A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Rice calls Iraq coalition 'intact' “The Bush administration maintained yesterday that its Iraq coalition was still in good shape despite announcements by Britain and two other countries that they would withdraw all or some of their troops by the end of the year.” (READ MORE)
GOP 'darlings' slow to sign tax-cut pledge “The two front-runners for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination -- Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani -- have not signed an anti-tax-increase pledge that has been embraced by several of their rivals.” (READ MORE)
Hillary, Obama producing their own Hollywood drama “The two top Democratic presidential candidates sparred yesterday as a political battle played out Hollywood-style in a possible preview of the fight to come for superstar dollars.” (READ MORE)
'Malley considers extra session to sort out deficit “Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is considering bowing to pressure and calling a special session of the General Assembly to address the state's budget deficit, and administration officials say nothing is off the table -- including legalizing slots.” (READ MORE)
Canada cautions U.S. on pending passport rule “A planned U.S. rule that would require passports for anyone entering the country by land from Canada must be implemented with ‘clarity and flexibility’ to avoid damaging the world's most dynamic bilateral trading relationship.” (READ MORE)
Ally's Timing Is Awkward for Bush “As the British announced the beginning of their departure from Iraq yesterday, President Bush's top foreign policy aide proclaimed it ‘basically a good-news story.’ Yet for an already besieged White House, the decision was doing a good job masquerading as a bad-news story.” (READ MORE)
In Tennessee, Bush Talks Up Tax Breaks for the Uninsured “The last time President Bush visited this state, last September, it was to campaign with GOP Senate hopeful Bob Corker against the Democrats. Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Corker was in the audience and the state's Democratic governor was on the stage at the convention center...” (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Bill Roggio: Outside Baghdad and the Iraq Security Plan “As the Baghdad pieces of the puzzle are being put in place, operations are underway in the provinces - While the major focus of the Iraq security plan is the capital of Baghdad, Iraqi and Coalition forces have stepped up operations in the provinces. The intent is obvious: while Baghdad is in the process of being secured and troops continue to deploy into the city, the weapons, suicide bombers and foreign fighters must be interdicted before they reach the city limits.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Oil, Anbar and the Insurgency “An interview with Colonel John A. Koenig on the prospects of petrolium development in Anbar - On February 18, The New York Times broke the news on the potential for major petroleum development in Anbar province. While the oilfields in Anbar aren't thought to as large as the fields in the Kurdish north and Shia south, the discovery of significant oil and gas reserves will influence the contentious debate occurring in the Iraqi parliament and cabinet over the future petroleum law.” (READ MORE)
Badger 6: Badgers Down: 8 February 2007 “At 0818 8 February 2007, Team Badger’s 3rd Platoon departed Camp Falluja to return to the CH-46 crash site. The Marine Aviators had been recovered, now we needed to recover the aircraft. The insurgents were claiming the bird was shot down, but some reports indicated there might have been a mechanical failure. The question of why the helicopter went down needed to be answered. And the forces protecting the crash site need to be brought out.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Iraq War Today: My Two Cents: Horrible, Horrible Freedom... "The American Revolutionary War lasted from 1775 (with the expulsion of Royal officials) to 1783. It wasn't until 1787 that the Constitution was ratified. It took four years to figure out how the hell to govern the country they'd spent 8 years getting.Hmmm.It took almost a hundred years to make it a single entity - the United States Civil War was, in large part, a battle about the governmental structure. Did the rights of the individual states take precedence, or was the federal government the one that ultimately was in charge? That one was four years of destruction, costing approximately 620,000 lives (about as much as in all other American wars combined). Gettysburg alone killed more than 50,000." (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson: Democrats disingenuous in their anti-war rhetoric “Why did a majority of Democratic Senators - such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Harry Reid, Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer - vote to authorize a war with Iraq on Oct. 11, 2002? And why is this war now supposedly George Bush's misfortune and not theirs?” (READ MORE)
William Rusher: The global-warming hysterics strike again “The media have recently been blaring what they depict (inaccurately, by the way) as the latest grim warning from the practically unanimous ranks of the world's climatologists concerning global warming.” (READ MORE)
Suzanne Fields: The Inconvenient Truth “There's nothing like a celebrity sing-a-long to get the global warming juices boiling. Al Gore, the vice president who became a midway barker, has the greatest show on earth, maybe even the universe.” (READ MORE)
George Will: The Democrat's Infectious Disease “Indiscriminate criticism of President George W. Bush is an infectious disease. Some conservatives seem to have caught it, but congressional Democrats might be crippled by it.” (READ MORE)
Ann Coulter: John Murtha: Caving in to Arabs Since 1980 “In case you missed the video on 'I Love the '80s,' Rep. Murtha was caught on tape negotiating bribes with Arab sheiks during the FBI's Abscam investigation in 1980. The Abscam investigation was conducted by Jimmy Carter's Justice Department, not right-wing Republicans.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: Pelosi Phones Bush to Complain About Cheney’s Painfully Accurate Criticism “He had the gall to suggest today that the Democrats slow-bleeding us into withdrawal might be something Al Qaeda would approve of. Quote: ‘I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the Al Qaeda strategy,’” (READ MORE)
TigerHawk: The geopolitical significance of John Edwards' Israel gaff “I'm about 36 hours late in the rumble over what John Edwards might have said about Israel at a Hollywood fundraiser: ‘There are other emerging fissures, as well. The aggressively photogenic John Edwards was cruising along, detailing his litany of liberal causes last week until, during question time, he invoked the "I" word — Israel. Perhaps the greatest short-term threat to world peace, Edwards remarked, was the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. As a chill descended on the gathering, the Edwards event was brought to a polite close.’” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Out-Foxing themselves “The Nevada Democratic Party and Fox News want to put together a televised Democratic presidential debate ahead of the first state primary/caucus/entrails reading in the 2008 race. Well, the left is going bonkers. The left wants Dems to boycott their own debate.” (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nut House: Amanpour Interview: Too Many Questions Unanswered “Christiane Amanpour is one of the most respected foreign correspondents in the business. She has literally been everywhere and done everything – from wars, to famines, to natural disasters, to weighty meetings between world leaders – Amanpour, with a combination of tenacity and courage, has reported on most of the transformational events over the last 25 years. She has received 9 Emmys and numerous other awards recognizing her outstanding achievements in broadcast journalism. She is also a left wing hack, at times willing to shill for anti-American Europeans as well as promote a clearly biased agenda against Republican Presidents.” (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl: Updated: Obama Say What?? “The Black Value System - in pdf it has many prudent ideas for anyone - and that's my issue with it. It isn't for everyone - but for Blacks. How seperatist can you get? ‘Disavowal of the Pursuit of ‘Middleclassness’ Classic methodology on control of captives teaches that captors must keep the captive ignorant educationally, but trained sufficiently well to serve the system. Also, the captors must be able to identify the ‘talented tenth’ of those subjugated, especially those who show promise of providing the kind of leadership that might threaten the captor’s control.’” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express: Pelosi Can Dish It Out But She Can't Take It “Oh Boo-Hoo - Nancy Pelosi has called President Bush to complain about VP Dick Cheney's remarks on the Democrats' Slow Bleed Strategery. One thing I've learned about the Left is when you hit the bullseye they squeal really loud.” (READ MORE)
Cassandra: Spitting Controversy “Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Jim Lindgren is doing a fantastic job of refuting Professor Jerry Lembcke's campaign to ‘prove’ no one ever spit on returning Vietnam vets. As someone who grew up during the Vietnam era, the extravagant lengths to which some people go to deny something they have no real reason to disbelieve never ceases to amaze me:” (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: The Liberal Mind Revealed Once More Via Quotations From The Smirking Chimp “Courtesy of the very popular Smirking Chimp blog, here's a little window into liberal mindset. As you read these quotes from the front page of the website, keep in mind that these quotes come from the writers at the Smirking Chimp, not from the commenters. So, the sort of material you're about to read will keep liberals coming back to the Smirking Chimp day after day:” (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: Facebook nightmare: College Republican targeted by stalker speaks out “This is Richard Reed Pannell. He's a student at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. On Saturday, he was minding his own business, taking a shower in this house he shares with classmates...when an unhinged stranger--a raving leftist who had tracked him down on social networking site Facebook--barged in and attacked him and his roomies after impersonating a military recruiter.” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed: The Democratic Non-Debate “Talk about an accelerated campaign cycle! The Democrats rushed into their first debate almost a year before the first primaries, and did so in a format that took the debate out of the debate. Instead, the Los Angeles Times describes a round-robin press conference where most of the argument took place in the hallways after the event:” (READ MORE)
Blackfive: When the Chaplains Speak Out... “Via Tanker Brothers (brat), I received an email from a Chaplain (COL) who has been making his rounds in Iraq and Afghanistan - his email is about our politicians. You know the disregard that the military holds for our White Flag Republicans and Defeatist Democrats is really bad when even the chaplain has something to say about it...” (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Italy's Left Bares Its Agenda “Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government, having just finished nine months of gestation, has been forced to resign -- because the anti-war Communists, who were members of his coalition, refused to support the anti-terrorist mission... in Afghanistan:” (READ MORE)
Dadmanly: Death and Politics “Jonah Goldberg, posting at The Corner (here and here), highlights the factual basis behind what a lot of military people know intuitively, and goes virtually unrecognized by the media and the public whose trust they so willfully neglect. We lose no more soldiers in Iraq than we would lose, on average, through training accidents, other accidents, and other causes.” (READ MORE)
Most Certainly Not: What, if anything, does this mean? “The one phrase/answer you hear in law school more than anywhere else is, ‘It depends.’ I used to be prone to seeking out definitive answers to questions, no matter how complex. Now, I realize that once you start removing layers of complex issues, the definitive answer, if it exists, may be as complex or diverse as the issue itself. So, when I read an article on the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) portal regarding the effect military deaths were having on smaller communities, I wanted to trace it back to its source.” (READ MORE)
Gribbit: Why Liberals Get So Upset - The Truth About Their Defeatism “The complete indignation for historical lessons learned combined with their new sense of ‘power’ is dangerous because if they had it their way (que 1970s Burger King Commercial), we’ll be repeating the mistakes of Vietnam. Since it was a (actually 2) Dems who got us involved in that quagmire, they have been chomping at the bit since the pull out (led by a couple of Republicans actually), to blame another quagmire situation on the Republicans.” (READ MORE)
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