If you haven't read these two articles (here and here) by Michael J. Totten on what he calls the Anbar Awakening. This is the kind of reporting the mainstream media should be doing, but isn't. Ramadi has changed so drastically from the terrorist-infested pit that it was as recently as April 2007 that I could […]
No, I'm not sure exactly what the headline on this post means. It just has a certain feeling to it. Maybe it's because of the sound a bag of hammers makes when you drop it on the floor -- or swing it and hit California Sen. Barbara Boxer in the head. This would mean that […]
You can see a full size PDF of today's MoveOn.org ad in today's New York Times by clicking on the accompanying image. I've got to say that this is probably the most disgusting piece of political hackery since Grover Cleveland had to endure taunts of "Ma, Ma, where's my pa? Gone to the White House. […]
For most of their first eight months in charge on Capitol Hill, the Democrats passed bill after resolution after bill demanding something close to an immediate retreat from Iraq. They did this knowing that President Bush would veto the bills and that he had enough Republican support to sustain those vetoes. The maneuvers were empty, […]
The New Republic has another fabulist on its hands. After a thorough investigation that lasted nearly a week the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division has concluded that the allegations made by Private Thomas Scott Beauchamp, the "Baghdad Diarist", have been "refuted by members of his platoon and proven to be false" [emphasis […]
UPDATED WITH LINKS The New Republic has re-fact-checked it's previously fact-checked reports and come to the conclusion that they were mostly right. Beauchamp's essay consisted of three discrete anecdotes. In the first, Beauchamp recounted how he and a fellow soldier mocked a disfigured woman seated near them in a dining hall. Three soldiers with whom […]
Majority Whip James Clyburn -- the No. 3 man in the House -- revealed something that just makes you truly sad for the state of the Democratic Party which was once represented by Harry S Truman and John F. Kennedy. Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker […]
From Monday's "Best of the Web Today" comes this interesting bit: Take Me to the River A reader wrote to the New York Times to inquire as to why the paper refers to Iraq as "Mesopotamia" when describing the al Qaeda affiliate in that country. He received the following reply from the Public Editor's Office: […]
If you haven't read it already, I encourage you to check out the op-ed piece in today's New York Times by Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the center-left Brookings Institution. Once you've read it, think for a moment how this likely won't impact people like Sens. Harry Reid and Russ Feingold who've already decided […]
I got home and flipped the TV to CSPAN-2. It's about 2 a.m. PDT and Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey is speaking. It sounds a lot like: "Blah blah blah six months since the surge started and I don't think any reasonable person can say it has been anything other than a failure." And that's all […]