Free kibbles

Under fire from Iraq troops and US and British planes, Sadr orders his Mahdi Army fighters off the streets. It was either that or have his militia destroyed. This is a big victory for the government, and Sadr is permanently weakened, have been forced to back down once again, and in his home territory no less. The Sunni's had been threatening to pull out of the Sunni Awakening if the government failed to rein in Shiite militias. We should give Maliki credit for handling this situation, gaining support and respect, helping move Iraq forward. Some Iraqi units have defected to the Mahdi Army. Why would Sadr have called his people off the streets if they were winning as this article suggests? My guess is this article is a gross, anti-war exaggeration from the NYTimes. I'm not the only person who noticed the gross misreporting of the situation.

Al Qaeda is training western-looking terrorists in its safe haven in Pakistan.

German released from Guantanamo claims US tortured him in Kandahar and Guantanamo.

Opposition party in Zimbabwe claims to have won elections despite Mugabe having rigged them for himself and his cronies. Don't expect Mugabe to agree he lost. This will get more ugly before it gets better. Government refuses to release any official results though independent observers show the opposition won a resounding victory. The government may be rigging the vote counts after the fact. Zimbabwe announces it will release vote counts in couple hours. They have to have been rigging the post election counts. No matter who wins, this is going to get ugly.

Senior Democrats pushing to nominate Al Gore as their candidate. It's easy to say this will never happen, but you cannot underestimate the Democrat powers' contempt for their voters. While its unlikely, there's a real chance Democrat power brokers will just dismiss the will of the voters with a wave of their hand and nominate Gore. Just by considering it, they've proved their contempt, and they think with their greater aristocratic wisdom they can convince the unwashed masses to get behind such a decision, but nominating Gore would be an bigger disaster than nominating Clinton or Obama.

I used to say that Gore would never except this nomination because he couldn't stand debate on his global warming fraud. But since McCain is a Democrat in his own right, he drank Al Gore's global warming koolaid, Gore doesn't have to worry about that debate. That's why draft Gore movement has teeth now that it didn't earlier in the primary when the Republican nomination was up for grabs.

Clinton campaign failing to pay the bills. This is just what we can expect from a Clinton presidency too.

Muslims outnumber Catholics.

Governments' power play prying open Swiss bank accounts. We can't allow people to have privacy, now can we?

Newspapers have biggest ad revenue plunge in 50 years.

Cell phones may double the risk of brain cancer.

Karl Rove provides detailed advise for the Democrats to win at the convention. These machinations have to favor Clinton.

Author thinks Obama's continuing defense of his hate-mongering pasture shows that Obama is an appeaser - a peace at any price candidate. Obama digs himself deeper into a hole with Rev. Wright on the View. Poor Democrats. They've supported 2 terrible candidates - Hillary Clinton couldn't stop lying to save her life and Obama won't acknowledge his culpability in selecting and subjecting his children to a raving, hate-mongering pastor. I wouldn't be surprised if both Clinton and Obama are chased out of the Senate when they run for reelection. Probably Clinton more likely than Obama because Obama is supporting his local constituency despite the national harm it's doing him.

Michael Barone predicts that Hillary will win the popular vote while Obama wins the delegate count. The Democrat convention will be brutal.

Shiite and Sunni extremists regularly work together to attack the west.

This guy may think that doing nothing on entitlement reform is not an option, but you can bet Washington will do just that.

Mark Steyn explains that the Clintons can no longer get away with the thuggery and lies they pulled off when Bill was the front man because Hillary has no charm. He feels sorry for them because for 16 years they could lie with impunity and the press would work overtime to apologize and cover-up for them. But Obama has the charm now, and the press actually does the tiny bit of work necessary to expose Hillary's lies while working overtime to cover-up and apologize for Obama. I don't feel sorry for them at all. I feel sorry for all the people they destroyed and for all their partners in crimes who rotted in jail protecting them while the Clintons made a mockery of the presidency and our country.

Dick Armey proposes McCain go further with his commitment to tax reform and free market solutions to economic problems. I agree.

John Bolton says Taiwan needs to remain free, independent, economically sound, and with ties to China. I agree. Taiwan is a model for the Chinese people to aspire to.

European acknowledges that European approach to security has been warped by US security welfare. His ideas reflect the dysfunctionality of welfare recipients. He also hints at why the US is equally addicted to this dysfunctional relationship - the US gets to set the agenda. This is why welfare is destructive to both provider and recipient. Rumsfeld argues for expanding NATO. Because it's doing such a good job in Afghanistan? NATO is a Cold War relic that was necessary for destroyed Europe in the wake of WWII. But not anymore. Europe has a bigger GDP than the US. Europe should have an equivalent military to the US, and the EU and the US should be equal partners in protecting each other's territory and interests around the world.

McCain was a fool for making the flippant comment about staying in Iraq 100 years, then clarifying afterwards. He gave the Democrats a great soundbite to attack. But right now the US has 800 overseas bases. Of course we need a debate on how to reduce our security welfare to the world, not increase it. We need to find ways to bring US troops home and stop playing the world's policeman. We should invite the EU to join the US as a full partner in defense of western interests worldwide, and we should create regional partnerships for the Pacific and the Middle East, inviting the great regional nations to carry a fair share of the load, to provide security for our common interests.

Peggy Noonan supplies an awesome quote from the internet lampooning Hillary Clinton's Bosnia story, showing how Clinton is loosing touch and the election.

A new study shows that Walmart did more to help Katrina victims than government. The article also explains why this is expected and the norm. Central planning doesn't work. Businesses have to do business in areas hit by natural disasters, and it's in their best interests to help save and rebuild their communities. Bureaucrats in Washington D.C. cannot possible be as effective at solving local problems as locals, and in fact are generally impediments to recover efforts. This is why the FEMA mission is all wrong. Disaster response is an inherently local problem.

Make predictions about politics and win money.

Comcast video compression hurts HDTV channels.