January 1, 2007
The London Telegraph reports on a new series of requirements for travelers from Europe to the US which appear to push the boundaries of privacy further than ever. An agreement with Brussels will now require all European carriers to make...
Too often, the world of crime intrudes on the world of sports, and this time it's even more of a tragedy. Darrent Williams, who hours earlier had a sack and a forced fumble as a cornerback in Denver's loss to...
Radical Islamists have given up their last stronghold in Somalia, chased out by the Ethiopian Army that has spent the last two weeks crushing them. The Ethiopians and the Somialian transitional government liberated Kismayo as the Islamists beat a hasty...
The political situation continues to deteriorate in Zimbabwe, even as it improves in Somalia. Dictator Robert Mugabe has ordered the closure of a newspaper opposed to his rule by stripping its publisher of his Zimbabwean citizenship: Robert Mugabe's government has...
January 2, 2007
Note: This post originally ran during the Christmas holiday, and is being repeated for those who may have missed it. The Able Danger story has come to an end, at least for the moment, as the Senate Select Committee on...
Note: This post originally ran during the Christmas holiday, and is being repeated for those who may have missed it. The Iranian proxy terrorist group Hezbollah transfers thousands of dollars for every Kassam rocket attack launched by Palestinian terrorists from...
Note: This post originally ran during the Christmas holiday, and is being repeated for those who may have missed it. If you're flying betwen the US and Europe, you may want to avoid flying Lufthansa. According to Der Spiegel, the...
The French have spent their New Year in much the same manner they have spent the last few that preceded it -- by the glow of the fires of their vehicles. In a disturbing new tradition, residents of the Muslim...
Michigan and its fans spent a lot of time over the last few weeks arguing that they should have gone to the BCS championship game against Ohio State. Instead, they faced off against the two-loss Trojans of USC in the...
With their newly-minted majority just hours away from inauguration, the Democrats have made many plans on how they will run Congress over the next two years. However, the New York Times reminds us that the new majority has some fractious...
It's not often that a newspaper columnist uses his platform to attack the news division at his own paper, but Richard Cohen uses his first appearance of the year to do just that. Without naming the reporter, Cohen blasts the...
With the new Democratic majority sounding off about cleaning up Congress, one might think they would consider their own proposed leadership first. After trying to push Alcee Hastings and John Murtha into the upper echelons of the House, Nancy Pelosi...
I'll be appearing on Jack Riccardi's Into The Night radio talk show at 8:20 pm CT this evening. Jack broadcasts to San Antonio out of KTSA, and he's been kind enough to have me on once before. You can catch...
A handful of radical Islamists fleeing the collapse of their grip on Somalia have fallen into Kenyan custody as they attempted to cross the border. Two of the ten captured carried Canadian passports, the CBC reports: As many as two...
January 3, 2007
The state-owned Russian energy corporation Gazprom succeeded in its quest to capture a half-interest in the pipeline through Belarus as well as getting the price hikes it wanted from the former Soviet republic. As Der Spiegel notes, this latest power...
This change promises a return to common sense at Turtle Bay, and will likely drive Kofi Annan fans up the nearest wall. Newly-inducted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon defended Iraq's imposition of the death penalty as a question of sovereignty...
The end of the radical Islamist grip on Somalia has had many words written about it, but the images and sounds coming from the nightclubs of Mogadishu cement the reality of freedom for young Somalians. Playing music that would have...
Here's a story that managed to fly under the radar during Christmastime. Suzanne Magaziner, the wife of Clinton friend and organizer Ira Magaziner and herself a major activist with ties to the new Governor in Massachusetts, got her drunk-driving charges...
With all of the assaults on free political speech that have come as a result of the McCain-Feingold Act (or the BCRA), one has to wonder how much farther we can go before reversing the damage becomes impossible. Mark Tapscott...
On the eve of the transition in Congress, George Bush has written a rare opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal. In it he challenges the Democrats to working in a bipartisan manner on national security and fiscal responsibility, but...
... is that they should be handled discreetly. However, the tabloidesque nature of national politics over the last generation has eliminated discretion, and it appears the next example of this will be Barack Obama. The Washington Post manages to both...
I'm waiting for the opening kickoff of the Sugar Bowl after having worn my Notre Dame sports shirt all day today. They LSU Tigers just won the coin flip and will let the Fighting Irish get the ball first, so...
Michael Ledeen covered the latest news from Iraq yesterday, which Eli Lake reported for the New York Sun. New intelligence has produced evidence of Iranian support for both the Shia and the Sunni insurgencies, a feat that completely undermines the...
Holllywood and music mogul David Geffen recently offered $2 billion to the Tribune Company for the Los Angeles Times. Tribune has put him off for a while as they want to sell the entire company and not just its components,...
January 4, 2007
Remember how critics of the execution of Saddam Hussein expressed their outrage that the Iraqis had profaned the Eid celebrations? Recall how people argued that Muslim celebrations of this holiday are marked by a suspension of all hostilities and a...
After Belarus caved on New Year's Eve to Russian demands for a rate hike on gas supplies as well as a piece of Belarus' action on pipeline service to the West, the dispute looked over. Belarus, however, just declared a...
John Negroponte has given up his Cabinet-level position in order to work for Condoleezza Rice at State. Replacing him will be another retired military officer, which may revive some of the concerns regarding military control of the intelligence community: John...
Some people question whether the charges against Richard Nixon regarding his abuses of power in office had more to do with politics than with real abuses. CNN reports on newly-released information that demonstrates Nixon's abuse, although its report focuses on...
In the end, the prognosticators got this one correct. Notre Dame didn't have the speed or the strength to match up against LSU, although they made it interesting in the first half: JaMarcus Russell thoroughly outplayed Brady Quinn and made...
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have placed a significant minimum-wage increase at the top of their agenda for the 110th Congress. President Bush has signaled his willingness to approve it, using the increase as a lever for tax relief on...
The UN has announced yet another investigation into yet another series of allegations of sexual abuse of refugees under the protection of UN peacekeepers. The London Telegraph had earlier reported on the systemic abuse of children in Sudan, and Turtle...
I haven't blogged much about this, but it has been quite a cause in the blogosphere over the last few weeks. Bloggers have researched reporting by the Associated Press in Iraq and found 61 single-sourced stories regarding some of the...
When the US announced that they had found and detained high-ranking Iranian intelligence officers in Iraq, working with Shi'ite factions in an attempt to influence the Iraqi government, leading Iraqis protested that the men had received diplomatic invitations to Iraq....
ABC News is reporting tonight that Kim Jong-Il has prepared for a new nuclear test. According to their sources, North Korea has "everything in place": North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test, according to U.S. defense...
January 5, 2007
Bill Cowher, who has spent the last 15 years as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, will announce his resignation today at a press conference at the Steelers headquarters, the AP reports. Steelers fans will hope that their source turns...
The Vatican has suddenly found itself in the middle of Poland's tension over its Communist past. Their candidate for the open position of Archbishop of Warsaw apparently collaborated with the Communists before Poland's liberation, naming priests in the Church who...
No one ever accused Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi of good taste or mental stability: With much of the Arab world up in arms over the hanging of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Saturday, it didn't take long for Libya...
The resignation of John Negroponte has produced criticism of his stewardship of American intelligence as DNI from members of Congress that insisted on creating the position. The Los Angeles Times reports that Negroponte has wanted to leave the position for...
It looks like the Republicans have found their theme for the next two years of Democratic control of Congress. A slew of press releases from the GOP yesterday focused on the spectre of tax-raising by Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and...
Bill Ardolino of INDC Journal filed his first report as an embed for the Examiner today. Bill reports on the medics that keep everyone alive in the Iraq theater, including many Iraqis: Corpsman HN Jerad “Doc J” Jurgensmier bandaged the...
Bloggers operate on credibility, just like anyone else, and have to answer for their missteps. Ten days ago, I linked to a story from radio host Scott Hennen that displayed a photo of John Kerry sitting at a mostly-empty mess...
January 6, 2007
The Northern Alliance Radio Network will be on the air today, with our six-hour-long broadcast schedule starting at 11 am CT. The first two hours features Power Line's John Hinderaker and Chad and Brian from Fraters Libertas. Mitch and I...
NOTE: CNN left something out of this report. See update below. Yesterday, a Republican Congresswoman alleged that the American military in Iraq had most of its high-value enemy targets in detention at one point or another, but released them without...
Mahmoud Abbas raised the stakes in the slow-motion approach to civil war in the Palestinian territories today by declaring Hamas' militias illegal: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday declared Hamas' paramilitary militia in the Gaza Strip illegal, raising the stakes...
Ever since the ISG made its recommendations to the White House last month, the administration has considered a surge in deployments to Iraq as a short-term boost to turn the corner on violence there. President Bush has not yet announced...
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced today that his government will take immediate action against sectarian militias of all stripes in Baghdad. His announcement comes as the Bush administration appears ready to shift more troops to the capital, at least...
Hillary Clinton appears to be the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic nomination for the 2008 Presidential campaign, but she has not won over the most activist part of her party. ABC reported yesterday that protestors picketing speeched by John...
Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported on the efforts of the Fairfax County public libraries to create shelf room for best sellers by culling out the classics that have received little attention. Research on the library computer system reported...
January 7, 2007
The Israelis have plans to conduct lightning strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities that include the use of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons, the Times of London reports this morning. The revelation has many predicting a bloodbath in the Middle East, but...
Stanislaw Wielgus had planned to take office today as the new Archbishop of Warsaw, replacing the legendary Jozef Glemp. Instead, he transformed his installation Mass into a resignation ceremony after evidence arose that he collaborated with the Communist secret police,...
Last February, I wrote about the expensive tastes of Daniel Sassou-Nguesso, the ruler of the desperately poor African nation of Congo and the president of the African Union. In a September 2005 stay in New York, the man who keeps...
As CQ readers know, I am a rabid Notre Dame fan and have a lot of fun taking shots at our nemesis, USC. However, we know that this is all in the fun of a classic rivalry and that the...
While many of us distrust the New York Times and its reporting on Iraq, John Burns has consistently provided the most objective and fascinating accounts of the war throughout most of the American media establishment. He has written a narrative...
Al Gore has banned coverage of an event again, this time in our neighboring South Dakota. Gore joined the Columbia School of Journalism as a lecturer in 2001 after his loss to George Bush and placed a gag order on...
The controversy over stem cells has now thrown its shadow over three national elections. While adult and umbilical stem cells have contributed to actual therapies, embryonic stem cells have not -- and yet their flexibility has presented a tantalizing subject...
January 8, 2007
The Doha Round of trade talks is scheduled to restart today, and according to the Times of London, George Bush could either usher in a new era of freer agricultural markets or allow the WTO to essentially fail on globalizing...
Jacques Chirac, who recently began talking as though he might run again for a third term as president of France, may have effectively killed any small chance of viability for continuing in office with a scheme to rent out the...
After the expulsion of the Islamist government in Mogadishu and their flight through Kismayo into dissipation, the question remains as to how to rebuild Somalia into a viable state. The clan rule that has led to fifteen years of chaos...
The showdown between Muslim taxi-drivers and their passengers gets more out-of-state attention this morning from the New York Sun's Youssef Ibrahim. The refusal of a large number of Islamic cabbies to transport passengers with alcohol in their luggage or service...
Perhaps al-Qaeda figured that the US had focused so much on the 9/11 attacks that it had forgotten about one of its earlier attacks on American assets. If so, the terrorists have just discovered that both elephants and donkeys have...
Ohio State went into tonight's national championship game favored to beat Florida in a wipeout. Some people questioned whether the Gators even belonged in the game at all. They proved it by reversing expectations and blowing out Ohio State, 41-14:...
January 9, 2007
Yesterday, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from seven men charged with supporting terrorism through fund-raising for terrorist-linked organizations. The appeal came after the 9th Circuit had rejected the defense a