Austin Bay has an interesting piece on what is going on in Baghdad besides adding extra troops: Adding 20,000 troops to Iraq in a five- to six-month window is a significant increase but in and of itself not decisive, and certainly not a “new strategy.” The relentless, focused targeting of Shia and Sunni extremist organizations [...]
It looks like I caught the attention of the lefty blogosphere, which explains why the comments are full of some rather febrile rantings. I’m approving all of them, mainly as it provides a nice pool of evidence the next time I make the assertion that the left is increasingly unhinged. Atrios points to a comment [...]
The Washington Post had a rather interesting story on how the radical “netroots” are targeting a moderate California Congresswoman: The Democratic majority was only three weeks old, but by Jan. 26, the grass-roots and Net-roots activists of the party’s left wing had already settled on their new enemy: Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.), the outspoken [...]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has issued a 2-1 decision upholding the Military Commissions Act and holding that federal courts do not have the jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus claims made by enemy combatants imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. The Court uses the case of Johnson v. Eisentrager, 339 U.S. 763 (1950) [...]
Rich Lowry argues that John Murtha’s “slow bleed” strategy is unconstitutional: The president, not Congress, is the commander in chief. Congress was never meant to, nor is it suited to, direct tactical military decisions, as Murtha seeks to do with his restrictions. Arguably, his maneuver will be the most blatant congressional intrusion on the president’s [...]
Amanda Marcotte, John Edward’s former blogger, has a piece that defends vulgarity as a form of populism. In it, she demonstrates exactly why the left wing of the blogosphere’s only real impact will be in raising funds and embarrassing political candidates. She writes: The word “vulgar” was by far the favorite word of critics, and [...]
MINOR SPOILERS FOR BATTLESTAR GALACTICA FOLLOW: There’s an interesting observation on federalism and Battlestar Galactica over at The Corner: The president has her undies in a bundle over what law to try Gaius Baltar under. Caprican? Sagitarrian? I have a hard time buying that the 12 Colonies could have a strong colonial military, president, beauracracy [...]