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)
Clinton seeks to end war 'we cannot win' - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday called for a U.S. troop pullout from a war that "we cannot win," as Sen. John McCain and Vice President Dick Cheney spent the day in Baghdad, touting security improvements and pledging to maintain a long-term military presence in Iraq. (READ MORE)
Fed action calms U.S. markets - The Federal Reserve won both cheers and jeers yesterday for throwing open its lending window to Wall Street brokers and engineering an unprecedented $30 billion rescue of Bear Stearns that looked to some critics like a massive bailout. (READ MORE)
Blast near U.S. embassy kills Yemeni guard - An Interior Ministry official says one Yemeni guard has been killed in an explosion near the U.S. embassy in the capital of San'a. (READ MORE)
Probe reveals doctor payoffs - A settlement to end a federal investigation into potential kickbacks to U.S. doctors is shining light on hundreds of agreements under which surgeons across the country receive trips, meals and consulting deals from artificial-hip and -knee makers. (READ MORE)
Obama eyes white suburbs of Philadelphia - Sen. Barack Obama's campaign officials say their strategy for notching a surprise primary victory in Pennsylvania focuses on winning over white female voters in the Philadelphia suburbs, a task complicated by the candidate's close ties to a pastor who preaches a radical "black power" worldview. (READ MORE)
Chinese restraint urged on Tibet - China yesterday scrambled to contain the global fallout from days of bloody clashes in Tibet, as protests around the globe put the spotlight on Beijing's human rights record just months before it hosts the Olympic Games. (READ MORE)
Bear Naked Lenders - The best thing about Sunday night's Federal Reserve-inspired sale of Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan Chase is the price. At $2 a share for a total of $236 million, this was less a "bailout" than a Fed-mediated liquidation sale. Bear wasn't too big to fail after all, though there's still the issue of the Fed expanding its own moral and financial hazard in the form of $30 billion in guarantees on Bear Stearns securities. (READ MORE)
New York's New Governor - New York yesterday swore in its new Governor, David Paterson. Whatever their differences, New Yorkers agree that life in their state is never less than interesting. Mr. Paterson takes office in the wake of last week's out-of-body Eliot Spitzer experience, a construction crane falling Sunday onto a Manhattan townhouse, and on the day of his inauguration the evaporation of Bear Stearns, a New York financial landmark. (READ MORE)
Patriot Tanker Games - Boeing last week lodged a formal protest over its loss of a $35 billion contract for U.S. Air Force refueling tankers. If the company wants to anger a big customer by further delaying what the Pentagon considers its highest-priority procurement program, it has that right. But the complaint also adds fuel to the misguided calls on Capitol Hill for "patriotism" in defense procurement. (READ MORE)
The Trial of Hu Jia - As the National People's Congress draws to a close today, China's leaders probably won't be giving much thought to what's taking place in another corner of Beijing, at the No. 1 People's Intermediate Court. Events there may actually reveal more about the state of the nation's progress. (READ MORE)
Asian Bears - How's that for quick feedback? On Sunday night -- Monday morning in Asia -- the Fed cut the discount rate and approved J.P. Morgan Chase's acquisition of Bear Stearns. Yesterday Asian markets delivered their verdict: Hong Kong plunged 5.2%; Tokyo, 3.7%; and Mumbai, 6.5%. (READ MORE)
Crises of Confidence in the Markets - Investors dumped stocks of the nation's major investment firms yesterday after a rescue plan for one of the biggest, Bear Stearns, exposed unexpectedly large cracks in the foundation of the financial system. (READ MORE)
Wall Street Crisis Forces Candidates to Shift Their Focus - The contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination raced to inject themselves into the debate over the credit and housing crisis yesterday, slamming the Bush administration's failure to do more to avoid a crisis as the economy once again surged to the forefront of the campaign. (READ MORE)
Cheney Visits Baghdad and Praises War Effort; Bomb Kills 40 in Karbala - BAGHDAD, March 17 -- As the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq neared, Vice President Cheney flew unannounced into Baghdad on Monday and declared the U.S. effort to install democracy and stabilize Iraq a "successful endeavor" that has been "well worth the effort." (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Bret Stephens: God and Man in China - The violent protests in Tibet that began last week and have since spread across (and beyond) China are frequently depicted as a secessionist threat to Beijing. But the regime's deeper problem in the current crisis is neither ethnic nor territorial. It's religious. If there's a template for Beijing's policy on religion, it's the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." In 1995, the regime effectively kidnapped Gendun Choekyi Nyima, a 6-year-old boy named by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, the second-highest ranking figure in Tibetan Buddhism. (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: Race and Politics - There is something both poignant and galling about the candidacy of Barack Obama. Any American, regardless of party or race, has to find it heartening that the country has reached the point where a black candidate for President of the United States sweeps so many primaries in states where the overwhelming majority of the population is white. We have all seen the crowds enthralled by Barack Obama's rhetoric and theatrical style. Many of his supporters put their money where their mouths were, so that this recently arrived Senator received more millions of dollars in donations than candidates who have been far more visible on the national stage for far more years. (READ MORE)
Cal Thomas: Barack and the Bigot - In his several explanations and denunciations of his longtime pastor, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama asks us to believe that he never heard any of the sermons in which Rev. Jeremiah Wright denounced and asked God to damn America. Neither was he present, he says, for Rev. Wright's message in which he said America got what it deserved on 9/11 because we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II and have bombed other countries. He apparently also missed the one about how America created AIDS. The implication appears to have been that it was a plot to wipe out blacks, since the disease disproportionately affects African Americans. Other church members must have told Obama what Rev. Wright said, or he could have viewed the sermon on the church's Website. It appears many others besides just Rev. Wright share this point of view. (READ MORE)
Mike S. Adams: The Audacity of Hope 127 - Just a few years ago, Pastor Jackson got on a plane from Africa to come to the United States of America. He felt led to reach out and form a partnership with a small but growing church in Wilmington, NC. He sold his car in order to purchase the plane ticket. He put his trust completely in the Lord. When he arrived unannounced at the airport in Baltimore, MD, he called the office of the church asking for someone to come and pick him up. They had to give him the bad news that the Baltimore airport was close to Wilmington, Delaware but not anywhere near Wilmington, North Carolina. But they managed to get him on a bus to North Carolina so they could listen in person to why Pastor Jackson thought he had been led to contact them in the first place. (READ MORE)
W. Thomas Smith, Jr: Jihadism's Dangerous Liasons - Analysts with MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believe an elite force of Hamas fighters in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon will launch a coordinated attack against Israel within a few months, says author and espionage expert Gordon Thomas. According to Thomas’s report published at World Net Daily’s G2 Bulletin: “Iran's Revolutionary Guards are training hundreds of Hamas fighters to prepare for an all-out war this summer against Israel. “The Gaza-based organization's elite Izzedine al-Qassam Brigade will form the southern front of an attack against the Jewish state while Hezbollah will launch its simultaneous assault from southern Lebanon, according to MI6.” Thomas contends the attacks would come at a time when the Bush White House is all but “spent,” and the Democrat and Republican parties are “looking inward to their conventions.” No surprise there: Jihadists are patient opportunists. (READ MORE)
Chuck Norris: A Patriot's Prayer - I genuinely was honored this past week to read in global news reports how our troops in the Middle East recently have expressed their gratitude for my trips there in 2006 and 2007. Particularly humbling were the thoughts from a Fallujah police trainer, who called me "a role model" for the Iraqi security forces that were formerly an al-Qaida stronghold. The truth, of course, is that they are the real heroes. They are the bona fide examples of courage. I spent my life as a warrior, first in the ring and then on-screen. They are warriors in countries torn by terror. I fight culture wars. They fight combat ones. True heroes are those such as Staff Sgt. Collin J. Bowen, 38, a Maryland Army National Guard soldier, who died just this past Friday in a Texas military hospital -- two months after his vehicle was hit in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb. (READ MORE)
Ed Feulner: In Iraq, a "Surge" Of Success - Are we succeeding in Iraq? Look no further than the front page of your daily newspaper. What had been a steady barrage of bad news has now slowed to a trickle. Our military’s success on the ground is changing public expectations as well. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that most Americans (53 percent) now think “the U.S. will ultimately succeed in achieving its goals” in Iraq. That’s up from 42 percent in the fall of 2007. Why the improvement? We can thank the “surge.” A little more than a year ago President Bush announced he would be sending more U.S. troops to Iraq. They deployed over the course of several months, and were all in country by June. (READ MORE)
Paul Weyrich: A Need for Advance Intelligence as to Foreign-Based Terrorism - Last Thursday night the House of Representatives met in a closed session to debate H.R. 3773, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. It passed the House on Friday by a vote of 213-197. The bill is intended to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to resolve the problems modern electronic communication poses for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies which pursue international terrorist networks that seek to inflict harm upon the United States. It states that a "court order is not required for electronic surveillance directed at the acquisition of communication between persons [who] are not known to be U.S. citizens and are reasonably believed to be located outside the United States for collecting foreign intelligence information... (READ MORE)
Janet M. LaRue: Keeping 'Pigs' Out of Your Parlor - The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will review a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in FCC v. Fox permitting “fleeting,” as opposed to “repetitive,” use of the F-bomb and other indecencies on broadcast television during the hours when children are in the audience. The case involves a January 2003 broadcast of the Golden Globes awards show by NBC, during which U2 lead singer Bono uttered the phrase “f——— brilliant.” A year later, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that the “F-word” in any context “inherently has a sexual connotation” and can be subject to enforcement action. Subsequently, the FCC ruled that four different TV programs were indecent under its revised policy, but did not impose any fines. (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: Their “Warrior Spirit” Remains, Despite Their Injuries - On Friday, if you were driving between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, you might have been surprised on some of the vehicles you saw on the road. You would have seen about 20 Wounded Warriors enduring the temperatures in the 90’s we had here in Texas as they made their way on bicycles and three wheel hand cycles towards Corpus Christi. These Wounded Warriors were taking part in the Texas leg of the annual Soldier Ride, which has the purpose of inspiring the Wounded Warriors, many who are often vulnerable to depression, to get out and feel the rush of the sun and wind in their faces and the adrenalin that pumps through their veins. (READ MORE)
Jeffrey Imm: Jihad, Islamism, and Non-Interventionism - As seen in two recent books by counterterrorism analysts, the ideology of Non-Interventionism is gaining popularity with a segment of the American public. While Non-Interventionist ideology plays off the frustrations of some of the American public with America's handling of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is the wrong answer to the confusion over global Jihad and Islamism. Two recently-released books by counterterrorism analysts offer a panacea of Non-Interventionism ideology: Michael Scheuer's "Marching Toward Hell - America and Islam After Iraq", and Marc Sageman's "Leaderless Jihad". The Non-Interventionist ideology represented by these authors does not critically examine the role of political Islamism in Islamist terrorism; therefore the authors conclude that an appeasement approach towards Islamism will improve American national security. (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: The suicide vest and the suicide mind - About a year ago the enemy weapon of choice was the vehicle borne explosive device or the VBIED and the roadside IED. But Coalition intelligence efforts found the car bomb factories and created barriers to their easy deployment. And while the roadside IED still found occasional effective employment the tactical utility of the VBIED catastrophically declined. Recently there's been a shift to the use of enhanced suicide vest bombs. “‘There has been an increase over time in the use of suicide vest bombers,’ US military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. ‘Late in 2007 there were about eight or 10 a month; in the month of February, there were 18....’” (READ MORE)
Deebow @ Blackfive: No Worse Enemy.... - And not in line to be "no better friend" either.... Because, if this is true , the jihadis/Psalmists/Al-Qeada et. al. are in for a wild, and short ride... The Russians have played this game before, and they have a much more focused and "kinetic" strategy (to borrow a phrase from our books). In fact, when they fought in Chechnya, they fought for awhile in the house to house method that we used to clear Al Fallujah, but, after awhile, and quite a few young Russian soldiers had been wounded or killed, they decided on a much different course to "pacify" the city of Grozny. The fired artillery into the city at an average rate of 4,000 rounds an hour, 24 hours a day, for 30 days. (READ MORE)
Blonde Sagacity: Hillary's Plans For Iraq & Her Halliburton Hypocrisy - "...Speaking this morning, Hillary hits Obama for not ruling out continuing to use armed private contractors in Iraq. She wants to ban such contractors. She goes on to talk about how she'll go after the favorite Democratic bogeyman, the infamous "no-bid" contracts. "There's been a lot of talk about earmarks in this town (and she hasn't released her lists; credit Obama for going that far) but no-bid contracts are ten times more costly than earmarks. When I introduced my legislation, I could not get, as of this moment, Senator McCain's support for that." Halliburton and Blackwater have become these very evil words associated with evil bushrovecheneyconservatives. (READ MORE)
The Captain's Journal: Obama and the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps - The Captain’s Journal is extremely disappointed in the former Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. But before addressing our disappointment, some background. Normally as a Milblog we are dealing with issues in counterinsurgency, weapons and tactics, policy, strategy, and connections in the global war on terror. Only infrequently do we weigh in on political matters. In this case, it seems appropriate to break with tradition if only momentarily. If we can leave behind the ugly picture of Jeremiah Wright screaming “God damn America” from the pulpit of his church or humping the pulpit (video here), Obama’s tactics for addressing his Pastor’s indiscretions are irrelevant, as are his claims that he wasn’t present when the words of hate were screamed. (READ MORE)
Flopping Aces: Hillery - “We Cannot Win In Iraq” - Not to be outdone by Obama in the “making a fool of myself” arena Hillary comes out with this: “Democrat Hillary Clinton charged on Monday the Iraq war may cost Americans $1 trillion and add strain to the sagging US economy as she made her case for a prompt US troop pullout from a war ‘we cannot win.’” Jveritas at FR, who translated many of the Saddam Documents, found this nugget in response to her statement that we can’t win: “It did not take long for Ekhlaas, the largest terrorist forum on the internet to rejoice and be all happy with Hillary Clinton defeatist statements today about the war in Iraq. Hillary Clinton said that we cannot win this war even if we stay there for a 100 year.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Double standard - Few defend Westboro Baptist Church. Why should Obama’s church be different? Because it is black. And if you object, then you are the racist. That seems to be the bifurcated reasoning of otherwise sensible people. The Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas is headed by Fred Phelps who wages a “God hates fag” campaign that disrupts military funerals. He makes Code Pink look pro-military. No one in their right mind defends his views, although the First Amendment pretty much allows him to speak out. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the recently retired head of the Trinity United Church in Chicago, is another matter. He built up his church from 87 members in 1971 to 8,500 today spewing hate. (READ MORE)
Mogens Rukov: Islam: In violation of our constitution - The great tolerance being displayed in Europe these days is directed towards Islam. Islam is being recognized, and Muslims are awarded full citizens’ rights. Tolerance has never been greater. But this period in time can be compared to the late 1930s, where the leading nation, Great Britain, spared no effort to accommodate the megalomaniacal plans of Hitler. Back then tolerance was a political decision. And it was a gigantic political misunderstanding, which led us directly to WWII. At present, tolerance is culturally determined and well founded in public opinion. Very few Europeans are in significant disagreement with the policy that faith is a private matter for the individual. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: A Second Look -- And It's Worse Than I Thought - Well, yesterday I took a look at the new Revised Arab Charter Of Human Rights from the Arab League of States -- and found it seriously wanting. Longtime detractor and contrarian "Herman" took issue with my position, and made a comparison between the Charter and the works of the Founding Fathers -- pointing out that many of them were slave owners, attempting -- I think -- to strike a sort of moral equivalence between them and the men behind the Charter. I don't accept this, but I think that the point Herman raises has some rather fascinating implications -- ones that escaped him. If we grant Herman his point for the moment, that would put the Arab League at the same moral point that we ourselves were at over 200 years ago. Those were the days when women were chattel, blacks often property, and only white male landowners were allowed to vote. Capital and corporal punishment was a given, and Indians were subhuman savages. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Obama Wants To Talk - I dunno, just guessing, but whatever it’s going to be, after several days of being beaten up over that crazy “old uncle” and the “God damn America … white America” thing, Obama wants to make a big speech about race and faith. He was up until nearly dawn yesterday writing it. I entirely don’t get it. Everyone knows it’s not possible for blacks to be racists. Maybe we’re going to get a guilt trip and a lecture about how we need to cut blacks some slack about that, because black racism is historically different from white racism, blah blah blah. “A failure could leave many of the white independent voters — a key group behind Obama’s swift rise in national politics — doubting whether he is really the bridge-builder and healer he has portrayed himself to be.” I’d say a failure would be a disaster for Obama’s campaign and for race relations in this country, unless it manages to underscore the fact that racism is a two-way street, and racism is not the answer to racism. (READ MORE)
Neptunus Lex: Visitors vs the home team - The LA Times portrays the typical foreign fighter in Iraq as “young, lonely and struggling to make a mark”: “(Most) militants were single men in their late teens and early 20s recruited by Al Qaeda in Iraq, a largely homegrown Sunni Arab militant group that the U.S. military says is led by foreigners. They typically come from large, lower-income families in which they struggled to be noticed…Most described their upbringing as religious but not extremist… Many said their fathers were harsh and often abusive. Most reported little or no previous military experience. Before they were recruited, many worked as taxi drivers, construction workers and in other low-paying jobs. Others were students. Their recruiters preyed on their desire for recognition, acceptance and friendship…” So, low status runaways from a shame culture that could not provide them with the means for self-improvement. The article goes on to say that while the foreign fighters are caressed and coddled while in transit to Iraq, many are abused by their handlers once in country. (READ MORE)
Phyllis Chesler: Murderous Mothers. The Hidden Female Face of Honor Killing - Texas-born Patricia (“Tissie) Said, formerly of the Owens family, is the mother who lured her two teenage daughters, Sarah and Amina, to their deaths at the hands of their own father this past New Years Day in Dallas. How can a mother do such a thing? Even if her own life was threatened, even if her husband Yasser had literally held a gun to her head and told her to trick her daughters into returning, isn’t a mother supposed to sacrifice herself for her children? Or at least to protect them? What can explain such a perversion of maternal instinct and of the life force itself? "Tissie” Said is not the first mother to have participated in an honor killing on American soil. (READ MORE)
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