PrairiePundit

Telegraph: Historian Fergus Cannan states that the Scots armies who fought in battles like Bannockburn, and Flodden Field would have looked very different to the way they have traditionally been depicted. Instead of kilts, he said they wore saffron-coloured tunics called "leine croich" and used a range of ingredients to get the boldest possible colours. "What the Scottish soldiers wore in the country's greatest battles is an area that, up until now, has not been properly studied," he said. "A lot of historians quite rightly stated that the film Braveheart was not terribly accurate, but what they didn't admit was that they didn't have a clue what would be accurate." Mr Cannan, a military history specialist, who has traced his own roots back to Robert the Bruce, scoured original medieval eye-witness accounts, manuscripts, and tomb effigies. Using these and other sources, he built up a picture of what members of Robert the Bruce's forces would...

BBC: The European Union has demanded the immediate release of Iranian staff at Britain's embassy in Tehran detained on Saturday over post-election unrest. EU ministers meeting in Greece warned that "harassment or intimidation" of embassy staff would be met with a "strong and collective" response. Iranian media reported the detention of eight local staff at the UK mission over their alleged role in the unrest. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband dismissed the allegations as baseless. ... Iran is isolating itself as its fragile regime tries to survive the lack of legitimacy that has resulted from the election protest. Those in the West who hoped to negotiate some kind of deal with Iran are going to have a difficult time doing so as normal diplomatic channels are under attack. Perhaps that is what Iran wants. Certainly in the past it has ignored normal diplomacy and attacked the US embassy. What the Europeans and the US should consider is that the attacks are a...

San Antonio Express News: CPS Energy customers still are paying for billions of dollars in cost overruns on two nuclear reactors built more than 20 years ago. Still, there is widespread consensus the plants were a good investment, allowing San Antonio to enjoy some of the lowest electricity bills in the nation and making the city an attractive place for companies looking to expand or relocate. On Monday, CPS will unveil its long-awaited cost estimate for the construction of two new nuclear reactors to meet the region's burgeoning appetite for energy. The release will mark the beginning of a public discussion expected to culminate this fall in a decision by the City Council whether to give its blessing to the utility to increase its investment, already close to $300 million. Cost estimates from other sources have ranged from $10 billion, by CPS Energy's partner in the nuclear effort, NRG Energy, up to $22 billion by a former Texas Public Utility Counsel official. That offic...

David Ignatius: ... The White House believes that if it comes to a showdown, Netanyahu will compromise. His coalition government, the administration reasons, is too weak to sustain an open break with its key ally, the United States. If Netanyahu defies the United States, his coalition will splinter. The administration is already talking with Ehud Barak, the Labor Party leader and defense minister, who might form a new government if Netanyahu falls. It's a hardheaded strategy, but it has one big flaw: The Obama team is assuming that if it can pressure Israel into a real settlements freeze, the Arabs will respond with meaningful moves toward normalization of relations -- which will give Israel some tangible benefits for its concessions. But that hope appears to be misplaced. "What will I do in exchange for a settlements freeze? Nothing," says a senior Arab diplomat. "We're not interested in confidence-building, or a step-by-step approach," he continues. Ins...

Mark Walker: Sgt. Graham Jacobs, a team leader with the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion at Camp Pendleton, struggled for an answer to what he and his men did during a recent deployment to an untamed region of western Afghanistan. The Wyoming native said he was searching for a "politically correct" response. He was told that wasn't necessary. "OK," he said. "We ran around and killed a lot of bad people." ... There is much more and it not that simple. Marines resisted special forces operations for several years because they though all Marines qualified as such. While qualified they did not do much of the behind the enemy lines type of operations that are being done now in Afghanistan. I think they have learned to appreciate the role of these forces in the overall combined arms operations.

BBC: Troops in Honduras have detained the president ahead of a referendum on plans to change the constitution. President Manuel Zelaya's secretary said he had been taken to an airbase outside the capital, Tegucigalpa. Mr Zelaya, elected for a non-renewable four-year term in January 2006, wanted a vote to extend his time in office. The referendum, due on Sunday, had been ruled illegal by the Supreme Court and was also opposed by Congress and members of Mr Zelaya's own party. Reuters news agency reports that soldiers fired teargas at about 500 supporters of Mr Zelaya who had gathered outside the presidential palace, as air force jets flew over the capital. ... The arrest comes after President Zelaya defied a court order that he should re-instate the chief of the army, Gen Romeo Vasquez. The president sacked Gen Vasquez late on Wednesday for refusing to help him organise a referendum. Mr Zelaya, who under current regulations leaves office next January, also accepted the resignatio...

Joan Vennochi: THE FUZZY math behind the Massachusetts universal healthcare law is starting to add up - just as Washington studies the law as a possible model for the nation. Because of a recession-related drop in state revenues and a surge in enrollment by the recently unemployed, the truth is emerging at an inconvenient time. Massachusetts doesn’t have enough money to pay for the coverage envisioned by the law. In June, state officials announced they are cutting $100 million from Commonwealth Care, which subsidizes premiums for needy residents. The poorest residents, along with the newest - legal immigrants - will take the hit. This outcome is not surprising, but it is instructive as President Obama pushes for a national healthcare plan. On the day that Republican Governor Mitt Romney, for once, made Bay State Democrats happy, by signing the sweeping new healthcare bill into law, the Globe headline said it all: “Joy, worries on healthcare. As Romney signs bill, doubts arise about rev...

CNN: Iran's government will allow a demonstration at Tehran's Ghoba mosque Sunday, CNN has confirmed. The gathering is officially meant to honor Mohammad Beheshti, a hero of the 1979 Islamic Revolution who was killed in a bombing on this date in 1981. The demonstration comes after two weeks of protests against the official results of the June 12 presidential elections, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won. A post on a Web site associated with opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi urged people to go to the rally. "There will be a gathering in 'Ghoba' Mosque and it's legal! Please send this message to everyone you can in Iran ," says the post in Farsi and English, on a page which claims to be Moussavi's Facebook site. CNN has not confirmed the site is run by Moussavi or his associates. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Sunday called for an end to street demonstrations. "I advise both sides not to provoke the emotions...

Washington Post: Over the past two weeks, Marcelle George has watched with amazement as legions of Iranian women, most wearing black, full-length Islamic garments, defiantly protested Iran's leadership. Even in her native Egypt , where some opposition to the government is permitted, most women would never dare cross that line. "To actually see Iranian women fight for their rights is inspiring," said George, a college student in jeans and a long-sleeve blouse. "I never imagined that it could happen there." As Iran's theocracy appears on the verge of silencing the biggest challenge to its authority since it was established in 1979, female activists in the region say they are inspired by the prominent role women are playing in the country's opposition movement. Many hope it will have a crossover effect on the struggle for women's rights in their own countries and help shatter Western perceptions of Middle Eastern women as subjugated in a male-domin...

Phil Kent: Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Horne v. Flores drives another nail into the coffin of bilingual education, the teaching theory in which immigrant children are segregated by language and taught primarily in their native language while being taught English on the side. Bilingual education is a documented failure in school systems across the country, and the 5-4 decision, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., involving Arizona's Nogales Unified School District emphasizes this failure with a stark conclusion: Teach English. Specifically, the high court recognizes the demonstrated effectiveness of structured English immersion (SEI) methods for teaching English language learners (ELL). In 1992, some students and parents in the district sued the state, claiming it wasn't taking "appropriate action" to overcome barriers to ELLs in schools. The state responded with English-immersion techniques. (Thomas Horne is the state school superintendent for p...

George Will: "In the beginning," says a character in a Peter De Vries novel, "the earth was without form and void. Why didn't they leave well enough alone?" When Washington is finished improving health care, Americans may be asking the same thing. Certainly the debate will compel them to think more clearly about this subject. Most Americans do want different health care: They want 2009 medicine at 1960 prices. Americans spent much less on health care in 1960 (5 percent of GDP as opposed to 18 percent now). They also spent much less -- nothing, in fact -- on computers, cell phones and cable and satellite television. Your next car can cost less if you forgo GPS, satellite radio, antilock brakes, power steering, power windows and air conditioning. You can shop for such a car at your local Studebaker, Hudson, Nash, Packard and DeSoto dealers. The president says his health plan is responsive "to all those families who now spend more on health care than housing ...

Washington Post: Iraq is poised to open its coveted oil fields to foreign companies this week for the first time in nearly four decades, a politically risky move in a country eager to shake off the stigma of occupation. Iraqi politicians and some veteran oil officials have said the deals are unduly beneficial to oil giants, which are viewed warily by many in this deeply nationalistic but cash-strapped country. Oil executives have been following the matter with apprehension, industry analysts said, but they are eager to get a foothold in Iraq, which has the world's second-largest proven crude reserves and is seen as the only major penetrable market. "It's something the industry really wants," said Ben Lando, editor of Iraq Oil Report, an Iraq energy news Web site. "The number of reserves around the world that they have access to is declining. And Iraq has so much oil." Iraq's Oil Ministry is expected to auction eight contracts for six active oil fi...

NY Times: First the general was blown up. Then the president was shot dead , the former prime minister was arrested and tortured, a presidential candidate was killed in his villa, and the former defense minister was ambushed and shot on the bridge outside town. Despite those chilling messages — reportedly carried out by men in military uniform — Sunday’s election to replace the assassinated president, João Bernardo Vieira, will go on. There is jolly music and dancing in the decaying streets; earnest international observers crisscross Bissau, the capital; the remaining candidates hold buoyant rallies in preparation for the vote; and trucks packed with chanting supporters bounce up and down over the little city’s deep potholes. Underneath, though, there is anxiety and doubt here in Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony that is pitch-black at night because of a lack of electricity and that is so fragile it is being abandoned even by the drug traffickers, according to a United Nations ...

Sunday Times: Opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, are bracing themselves for a purge if, as expected, he returns to office following the country’s bitterly disputed presidential election. His defeated rival, Mir Hos-sein Mousavi, who came a distant second in a poll he insists was rigged by the regime, has continued to defy what he has called “huge pressures” to halt his campaign for a new vote. Last week his communications with the outside world were severely restricted, his web page was taken down and his newspaper was closed, with 25 of its employees arrested. Supporters said they feared Mousavi could become another Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy leader who has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest. ... Observers said they believed that after his inauguration, due by early August, a vengeful Ahmadinejad would oust anyone in government who had favoured the opposition or simply failed to support him. “There will be a purg...

Washington Post: A proposal to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to counter drug trafficking has triggered a bureaucratic standoff between the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security over the military's role in domestic affairs, according to officials in both departments. The debate has engaged a pair of powerful personalities, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, in what their subordinates describe as a turf fight over who should direct the use of troops to assist in the fight against Mexican cartels and who should pay for them. At issue is a proposal to send 1,500 additional troops to the border to analyze intelligence and to provide air support and technical assistance to border agencies. The governors of Texas, Arizona, California and New Mexico made the request in January, drawing support from Napolitano but prompting objections from the Pentagon, where officials argue that it could lead to a permanent,...

Observer /Guardian: The power struggle inside Iran appears to be moving from the streets into the heart of the regime itself this weekend amid reports that Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani is plotting to undermine the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . Rafsanjani's manoeuvres against Khamenei come as tensions between the speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also appeared to be coming to a head. Mass demonstrations on the streets against the election results have been effectively crushed by a massive police and basiij militia presence that has seen several dozen deaths and the arrests of hundreds of supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. But the splits within Iran's political elite are deepening. In the past few days, Larijani - who was fired by Ahmadinejad as chief negotiator on nuclear issues with the west - has announced his intention of setting up a parliamentary committee to examine the recent post-election vi...

NY Times: For the past month and a half, the Pakistani military has claimed success in retaking the Swat Valley from the Taliban , clawing back its own territory from insurgents who only a short time ago were extending their reach toward the heartland of the country. Yet from a helicopter flying low over the valley last week, the low-rise buildings of Mingora, the largest city in Swat, now deserted and under a 24-hour curfew, appeared unscathed. In the surrounding countryside, farmers had harvested wheat and red onions on their unscarred land. All that is testament to the fact that the Taliban mostly melted away without a major fight, possibly to return when the military withdraws or to fight elsewhere, military analysts say. About two million people have been displaced in Swat and the surrounding area as the military has carried out its campaign. The reassertion of control over Swat has at least temporarily denied the militants a haven they coveted inside Pakistan proper. The offens...

LA Times: Pakistan's military offensive against the Taliban has slowed the flow of arms and fighters into Afghanistan, U.S. officials say, and has prompted intelligence analysts to issue cautiously upbeat new assessments of Islamabad's ability to contain the threat of violent extremists. U.S. intelligence and military officials said the revised outlook reflected a series of developments over the last few months, including not only the Pakistani military campaign in the country's Swat Valley, but shifting political currents that have prompted many Pakistanis to turn against extremist groups and back their government's anti-insurgency efforts. "All of a sudden military operations [against militants] are being imbued with a kind of legitimacy, popular support and political support they have never had before," said a senior U.S. intelligence official who oversees analysis of the region, describing the evolving view on condition of anonymity. Obama administration ...

Investor's Business Daily: A suppressed EPA study says old U.N. data ignore the decline in global temperatures and other inconvenient truths. Was the report kept under wraps to influence the vote on the cap-and-trade bill? This was supposed to be the most transparent administration ever. Yet as the House of Representatives prepared to vote on the Waxman-Markey bill, the largest tax increase in U.S. history on 100% of Americans, an attempt was made to suppress a study shredding supporters' arguments. On Friday, the day of the vote, the Competitive Enterprise Institute said it was releasing "an internal study on climate science which was suppressed by the Environmental Protection Agency." In the release, the institute's Richard Morrison said "internal EPA e-mail messages, released by CEI earlier in the week, indicate that the report was kept under wraps and its author silenced because of pressure to support the administration's agenda of regulating carbon...

BBC: Human Rights Watch has accused Iran's volunteer Basij militia of carrying out night-time raids, destroying property in private homes and beating civilians. The New York-based group says the raids are an attempt to stop the nightly rooftop chants against the government. It also says satellite dishes are being confiscated to stop people from watching foreign news. Meanwhile, on state TV, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again attacked what he said was US and European meddling. And Iranian media reported that the public relations chief of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi had been banned from leaving the country. Abolfazl Fateh, who was preparing to travel to the UK to work on his doctorate, told Reuters news agency that he was restricted for his role in post-election developments. ... How fragile Iran must be to impose such restrictions on travel and speech and to keep information from its people. What a bunch of frightened despots. It is pretty cowardly conduct for a bunc...