Rice Punches Back at Boxer

Say what you want about Condi Rice and her job performance, but the contemptible Barbara Boxer went so far overboard and deserves all the scorn she is getting. Friday, Rice and the White House fired back.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday challenged Sen. Barbara Boxer's claim that she can't make effective decisions about sending U.S. troops to war because she's not a mother.

"I thought single women had come further than that," Rice said. "The only question is, 'Are you making good decisions because you have kids?' "

Boxer, in a venomous tirade during a tense Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday, told Rice she couldn't understand the "price" of war - a shot at the fact the nation's top diplomat has never married and has no children.

"You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family," Boxer (D-Calif.) fumed.

Boxer's comments stunned the committee room and one GOP staffer likened her to a "bad actor at a high-school play."

The White House yesterday joined Rice in blasting back with both barrels.

President Bush's spokesman Tony Snow slammed Boxer's rant as an "outrage" and called it a "great leap backward for feminism."

"Here you got a professional woman, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Barbara Boxer is sort of throwing little jabs because Condi doesn't have children, as if that means that she doesn't understand the concerns of parents," Snow said.

"I don't know if she was intentionally that tacky, but I do think it's outrageous," Snow told Fox News Channel.

Rice said she was initially confused by Boxer's broadside.

"I guess that means I don't have kids, is that the purpose of that? I assume," Rice told Fox News Channel.

A defiant Boxer yesterday refused to apologize.

"I spoke the truth at the committee hearing, which is that neither Secretary Rice nor I have family members that will pay the price for this escalation," Boxer insisted in a statement.

Democrats never apologize. They just get nastier.

Personally, I believe Boxer has problem with a strong, attractive African-American woman being her intellectual superior.

Remarkably, the New York Times failed to even mention the story Friday. Just reverse the roles and see if they'd ignore it. Doubtful.

Missing Missouri Boys Found

Take a good look at the scumbag in the above picture and see the face of evil. May his remaining days be filled with fear and pain. I was thrilled to hear the news that Ben Ownby had been found, and was stunned to hear another boy who had disappeared in 2002 was also found with him.

I dread to think what may have happened to Shawn Hornbeck, but at this point, all we can do is pray for him and his family, who must be overwhelmed with joy at this time.

Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby disappeared 4 1/2 years and 40 miles apart. Police were stunned to find both boys - alive and apparently well - in the same suburban St. Louis apartment.

The shocking development Friday was hailed as a miracle in two rural Missouri communities - Richwoods, where Shawn was 11 when he disappeared on Oct. 6, 2002 - and Beaufort 40 miles to the north, where Ben, 13, hadn't been seen since getting off a school bus Monday afternoon.

A routine search warrant led police to investigate the Kirkwood, Mo., apartment dweller, Michael Devlin, 41, an Imo's Pizza manager and part-time funeral home worker. He was charged with first-degree kidnapping and held in the Franklin County Jail on $1 million bond.

An elated Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke, who headed the search for Ben, began a news conference Friday by telling reporters, "We have some good news and we have some probably unbelievable news."

The key to finding the boys was a beat-up white pickup truck spotted by a schoolmate of Ben's who got off the bus at the same time. The friend saw the pickup speeding away about the time Ben vanished from the gravel road near his home.

Cowardly Nifong Wants Out

What a punk Mike Nifong is. Drags this case out when all evidence says there never should have been any indictments, and now he tries to cut and run on a Friday afternoon. What a worm.

DURHAM, N.C., Jan. 12 — The district attorney in the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case asked the state attorney general on Friday to take over the troubled prosecution, saying he faced a conflict of interest because of ethics charges filed against him by the state bar, officials involved in the case said.

The decision by the district attorney, Michael B. Nifong, throws new doubt on the future of a prosecution that has already suffered several sharp setbacks.

A spokeswoman for Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s attorney general, confirmed that the office had received Mr. Nifong’s request and said it would be discussed on Saturday. If Mr. Cooper agrees to review the case, it will remove a prosecutor who has become a lightning rod for fierce and unrelenting criticism.

Defense lawyers were jubilant, openly predicting that no prosecutor in the state would continue with a case that hangs almost entirely on the shifting accounts of the alleged victim, a stripper who claims she was assaulted after performing at a team party in March. The woman, who was consulted before Friday’s recusal, remained firm in her desire for the case to go forward against the three former lacrosse players, an official involved in the case said.

I have serious doubts this case could possibly proceed. The only ones who should now be facing charges are Nifong and the alleged victim.
Meanwhile, it doesn't appear the families of the accused players will just let this go.

The fact that Nifong withheld the information and knew it before he indicted their sons has outraged the parents of the accused. "You felt like someone hit you with a baseball bat. … It was almost too much to bear, as we sat there," says Kathy Seligmann, whose son, Reade, is among the three indicted players. "And [Nifong is] sitting 10 feet away from us."

It enraged Mary Ellen Finnerty, mother of Collin Finnerty, another indicted player. "I think [I felt] one of the strongest feelings of rage that I've had … I literally had to turn to my husband, because I was shaking from my head to my toe, and say, 'Hold me down,'" recalls Finnerty. Adds Seligmann, "And we had to hold on to each other because when you sit there and put two and two together and realize that it was calculated … set up to make these boys appear to be guilty of something they didn't do."

When asked what they would say to Nifong if he were in the room, Rae Evans, the mother of indicted player David Evans, says, "I would say with a smile on my face, 'Mr. Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families … and you will pay every day for the rest of your life.'"

Lawhawk has a big roundup with several updates.

Stem-Cell Deception

Who better than Charles Krauthammer to sift through the lies of the left and clarify the stem-cell debate? The left's lies and disingenuous stances on this issue are just appalling.

You don’t need religion to tremble at the thought of unrestricted embryo research. You simply have to have a healthy respect for the human capacity for doing evil in pursuit of the good. Once we have taken the position of many stem-cell advocates that embryos are discardable tissue with no more intrinsic value than a hangnail or an appendix, then all barriers are down. What is to prevent us from producing not just tissues and organs, but human-like organisms for preservation as a source of future body parts on demand?

South Korea enthusiastically embraced unrestricted stem cell research. The subsequent greatly heralded breakthroughs — accompanied by lamentations that America was falling behind — were eventually exposed as a swamp of deception, fraud and coercion.

The slope is very slippery. Which is why, even though I disagreed with where the president drew the line — I would have permitted the use of fertility-clinic embryos that are discarded and going to die anyway — I applauded his insistence that some line must be drawn, that human embryos are not nothing, and that societal values, not just the scientific imperative, should determine how they are treated.

Read it all.

What's in Your Pants?

Nice takedown of Sandy Berger and the Clintons by R. Emmett Tyrrell. Of course, the liberal media has no interest.

What we do know is that the Clinton sleuths now have still more evidence of the Clinton administration's abuse of power and fundamental lawlessness. That administration's public record is replete with the Clintons' obstructing investigations by withholding documents. Just recall Hillary's subpoenaed billing records from the Rose Law Firm that were kept for months from the independent counsel before they appeared magically in her living quarters. Or remember when her aides illegally entered the just deceased Vince Foster's White House office to carry off materials only law enforcement officials should have seen.

The Democrats now repine over a Republican "Culture of Corruption." Well, it did not start with the Republicans. I can find no historic parallel for what Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Mr. Berger, did at the National Archives, and he got off with a misdemeanor.

Classless Barbara Boxer

There seems to be a rush on to see who can be more obnoxious amongst Senate Democrats. Barbara Boxer, never one to contain her stupidity, got a good head start yesterday with ridiculous comments to Condoleezza Rice as the New York Post editorial notes today.

January 12, 2007 -- Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, an appalling scold from California, wasted no time yesterday in dragging the debate over Iraq about as low as it can go - attacking Secre tary of State Condoleezza Rice for being a childless woman.

Boxer was wholly in character for her party - New York's own two Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, were predictably opportunistic - but the Golden State lawmaker earned special attention for the tasteless jibes she aimed at Rice.

Rice appeared before the Senate in defense of President Bush's tactical change in Iraq, and quickly encountered Boxer.

"Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price," Boxer said. "My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young."

Then, to Rice: "You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family."

Breathtaking.

Simply breathtaking.

We scarcely know where to begin.

The junior senator from California ap parently believes that an accom plished, seasoned diplomat, a renowned scholar and an adviser to two presidents like Condoleezza Rice is not fully qualified to make policy at the highest levels of the American government because she is a single, childless woman.

It's hard to imagine the firestorm that similar comments would have ignited, coming from a Republican to a Democrat, or from a man to a woman, in the United States Senate. (Surely the Associated Press would have put the observation a bit higher than the 18th paragraph of a routine dispatch from Washington.)

More on the Democrat hostility in the Washington Times.

24 Returns

The scariest yet. Looks like Jack is back from his unplanned trip to China. Let the bodycount begin.

DID you ever stop to think what would happen if even superman Jack Bauer couldn't save us from the terrorists?

You'd get a situation something like the one that unfolds this weekend on the season premiere of "24": An entire nation under continuous attack by suicide bombers, transforming our cities into American Baghdads.

It's a scenario more nightmarish than any we've seen before on "24" because it feels so real.

The attacks - on buses, on subways and in shopping malls in cities including Chicago, San Antonio, Baltimore and L.A. - are the ones we've all been bracing for in real life, whether we admit it to ourselves or not.

Much more at Blogs4Bauer.

Michelle Malkin in Iraq

It's encouraging to see a fair journalist reporting from Iraq. It also helps when the White House is noticing.

Why Makeup Was Invented

Someone had a rough night.

In all seriousness, this is an interesting find.

Hands over her eyes and her face gripped with terror, the woman's fear of death is all too obvious.

The remarkable mummy was found in a hidden burial vault in the Amazon.

It is at least 600 years old and has survived thanks to the embalming skills of her tribe, the Chachapoyas or cloud warriors.

Somalia Strike Missed al-Qaeda Targets

There's always tomorrow.

The controversial US air strike in southern Somalia missed all three top al-Qaeda members Washington alleges are hiding out in the country, a senior US official said on Thursday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said eight to 10 “al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists” were killed in Monday’s attack, but gave no details.

On Tuesday the Pentagon confirmed that an AC130 aircraft was used to target “the principal al-Qaeda leadership in the region”. The attack marked the first overt US military intervention in the Horn of Africa nation since its doomed invasion in the 1990s.

I don't recall our arrival in Somalia as an invasion. More like a humanitarian mission gone awry. Anyway, we have these scum on the run, so hunt them down and finish them off.

U.S. Forces Storm Iranian Consulate

It's a start. A big chunk of the cleanup in Iraq will entail ridding Iranian and Syrian influence and waking the American people up to the fact Iran poses a huge threat to our future security.

US forces have stormed an Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil and seized six members of staff.

The troops raided the building at about 0300 (0001GMT), taking away computers and papers, according to Kurdish media and senior local officials.

The US military would only confirm the detention of six people around Irbil.

Tehran said the attack violated all international conventions. It has summoned ambassadors from Switzerland, representing US interests, and Iraq.

A spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry described the raid as an attempt to sabotage Tehran's relations with Iraq. One Iranian MP said it showed America's cruelty and meanness.

Oooh, we're so mean! Waaaah!

UPDATE at 5:30: Appears there was a hiccup with the post earlier and I just now realized it was double-posted. Anyway, the NY Sun says Bush Warns Iranians.

Barry Bonds is a Fraud

Is there a bigger phony on the planet than Barry Bonds? The steroid-drenched lout has reached a new low, even by his standards, by trying to blame a teammate for his failing a drug test. If I were Mark Sweeney, I'd see if I could take legal action. Failing that, I'd punch him out. What an absolute cretin this guy is.

Barry Bonds failed a test for amphetamines last season and originally blamed it on a teammate, the Daily News reported Thursday.

When first informed of the positive test, Bonds attributed it to a substance he had taken from teammate Mark Sweeney's locker, the New York City newspaper said, citing several unnamed sources.

"I have no comment on that," Bonds' agent Jeff Borris told the Daily News on Wednesday night.

"Mark was made aware of the fact that his name had been brought up," Sweeney's agent Barry Axelrod told the Daily News. "But he did not give Barry Bonds anything, and there was nothing he could have given Barry Bonds."

Bonds, who always has maintained he never has tested positive for illegal drug use, already is under investigation for lying about steroid use.

Even if you were stupid enough to buy his story, how crazy would it be to go into someone's locker, find a bottle of something mysterious and just take some not knowing what you're ingesting? It strains all credulity.

Democrats are Coming: Watch Your Wallets

David Limbaugh exposes the Democrats and their sneaky agenda to raise your taxes and deny extension of George Bush's tax cuts that have produced huge increases in federal revenue, which Bush never gets any credit for. But watch and see--when taxes go up and revenue dwindles, Bush will get blamed. The biased media will make sure of that.

One of the first actions the new Democratic congressional majority took was to change legislative rules, implemented by the 1994 Republican-controlled Congress, that made it difficult to raise taxes. I suppose the Democrats' apparent plan to increase taxes on "the rich" won't count as a broken campaign promise not to raise taxes since "the rich" aren't entitled to any rights, only to scorn, jealousy and resentment.

The Contract with America provision required a supermajority or 60 percent to increase taxes, but the Democrats' rule change will now permit a tax hike on a simple majority vote. It will also give the Democrats an advantage in preventing Republicans from extending the Bush tax cuts, which are set to expire in a few years. Democrats removed any doubt that this was an accidental development when they rejected a motion by Minority Leader John Boehner to bar the rule change.

Trans-fat Hysteria

The latest nanny-state craze is regulating what we can eat, most notably with New York City banning restaurants from serving food with tran-fats. But does this actually result in better health or is it just more feelgood liberal pap?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the ban is "not going to take away anybody's ability to go out and have the kind of food they want, in the quantities they want. ... We are just trying to make food safer."

That, my friends, is tyrannical double-talk. Let's look at it. Trans fats are derived from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. They can raise blood levels of LDL, the "bad cholesterol." According to Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of American Council on Science and Health, trans fats are about 2 percent of our daily caloric intake, while saturated fats, which also raise LDL blood levels, make up 10 to 15 percent.

Naturally, we might ask, why the attack on restaurants using trans fats and not saturated fats? The answer's easy; we just need a historical reference. When the anti-smoking zealots started out, they too went after a relatively small target by demanding non-smoking sections on airplanes. That success emboldened them to demand no smoking on planes at all and in airports as well. Then came laws against smoking in restaurants.

Today, in Calabasas, Calif., smoking is prohibited outside, and several California cities have banned beach smoking. Had the anti-smoking zealots revealed their full agenda when they started out, they wouldn't have been nearly as successful. They would have encountered too much resistance

Read the rest.

I'm waiting for the report in a few years that says trans-fats are good for you. Just watch, it'll happen.

Idiots Allowed to Vote in New Jersey

Some cynics might argue that's been the problem all along in this state.

Idiots from New Jersey may soon be allowed to vote.

State Senate President Richard Codey has introduced a bill to remove a 150-year-old clause to the state Constitution stating "no idiot or insane person should enjoy the right of suffrage."

"This is yet another big step toward removing the stigma of mental illness," said Codey, a former governor and an advocate for the mentally ill.

Coughlin to Return as Giants Coach

As a fan I can't say I'm thrilled about this, but I did expect it.

Tom Coughlin will return to coach the New York Giants after the team decided Wednesday that two straight playoff appearances outweighed a sub-par 2006 season and a second consecutive exit in the first round of the postseason, according to a team official.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the team was to make a formal announcement during a noon conference call.

It was not immediately known whether Coughlin was given a contract extension or he will be work the final year of a deal that he signed in January 2004. He was to be paid $3 million under terms of that contract

There isn't a great market for head coaches at this point in time and the way the NFL is these days, they could fare much better next year. But not if he has the most undisciplined, erratic team in the league, with constant false starts, holding penalties, shoddy tackling, finger-pointing and a miserable offensive gameplan with a regressing quarterback who is not getting proper coaching. Outside of that, he's doing a great job.

On the upside, if they have another year like 2006, Bill Cowher may be ready to get back into the league and Bill Belichick could be available, so let's see what happens.

100 Hours of Symbolism

The Democrats are tackling the hard issues and making the difficult choices in their first 100 hours. Today comes a landmark order from Working Grandmother Pelosi to outlaw smoking in the House lobby. A special subcommittee has been formed to look into the feasibility of banning mirrors.

Declaring an end to "smoke-filled rooms" in the Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said smoking would be banned from an ornate meeting area just off the floor of the House of Representatives.

America breathes easier tonight knowing she did it for the children.

Meanwhile, in another entirely predictable and meaningless symbolic gesture, the House will soon vote on hiking the minimum wage, providing hope and optimism for the 479,000 teenagers scraping by on a mere $5.15 an hour. Then again, that's probably their core nutroots constituency, so they know who's in charge.

Someone wake me when this 100-hour ordeal is complete.

Extremist Mosque in Boston

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby unearths The Boston mosque's Saudi connection.

Very disturbing. Don't worry though. The Saudis are our friends, right?

Speaking at the State Department in 1999, Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a Sufi sheik and leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, sounded an alarm about Muslim houses of worship in the United States.

"The most dangerous thing that is going on now in these mosques . . . is the extremists' ideology," he said. "Because they are very active, they took over the mosques; . . . they took over more than 80 percent of the mosques that have been established in the US." He warned ominously that "a danger might suddenly come that you are not looking for . . . we don't know where it is going to hit."

When Kabbani was condemned by other Muslim organizations, he stood his ground. His assessment of the leadership of US mosques, he said, was based on having visited scores of them, and in a subsequent interview he explained the extremists' pattern of infiltration.

Inevitable Showdown With Iran

It's not just the United States which sees the inevitable reality, as Amir Taheri reports Arabs also see no choice but to prepare for war.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste Blazy calls it "unthinkable his Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov prefers "unimaginable." The terms are also used in Western diplomatic circles to describe an event few wish to contemplate: a military showdown with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Yet a recent tour of Arab capitals presents a different picture: Arab leaders appear resigned to such a showdown as inevitable, and are preparing for it.

The first sign came at last month's annual summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC, a group of six oil-exporting Arab states) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. "There were four items on the agenda," says a participant. "As we examined each, we found out that in every case we faced Iran."

Read the rest. Will the fearless new majority on Capitol Hill notice at some point?

Sandy Burglar Update

See the report here.

Would have been nice to have a report complete before this bum pled guilty to some very light charges. He should be spending a long stretch in prison.

More here from Jonah Goldberg.

Al-Qaida Chief in Somalia Killed

This time, we didn't have to bomb any aspirin factories. Just keep the good news coming.

A senior al-Qaida suspect wanted for bombing American embassies in East Africa was killed in a U.S. airstrike, a Somali official said Wednesday, a report that if true would mean the end of an eight-year hunt for a top target of Washington's war on terror.

There was no immediate confirmation from the U.S. In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official said the U.S. killed five to 10 people in an attack on an al-Qaida target in southern Somalia but did not say who was killed. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity, said a small number of others present, perhaps four or five, were wounded.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who allegedly planned the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, was killed in a U.S. airstrike early Monday morning local time, according to an American intelligence report passed on to the Somali authorities.

"I have received a report from the American side chronicling the targets and list of damage," Abdirizak Hassan, the Somali president's chief of staff, told The Associated Press. "One of the items they were claiming was that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is dead"

No reports of any weddings being disrupted either.

Ralph Peters has more and Opinion Journal notes the U.S. is staying on the offensive this time in Somalia.

Rowan Scarborough also has a detailed report in the Washington Times.

Mr. Blackwell's "Worst Dressed" List

As a renowned slave to fashion, I always look forward to Mr. Blackwell skewering the worst dressed, and there's always plenty to choose from.

This year we have some of the usual suspects.

Dubbed "style-free and fashion deprived," Britney Spears and
Paris Hilton tied for the No. 1 spot on Mr. Blackwell's 47th annual "Worst Dressed" list released Tuesday.

"Two peas in an overexposed pod," Blackwell said of the skimpy attire worn by the two celebutantes he called the "Screamgirls."

Some of Blackwell's nastiest words were reserved for Camilla Parker-Bowles, a member of the British royal family, who finished No. 2 on the list.

"The Duchess of Dowdy strikes again," wrote Blackwell. "In feathered hats that were once the rage, she resembles a petrified parakeet from the Jurassic age. A royal wreck."

Annual worsts also tend to go to Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey. Others noted this year were some Hollyfood fashion catastophes.

He said actress Sharon Stone resembles "an over-the-hill Cruella DeVille," and Tori Spelling embodies "down and out in Beverly Hills."

"Grey's Anatomy" star Sandra Oh was faulted for too many beads and bangles. "She's layered lunacy from head to toe," Blackwell said.

Bush to Call for Iraqi Control by November

Well see if they're capable.

President Bush's new Iraq plan will call for all Iraqi provinces to be under Iraqi control by November 2007, a U.S. official tells CNN.

Bush will also call for 20,000 additional forces to be sent to the war-torn country. Most would be sent to Baghdad, but 4,000 would be sent to the Anbar Province, the official said.

The official also said the first additional forces would go into Iraq by the end of this month.

Meanwhile, having long ago declared defeat, Democrats will challenge everything. They're invested in defeat. No turning back.

A day before Bush's nationally televised speech describing his proposal, Sen. Edward Kennedy, a longtime critic of Bush and the war, will propose legislation denying him the billions needed to send more troops to war unless Congress agrees first. Though it was unclear whether the bill would ever reach the full Senate, it could at least serve as a rallying point for the most insistent foes of the Iraq conflict.

Democrats seem divided on whether to block funds for troop increases, but many were not ruling it out. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Democrats would "look at everything" in their power to curb the war, short of cutting money for troops already in the field.

Hot Air has more, including poll numbers.

Pounding al Qaeda in Somalia

The good news continues out of Somalia. Lots of payback due these monsters, so please, keep it up.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Attack helicopters strafed suspected al-Qaida fighters in southern Somalia on Tuesday, witnesses said, following two days of airstrikes by U.S. forces — the first U.S. offensives in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.

In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official said American forces killed five to 10 people in an attack on one target in southern Somalia believed to be associated with al-Qaida. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity, said a small number of others present, perhaps four or five, were wounded.

A Somali lawmaker said 31 civilians, including a newlywed couple, died in Tuesday's assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in a forested area close to the Kenyan border. The report could not be independently verified.

Is it just me or does it always seem there's a wedding going on whenever we whack these guys, be it in Iraq, Afghanistan, or now Somalia? You don't suppose that's just propaganda, perhaps?

Meanwhile, another account says there's "many dead" and has some whiny European reaction.

In another sign of a more muscular U.S. action, the
U.S. Navy said it had moved the aircraft carrier Eisenhower to the Somali coast to beef up a naval cordon to cut off any Islamist escape via the Indian Ocean. Kenya has sealed its border.

As news of the air attacks emerged, rocket-propelled grenades were fired at a building in Mogadishu housing Ethiopian and Somali government troops, where at least one person died in a weekend attack.

A Reuters reporter heard the RPGs followed by a 10 minute exchange of fire with automatic weapons. A car was burning outside the compound. A government source said one Somali soldier was killed and one wounded in the firefight.

The European Union, which has frequently differed with Washington over Somalia, criticized the U.S. air raid.

"Any incident of this kind is not helpful in the long term," a spokesman for the European Commission said.

Iran's Hand in Iraq

The logical question is pretty simple. At what point do we step up and put a stop to this? If a troop increase is going to come to fruition, they will need to deal with the Iranian influence.

Newly obtained intelligence reports indicate Iran is increasing its efforts to destabilize Iraq just as President Bush is reviewing his policy options.

While Mr. Bush is looking at changing key military and political personnel and is considering deploying 20,000 to 40,000 additional U.S. troops in a last-ditch effort to try and impose security in the chaos that Iraq has become, new intelligence reveals Iran may have other plans.

"Al-Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards is stepping up terrorism and encouraging sectarian violence in Iraq," says Alireza Jafarzadeh, president of Strategic Policy Consulting in Washington, an Iranian dissident who keeps close contact with the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MeK. It was Mr. Jafarzadeh who first revealed the existence of the Islamic Republic's clandestine nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak in August 2002.

"There is a sharp surge in Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and sectarian violence in the past few months," said Mr. Jafarzadeh at a conference organized by the Iran Policy Committee, a lobby group pushing to get the MeK off the State Department's terrorist list. Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Thomas McInerney, an IPC member, said Mr. Jafarzadeh's presentation was "powerful evidence" that Iran has become the primary killer of U.S. forces in Iraq.

The spike in terror activities in Iraq according to Mr. Jafarzadeh is the work of the al-Quds Force, which the Iranian dissident calls "the deadliest force" within the Revolutionary Guards. Al-Quds Force is responsible for what they call "extraterritorial activities," which Mr. Jafarzadeh says is a euphemism for terrorism.

"Nothing but terrorism," says Mr. Jafarzadeh. "All they do is terrorism. This deadly force has been heavily involved in Iraq."

Bush Seen With Evil Man in Black Hat

Earthshaking news here. Aren't websites considered beneath the drive-by media? Guess not when they have a chance to take another cheapshot at the President.

WASHINGTON - A liberal watchdog group published on its Web site Monday a picture of President Bush and imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the kind of photo the White House has refused to release.

The picture was taken at a campaign fundraiser in December 2003, according to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. It was taken by a private photo contractor who posted it on a Web site, but then was removed before it made it into distribution, said Melanie Sloan, CREW's director.

A previous photo of Bush and the disgraced lobbyist surfaced last year but Abramoff was in the background, slightly blurry.

"This is the one they didn't want you to see," Sloan said.

Kim Eisler, Washingtonian magazine writer and a friend of Abramoff's, confirmed the photo's authenticity for The Associated Press. He said he had seen the picture at Abramoff's house.

The White House did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The "Lynching" of Saddam

Leave it to a pinhead like Robert Fisk to show compassion for Saddam Hussein. Cry me a river.

The lynching of Saddam Hussein -- for that is what we are talking about -- will turn out to be one of the determining moments in the whole shameful crusade upon which the West embarked in 2003. Only the president-governor George Bush and Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara could have devised a militia administration in Iraq so murderous and so immoral that the most ruthless mass murderer in the Middle East could end his days on the gallows as a figure of nobility, scalding his hooded killers for their lack of manhood and -- in his last seconds -- reminding the thug who told him to "go to hell" that the hell was now Iraq.

"Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it," Malcolm reported of the execution of the treacherous Thane of Cawdor in Macbeth. Or, as a good friend of mine in Ballymena said to me on the phone a few hours later, "The whole bloody thing was obscene." Quite so.

What an idiot.

Gitmo Detainees Continue Jihad

You would never know any of this if the drive-by media was your only source of news.

Despite often hysterical rhetoric to the contrary from America’s Islamofascist enemies, human rights organizations, and Democratic senators, the policy for handling of the terrorist detainees at Guantanamo has always been “safe, humane treatment consistent with force protection.” In other words, the detainees, while definitely not accorded Geneva Convention rights, were in fact given treatment that often exceeded that agreed to under that convention. They were treated in a manner that made their safety and the safety of the guards top priority.

For the past several years there were moves afoot to give more privileges to those detainees who demonstrated what was defined by the Joint Task Force command as “compliant behavior.” What this meant was not, as I learned to my surprise during my first trips, contingent on how much information of intelligence value a detainee shared with his captors, but simply how he obeyed the instructions of the guards. In other words, many of the detainees identified as “the worst of the worst” fit the definition of compliant behavior. They may not have told the interrogators squat but they did what the guards said and hence were given more latitude.

Two of the Camp Delta facilities, Camps I and IV, were in fact reserved for compliant detainees. These detainees received the maximum in the way of comfort items (CI in the always-eager-to-abbreviate tradition of the military) and the most latitude in the way of communal recreational privileges. In Camp IV, for example, the detainees slept in 10-man bays and were allowed to spend most of the day in two-bay, 20-man groups. During this communal time it has been learned they ate together, prayed together, and plotted to kill Americans together.

Read it all.

Contrast this with the news out of the UK where another bleeding heart is seeking to free one of these monsters.

A British legislator has called for British Prime Minister
Tony Blair to intervene with President Bush to try to secure the release of a long-time British resident held at Guantanamo Bay.

Opposition Liberal Democrat member of parliament Edward Davey said late on Monday that Bisher al-Rawi's lawyers believed his mental health was deteriorating fast after four years in the U.S. detention camp for terrorism suspects.

Davey said al-Rawi -- an Iraqi citizen who lived in Britain for many years -- knew radical Islamic cleric Abu Qatada but said he believed al-Rawi was innocent of any crime.

Seems like it's such a fun place.

U.S. Strikes Al Qaeda In Somalia

Just keep shooting.

(CBS/AP) A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively.

The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.

The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.

Key Al-Qaeda may be amongst the casualties.

More at LGF, Hot Air, Suitably Flip, Seven Stripes, Right Voices, Mary Katherine Ham at Michelle Malkin's place and Pirate's Cove.

New Saddam Death Video

Here's not merely dead. He's really most sincerely dead.

This is sure to spread quickly.

See Jawa Report and Hot Air.

Very graphic, to say the least.

Tale of Two Headlines

Perhaps we should come up with a daily theme, call it Today in Media Bias. Lord knows we'd have ample material.

Check out these two headlines. See if you can spot the subtle differences between the two:

Senator Biden announces White House bid

Election 2008: Romney Enters White House Race, Trails All Democrats

Democrats Love That 70's Show

It sure looks like the Democrats are eager to relive the 1970s all over again by defunding the Iraq war and opening the door for mass chaos and bloodshed. It all sounds so familiar. The Vietnamese and Cambodians, those who survived at least, can fill you in on that.

It's all about solidifying their own power while looking ahead to the 2008 election.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats yesterday said their party might deny funding for President Bush's expected call this week for a troop surge in Iraq if he doesn't meet their demands for detailed consultations and congressional debate on military strategy.

"If the president chooses to escalate the war, in his budget request we want to see a distinction between what is there to support the troops who are there now. The American people and the Congress support those troops. We will not abandon them," the California Democrat said during an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation."

No, they claim they won't abandon the troops. They'll just abandon the people of Iraq to Al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile, Michael Barone sees a bitter clash coming.

Cynics surely found the words of good will exchanged by the new speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the new House minority leader, John Boehner, at the opening session of the new Congress to be hypocritical and insincere. The two leaders are grizzled veteran pols, after all, who have not been known to be on close, much less candid, terms with each other over the years. But I know them both, and I believe they were speaking genuinely from the heart.

The passage of power from one political party to another is an awesome thing for anyone who knows much history, indeed for anyone who clicks his remote control onto cable news. It is not the norm in human history. And the swearing in of a 110th Congress -- 110th! -- is part of a living chain that links us to George Washington and to James Madison, who was sworn in as a member of the House in the First Congress, 218 years ago.

Which isn't to say that there isn't going to be some bitter conflict between the new Democratic Congress and George W. Bush in months ahead. That's not out of line with tradition, either: Madison was opposing Washington's major initiatives long before the First Congress adjourned. In that case, the conflict occurred over Alexander Hamilton's economic policies. In this case, the conflict seems likely to occur over what we should do next in Iraq.

Iranians: Israel Will Regret Attack

Well, let's find out.

In response to a report on Sunday that Israel planned to attack Teheran's nuclear sites, Iran declared that any attack would provoke a reaction and that "anyone who attacks will regret their actions very quickly."

According to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Muhammad Ali Husseini, the report published in the London-based Sunday Times proved that Israel was in possession of nuclear weapons.

"This step even comes after the Israeli prime minister's admission, which revealed the fact that the Israeli regime has nuclear weapons in its possession," Husseini said, referring to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's slip-of-the-tongue last month, when he hinted on German television that Israel was among the world's nuclear-equipped nations.

"Now this will convince the international community that the main threat to the world, and to our region in particular, is the Zionist regime," Husseini added.

Useful Idiot Goes to Cuba

With any luck, she'll stay there.

HAVANA - American "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan called for the closure of the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as she and other activists arrived here Saturday to draw attention to the nearly 400 terror suspects held at the remote site.

Sheehan is among 12 human rights and anti-war activists who will travel across this Caribbean island next week, arriving at the main gate of the Guantanamo base in eastern Cuba on Thursday — five years after the first prisoners were flown in.

"Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not afraid of anything," Sheehan said when asked about the possibility of U.S. sanctions for traveling to communist-run Cuba, which remains under an American trade embargo.

"What is more important is the inhumanity that my government is perpetrating at Guantanamo," she told reporters.

Israel Plans Nuclear Strike on Iran

I guess it's not a secret plan any longer. Well, someone may have to do it. I just hope the liberals who love the mullahs so much don't get their pink panties in a knot.

Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

“As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources.

UPDATE: Captain Ed questions the story. More questions here.

Hanging Hysteria

Even a Democrat like Kirsten Powers wonders why some media types are hysterical over the circumstances of Saddam Hussein's hanging.

I DIDN'T support the Iraq war and I oppose the death penalty - but the nonstop outrage and criticism of the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein is puzzling.

Somehow, most of our nation's newspapers and magazines overlooked the core of this story: An evil dictator was brought to justice - the people he tortured, murdered and oppressed turned around and put him on trial, then carried out the sentence.

How often does this happen in our world? Pretty much never.

Yet The New York Times (in news and opinion pages alike) has relentlessly criticized nearly every aspect of the process, only paying lip service Saddam's heinous crimes.

USA Today's editorial board criticized the trial and execution and then assessed the whole episode as basically inconsequential. (Tell that to the millions of Iraqis who suffered under Saddam).

Oddly, most of the complaints ignored the many problems with the death penalty. Instead, critics were consumed by how unfairly Saddam was allegedly treated. Particularly distressing to this crowd was the "taunting" of the Butcher of Baghdad. Huh?
...
The criticism that took the cake came from the usually reasonable Brian Lehrer at WNYC, who posed this question to his listeners: "If pardoning Richard Nixon was good for the nation's healing, then how could executing Saddam be good for Iraq?"

Well, gee: Saddam is responsible for the torture and deaths of millions. Nixon ordered a break-in and wiretapped phones, then tried to cover it up. The differences in the magnitude of the crimes seem painfully obvious.

Read it all. The left fantasizes daily about executing our own leaders, yet are so concerned about what happened to Saddam. They're pathetic.

Abbas Declares Hamas Force Illegal

Get the popcorn ready. This should be fun to watch.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday declared illegal a Hamas security force in Gaza, after a spasm of violence between fighters of the ruling Islamist group and those loyal to his faction.

Abbas said the Hamas Executive Force had not received official approval and demanded that it integrate into other more established Palestinian security services.

"The 'Executive Force' has never been ... independent, we said it must be part of the security forces," Abbas said in Bethlehem, where he was due to take part in Orthodox Christmas Eve celebrations on Saturday.

"Any force requires a decree and this has not been issued. Whoever says that (the Executive Force) is independent is defying the law and the constitution," Abbas added.

Throwing down the gauntlet to Abbas, the governing Hamas militant movement's Executive Force said it would double its size to 12,000 personnel.

NFL Wildcard Weekend

The second season begins today with a couple of interesting matchups, followed Sunday by two intradivisional games.

COLTS -7 over Chiefs: All the chatter is about how Larry Johnson will run all over the hapless Colts run defense. Which may well be true. People seem to be overlooking the explosive Indianapolis offense, however. Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne figure to have huge days against a suspect Kansas City secondary, and Peyton Manning doesn't figure to lose consecutive playoff games at home. Colts 37-24

Cowboys +3 over SEAHAWKS: Both teams have struggled mightily down the stretch, and Dallas was humiliated at home against lowly Detroit last week. Still, despite the home crowd, I like Dallas to throw at will on a Seattle secondary that has lost both starting corners. Loathsome as he may be, look for Terrell Owens to have a huge game, with Terry Glenn getting in on the action. Cowboys 31-23

PATRIOTS -8.5 over Jets: Jets may be happy just to get here and I like their chances to pull the upset. But New England just doesn't lose playoff games at home. New York should stick around and give the hosts a scare, but the Patriots have big plans and as a quiet No. 4 seed, may well go far this year. They will scare the daylights out of San Diego next week and may just win. First, they tune up on the Jets. Patriots 27-17

Giants +7 over EAGLES: I've been figuring the Giants would get blown out by the hottest team in the league, but I have a hunch they'll be able to move the ball and Tiki Barber will go out in style. Still, their defense is struggling with all the injuries and I don't see them stopping Garcia and Westbrook when it counts most late. Eagles 27-23

Female Suicide Bomber Kills 15 in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO (AFP) - A suspected female suicide bomber has set off a powerful blast inside a bus in southern Sri Lanka, killing 15 passengers and wounding 40 in the second bus attack in two days.

Suspicion pointed to a woman suicide bomber who is believed to have detonated explosives she carried onboard the crowded vehicle, police said Saturday.

"We suspect it was a suicide bombing," police inspector Upul Ariyaratne said from his regional headquarters at Ambalangoda, 85 kilometres (53 miles) south of Colombo, close to where the bus was blown up.

"We have taken 15 bodies to hospital and another 40 were admitted to two hospitals."

The attack followed a bus blast late Friday when six passengers were killed and another 70 wounded near Colombo.
...
Saturday's attack came in the same district where Sri Lanka's aid donors are due to meet later this month.

The United States, Japan, the European Union and Norway have tied 4.5 billion dollars of aid to Sri Lanka to progress on a peace settlement.

The new violence came after both President Mahinda Rajapakse and the LTTE wished for peace in their New Year messages.

"We hope the New Year will bring the long awaited genuine and sustainable peace," Rajapakse said, while the Tigers called for global backing for their "sincere effort to seek a permanent peace through a just political solution".

Good luck with that.

Democrats Overreaching Already

This no doubt comes as a shock to those who expected maturity and moderation.

Congressional Democrats, newly installed as the majority on Capitol Hill, yesterday wasted no time in letting President Bush know that they consider themselves his equal regarding the formulation of military policy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent Bush a letter demanding that he reject any plans for a troop surge in Iraq, insisting there is nothing more to be gained there militarily.

"There is only a political solution," the two Democratic leaders declared. "Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans."

We're not surprised that Pelosi and Reid feel the need to publicly flex their new political clout - especially on one of the core issues behind their party's victory last November.

But they'd do well to remember that the nation has only one commander-in-chief - especially in time of war.

Meanwhile, see what Ralph Peters has to say about the latest move at CentCom.

ASSIGNING a Navy aviator and combat veteran to oversee our military operations in the Persian Gulf makes perfect sense when seen as a preparatory step for striking Iran's nuclear-weapons facilities - if that becomes necessary.

While the Air Force would deliver the heaviest tonnage of ordnance in a campaign to frustrate Tehran's quest for nukes, the toughest strategic missions would fall to our Navy. Iran would seek to retaliate asymmetrically by attacking oil platforms and tankers, closing the Strait of Hormuz - and trying to hit oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates.

Only the U.S. Navy - hopefully, with Royal Navy and Aussie vessels underway beside us - could keep the oil flowing to a thirsty world.

Bias? What Bias?

It's utterly laughable watching Andrea Mitchell trying to deny the news networks, and NBC in particular, are biased.

It was hard to tell what was making Andrea Mitchell angrier: Bill O'Reilly's assertions that NBC has a liberal bias, or his repeated and perhaps ungentlemanly references to the lady's "30 years" of experience. In any case, the look on Andrea's face was unmistakable: she was not the happiest of campers.

Mitchell appeared on this evening's Factor for purposes of touting her new book. But kudos to O'Reilly for taking the occasion to directly confront a leading NBC light with the network's undeniable leftward tilt - which Mitchell proceeded to flatly deny.

Video here. More over at Hot Air.

Lonely Lerch Revisited

So perhaps the original story wasn't necessarily what it seemed to be, according to reports at LGF and Hot Air.

Yawn.

Still, it had truthiness. Anyway, he's so easy to spoof, especially when he likes to play dress-up.

Reid and Pelosi: Don't Cut, Just Run

I'm surprised these two are awake so early, what with all the coronations Thursday. Well, it didn't take them long to call for surrender.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi today sent the following letter to President Bush urging him to reject his reported plan to escalate the war in Iraq by increasing troop levels and delaying the ability of the Iraqi government to take control of their own future. The leaders cited the burden on the nation's already-overtaxed military, the likely failure of a surge strategy to quell the violence, and the dangers of placing American military into the middle of a civil war. The two leaders called on the President to instead heed the will of the American people, listen to the advice of America's military, and recognize the need for a significant change in strategy that begins with a political solution and a phased withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.

This may be the first time in recorded history Democrats are worried about anyone being overtaxed.

Massachusetts Hack Pleads Guilty

Shocking but true.

Ex-Mass. House speaker pleads guilty

BOSTON - Former state House Speaker Thomas Finneran, once considered the most powerful man on Beacon Hill, pleaded guilty Friday to obstruction of justice in a deal that spares him prison time for misrepresenting his role in a redistricting plan that diluted the clout of minority voters.

Hmm, diluting the clout of minorities. Why isn't this a national story?

Federal prosecutors agreed to drop three perjury charges against Finneran in exchange for his guilty plea to a single count of obstruction of justice.

Under the deal, Finneran will pay a $25,000 fine and be placed on 18 months of unsupervised probation, according to the documents filed in U.S. District Court in Boston. He has also agreed not to seek political office for at least five years.

My, how he's going to suffer. It's worse than the harsh punishment meted out to Sandy Berger, last seen yukking it up with Queen Pelosi last night. Braver men could not continue on. Still though, why so lenient a sentence?

U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns still must approve the deal.

Separately, Finneran still faces a possible suspension of his law license or disbarment by the state Board of Bar Overseers.

Finneran was indicted in June 2005 and accused of lying during his testimony in a voting rights lawsuit. The suit claimed that a 2001 law that redrew legislative district boundaries discriminated against minority voters in Boston in Boston while protecting incumbents, including Finneran.

Finneran's trial had been scheduled to begin Jan. 16.

Since leaving the Legislature, Finneran has been president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, where he earns a salary of about $416,000 plus bonuses.

Wow, he's really cashed in on his high office. Still something sticks in my craw here and it's not even mentioned in the story.

He's a Democrat. Laws just don't apply to them. There is a painfully obvious double standard at work. Just imagine for a second that a Republican colluded to deny voting rights of minorities, got less than a wristslap for it while continuing to draw an enormous salary and basically walked away scot-free.

Do you think this story would merit a bit more attention if he were a Republican and that perhaps it might even be mentioned? Do I even need to ask the question?

So Long, Farewell, Good Riddance

Yankees, Diamondbacks Agree on Unit Trade

The Yankees yesterday got younger, a bit less cranky, and, in the long run, probably better.

They got Randy Johnson out of their face when they tentatively agreed to send the 43-year-old home to Arizona for serviceable reliever Luis Vizcaino and three minor leaguers: pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, a right-handed sinkerballer (the key player in the deal for the Yankees), righty pitcher Steven Jackson and shortstop Alberto Gonzalez.

Johnson's a Hall of Fame pitcher, that was never the question. But he had to be one of the biggest boors to ever hit the New York sports scene. Sure, it can be difficult playing here. But never did anyone earn so much money and turn off so many people. He won't be missed.

VDH: Stasis or Victory?

Victor Davis Hanson outlines a forecast for Iraq.

If the United States sends more troops into Iraq, especially Baghdad, then we must expand the parameters of operations — otherwise, thousands of fresh American soldiers will only end up ensuring the four things we seek to avoid in Iraq: more conventional targets for IEDs when more soldiers venture out of our compounds; more support troops behind fortified berms that enlarge the American infidel profile; more assurances to the Iraqis that foreign troops will secure their country for them; and more American prestige put into peril.

As the troop levels gradually rise, there will be a brief window of opportunity as the world watches whether greater numbers will radically change conditions on the ground. If in a matter of a few months conditions do not improve, they will begin to get far worse — there will not be a continuation of the status quo. The jihadists will grasp that they have survived the last reserves of American manpower; antiwar critics will pronounce the war to be unwinable regardless of the amount of American blood and treasure spent.

Read the whole thing.

Warm January Breeze

Reminds me of some South Florida winter mornings while I was out before dawn today. Only things missing were the palm trees and ocean breeze.

High 60s tomorrow. Maybe I'll go golfing or fishing before settling in for some football (shameless plug--tune in for wildcard picks tomorrow).

I have to laugh at the media babbleheads lamenting the balmy weather. It's not as if we haven't had mild winters before. But they fail to note how people are saving money on heating costs and with oil down to $56 a barrel, shouldn't this be considered good news?

Just five or six months ago, gas prices were a national calamity and top of the hour news day after day; hysteria had so gripped the nation we were treated to tales of hapless people choosing between gas or food. Now it's tales of woe from owners of ski resorts.

All I know is there are 10 more weeks of winter left. Before long, cold weather will return and we'll get back to the usual litany of stories about high heating costs and bums sleeping on subway grates. Snow will soon be forecast and the television crews will rush out to the nearest Home Depot to report on shortages of shovels and rock salt. In other words, forget what they're telling you today. Tomorrow it will be something else.

GOP at a Crossroads

Interesting reading from David Limbaugh this morning. The GOP should listen.

With Reagan at the helm, there was little doubt what the party stood for -- and why. His policies emanated from a Judeo-Christian worldview and were therefore consistent and cohesive.

Since he left office, the party, except for the 1994 Congress, has lost its focus. President Bush 41 moved the party away from Reagan conservatism, promising a "kinder and gentler" approach. Many interpreted this as a tacit admission that conservatism lacks kindness and gentleness. President George W. Bush sent mixed signals concerning his allegiance to Reagan conservatism. On the one hand he strongly hinted he identified more with Ronald Reagan's brand of conservatism than his father's. On the other, he promoted "compassionate conservatism," which some viewed as his effort to distance himself from traditional conservatism.

In office President Bush has been admirably conservative on such big issues as taxes, the judiciary, the war and social issues. In other major areas, like immigration, discretionary domestic spending, education and the prescription drug entitlement, he has greatly disappointed conservatives.

Apart from whether you agree with all or part of the president's policy mix, it's hard to deny that under his stewardship the conservative brand, like the Republican brand, has sustained a substantial setback. Not only has conservatism lost its definition, it has been blamed -- ironically -- for the problems that have resulted from the GOP's departure from it. That is, conservatism has sustained a black eye because a president and Congress associated with it have deviated from it.

Maybe His Girlfriend Was There

January 5, 2007 -- Bill Clinton caused a stir yesterday when he had to find a men's room right before his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, took the oath for her second Senate term.

The ex-president slipped out of the visitors balcony to use the bathroom in the nearby Senate Press Gallery, where he cheerfully called out, "Hi, everybody!" before being bombarded by reporters about his wife's presidential ambitions. "Ask her," he pleaded.

Tara Conner on Playboy Cover?

As the home office for all things Miss USA, I couldn't help but notice things have been quiet while the poor Kentucky lass has been away in rehab.

Well word today via Page Six says Tara Conner may be in line for a Playboy cover.

January 4, 2007 -- A JOB is waiting when Tara Conner gets out of rehab. Playboy wants to shoot the troubled Miss USA for its cover. Donald Trump and his execs at the Miss Universe Organization are mulling the offer. Conner, who hails from a small town in Kentucky, was nearly stripped of her title after it was alleged she was having sex with sleazy nightclubbing cads who were giving her cocaine. Said an insider, "If Trump allowed her to do it, it would have to be in good taste." Which means she'll keep her top on.

In good taste. But of course.

North Koreans to Celebrate Democrat Takeover

So the 100 hours of whatever kicked off today, appropriately enough with children running all over the place. Those wacky Democrats, they know symbolism.

Kim Jong-Il send his respects.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2007 — North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test, according to U.S. defense officials.

"We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," a senior U.S. defense official tells ABC News.

"Jamil Hussein" Arrested?

Very interesting.

Michelle Malkin has the details.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) _ The Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media.

Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied there was any such police employee as Capt. Jamil Hussein, said in an interview that Hussein is an officer assigned to the Khadra police station, as had been reported by The Associated Press.

The captain, whose full name is Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, was one of the sources for an AP story in late November about the burning and shooting of six people during a sectarian attack at a Sunni mosque.

UPDATE: Confirmation?

Democrat Loser Won't Concede

These people are really pathetic. When Republicans win, it's malfunctioning ballots, stolen elections, rigged machines, stupid people unable to properly punch a chad, whatever. When Democrats win, Republicans just accept reality and move on. Like adults usually do. But the Democrats? Never. They just don't quit and accept reality. Yet another reason why I loathe them.

Byron York brings us the curious case from the 13th District in Florida, which just happens to be the seat relinquished by Katherine Harris.

Do you remember the Election Crisis of 2006? In the weeks before November 7, Democrats laid the groundwork for widespread legal challenges to voting results, readying themselves to find irregularities, voter suppression, and outright fraud in precincts across America. Activists on the left established hotlines — call 866-OUR-VOTE! — and assembled platoons of volunteer lawyers. This time, they vowed, Republicans would not get away with stealing an election.

And then Democrats won. The hotlines went quiet. The lawyers went back to work. The crisis went away.

Which left some Capitol Hill Republicans who have worked with Democrats on so-called “election reform” issues feeling a little, well, cynical. “If they lose, they assume something is wrong with the system,” says one top Senate aide. “We lose, we say we lost. We’re not going to court. Had the shoe been on the other foot, they would have been suing until the end of time.”

As it turns out, however, there is one case in which Democrats are suing, at least for now. And even though it appears they are flat wrong about the facts of the case, their objections raise serious questions that need to be resolved before 2008.

The case involves the House race in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings ran neck-and-neck throughout the campaign, and when it was all over on Election Night, Buchanan led Jennings by 364 votes out of about 238,000 votes cast.

Complicating the matter was the fact that there were about 18,000 undervotes in the race — that is, ballots in which voters cast their vote in other contests but did not vote in the Buchanan-Jennings race. Now, there is no requirement that a person vote in every race; voters can skip any race they choose. And undervotes are nothing new in the 13th District: In a previous House race, there had been 12,000 undervotes. Still, 18,000 was an unusually high number. And they were concentrated in one place — Sarasota County — although the district includes parts of five counties.

Read it all. With any luck, perhaps now that the Democrats are in leadership positions, they might grow up and act responsibly. But I doubt it. They're Democrats, after all.

Pelosi Drunk With Power

Get ready for 100 hours of nausea.

A new Congress convenes today with a narrow Democratic majority lording over a despondent Republican minority.

While the full weight of Republicans' powerlessness sinks in after 12 years of control, Democrats are celebrating the historic election today of the first female speaker of the House.

"We have waited over 200 years for this time to come," Mrs. Pelosi said on the eve of her selection as speaker, a position that makes her second in line to the presidency after Vice President Dick Cheney.

"We will not just break through a glass ceiling, we will break through a marble ceiling," she said. "In more than 200 years of history, there was an established pecking order -- and I cut in line."

After calling herself "the most powerful woman in America," Mrs. Pelosi flexed her right muscle like a weight lifter to much applause at an event yesterday titled a "women's tea."

"All right, let's hear it for the power," she screamed as the jubilant applause continued.

It says here her first piece of legislation is a bad idea. Surely, there are plenty more bad ideas to come.

Classified Info

Why the media silence over Sandy Berger? Joel Mowbray asks the obvious question.

With the release of an internal investigation last week, we now know that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger not only knowingly flouted laws for handling classified documents, but he went to incredible lengths to cover his tracks and thwart investigators.

While Mr. Berger's "punishment" was a pittance of a fine, former Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin has been financially ruined and sentenced to 12 and a half years for passing along far less-classified information to unauthorized third parties.

Unfortunately, disproportionate justice is inherent to the legal system. The written playbook might be the same for various cases, but different judges and different dynamics can lead to dramatically disparate results.

But what excuse is there for the wildly different media coverage of the two cases, both of which came to public attention in the summer of 2004?

Read it all. Just another in the long line of media double standards.

The Thing That Wouldn't Leave

On the upside, maybe she's their problem now. What a cloying, grating pain in the ass.

Sheehan, Iraq War Protesters Break Up House Democrats' Press Conference

WASHINGTON — Iraq war protesters broke up a press conference by House Democrats on Wednesday with chants to bring American troops home from Iraq.

Chanting "de-escalate, investigate, troops home now," the protesters disrupted a briefing aimed at outlining priority goals when Democrats take over the House and Senate on Thursday.

Cindy Sheehan, an anti-war activist and mother of a soldier who died in Iraq, led the group to Capitol Hill to warn Democrats that party activists expect them to end the war in Iraq and confront the White House on a change in Iraq strategy.

"We didn't put you in power to work with the people that have been murdering hundreds of thousands of people since they have been in power," Sheehan said. "We put you in power to be opposition to them finally and we're the ones who put them in power."

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., cut the press conference short when protests drowned out his voice through a dozen microphones set up to record his comments. Emanuel said Democrats would go back to the caucus room and return later.

Michelle Malkin Heading to Iraq

Michelle Malkin announced in December that she'd offered to accompany Eason Jordan to Iraq. Well, it looks like the trip is on.

My blogging has been lighter than usual the past few weeks due to family time, Fox News duties, holiday chaos, holiday illness--and, yes, planning for a trip to Iraq. As you know, ex-CNN newsman Eason Jordan extended an invitation to me three weeks ago to go to Iraq to investigate the Associated Press/"Jamil Hussein" story. He offered to pay for a trip. As you'll recall, I asked if he would offer to cover travel and security costs for Curt from Flopping Aces--who broke open the story of AP's dubious sources on Thanksgiving weekend and continues to lead the blogospheric search for the truth. Jordan agreed.

I spoke with Jordan by phone before Christmas to learn more details of his offer, which I'm not going to get into for privacy and security reasons. (He asked that his discussion be off the record.) I let him know that I had received invitations to embed with the military and planned to follow up on some of these offers concurrently with the investigation of the AP's reporting. Since our conversation, things have moved at a fast pace on the embed side. Over the holidays, my Hot Air colleague Bryan Preston and I received word that our embed applications had been approved. We have been busy preparing our families and ourselves for the journey.

Read the rest. More at LGF.

No doubt the ugly, venemous left will get their jollies denigrating her.

Saddam Execution Video Leaker Arrested

Seems like a waste of time, but I guess it was not supposed to be released so quickly, if at all.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The person believed to have recorded Saddam Hussein's execution on a cell phone camera was arrested Wednesday, an adviser to Iraq's prime minister said.

The adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, did not identify the person. But he said it was "an official who supervised the execution" and who is "now under investigation."

"In the past few hours, the government has arrested the person who made the video of Saddam's execution," the adviser said.

Saddam's half-brother is scheduled to swing tomorrow; I surmise they'll be checking for cellphones at the gallows door.

The Pantsuit: Obama Will Fade

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton views Barack Obama as her biggest obstacle to nomination, the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report, but she believes the threat of his candidacy will diminish -- as voters learn how inexperienced he is in government and foreign affairs!

Sure, like she's so experienced. But what will she do about the Silky Pony?

UPDATE: The full story.

100 Hours of Fluff

Democrats To Start Without GOP Input, the headline goes. And if this is the Democrat agenda, the GOP would be wise to step aside and let them wallow in it. If it doesn't work, the media won't pay attention anyway. The Democrats will just stick their fingers in the air to see which way the winds blows. All style, no substance.

As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.

House Democrats intend to pass a raft of popular measures as part of their well-publicized plan for the first 100 hours. They include tightening ethics rules for lawmakers, raising the minimum wage, allowing more research on stem cells and cutting interest rates on student loans.

But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories.

Tighten ethics rules? How about starting with one of their own?

Michelle Malkin has more on The Imperial John Conyers.

Iranians Claim Hitler Was a Jew

It takes a special kind of crazy to come up with such lunacy, but who better than the current regime in Iran?

Just when you thought the Iranian leadership could stoop no further: A top advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed in an interview with Iranian website Baztab that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's parents were both Jewish and that Hitler himself was one of the founders of the State of Israel.

In the interview, translated by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) Mohammad-Ali Ramin, a chief aide to Ahmadinejad, told Baztab that Hitler's paternal grandmother was a Jewish prostitute and his father even kept his Jewish name until finally changing it to Hitler when he was 40.

Jules Crittenden summarizes neatly:

I can see this really taking off in various Palo-symp, push-them-into-the-sea circles, where they already call the Israelis Nazis. Now it's firm historical basis has been established by a premier Jew-hating Iranian whackjob.

More from MEMRI.

I'm waiting for confirmation from noted academic David Duke.

Danish Cartoon Controversy: The Aftermath

Interesting piece found via The Corner.

Very thorough and referenced account of what led up to the Danish cartoon fiasco and some of the shady characters involved.

Though I would note the story has the initial date incorrect during the height of the controvery, which occured in early 2006, not 2005.

On February 5, 2005, at the height of the tension following the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, Muslim protesters torched Denmark's embassies in Beirut and Damascus. While many in the West looked on with bewilderment, protests spread across the Muslim world, and stores in Muslim areas removed Danish products from their shelves. Even as the cartoon crisis captured headlines around the world, most people outside Denmark remain unfamiliar with the forces propelling it. Like the Salman Rushdie affair before it and the furor over Pope Benedict XVI's remarks at Regensburg University after it, the cartoon controversy had less to do with genuine outrage over the depiction of Islam's prophet and more to do with the ambitions, first, of a small group of radical imams and, later, of jousting Middle Eastern powers. Now that the dust has settled, what is the legacy of the crisis, not only for Denmark but also for the Western world?

Read it all.

Patterico Shreds the L.A. Times

An exhaustive report by the indefatigable Patterico.
Patterico’s Los Angeles Dog Trainer Year in Review 2006.

It's a wonder how a publication that gets so much wrong can ever remain in business.

Some might say they've been Zombietimed.

Sowell: Nifong's Deliverance

Thomas Sowell nails the execrable Mike Nifong, who may well be facing prosecution himself.

UPDATE: Hot Air has more, plus video.

Islamists Running Scared in Somalia

They're heading for the woods.

Somalia's prime minister said Tuesday that rival Islamic fighters have been scattered and that he does not expect any more major fighting for control of the country.

Government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, were pursuing the remnants of an Islamic militia that until two weeks ago controlled most of southern Somalia and threatened to drive out the internationally-backed government.

But Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said his rivals were scattered and that a group of them offered to surrender on Tuesday.

"We asked out troops to collect them and bring them back home," he said, refusing to provide any details about how many fighters were involved or where they were.

The rest of "Islamists are scattered in the bush," he said. "Maybe small fights can take place, but we are trying to destroy them."

More from Ralph Peters. Islamists Fold in Somalia.

THE new year is off to a bad start for Muslim extremists and their admirers in the media: After only a few months in power, the Islamist regime in Mogadishu collapsed overnight as Ethiopian troops drove out the fanatics.

The global media line held that the Islamic Courts Council, which seized power last year and immediately imposed Sharia law, was in firm control of the country, with the legal government in Baidoa destined to fall. And Somalia did become the new Terror Central, a safe haven for al Qaeda and a strategic base for Islamist subversion in Africa.

Then Ethiopia stepped in and spoiled the goat roast.

Unconvinced by Western myths that military force is useless against terrorists, Addis Ababa's troops intervened to support Somalia's internationally recognized government against the jihadis. The no-nonsense use of force worked.

An Islamist regime that supposedly had broad support collapsed so quickly the international media couldn't keep up: On New Year's morning, newspapers warned that the Islamists, who'd fled Mogadishu, were digging in to defend their "stronghold," the vital port city of Kismayo. By the time those sanctimonious papers hit the streets, the hardcore extremists had high-tailed it, their mass of recruits had deserted and the Ethiopian military had gained control of Kismayo without a battle.

Read the rest.

A big lesson for everyone involved fighting Islamists, and that pretty much is the entire civilized world. Stand up to these cowards.

Netanyahu: Iran Can Still Be Stopped

A sobering wakeup call for the world.

It is possible to prevent the political and security landslide. Iran can still be stopped.

The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is rapidly leading Israel to a political and security downfall while Iran is racing towards achieving a nuclear weapons capability.

While Iran's leaders are busy denying the Holocaust, they also continue to announce their intentions of wiping the State of Israel off the map. Israel is like a bus speeding towards an abyss. The bus driver is tired and helpless.

Let's examine recent developments, which all have one common denominator: weak leadership.

Read the rest. In 2007, action must be taken or we will see a world exponentially more dangerous.

New York Post weighs in: Iran on the Horizon.

Zawahri Criticizes Arab Leaders

This clown sure has diarrhea of the mouth. Just shut up for five minutes.

Al-Qaida's deputy leader has criticized Palestinian and other Arab leaders, accusing them of betraying Islam and collaborating with the United States and Israel, according to an Internet statement posted in his name Monday.

The statement, purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahri, congratulated Islamic holy warriors around the world on the feast of Eid al-Adha and on "the defeat of the Americans and their crusader allies in Afghanistan and Iraq."

The message could not immediately be authenticated, but it appeared on two Islamic Web sites known for publishing militant material.

Referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and a senior member of his Fatah party, al-Zawahri asked: "How is it possible for Mahmoud Abbas to be a brother of ours, or for Mohammed Dahlan to be a brother of ours, when they have grown fat on the bribes of the Jews and gifts of the Americans?"

Well, that didn't go over well.

Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat called the statement "absolutely unacceptable," and predicted it would not influence Palestinians.

Maybe we can get some fatwas going on both sides. Thin the herd, so to speak.

Alas, it seems this piece of garbage isn't that up on current events.

In fact, the statement appears to be ignorant of the defeat of the Islamic militia, the Union of Islamic Courts, which was driven out of Mogadishu by the Ethiopians. "I also congratulate my Muslim brothers in Somalia and encourage them to be firm in defense of the honor of Islam," al-Zawahri says.

Al-Zawahri accuses the Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Yemeni governments of serving the interests of the United States, adding that Washington "bombs the Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq," and orders Arab leaders to pump their oil wells dry and sell crude petroleum "at the cheapest of rates to consume the nation's treasure."

Al-Zawahri tossed out insults to various leaders, making no effort to substantiate his allegations. He called Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a "bribe-taker," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a "traitor," Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh an "agent of America," and he accused New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman of being a "fanatical Zionist."

Accusing the New Yorks Times of being pro-Israel shows how out of touch this boob is.

Islamists on the Run in Somalia

Things are going from bad to worse for these vermin. I won't be shedding any tears.

KISMAYO, Somalia - Islamic fighters abandoned the last major town they held early today and were heading south toward the Kenyan border.

Government forces were approaching the town of Kismayo slowly because of land mines.

The Islamic forces began to disintegrate after a night of artillery attacks at the front line and a mutiny within their ranks, witnesses said.

"The Islamists have fled Kismayo and our troops are on the way," a government spokesman said.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said three al Qaeda suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa that killed more than 250 people were hiding in Kismayo.

"If we capture them alive, we will hand them over to the United States," Gedi said. "We know they are in Kismayo."

More here.

Denver Broncos Player Shot Dead

Getting eliminated from the playoff chase in overtime Sunday may have been painful for the Broncos and their fans, but this is just awful news.

DENVER (AP) - Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting early Monday, his limousine sprayed with bullets in downtown Denver.

Team spokesman Jim Saccomano said police called him about 3 a.m. from the scene and told him three people had been shot, and the 24-year-old Williams had been killed. The killing came hours after the Broncos were eliminated from the playoff race.

A little after 2 a.m., a white Hummer limousine was fired on from a vehicle that pulled up along its side, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said. There were at least eight bullet holes in the limo.

Three people in the limo were hit and were taken to hospitals, where one man was pronounced dead, Jackson said. The other man and woman who were shot were not identified.

Jackson said police were searching for suspects and interviewing witnesses.

"We have no motive yet," Jackson said. "We're hoping to talk with witnesses to find out where they were coming from, and that might give us some clues."

Saccomano said he spoke with coach Mike Shanahan and others in the organization. Hours earlier, the Broncos lost to San Francisco 26-23 in overtime.

"Complete shock. We're speechless. It takes words away. A terrible tragedy," Saccomano said.

Pro Bowl player Champ Bailey was among the players and team staff members who gathered at Denver Health Medical Center, where Williams' body was taken.

"He had a big heart and a lot of courage," said Cedric Smith, assistant strength and conditioning coach. "It's a tragedy, a complete tragedy. It's sickening."