What's News

Here is a good description of what Republicans have to change. The biggest thing that killed the Republican party was the unwillingness to quickly address failures among its members. If that had been addressed, rather than denials and protracted escalating situations, I suspect even the problems of Iraq would not have been as damaging on election day.

One example of those leadership problems is “earmarks.” “Earmarks” are going to be under Democratic scrutiny. Republicans promised it, but did not deliver. The biggest example of that is the now infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska. Of course, the Democrats are not saints regarding 'earmarks". for some more detailed info on it, read Snoop's take. Real reform in this area is something many conservative groups are calling on Republicans to back in the new Congress.

Meanwhile, in the ever more accountable mainstream mediaDan Rather gets a new start, thanks to Mark Cuban. In this article, Rather is quoted as saying he was forced to follow the company line when he wanted to break a story that had big controversy. However, I seem to recall that Rather was the one who made a lot of those decisions. Fortunately, it is a very small audience this time. But, with total content control, we’ll see if he’s any different than he was at CBS.

Speaking of MSM wierdness, (...there's even more later...stay tuned...) Linda at Beast Media had this breakdown on Rosie O'Donnell's"Fear or Faith" statement the other day. To think that terrorists are not to be feared is truly insane. The fact that so many people accept that statement as true is frightening.

In the Middle East, according to the BBC, Syria has agreed to help solve the Iraq problem. There is one catch, according to the Syrian Ambassador:

” the US first had to accept its policy in Iraq had failed.”

Well, with the Democrats already saying that, and now in control of Congress, they will probably get their demand met. After all, they are already calling for phased withdrawls over 4-6 months. Even McCain has commented on the issue:

Mr. McCain said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the U.S. troop presence in Iraq would need to be increased to achieve victory and said he would favor a total withdrawal if that didn't happen.

I happen to agree with the Democrats that having an open-ended commitment is not a good thing. But, a dedicated time table of withdrawl, instead of a dedicated timetable of goal accomplishment is stupid. All it does is tell the enemy how long they have to wait to go on a full scale offensive.

Here was a strange claim. Well…maybe not…it comes from the BBC…There is an urgent need to bridge the West-Muslim divide. No rocket science was required to make that deduction. Even less was reuired to make the following claim:

The chief causes of the rift are not religion or history, they say, but recent political developments, notably the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Talk about lacking credibility! Most everyone understands the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is firmly and decidedly rooted in religious differences. Of course, The Alliance of Civilisations, which includes such unbiased members as former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, created the report. No surprise, the report claims that Israeli occupations and US actions in Afghanistan and Iraq are primary causes of the problem. And, it goes right along with IRANIAN President Mamhoud Ahmadinejad saying Israel was doomed “to destruction” and would soon disappear, in his latest verbal attack on the Jewish state. You can read more on it at Blogger news Network.
(...Aahhh...there is nothing like the party line...for more of my thoughts on that go read Rock Throwing Neighbors…)

Let's see, given the BBC claim, that would mean Hamas’ refusal to recognize Israel has nothing to do with religion Of course, that would also mean it's demand for Isreal's destruction is an entirely peaceful goal. And, the same would apply to Hazbollah’s announcement of their goal to create a “clean” cabinet and oust the current Western leaning is just politics as usual. It couldn’t have anything to do with a pending investigation of murder—involving Syria and terrorist groups allied with it (aka Hezbollah).

And, then there was the mass kidnapping of members from a government research institute in downtown Baghdad on Tuesday. Dressed as police, gunmen rounded up 100-150 men and women in a 20 minute time frame. Witnesses said the gunmen had a list of specific people and claimed to be on a mission from the Iraqi anti-corruption body—even the guards did nothing to stop it. Reports also indicate that Sunnis and Shiites were taken in the raid. And, of course, guess who’s to blame?

Ali al-Adib, a Shiite lawmaker, said there was little question Tuesday's incident was a mass kidnapping and demanded that U.S. troops be held responsible for the security lapse.

How come the Iraqis are never to blame for their security failures?