March 13, 2007

Web Reconnaissance for 03/13/2007

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.



In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Bush stresses immigration “President Bush yesterday said he wants the House and Senate to pass immigration bills by August but said the U.S. will continue to send home illegal aliens caught in the meantime, disappointing his Guatemalan hosts who wanted all deportations to end.” (READ MORE)

Mexico warns jobs key to halting illegals “As President Bush prepares to meet today with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Mr. Calderon and his government are increasingly making it clear the solution to the U.S. illegal immigration problem lies in Mexico.” (READ MORE)

Chavez a step behind Bush's Latin tour “Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez carried his anti-U.S. countertour to the Caribbean yesterday, adding stops in Haiti and Jamaica in what one analyst saw as evidence he was losing his mano-a-mano contest with President Bush.” (READ MORE)

When No News Is Strange News “The 19th-century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a giant in the field of logic. The 21st-century philosopher Chuck Hagel? Not so much.” (READ MORE)

Ethanol Undergoes Evolution as Political Issue “What's the closest thing in politics to a religious experience? The ethanol conversion. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) experienced one in May of last year. Long opposed to federal support for the corn-based biofuel, she reversed herself and endorsed even bigger ethanol incentives than she previously voted against.” (READ MORE)

Shrine Bombing as War's Turning Point Debated “Feb. 22, 2006, is the day the Bush administration says everything in Iraq changed. Before that day, military and administration officials frequently explain, Iraq was moving in the right direction: National elections had been held, and a government was forming.” (READ MORE)



From the Front:
Michael Yon: Ernie is Dead “Something was strange about the moon. Not able to sleep, I pulled from the sleeping bag and used a small red light to walk from the long dark tent into the Baghdad night. Inside had been dark, but outside the moon was so strangely bright that I crept quietly back into the tent, aisles flanked by sleeping bodies, and felt through my gear for the camera before creeping back outside.” (READ MORE)

Badger 6: Badgers Down: Postlude “We are back on mission and the Soldiers of Team Badger are doing well. We thought we would get through this without this happening, but it did. We are resislent and mission focused. We will get this done and by doing so honor our friends, SGT Holtom, SGT Clevenger, and PFC Werner. We love them and their famililes. We will be home as soon as we can.” (READ MORE)


On the Web:
The Washington Post Editorial: The Pelosi Plan for Iraq “The Restrictions on Iraq war funding drawn up by the House Democratic leadership are exquisitely tailored to bring together the party's leftist and centrist wings. For the Out of Iraq Caucus, which demands that Congress force a withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of this year, there is language that appears to deliver that mandate, albeit indirectly.” (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: Politico: Reid nixed Fox debate after being told his dKos polling was down “No one, John Edwards included, grovels to the fightin’ nutroots as heroically as Dirty Harry. He flies under the radar because he’s soft-spoken and genteel, two qualities not typically associated with them, but he was there at Yearly Kos, he was there on Election Day, and the last time they tried to intimidate someone into pushing their agenda, he was right there, too.” (READ MORE)

Kim Priestap: The Democrats Hopelessly Confused on Iraq “The Democrats have made so many different demands on how and when to pull our troops out of Iraq, they are becoming hopelessly confused about what their position is any more. Take a look at this video from CNN of Democrat Rep. David ‘idiot liberals’ Obey and Speaker Nancy Pelosi trying to explain their position. The best line comes from CNN host John Roberts ‘How do you pass or enforce something you can't even explain?’” (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: We're surrendering as fast as we can! “Well, today the Boston Globe has a two-fer going. In its rush to declare defeat in Iraq, it has two pieces. The first up is an article on the Army, where officers are getting promoted faster than normal. There is not a damned thing ‘new’ about this revelation. As long as there have been standing armies, it has been a truism that ‘wars are good for careers.’ During peacetime, military promotions tend to be slower. In wartime, though, officers tend to move up the ranks more quickly.” (READ MORE)

Captain Ed: Hundreds Of Mahdis, Thousands Of Insurgents Detained “The new counterinsurgency strategies of David Petraeus have shown remarkable initial success. USA Today reports that the US and Iraqi forces now employing the Baghdad security plan have captured thousands of insurgents as well as large numbers of Mahdi Army militia members -- and Moqtada al-Sadr has yet to poke his head above ground:” (READ MORE)

Confederate Yankee: The United Left of Defeat “The Los Angeles Times, of all places, posted an excellent editorial this morning, lambasting the defeatist cant that has been issuing forth from House Democrats, as Democrats responding to their left-wing base have continued their attempt to force a loss in the Iraq War by way of micromanaging our military into defeat.” (READ MORE)

LGF: Congressman Introduces Non-Binding Legislation Against Web Jihad “Rep. Bill Shuster (R, PA-09) introduced legislation last week (H.Res.224) to urge sites like Youtube, Liveleak and Google to remove jihadi propaganda videos from their websites…” (READ MORE)

Austin Bay: Iraq's Accomplishments in Perspective “The chattering class nostrum that Free Iraq and its coalition allies have ‘lost the Iraq war’ is so blatantly wrong it would be a source of laughter were human life and hope-inspiring liberty not at such terrible risk.
In terms of fundamental historical changes favoring 21st century freedom and peace, what Free Iraq and its Coalition allies have accomplished in four short years is nothing short of astonishing.” (READ MORE)

Robert Connolly: Still Leading After All These Years “Helping to organize a care package operation means you get to see some remarkable things. One of my senior colleagues was an Air Force officer in the late 1950’s. Besides being smart as hell (electrical engineer, Stanford Ph.D.), he is an extraordinary teacher and just a wonderful human being. Every time I send an email out inviting assistance with care packages, he responds with a check.” (READ MORE)

Cassandra: Making Hay Over Walter Reed “What's more fun than the proverbial waxed gerbil? Watching various Senatorial DimWits attempt to pile on the train wreck at Walter Reed: ‘Imus: Have you been aware, even since 1981, of the state of treatment that veterans have been receiving throughout the Veterans Administration hospitals?’” (READ MORE)

Flopping Aces: First Amendment And Our Universities “Before I go on my rant it would be appropriate to review the following direct quote of the 1st Amendment: ‘Bill of Rights Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.’” (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: The Baghdad Security Operation Order of Battle: March 12, 2007 “The Baghdad Security Plan and the greater Iraq security operation is now over four weeks into its execution. Over the past month, Baghdad has seen the sectarian murders decrease significantly. Al Qaeda in Iraq, however, is attempting to destabilize the government and force an early U.S. withdrawal.” (READ MORE)

Texas Rainmaker: Politicizing Justice “Isn’t it ironic that Democrats are calling for resignations and heads to roll because 8 federal prosecutors were fired…yet they never uttered a peep about “political motivations” or White House conspiracies when one of their own, then-Attorney General Janet Reno, fired all 93 federal prosecutors…” (READ MORE)

Jules Crittenden: Anti-War UnPlan “WaPo edit board nails it … or oak stakes it, in you prefer: ‘The Pelosi Plan for Iraq: It makes perfect sense, if your goal is winning votes in the United States.’ I’d modify that to ‘in Congress,’ because I think the American people are going to lose patience with this.” (READ MORE)

ShrinkWrapped: Soul Murder: Nurtured on Hate “The New York has what is clearly meant to be a sympathetic article about the plight of the young in Palestine. The article is sad, deeply pessimistic, and incomplete in ways which reveal a surprising lack of curiosity: ‘Years of Strife and Lost Hope Scar Young Palestinians NABLUS, West Bank — Their worried parents call them the lost generation of Palestine: its most radical, most accepting of violence and most despairing.’” (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Give Surge a chance “I have no idea if the Surge is working in Iraq. No one does. But the bad guys do seem to be on the run. The Iraqi troops seem to be showing up. And the American soldiers seem to be doing their jobs. This is a plan for winning the war.” (READ MORE)

Baldilocks: Exemplary Socialized Medicine “I wasn't too surprised to find out how shoddy military and VA healthcare remain, even as more grievously injured GIs have flooded both systems since the onset of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. These forms of healthcare demonstrate exactly how socialized healthcare is inherently inferior to its privately-administered counterpart.” (READ MORE)

Baron Bodissey: MOA Members Busted in Counterfeit Goods Scam “CP has an exclusive story about a raid last week on a counterfeit goods scam that involved people Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York. According to CP’s sources, several of those arrested are members of the Muslims of America, the cover organization for the terrorist group Jamaat ul-Fuqra:” (READ MORE)

Kim Zigfeld: Calling Russia's Bluff “Writing in the Moscow Times, the Russia columnist Richard Lourie (author of The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin and Sakharov: A Biography) states that ‘relations between Washington and Moscow are at a new post-Soviet low’ and proposes an interesting Grand Bargain to solve the Russia problem. It’s a brilliant strategic proposal, and President George Bush should rush to adopt it.” (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: Revolution “A few hours ago, at a blogger round table, Brigadier General Stephen Hoog, director of the Air Component Coordination Element, Multi-National Force-Iraq, described what it was like to rebuild the Iraqi Air Force. The word ‘rebuild’ doesn't carry enough freight in this context because, contrary to common belief, all air forces consist primarily of people.” (READ MORE)

Nathan Bradfield: More Activism from the Ninth ‘Circus’ “When conservatives expose activist judges that ‘create’ laws instead of interpreting it, liberals throw their arms up in disgust as if these unelected officials actually found grounds for their decisions in the Constitution. If activist judges could be put on trial, Exhibit A would have to be the Ninth ‘Circus,’ out of California, no surprise. An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal notes that the Supreme Court has reviewed eight decisions by the Ninth Circuit in its current term–and has overturned all eight."(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.

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