the "Devil's Excrement"- Venezuelan oil, which today has probably now signaled the inevitable end of the Chavez regime. At $100+ a barrel of oil Hugo Chavez was living high. He gave oil away to his friends in Cuba in exchange for Cuban doctors, helped buy an election in Bolivia, and I'm still unclear with what he was doing with that "free oil" he was sending to Massachusetts in the names of the state's two Senators. With all the "windfall" oil profits, Chavez spent every peso like there was no tomorrow. But the problem with building an economy on the price of oil is two-fold. (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: Islamic Terror, Theater, and Diminishing Returns - Ever since the Palestinians developed and promulgated the use of televised terror as a tool with which to advance their strategicinterests (which then and now included the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel) terrorism has had a particular dialectic. The terrorists stage a murder spectacular, it is leveraged by the Western press such that it gains strategic advantages for the Islamists and the West's defensive forces are mobilized and restructured so as to minimize the chances of success for future similar attacks. The Terrorists must then find new ways to stage their theatrical specials, and the cycle of terrorism recurs. There are a number of important points that should be kept in mind when considering the impact of terrorism. (READ MORE)
Melanie Phillips Blog: The UNconscionable power of Iran - Claudia Rosett writes in Forbes magazine about the astounding extent to which Iran has come to dominate the UN. As she says: “By now, Iran is under U.N. sanctions, and in flagrant violation of five Security Council resolutions demanding that it stop enriching uranium. If anything, as a chronic abuser of the U.N. charter, Iran's despotic, terrorist-backing, nuclear-wannabe regime ought to qualify for expulsion from the 192-member U.N. At the very least, one might suppose that on U.N. premises, Iran would be something of a pariah. But at the U.N., that's not how it works. Although Iran lost its bid this year for a seat on the 15-member Security Council, Iran's government has the U.N. so well-wired, in so many ways, that it's hard to find an angle Iran is not busy exploiting.” (READ MORE)
Warner Todd Huston: Raising Federal Gas Taxes Raised to… Stop Terrorism? - The Washington Post is directing a December 8 plea to the incoming Obama administration. The Post wants to raise the federal gas tax so high that it will stop people from driving. The Post thinks this will serve our national security purposes and add more money to rebuild our nation’s roads. Apparently, the Washington Post has the foolishly mistaken notion that federal gas tax receipts actually go where our Congress initially claimed it was going to go; our nation’s roads. In fact, nearly half of the federal gas tax receipts go to pork instead of roads and infrastructure. (READ MORE)
Susan Katz Keating: To Speak or Not to Speak, Part 2: An Interview With Dr. Neil Livingstone - Continuing the discussion from yesterday... I spoke at length about kidnap response to noted crisis manager Dr. Neil Livingstone. Before proceeding with my report, I'd like to explain why I turned to him, as I have for many years, for insight. His short biography, on the AEI Speakers Bureau website, speaks for itself: "Dr. Neil Livingstone is Co-Chairman and CEO of a crisis management firm in Washington, DC. During the past two decades he has served as a ‘corporate equalizer’ on a variety of investigative assignments including kidnappings, homicides, industrial espionage, celebrity stalking, missing CEOs and threats against top executives. Dr. Neil Livingstone taught for ten years at Georgetown University and has served on advisory panels to the Secretary of State, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Pentagon." (READ MORE)
Cassandra: Bravo to Brilliant Satire!!! - For eight long years, real Americans like Keith Olbermann have had to choke back their patriotic dissent, cowed by fear of violent, jackbooted fascists like this and their henchmen: the Chinese-toy loving minions of the richest 1%. But no more. The election of Barack Obama promises to do more than just heal the planet and return French distain for America to pre-2000 levels. The election of President-elect Obama (who has already garnered the highest approval ratings of any pre-President in history!!!) will heal a festering scar on our national souls: the scourge of mindless respect for our stupidly courageous armed forces and the fat, lumbering, ox babies who serve in them. As that great wit Dick Cavett reminded us so trenchantly, "Anyone who gives his life in war is an idiot." (READ MORE)
Eric Posner: Cole embraces preventive detention for Al Qaeda conflict - David Cole, a longtime, trenchant critic of the Bush administration’s war-on-terror tactics, defends preventive detention, albeit with due process protections and other limitations. The world is upside down! For Cole, preventive detention is justified because the conflict with Al Qaeda is war-like enough to bring into play traditional military detention rules; more process—lawyers love process!—is needed because of the differences between this conflict and traditional war. I don’t know whether Cole has changed his mind or has always believed that the Bush administration’s basic approach was right but just went too far. Nothing in his earlier writings suggested to me the latter view but perhaps I did not parse the text carefully enough. He supports "Closing Guantanamo" (the title of his piece -- did the editors read it before publishing it?), but the purely symbolic nature of this move has become blindingly clear. (READ MORE)
Westhawk: Marine Corps raiders to Somalia? - International naval forces attempting to deal with piracy off the coast of Somalia already have the legal authority to counterattack against pirates at sea, including into Somalia’s territorial waters. But just as with any other sanctuary-dwelling adversary, effective action cannot occur until someone attacks the pirates’ sanctuaries, namely their ports and land bases on Somali territory. The United States government is now circulating a draft proposal at the United Nations Security Council to allow just that, international military action against pirate bases ashore in Somalia. As we can always expect from the U.S. State Department, the U.S. government’s proposal is ridiculously scrupulous about protecting the wholly imaginary sovereignty of the current “government” in Somalia; any prospective raids against the pirates under this Security Council resolution would supposedly “be undertaken with the agreement of Somalia’s government.” (READ MORE)
Soccerdad: Brother David Ignatius explained it all for you - Two and a half years ago, nothing troubled David Ignatius more than a repeat of Iraq. In “Avoiding another ‘Slam Dunk’” he wrote: “Amid all the debate about intelligence, there has been surprisingly little focus on the question the average citizen (and average policymaker, too) would probably have at the top of the list: Will these guys get it wrong again? Will they tell the world that something is a ‘slam-dunk,’ only to discover later that it didn’t exist? Of course, in our post 9/11 world, it’s odd that the other side of the question didn’t occur to him. What happens if our intelligence services get surprised again after raising no alarms of a very real threat?” Ignatius, of course, was relieved that his favorite bureaucrat, Thomas Fingar, would be in charge of handling intelligence. (READ MORE)
Meryl Yourish: The Iranian existential threat - Israel’s detractors are fond of saying that Iran is not a threat to Israel. But Iran is insistent on proving that Israel’s existence is being threatened on a regular basis, backed by what could soon become the capability to explode a nuclear weapon in Tel Aviv. “Groups across Iran walked the streets in protest of ‘crimes of the Zionist regime,’ calling ‘death to Israel’ and ‘death to America’ on Friday. Protesters also held pictures of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Ahmadinejad took part in one of the mass rallies, in Tehran, and announced that ‘the Zionist regime will soon be erased from the earth.’” What part of “existential threat” do you not get out of that? Because when the Juan Coles of the world try to say that Mad Mahmoud was being mistranslated, he followed up with this: (READ MORE)
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