When a quarter million Western and Afghan troops confront al-Qaeda, the Taliban and whatever jihadi fighters they can muster from around the Muslim world – all in proximity to Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile – what will be the result? According to Sateh Noureddine, columnist for Lebanon’s As Satif, that moment is fast approaching. He writes in part: “The battle will pit the armies of the superpower and its allies against the most violent and radical of Islamist groups,...

Rachel Maddow just reported this breaking news, based on a report filed by Pete Williams, NBC legal correspondent. She is interviewing Pete Williams as I type. The report is based on statements made by several government sources who are, of course, as of right now, not named. The story has not been officially confirmed. MSNBC Story with Video Wikipedia on David Souter NPR: Justice Souter To Retire From Supreme Court NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at...

I had an interesting conversation with a friend today about a boardwalk that has been constructed on the beach in her city. It’s a lovely walkway — I’ve been on it — and it was built with funds designated some years ago. You know… back when cities were flush (or at least solvent). But a beach boardwalk rests upon sand. Which blows. And so, the obvious is occurring: the boardwalk is being covered. My friend isn’t particularly bothered about this (yet), but...

In a move that could signal that endangered Republican Senator Jim Bunning is going to retire, State Treasurer Trey Grayson (R) has announced he is forming an exploratory committee to run for ther Senate in 2010, reportedly with the approval of Bunning. Speculation is Bunning will announce his retirement in the coming weeks. This would be good news to Republicans as Bunning was seen as very vulnerable, though it does increase their open seats.

Moderates? Who Needs ‘Em? by Rick Moran What’s wrong with conservatism? Philosophically, absolutely nothing. There is a family argument going on at the moment where some question how conservative principles can be translated into a set of issues and policies that would lead to actual conservative governance but beyond that, everything is just peachy, right? Sarcasm aside, the question for the day is can political moderates be conservative too? Can you believe in conservative “First...

I don’t know about you, but I felt a little shiver along my spine when I heard on Wednesday that the World Health Organization had raised its H1N1 swine flu threat level to five, on a scale of one-to-six. I didn’t know what that meant, exactly. But news reports linking this threat level with the 1968 Hong Kong flu and the word “pandemic” were shaking my belief that the U.S. media were on one of their normal echo-chamber benders. Today WHO reported that 11 countries have “officially...

News breaking this morning that Chrysler has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the first automaker to do so since 1933. Details at this point are sketchy but it seems likely that some form of company will emerge from the process, although certainly in a very different form. The merger with Fiat does appear to be on track so that means that they will be working in the process too. The New York Times has a primer on the process and the reports seem to suggest this will be a fairly short case, which means...

Yesterday the World Health Organization declared that an influenza pandemic was “imminent.” The U.S government reported that in the first quarter of this year the Gross Domestic Product fell 6.1 percent. The number of unemployed continues to rise, and foreclosures continue to increase. Six of the country’s 19 largest banks failed the government’s stress test and will need more capital to survive a continued financial crisis. Chrysler is about to declare bankruptcy and GM still...

I’ve written before about New Hampshire’s state legislature: the House and Senate are both led by women and the Senate is majority female.  When I’ve written about these details, I’ve also written that while it’s something to cheer, we need to keep track of how exactly it might make a difference in governance and life in New Hampshire – and whether voters ultimately decide that they’re happy with their composite choices. Today, the Boston Globe published...

Both the BBC and the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad report that a car has ploughed into a crowd of people in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn today during an official visit there by the Dutch royal family. The newspaper reports that four people were killed and 13 wounded and that it apparently was a deliberate action. According to the Handelsblad: An unidentified man in a black Suzuki Swift plowed into a crowd of onlookers in Apeldoorn, 90 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam, during a visit to the...

Patrick Edaburn already wrote a very insightful article on yesterday’s passage of yet more “hate crime legislation” in the House of Representatives, this time invoking the name of Matthew Shepard. While the people who abducted and murdered Shepard were certainly monsters of the most hateful sort, their biggest crime may not be the assault on Shepard’s person, but the damage they wind up doing to our legal system. Matters are not helped when members of Congress run off at the...

The NRSC has started trying to hook up with Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania to go after Senator Arlen Specter for his switch to the Democratic party because….brace yourself…George Bush supported Specter. So should the subtext for ALL Democrats now from the NRSC be that if ANY Republican was endorsed or even tolerated by Bush, Democrats should automatically vote against them? And this also could be taken by independent voters as a signal: if you didn’t like Bush make SURE...

Newsweek has an interesting article about the need to get the military out of politics in Pakistan. As the article details, the army has not done much good and has actually caused a great deal of instability in the government. Meanwhile there are growing concerns about a possible Taliban takeover in the increasingly unstable country. President Obama is worried about a possible collapse of the government. From what I’ve seen out of the various ‘experts’ on the region there is not...

The House has voted to approve a new hate crimes law named after Matthew Shepard. The vote was 249-175.  The bill has been introduced in the Senate but a vote is not yet scheduled. President Obama has indicated he would sign the bill if it makes it to his desk. The law would broaden current laws to include attacks based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity or mental or physical disability. Current laws already allow federal jurisdiction over crimes based on race, color, religion...

Alex Lees, 97, who was immortalised, not only in military, but cinematic history (in The Great Escape film – 1963) for his daredevil escape from the German prison camp in 1944, was buried yesterday at Paisley, the U.K. “But, while 50 of his fellow plotters were executed, after one of the most valiant but tragic escape attempts of the war, the young Royal Army Service Corps driver survived,” reports The Independent. More here… And here’s a snippet from The Great Escape...

On the evidence of his press conference, our president of 100 days seems so right for this critical time that it tempts a secular humanist to suspect Barack Obama came to power, not just by the natural selection of a brutal political campaign, but some more mysterious process of intelligent design. How else to explain the qualities of mind and heart, and the eloquence to express them, that arrived in the White House just in time to deal with what he rightly calls “the worst economic crisis...

One of the many conspiracy theories prevalent in the Arab world – and elsewhere – is that the United States invented HIV/AIDs, infected people in the rest of the world and blamed it on Africans. In a new twist on this theory, Abed al-Nasser of Algeria’s Echourouq al-Yawm writes that the U.S. infected Mexico with swine flu to make itself look good by saving its southern neighbor: “America, the country of Nobel Prizes in every science and that wants to change the maps of...

A mind blowing post from a conservative perspective on how the GOP should deal with Election 2010. Perhaps the most amazing quote comes from Senator DeMint who says: “I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.” The Republicans would do well by nominating someone like Ridge, indeed he would probably be a slight favorite over Specter. But the hard liners seem...

Black Americans are not a legitimate demographic in Byron York’s view:

Note: The Following Letter was developed by Travis Johnson, the founder of Progressive Republicans. We, the Undersigned, as long-time, loyal Republicans, supporters of the Party’s candidates and its core values of smaller, more efficient government, individual liberty and personal freedom condemn in the strongest possible fashion the circumstances and actions of so-called “conservatives” who have driven Senator Arlen Specter and many of our best and brightest from our Party....

Is the American press, radio and TV acting as the media arm of the Obama Administration? This criticism, made very often on the American right – and for many years in regard to Reagan and Bush on the American left – appears in this article from Jordan’s Al-Arab al-Yawm, as a warning to the world not to fall for it. For Al-Arab al-Yawm, Amal al-Sharqi writes in part: It is well known that the American press, in spite of the broad spectrum of freedom it enjoys, remains directed by...

msnbc.com: BREAKING NEWS: Mexico to shut down nonessential government offices, businesses, reports say

Big media putting you to sleep? There’s good reason. The secret ingredient to your undivided attention is in this week’s cartoon. (Click cartoon for a full-size image) For more cartoon commentary, visit Small World Cartoons.

Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

It’s the question on everyone’s lips – but one that so far, few have answered: Why have so many died in Mexico of the new H1N1 flu virus, but only one – so far – in the United States? Looking for an answer, Leo Zuckermann, for Mexico’s Excelsior, writes in part: “When I get a fever in Mexico, I telephone my doctor. He’s a friend who knows me perfectly. He asks me about my symptoms, makes an initial diagnosis and usually issues me a prescription over...