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)
Nader's Triumph - It's February of an election year, so naturally Ralph Nader has announced that he plans to run for President. Mr. Nader wants to make it three elections in a row because, he says, all of the remaining major party candidates are too close to corporate interests and don't want to repeal "the notorious Taft-Hartley Act," among other epic failings he mentioned Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." (READ MORE)
Bankruptcy Act - Has Harry Reid realized that the just-enacted $168 billion stimulus plan will do nothing to encourage economic growth? On the same day that President Bush signed the bill, February 13, the Senate Majority Leader introduced Son of Stimulus, with plans for a floor vote today. (READ MORE)
Farms May Be Exempted From Emission Rules - Under pressure from agriculture industry lobbyists and lawmakers from agricultural states, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to drop requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases, despite findings by the agency's scientists that the gases pose a health threat. (READ MORE)
Finding Political Strength in the Power of Words - The 2008 presidential campaign has witnessed the rise of a whole arsenal of new political weapons, including Internet fundraising and sophisticated microtargeting of voters. For Sen. Barack Obama, however, the most powerful weapon has been one of the oldest. (READ MORE)
NATO Confronts Surprisingly Fierce Taliban - TARIN KOT, Afghanistan -- Lt. Col. Wilfred Rietdijk, a 6-foot-7 blond Dutchman, took command of his military's reconstruction team in the southern Afghan district of Deh Rawood in September. Tranquil and welcoming, it seemed like the perfect place for the Netherlands' mission to help rebuild this... (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Lawhawk: The North Korean Nuclear Program Through the Eyes of CNN - “CNN was one of only two American news organizations ever allowed to visit the main nuclear facility at Yongbyon. For a nation President Bush labeled as part of the ‘axis of evil,’ it was not an impressive sight: a dilapidated concrete hulk, built with few resources back in the early '80s.” For starters, appearances can and are deceiving. North Korea was intent upon enriching uranium and producing plutonium, and appearances were a distant concern. The dilapidated conditions belie the fact that they worked extremely well and secured North Korea sufficient weapons grade material to put together several nuclear weapons including test shots in violation of international law. (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: First Sioux To Be Awarded Medal Of Honor - The White House announced on Friday, that Master Sgt. Woodrow Wilson Keeble will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in a ceremony that is scheduled to be held on March 3rd at 2:30 pm. The award comes almost 6 decades after he took actions during the Korean War, that put himself own life at risk to save the lives of his fellow Soldiers. Keeble, a full-blooded Sioux Indian, is a highly decorated Soldier, one of the most highly decorated in North Dakota history. He was a veteran of World War II and the Korean (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Clinton Tactic, Deny, Deny, Deny - I don’t honestly know why people ask either Clinton a question and expect to get an honest answer. They have shown time and again that they will deny everything and then attack the person making the claims. It is ingrained in their DNA and they and their mindless drones are the only ones who think they are telling the truth. Yesterday, a photo of Barack Obama in the clothing of a Somali elder was posted on Drudge and the caption stated it was being circulated around the Clinton camp. The story further states that the email contained the question; any doubt this would be on the cover of all the magazines if it were HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton). (READ MORE)
Blue Crab Boulevard: Global Colding - Lorne Gunter at the National Post writes about the current brutally cold winter much of the northern hemisphere is experiencing. He points to many experts who do not subscribe to the "consensus" of anthropogenic global warming as well as reeling off some amazing facts about the harsh weather. Some of this will not be new information for regular readers here, but quite a lot is. “Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966. The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January ‘was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average.’” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express: A Letter to the Senate Armed Service Committee Regarding Winter Soldier II - My friend Denis over at Obiter Dictum has composed a letter to the members of the Armed Services Committee regarding Winter Soldier II. Denis has given me permission to re-post it here. You can use it as a template or a guide for composing your own letter. I believe that Obama's anonymous "Captain" is either tied to IVAW or a sister organization. The Captain is based at Fort Drum, which is the site of one of the only active duty IVAW chapters. The Different Drummer Cafe, which is sponsored and supported by Courage to Resist, is right outside the gates of Fort Drum. Add in the proximity to IVAW's Winter Soldier II and you can see where I am heading. So here is the letter. You can find a list of members of the Senate Armed Services Committee here. The contact information for individual senators can be found here. (READ MORE)
Andrew Cochran: Evan Kohlmann Testifies As Abu-Jihaad Trial Begins - Today was the opening day in the trial of former U.S. Navy sailor, Hassan Abu-Jihaad, on charges of providing material support to terrorists by sending classified information on naval ships to Baber Ahmad, the British computer expert who operated the Azzam.com jihadist websites. Contributing Expert Evan Kohlmann, who will appear this Friday at the Counterterrorism Foundation panel on terrorism and the virtual world, provided expert testimony on al Qaeda, jihadist recruitment, their activities in several countries, and the role of Azzam Publications among jihadists. But first, Evan had to survive his usual opening ritual in terrorism-related federal trials, a challenge by the defense to his qualification as an expert. (READ MORE)
Dadmanly: Obama Fact Checking - Presidential candidate and Commander in Chief aspirant Sen. Barack Obama apparently stood in a debate last week with competitor Sen. Hillary Clinton. During the debate, Obama used an anecdote provide him by an Army Captain, who deployed to Afghanistan in 2003, and wanted to share some criticisms of his deployment with Obama. Here’s what Obama actually said: “ ‘You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon -- supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon,’ he said. ‘Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq. And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.’” As anyone knowledgeable about the military might surmise, that set off a firestorm of criticism. (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Democrats against victory - AP: Winning in Iraq sure is messing up the anti-war effort. Anne Flaherty of the AP noticed the problem: Thing as are improving in Iraq, which hinders the anti-war movement. It is difficult to surrender when you have sent the enemy packing. She outlined the Democratic Plan 9. First, the problems with plans 1-8: “The Senate was expected to vote Tuesday on a proposal to order troop withdrawals to begin within 120 days. With that legislation’s failure almost assured and lacking a veto-proof majority in Congress even if such a proposal passed, Democrats are talking about whether to shift their strategy. Instead of repeating losing votes on legislation tying money to troop withdrawals, many party members want to focus more on the policy issues surrounding Iraq, including the preparedness of U.S. troops and reining in private contractors.” (READ MORE)
Fortress of Solitude: Pork Spending - Because I am no shill for the Republican Party, I have no problem admitting this. Both Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty of wasting our money in order to buy votes. It’s called pork barrel spending, and it is a staple of politics in Washington. Need I remind you that it was a Republican who proposed the $315 million “bridge to nowhere,” while it was the Democrats who hid in a war appropriations bill more than $220 million to be spent on things like peanut storage, spinach production, and the shrimp industry. These people are wasting our money. However, last month, there seemed to be a slight chance of hope for curbing this earmark spending. House Republicans urged the Democrats to join them in an immediate moratorium on earmark spending. The Democrats refused. (READ MORE)
CJ: Get Involved - Ladies and gentlemen, IVAW is working hard to revive the Winter Soldiers from the Vietnam era. The Vietnam Veterans Against War have started a new movement and recruited disaffected and sad excuses for veterans (I say that as a result of the number of "veterans" the organization claims that have been outed as fakes) to relive the glory days of spitting on the image of the honorable Soldier. Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) has advertised widely that it will hold a public event it has entitled "Winter Soldier Investigation (WSI) - Iraq and Afghanistan" near Washington D.C. next month (Mar. 13-16). (READ MORE)
neo-neocon: Orwell, anybody? “Swiftboating” the Swiftboaters - It isn’t often you get to watch a lie become entrenched truth. Or maybe it is often, if you pay enough attention. Once it’s repeated enough, and by the right people, it becomes the revealed truth, and there’s almost no way to counter it effectively, as Winston Churchill knew. Goebells’ “truth” about the number of casualties at Dresden has been believed for so long it’s hard to shake no matter what new evidence comes to light. Jenin was a massacre perpetrated by the Israelis on the Palestinians, and Mohammed al Dura was killed by Israeli soldiers. Vietnam veterans are disproportionately depressed, poor, psychotic, drug-taking messes. All of these are untrue “truths” that have passed into the public domain. (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: Presidential Elections and the "As If" Personality - In 1938 Helene Deutsch first wrote about what she called the "As If" Personality. This was one of the earliest descriptions of what later became known as the Borderline Personality Disorder. Her clinical descriptions and psychodynamic explanations were wonderfully evocative though her theorizing was later to be superseded by the work of many other Psychoanalysts, especially Otto Kernberg and Heinz Kohut in the 1960s. Her early descriptions were vivid and illuminating: “In 1934, and again in 1942, Helene Deutsch described what she called the ‘as if’ (als ob) personality type. She was referring to individuals who leave other people with an impression of inauthenticity, even though they seem to enjoy ‘normal’ relations with those around them and even though they complain of no disorder. They appear perfectly well adjusted, and are even capable of a certain warmth, but in a number of circumstances they betray a lack of emotional depth.” (READ MORE)
Meryl Yourish: The news the mainstream media won’t give you - A ten-year-old boy nearly lost his arm in a kassam rocket attack yesterday. A mother and one-year-old infant were also hurt. Bet you didn’t know either of these facts. Because the wire services choose not to highlight Israeli casualties of war, except when their ignoring the Sderot victims makes them look like they’re being negligent in their duties. Oh, oh, I don’t know, when their editors get tired of writing the same-old, same-old whitewashing of terrorism. The facts are there. You just have to find them. (READ MORE)
Stephen F. Hayes: Obama and the Power of Words - These are words that move and uplift, that give hope to the hopeless. These words inspired millions of voters nationwide to join the grand experiment called democracy, casting votes for their candidate, their country, their destiny: "More than anything else, I want my candidacy to unify our country, to renew the American spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of this community of shared values... (READ MORE)
Kit Bond, Pete Hoekstra & Lamar Smith: Hard of Hearing - Are Americans as safe today as they were before Congress allowed the Protect America Act to expire on Feb. 16? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats say we are. They go so far as to say that the Protect America Act -- put in place last year to overcome obstacles in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that make it harder to intercept terrorist communications -- was not even necessary. (READ MORE)
Sally Satel: A Helping Hand for Vets - Imagine you are a young soldier wounded in Iraq. Your physical injuries heal, but your mind remains tormented. You are flooded with memories of the bloody firefight you survived, you can't concentrate, and sudden noise makes you jump out of your skin. At 23 years old, you are about to be discharged from the military, afraid you'll never again be able to hold a job or fully function in society. For the thousands of young men and women who apply for disability benefits upon return from Iraq and Afghanistan, these fears are becoming a reality. (READ MORE)
Bret Stephens: The Sderot Calculus - The Israeli town of Sderot lies less than a mile from the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the intifada seven years ago, it has borne the brunt of some 2,500 Kassam rockets fired from Gaza by Palestinian terrorists. Only about a dozen of these Kassams have proved lethal, though earlier this month brothers Osher and Rami Twito were seriously injured by one as they walked down a Sderot street on a Saturday evening. Eight-year-old Osher lost a leg. It is no stretch to say that life in Sderot has become unendurable. (READ MORE)
Chuck Norris: A McCain I Would Endorse - People said that McCain couldn't make the cut. Many say McCain is still too stiff -- too sterile -- with not enough pizzazz. Some criticize McCain for being too institutionalized. Still others complain about McCain's conservative record. And now the liberal media is falsely implying McCain has engaged in some impropriety. Of course, I'm speaking about Janet Huckabee, whose maiden name is McCain. (Were you expecting someone else?) With Michelle Obama's patriotism in question, Cindy McCain's loyalty to her man being paraded, and Bill Clinton's anger heating up the headlines, it would not be a complete media lynching without trying to hang the only exculpated presidential candidate's spouse -- namely Janet. (READ MORE)
Paul Weyrich: New York Times' Unsubstantiated Assault as a Boost to McCain - THE NEW YORK TIMES printed an unsourced piece saying that in 2000 when Senator John S. McCain, III ran for the Presidency he had what some aides supposedly regarded as a romance with a female lobbyist. McCain associates regarded the story as a hit piece. McCain himself, in denying the story, said he was disappointed in THE TIMES. In fact, McCain can be thankful that the story first appeared in THE TIMES, which, by the way, is standing by the story but offering no persuasive supporting evidence. That is because conservatives, whom McCain needs to win in November, hate THE NEW YORK TIMES. Most don't just hate THE TIMES, they loathe that newspaper. (READ MORE)
Cal Thomas: Economic Woes - If you believe big media, the economy is in trouble. If you worry about job layoffs and your inability to pay bills, you may be thinking about voting for Democrats this fall, which is the point of the negative media coverage. Every four years when a Republican is president, big media carry stories about economic gloom and doom. But is it true? It depends on the standard you use. Last week, The Washington Post carried a story that is a metaphor for what ails us. It was about a Maryland couple whose mortgage lender took back what remained of a $95,000 home equity line of credit. They are disinclined to believe anything which is printed in that paper. (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: Bad Times - The front page of the New York Times has increasingly become the home of editorials disguised as "news" stories. Too often it has become the home of hoaxes. Going back some years, it was the Tawana Brawley hoax that she had been gang-raped by a bunch of white men. Just a couple of years ago, it was the Duke University "rape" hoax that they fell for. In between there were the various hoaxes of New York Times reporter Jason Blair, who was kept on and promoted until too many people found out what he had been doing and the paper had to let him go. (READ MORE)
Patrick J. Buchanan: The Return of Ethnic Nationalism - In Africa last week, President Bush deplored the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s, defended his refusal to send U.S. troops to Darfur and decried the ethnic slaughter in Kenya. Following a fraudulent election, the Kikyu, the dominant tribe in Kenya, have been subjected to merciless assault. People are separating from one another and butchering one another along lines of blood and soil. According to a compelling lead article in the new Foreign Affairs, "Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism," we may be witnessing in the Third World a re-enactment of the ethnic wars that tore Europe to pieces in the 20th century. (READ MORE)
Rich Lowry: On Trade: Obama's Opportunistic Fear-Mongering - For Barack Obama, hope can triumph over anything, except for open trade with a neighboring country with an economy 1/20th the size of ours. Then, all is despair. Obama's culprit is Mexico, our third-largest trading partner. It is trade deals like NAFTA -- the 1993 accord eliminating tariffs among the U.S., Mexico and Canada -- that "ship jobs overseas and force parents to compete with teenagers for minimum wage at Wal-Mart," Obama intones. Feel inspired yet? The big picture doesn't justify this Dickensian evocation of gloom. Since 1993, the U.S. economy has grown by 54 percent. The jobless rate has dropped from 6.9 in 1993 to 4.9 today. (READ MORE)
Johnnie B. Byrd: Obama's Fiction and the Reality of Globalization - The President should have visited Cairo this week – Cairo, Illinois that is. A new Gallup poll confirms America’s “surging pessimism” about the job market coupled with an ongoing decline in consumer confidence. Strikingly, one in four Americans surveyed were worried that they or their spouses would lose their job in the next twelve months. Yet another Gallup poll released this week finds that President Bush’s approval ratings remain consistently low across the entire range of domestic and foreign policy issues, with the glaring exception that the President’s approval ratings on the economy have plunged from 41 percent a year ago, to 35 percent in August of 2007, to a mere 27 percent today. (READ MORE)
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Coughlin Affair - Imagine trying to fight a war without a clue as to what motivates your enemy or governs his strategy for your destruction. Actually, you don’t have to work too hard to get your head around such an insane idea; it is the current practice of the United States government. This is not, of course, the way it is supposed to be. According, for example, to the Pentagon’s own guidelines as reflected in the Army’s Field Manual 34-130 dealing with Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB), one of the first tasks in any conflict is to “Evaluate the threat.” This job requires military personnel to “update or create threat models: convert threat doctrine or patterns of operation to graphics (doctrinal templates); describe in words the threat’s tactics and options; [and] identify high value targets.” (READ MORE)
Chuck Colson: The Archbishop and Sharia - There are an estimated 1.6 million Muslims in Great Britain. By some estimates, more people attend mosque than go to Anglican churches every week. Judging by recent comments by the Archbishop of Canterbury, it is easy to see why. As most of you by now know, Archbishop Rowan William said in a recent interview that the “UK has to ‘face up to the fact’ that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.” He left no doubt who those “citizens” are: British Muslims. So according to Williams, British Muslims should not have to choose between “the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty.” (READ MORE)
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