PrairiePundit

What laws did he break and when did he break them? NY Times: W. Mark Felt, a senior F.B.I. official during the Nixon administration, was the “Deep Throat” of Watergate lore, the secret source who provided information that helped Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post unravel the scandals of Richard Nixon's White House, the newspaper said today. So is it ok to break the law to bring down a president who has passed you over for the top job at the FBI? Where the laws he broke not as important as those that were prosecuted?

Saddam trial to start this summer BBC: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has said he expects the trial of Saddam Hussein for alleged crimes against humanity to begin within two months. ... He has been charged with the deaths of thousands of Iraqi Shias and Kurds during his 1968-2003 rule.

Media v America Cinnamon Stillwell: It's become increasingly clear in recent weeks that a second front has opened in the War on Terror. Now, not only is the United States battling Islamic terrorism and its state supporters, it's facing another enemy. That enemy is the mainstream news media that is aided by its allies among so-called international human rights organizations, the anti-American left, and detractors within our own military, government and intelligence services who are leaking as much dirt as they can muster. The mainstream news media is doing all it can to defeat the United States abroad. The mainstream news media for the most part has long had it out for President Bush as well as being transparently opposed to the war in Iraq. But beginning with the Abu Ghraib story, it started focusing almost solely on the U.S. military. The obsession with Abu Ghraib began a narrative in which U.S. soldiers were always the bad guys and the terrorists they fought just innocent v...

The al Qaeda intel coup Bill Roggio has a similar take to PrariePundit on NY Times CIA airline story: If you are al Qaeda, and you are interested in interdicting or attacking CIA air services that transport captured high value targets, how would you go about finding out how the CIA is moving these prisoners around? Would you: a) Attempt to penetrate the CIA and dig into the inner workings of these operations. b) Invest heavily in paying off workers at local airports and in charter airlines across the Middle East and Asia to provide intelligence on suspicious flight activities. c) Read the New York Times . If you answered "c", you are correct. Today's New York Times provides intimate detail on the charter flights used by the CIA to ferry prisoners across the globe . The names of the charter companies are disclosed. The types of aircraft flown are revealed. The points of departure and destinations of these flights are stated. There is even a picture ...

The unholy alliance David Horowitz: Last fall I published a book called Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left , which argued that the progressive left in the West was in a de facto alliance with the Islamic jihadists, an alliance that developed out of the left's support for the genocidal camapaign of Palestinian jihadists against the Jews, and its global assault on the world capitalist system called "anti-globalization." With the support of FrontPageMag.com and Newsmax.com, the Washington Times and National Review -- and of course talk radio -- the book has done pretty well. There are 50,000 copies in print and most of them have been sold. However, it went unnoticed in most of the conservative press and in all the mainstream (leftwing) press except the New York Times . There it was given a paragraph or two among 4 other books about Islam and dismissed by a shallow NYU professor as the work of a "relic." The fact is that many people like th...

The West Point Class of 2005 James Robbins: ... A 1992 grad said that the current class differs from hers. They are more serious, she said. They looked sharper at the graduation parade, and seemed more focused at the ceremony. Guest speaker General Richard B. Myers noted that this class entered with a nation at peace, which had transitioned to war. Yet the members of the class had kept with it, even though they could leave voluntarily any time before the beginning of their third year. When General Myers made this observation the crowd, parents, siblings, and friends, began to applaud. It was a great moment, not a response to an obvious applause line, but a spontaneous tribute to a spirit that deserves respect. These new officers (and service members in general) know what they are facing. Stories of the occasional deserter or recruitment shortfall become chum for the media; that reenlistments are up, particularly in the theaters of conflict is not generally reported. Moreover, at West ...

Acceptable desecration Arnold Ahlert: L AST Friday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive at a Shiite shrine in Islamabad, Pakistan. Twenty people were killed and more than 150 were wounded. They were attending a religious festival in which passages from the Koran were being recited aloud by the faithful. How many Korans were "desecrated" by the blast? Considering the number of bombings by Islamo-fascists, one could make a reasonable case that the Koran is being desecrated daily — by Muslims. Ahlert misses the point. It is only when an "infidel" does it that it is bad. When a fidel does it, it is no big deal.

Al Qaeda manual tells captives to allege torture--liberals still fall for it Rowan Scarborough: An al Qaeda handbook preaches to operatives to level charges of torture once captured, a training regime that administration officials say explains some of the charges of abuse at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The American Civil Liberties Union last week posted on its Web site 2002 FBI documents regarding accusations from suspected al Qaeda and Taliban detainees at the detention center. The organization had won a court decision that forced the administration to release scores of e-mails between agents who had interviewed captives. ... U.S. officials think the Koran story -- told by a detainee who did not see the purported event -- might be part of an al Qaeda campaign to spread disinformation. "There have been allegations made by detainees," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. "We know that members of al Qaeda are trained to mislead and to p...

New French PM Dominique de Villepin de Axis de Weasals NY Times: French President Jacques Chirac named loyalist Dominique de Villepin as his new prime minister on Tuesday in a shake-up of the government following his crushing defeat over the European Union's constitution. Villepin replaces Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who was made a scapegoat for Sunday's referendum defeat. Villepin had until now been interior minister, and in a spell as foreign minister led France's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Spell? He was probably one of the worst foreign ministers of all times. He was dishonest with his counterparts in the US and UK. He worked to actively assist Saddam in thwarting another UN resolution. What an awful man. What an awful choice for a country whose diplomatic house is in shambles.

NY Times blows cover on CIA air operations The airplanes of Aero Contractors Ltd. take off from Johnston County Airport here, then disappear over the scrub pines and fields of tobacco and sweet potatoes. Nothing about the sleepy Southern setting hints of foreign intrigue. Nothing gives away the fact that Aero's pilots are the discreet bus drivers of the battle against terrorism, routinely sent on secret missions to Baghdad, Cairo, Tashkent and Kabul. When the Central Intelligence Agency wants to grab a suspected member of Al Qaeda overseas and deliver him to interrogators in another country, an Aero Contractors plane often does the job. If agency experts need to fly overseas in a hurry after the capture of a prized prisoner, a plane will depart Johnston County and stop at Dulles Airport outside Washington to pick up the C.I.A. team on the way. Aero Contractors' planes dropped C.I.A. paramilitary officers into Afghanistan in 2001; carried an American team to Karachi, Pakist...

Listening to will of the people Euro style Mark Steyn: The Eurofetishists can't seem to agree their line on this referendum business. On the one hand, the Guardian's headline writer was packing up and heading for the hills - "Europe is plunged into crisis" - and EU leaders warned that "Europe" might cease to function. Oh, come on. We won't get that lucky. On balance, Jean-Claude Juncker, the "president" of "Europe", seems closer to the mark in his now famous dismissal of the will of the people: "If it's a Yes, we will say 'on we go', and if it's a No we will say 'we continue'." And if it's a Neither of the Above, he will say "we move forward". You get the idea. Confronted by the voice of the people, "President" Juncker covers his ears and says: "Nya, nya, nya, can't hear you!" There are several lessons worth learning from the French vote. The f...

Zarqawi issues a challenge CNN: Insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi suffered only a minor combat wound and called on Osama bin Laden to put an unspecified plan into the motion, according to an audiotaped statement attributed Monday to the Jordanian-born terrorist. ... "I believe that the plan has already reached you or is on its way, and we are waiting for your instructions," the speaker says. The speaker blasts President Bush as "the dog of the yellow skin" and calls Iraqi President Jalal Talabani a "Zionist-American" and "the enemy of God." "I challenge you if you are a man, to walk down the street in any part of Iraq," the speaker taunts Talabani. The speaker also claims insurgents defeated U.S. troops during the recent offensive against insurgents in western Iraq near the Syrian border. "During this battle, the legend of the Marines disappeared," the speaker says. "In 10 days of the battle, your so...

Does Amnesty International think we are stupid or ignorant? Dennis Byrne: By labeling the U.S. anti-terrorism prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the "gulag of our times," the people of Amnesty International must think we're stupid or ignorant. Stupid or ignorant enough to fall for the assertion that whatever is happening at Guantanamo is the legal and moral equivalent of what happened in the hundreds of slave labor and concentration camps scattered throughout the former communist Soviet Union. Equivalent to a system that brutalized tens of millions, of which untold millions died of starvation, exposure, exhaustion, torture, illness or execution. ... Either Amnesty International isn't aware of this history, or it knows of it but is lying for the sake of a good sound bite. In either case, the group has lost credibility to speak on behalf of the victims of human-rights violations. Moreover, Amnesty International has dishonored millions of gulag victims. Of course, the...

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion finally removed from PA website Jeffrey Weiss, Dallas Morning News: Last week, the Palestinian Authority made headlines in Israel when it deleted from its Web site a link to a notorious anti-Semitic tract. The same century-old tract is the target of the last major book by the late Will Eisner, the inventor of the graphic novel. It's the subject of a documentary that debuted this year at the Sundance Film Festival. And it's inspired a new satire of anti-Semitism by two editors of Heeb , the Jewish humor magazine. What is it about an old, bigoted screed that merits such attention? The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has been the Jew-hater's main manifesto for more than100 years. The Protocols purports to be the minutes of a clandestine meeting of Jewish leaders near the end of the 19th century. The book cla...

When you are a war lord in Somalia, the mundane is threatening BBC: Rival Somali warlords have clashed in Baidoa, killing at least 15 people over plans to relocate the government - now based in Kenya - to the city. The heavy fighting broke out in the early hours of Monday morning, lasting more than six hours, eyewitnesses say. The city remains in hands of Mohamed Habsade, who wants the government to move to the capital, Mogadishu - in defiance of the new president. Somalia has been devastated by civil war and anarchy for 14 years. The Mogadishu warlords want the interim government to set up in their city when it leaves neighbouring Kenya. But President Abudullahi Yusuf, who has little support in the capital, says Mogadishu remains too dangerous and wants to go to Baidoa and Jowhar instead. You would think they could come up with more important things to die for.

Cheney says Norks do not take care of their people AFP: US Vice President Richard Cheney launched a personal attack on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, calling him an irresponsible leader who "doesn't take care" of his people as he strives for nuclear power status for his country. ... North Korea has refused to attend a fourth round of these talks that were to have taken place last September because of what it described as a "hostile" US attitude toward it. ... A Russian delegation that returned from Pyongyang earlier this month said North Koreans want the Bush administration to apologize for publicly branding Kim a "tyrant" and their country "an outpost of tyranny." But according to excerpts of the interview released by the TV channel, Cheney made clear Pyongyang should not expect any softening of the US tone, let alone an apology. "I am concerned about it," Cheney said of the stalled negotiations, "Partly bec...

The Iranian death cult Melanie Phillips: An utterly horrifying picture of life in Iran is painted by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi on FrontPageMagazine.com. It shows that at every level the regime is simply a menace to humanity, both inside and outside the country. Here’s part of the conclusion: ‘The extent of Iranian corruption is difficult to comprehend in the Western world. It is something so endemic and so entrenched in all societal strata that it can be described as an uninterruptible chain which starts with the President, continues through the functionaries and public servants at all levels and ends with the police officers who patrol the streets… Iran as a nation is today sending the world a message of self-destruction and annihilation. Death is constantly brought about by stoning, public executions, floggings, and massive drug addiction and diseases such as HIV. Death is also promoted through the political and financial support offered by the Islamist regime to the suicide bombers...

When "no" means keep voting until "yes" wins Melanie Phillips: Like the demise of Mark Twain, rumours of the death of the European Union have been greatly exaggerated. The implications of yesterday’s French referendum on the EU constitution were amply summed up in advance by Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, the current EU president, when he declared that if the French said ‘oui’ European integration would proceed, and if they said ‘non’ European integration would proceed. That’s what the EU means by ‘consulting the people’. That’s why France’s President Chirac threatened that if the French voted no, they would be made to vote again until they said yes. No doubt such a fate will befall the Dutch if they vote ‘nee’ in their own referendum this Wednesday, unless they do so by an overwhelming majority. In any event, this whole crisis has been more about political momentum rather than any possible real change in direction. For regardless of the constit...

The battle for Baghdad Strategy Page: ... The terrorists are cornered and, increasingly, having their hideouts and workshops discovered and destroyed. While May has seen, so far, over 700 Iraqis (mostly civilians) killed by terrorist attacks, over three hundred terrorist suspects have been killed in May, and over a thousand arrested. This past weekend, over 500 terrorists suspects were taken into custody, and over a dozen terrorist locations raided. Hundreds of weapons, and much bomb making material was seized. A lot of cash is being found. Last week, one raid grabbed six million dollars in American currency. The cash is considered as important as the weapons and explosives. Most of the terrorists do it because they are paid. Even the suicide bombers themselves, who are nearly all foreign volunteers, require cash to keep them fed, hidden and attended by paid “minders” who make sure the “martyrs” don’t change their minds. The number of tips from civilians is increasing, partly as a ...

...the last full measure of devotion... Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg: ... But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Conservative media is "scary" John McCaslin: ... We'd written last week that six congressmen -- five Democrats and one independent -- have organized the Future of American Media Caucus. Rep. Bernard Sanders , Vermont independent and a co-chairman of the group, complains that Americans have "fewer programming choices and a rapidly dwindling supply of independent news and information sources," and the caucus "is an important step in the fight to maintain local perspectives and diversity of opinion in the media." Among the dozens of Inside the Beltway readers to react to this latest congressional caucus is Dennis Campbell . "I literally gasped," he writes. "Do these people have anything actually working inside their heads? We have more choices and news sources now than in any time in history. "I guess the fact that conservatives now have a way to get their message out is just too much for these nincompoops t...

French vote for status quo Washington Times: French voters shook the European political establishment yesterday by issuing a resounding "non" to a proposed constitution for the continent, throwing into question plans for further integration. Even though officials of the European Union insisted that the ratification process would continue in the other member states, the French rebuff could prove fatal for the 470-page treaty that was meant to make the union run more smoothly. Apparently the French socialist thought the new union would be used to reform the French pension system which badly needs it. That was apparently more important to them than Chicac's vision of a European super power to comepete with the US. This is consistent with European socialism as a whole where defense spending has suffered as social programs suck money out of the economy.

Don't know much about history--Amnesty International edition Washington Times: Gen. Richard B. Myers yesterday condemned as "absolutely irresponsible" an Amnesty International report that compared prisoner treatment at Guantanamo Bay to the Soviet gulag, adding that 100 out of 68,000 detainees held in the war against terrorism were abused. "It's very small compared to the population of detainees we've handled," said Gen. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He also noted that many of the abuses have produced courts-martial and other punishments. The London-based human rights organization called the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our time," comparing it to the Soviet Union's slave-labor camps where millions of people died. Amnesty International also suggested that foreign governments investigate senior U.S. officials involved in "torture scandals" and arrest and question Defense Secretary Donal...

Stealth fighters sent to South Korea NY Times: The deployment last week of 15 stealth fighters to South Korea, along with the severing of the American military's only official interaction with North Korea, appears to be part of a new push by the Bush administration to further isolate North Korea despite China's hesitation to join the effort. The deployment, confirmed by the Pentagon on Friday after several news reports, came just after the Defense Department said Wednesday that it was suspending the search for soldiers missing in action since the Korean War. ... North Korea, for its part, on Sunday called the stealth fighter deployment "a risky prelude to war," a term it has often used about American military exercises. ... In a change that reflects a failure of the present policy, some officials say they will no longer rely heavily on China to sway the North Koreans. Ms. Rice met with China's leaders in Beijing in March specifically to...

Al Qaeda and Iraqi Sunnis clash in Husaybah Washington Post: For four days this month, U.S. Marines were onlookers at just the kind of fight they had hoped to see: a battle between suspected followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a foreign-born insurgent, and Iraqi Sunni tribal fighters at the western frontier town of Husaybah. In clashes sparked by the assassination of a tribal sheik, which was commissioned by Zarqawi, the foreign insurgents and the Iraqi tribal fighters pounded one another with small weapons and mortars in the town's streets as the U.S. military watched from a distance, tribal members and the U.S. military said. ... The fighting at Husaybah was a dramatic sign of the fractures in support and allegiance the foreign fighters are experiencing, several Iraqi political leaders and other Iraqis said. The battles also revealed what appeared to be fissures within the network's top leadership, they said. ... The experiences of Husaybah's residents ill...

Two alQaeda supporters arrested in FBI sting AP: The FBI arrested a Florida doctor and New York martial arts expert on federal terrorism charges, saying they conspired to treat and train terrorists, federal prosecutors announced Sunday. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Boca Raton physician, and Tarik Shah, a self-described martial arts expert in New York, were both charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York. Both men are American citizens. Shah also known as Tarik Ibn Osman Shah, Tarik Jenkins, and Abu Musab, prosecutors said. Anyone with that many aka's has got to be up to something. Dr. Sabir had apparently agreed to go to Saudia Arabia and treat wounded al Qaeda jihadis. Did he think he going to take care of Zarqawi?

Lebanon opposition sweeping out pro Syrians in election Times , UK: LEBANESE opposition candidates claimed to have won a clean sweep of all seats in Beirut as voters cast their ballots yesterday in the first round of a four-stage general election that will end Syria’s 15-year domination of Lebanon. The elections are the first since 1990 to be free of Syrian interference. About 100 observers from the United Nations and European Union are in Lebanon, the first time that a Lebanese Government has permitted international monitoring. Voting was brisk in Muslim districts of Beirut, where support runs high for the family of Rafik Hariri, a former Prime Minister whose assassination in February sparked mass demonstrations that led to Syria withdrawing its troops from Lebanon last month. Mr Hariri’s son, Saad, 35, heads a near-unbeatable list of candidates and is expected to sweep Beirut. ... The Opposition expects to win 80 to 90 places in the 128-seat parliament, but disagreements over...

Baghdad operation already achieving results AP: Iraqi police fought pitched battles with insurgents Sunday as thousands of security forces backed by American troops swept through Baghdad's streets to flush out militants responsible for killing more than 720 people since Iraq's new government was announced in April. Insurgents lashed back - killing at least 30 people, including a British soldier - and a senior U.S. military intelligence official acknowledged there are few indications they "are packing their bags." Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for nearly all the attacks in Internet statements that could not be independently verified. In their biggest coup of "Operation Lightning," Iraqi and U.S. soldiers arrested a former general in Saddam Hussein's intelligence service who was also a member of his Fedayeen secret police during a raid in western Baghdad, the scene of some of Sunday's heaviest fighting. ...

French say non to Euro constitution BBC: French voters have rejected the European Union's proposed constitution in Sunday's referendum, President Jacques Chirac has said. The vote could deal a fatal blow to the constitution, which needs to be ratified by all 25 members states. Exit polls published just after voting ended put the "No" side at 55%.

Force to space in Baghdad BBC: Iraqi security forces have begun a massive operation to hunt down insurgents in the Baghdad area. Reports say 40,000 soldiers and police officers are involved in sealing all the roads in and out of the capital. Operation Lightning follows an upsurge in insurgent attacks, which has killed more than 600 in the past month. ... The operation is backed by 10,000 US troops based in the area. "The operation began today, the troops will block all entrances of Baghdad to prevent terrorists from conducting activities in the capital," a defence ministry official was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. "It's a crackdown on the terrorism infrastructure." Since the enemy uses terrorism raids, and so far, intelligence operations have not been adequate to shut them off completely, a large cordon and search operation, effects the ability of the enemy to move in and out of the area to conduct raids. If every vehicl...

The choice in Europe Mark Steyn: Following Sunday's vote in France, on Wednesday Dutch voters get to express their opinion on the proposed ''European Constitution.'' Heartening to see democracy in action, notwithstanding the European elite's hysterical warnings that, without the constitution, the continent will be set back on the path to Auschwitz. I haven't seen the official ballot, but the choice seems to be: "Check Box A to support the new constitution; check Box B for genocide and conflagration." Alas, this tactic doesn't seem to have worked. So, a couple of days before the first referendum, Jean-Claude Juncker, the "president" of the European Union, let French and Dutch voters know how much he values their opinion: "If at the end of the ratification process, we do not manage to solve the problems, the countries that would have said No, would have to ask themselves the question again," "Pre...

The military the media does not tell you about Frank Schaeffer: I never served in the military, and before my son unexpectedly volunteered, I was too busy writing novels to give much thought to the men and women who guard us. To me the military was the "other." After my son joined the Marines, however, casualty reports from Afghanistan and Iraq were no longer mere news items but gut-churning family bulletins. And reports about prisoner abuse cut me to the quick. They also made me angry at the media. Sure, this was an emotional, don't-impugn-my-son's-honor reaction, but I wonder if there is also something fundamentally amiss with the way the media report on our military. If most reporters, editors and publishers are like this writer before his son volunteered, they don't identify with members of our armed forces personally. Most members of our media are drawn from my privileged class. And we, the most privileged Americans, seem to believe that everyone but ou...

European "Union" George Will: The European Union, which has a flag no one salutes and an anthem no one knows, now seeks ratification of a constitution few have read. Surely only its authors have read its turgid earnestness without laughing, which is one reason why the European project is foundering. Today in France, and Wednesday in the Netherlands, Europe's elites -- political, commercial and media -- may learn the limits of their ability to impose their political fetishes on restive and rarely consulted publics. The European project is the transformation of "Europe" from a geographic into a political denotation. This requires the steady drainage of sovereignty from national parliaments and the "harmonization" of most economic and social policies. But if any of the 25 E.U. member nations reject the proposed constitution -- 11 have ratified it or are in the process of doing so -- it shall not come into effect. And if French voters in today's ...

The real Gitmo that Amnesty International will not tell you about Deroy Murdock: W HILE Newsweek has re tracted its deadly tall tale about interrogators shoving the Koran down a toilet to rattle Guantanamo detainees, the magazine's "flush to judgment" (in the words of this newspaper) fits what Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald calls the prevailing "torture narrative." Possibly harmless Muslims languish without trial in U.S. custody. America's soul dies a little as each GI's sucker-punch shatters one more Arab's jaw. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Amnesty International Wednesday called Gitmo "the Gulag of our times." Journalists and Bushophobes should stop crying for these Islamo-fascists long enough to read a largely overlooked Pentagon document on Guantanamo detainees. They appear pampered, chatty and dangerous. "Americans are very kind people," one English-challenged detainee said in the March 4 paper. "If...

Terrorism policy review Washington Post: The Bush administration has launched a high-level internal review of its efforts to battle international terrorism, aimed at moving away from a policy that has stressed efforts to capture and kill al Qaeda leaders since Sept. 11, 2001, and toward what a senior official called a broader "strategy against violent extremism." The shift is meant to recognize the transformation of al Qaeda over the past three years into a far more amorphous, diffuse and difficult-to-target organization than the group that struck the United States in 2001.... President Bush's top adviser on terrorism, Frances Fragos Townsend, said in an interview that the review is needed to take into account the "ripple effect" from years of operations targeting al Qaeda leaders such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, arrested for planning the Sept. 11 attacks, and his recently detained deputy. "Naturally, the enemy has adapted," she said. "As you ca...

For Dems compromise is agreeing with them Sheryl Gay Stolberg: On the second floor of the Capitol, in an ornate chamber where senators greet visitors, the stern visage of Henry Clay peers out from a gilded frame. Clay, of course, was the Great Compromiser, and for a moment last week it was possible to imagine his ghost hovering in the corridors. First 14 senators struck a bipartisan compromise to avert a showdown on President Bush's judicial nominees. Next, Republicans and Democrats in the House passed a bill expanding federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, only to run into a threatened presidential veto. Then Democrats revived the filibuster - the tactic at the heart of the judicial fight - to delay the confirmation of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. As suddenly as the spirit of Clay had revived, it vanished. Left behind was a question: What has happened to the art of political compromise? Sheryl what happened is Democrat bad faith. When B...

The Dem's Magic 8 Ball NY Times: Just days after a bipartisan group of senators agreed to defuse a standoff over judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, found a new tool for interpreting their compromise: a Magic 8 Ball, the fortune-telling toy. Mocking the agreement's provision that Democrats can block judicial nominees in "extraordinary circumstances," Dr. Frist suggested in a dinner speech on Wednesday that the Democratic leaders might gather around a Magic 8 Ball to decide how the phrase applied to each judicial nominee. "Will Brett Cavanaugh get an up-or-down vote? The Magic 8 Ball says, 'Don't count on it,' " Dr. Frist said, pulling out the toy in a speech to the conservative group Gopac. "Will William Myers get an up-or-down vote? The Magic 8 Ball says, 'Better not tell you.' " As senators headed home for a Memorial Day recess, the delicate compromise was under mounting pressure from Repu...

Who do you believe? Dave Zweifel of the Capitol Times in Wisconsin weighs in on the situation at Gitmo with a story from a call on show about former Nazis who were POW's in Wisconsin: ... Becker recalled that when he was in Germany as a 22-year-old back in 1965, he sometimes wore his University of Wisconsin sweatshirt. "That shirt brought surprisingly many ex-Wehrmacht soldiers to me who told me that they had been held as POWs in my state during World War II," he said. And when he asked them what it was like, the response was always how well they had been treated. Indeed, during my years at The Capital Times, there have been several instances of Germans writing us to nostalgically recall their days in one of the many German POW camps in Wisconsin, including a huge one just south of the current Fort McCoy near Sparta. "Hearing of that humane treatment made me proud to be an American, and that humane treatment contributed to the good will extended to Ameri...

A bad times for Saudis to vacation in Syria (or Iraq) Arab News: More than 300 Saudis have been arrested at the airport in Damascus and along the Syrian border on suspicion they were en route to Iraq to fight alongside insurgents, press reports said yesterday. Relatives of some of the arrested told Al-Watan Arabic daily that the Saudis had no intention of entering Iraq in order to take part in a jihad against American and other occupation forces. They said some of the Saudis were arrested on arrival at the airport in Damascus. “The Saudis had gone to Syria to spend their holidays,” the paper quoted the relatives as saying. A Saudi woman, said her husband was arrested soon after his arrival at the airport in Damascus. “He called me from the airport to let me know he had arrived safely. Then we had no word for a while and later we learned he had been arrested at the airport,” she told the daily. The paper did not say when exactly the arrest had taken place. It must not have been a ...

Prewar bombing in Iraq started early Saddam's hostility to the patrols of the no fly zone gave the US and the Brits a reason to go after his air defenses even before the UN resolution, according to RAF records . Antiwar types in the UK are attempting to suggest that there is something wrong with the US and RAF response to Saddam's hostility rather than focus on Saddam's bad conduct. Typical liberals, blame the good guys and ignore the bad guys.

Z-man flees Iraq Sunday Times of London: IRAQ’S most wanted terrorist has fled the country for emergency surgery after an American airstrike left him with shrapnel lodged in his chest, according to a senior insurgent commander in close contact with his group. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has a $25m bounty on his head after being blamed for suicide bombings, assassinations and the beheadings of western hostages — including Ken Bigley, the Liverpool engineer — is now believed to be in Iran. He has suffered from bouts of high fever since being wounded by a missile that struck his convoy three weeks ago as he fled an American offensive near the town of al-Qaim in northwestern Iraq, the commander said. His condition late last week was described as stable, but supporters were said to be preparing to move him to another “non-Arab” country for an operation to remove the shrapnel. “Shrapnel went in between the right shoulder and his chest, ripped it open and is still stuck in there,” said the com...

Summer will be sweeps month for towns between Baghdad and Syria Chicago Tribune: Coalition forces will stage a chain of offensives this summer up and down the Euphrates River valley that leads to the Syrian border, much like the two operations this month targeting guerrillas and their smuggling of foreign fighters into Iraq, a top U.S. battlefield commander said Friday. "There will be more operations based on intelligence," said Col. Stephen Davis, commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team-2, who oversees a vast swath of Iraq's western Anbar province. Operation Matador, a sweep launched earlier this month along the Euphrates, revealed that insurgents were far more organized than expected in the area, and that several small towns once considered safe still harbored large numbers of insurgents. Though Marines reported killing scores of insurgents, they acknowledged that many others disappeared in the broken terrain along the Iraq-Syria border. The summer campaigns will ste...

Media standards for what is news Jack Kelly: ... Apparently most journalists see nothing newsworthy about our union's head accusing, without evidence, our troops of war crimes. Papers prominently covered a hysterical report released Wednesday by Amnesty International accusing the United States of "atrocious" human-rights violations and calling Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our times." The charges - based again on unsubstantiated charges of al-Qaeda detainees - would be comical in their overreach were they not so vile. Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah and ex-Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi report Saddam Hussein had ties with Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's No. 2, and Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda chieftain in Iraq, years before the war. Unlike Amnesty, King Abdullah and Mr. Allawi have real evidence. But no U.S. paper has reported it. Newsweek rushed to print Michael Isikoff's poorly sourced charge of Qur'an abuse, but spiked his well-sourc...

Helpful suggestions from Mrs. Spoons I have to work all weekend, so Mrs. Spoons is taking the opportunity to visit friends in California. She arrived safetly today, and I'm sure she'll have a wonderful time. However -- I'm not quite sure how to take the helpful little list she left behind. Either my wife is deeply in love with me and takes great pleasure in taking care of me... OR she thinks I'm mildly retarded. There follows a list of "Food to Eat" as oppose to throw at the neighbors, etc. A fun read.