Archive » 2005 » December

‘Twas the day before Christmas
And all through the Times
Hysteria reigned over
Bush’s “impeachable crimes”…
Yes, the New York Times continues to show its disregard for our nation’s security, publishing additional classified information about the NSA’s much-hyped surveillance program. Now it’s a report that the NSA program traced and analyzed huge numbers of calls to and from [...]

You’ve probably heard about the UMass student who claimed that Department of Homeland Security agents visited him after he checked out Mao’s Little Red Book from the library. Well, he has now admitted that he made the story up.

Jeff Quinton notes the passing of Lt. Col. Horace “Sally” Crouch of Columbia, a member of World War II’s Doolittle Raiders, who bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities in retaliation for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
There are now only 16 surviving Raiders.

Craig Henry at Lead and Gold has some tough words for the media and its double standards.

Ed Morrissey and Debbie Schlussel have reviews of Munich.
I’m not going to waste my money.
Related (via Drudge): Stars turn backs on America’s troops in Iraq

Adam’s Blog has a lovely round-up of both secular and spiritual posts from around the blogosphere. Check out his Carnival of Christmas.
Lisa at Two Babes and a Brain has a moving reflection on sacrifice and single parenthood: My Favorite Christmas.
Rabbi Marc Gellman writes on “Jesus’s Miracle.”
The Anchoress posts on the Last Vespers of Advent.
Did you [...]

The Associated Press is reporting that “Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito defended the right of government officials to order domestic wiretaps when he worked for the Reagan Justice Department.”
Here’s how some MSM outlets are headlining the story:
“Documents Show Alito Supported Domestic Spying”
“Alito Defended Wiretap Protections in ‘85 Memo”
“Supreme Court nominee defends govt. right to order [...]

Pfc. Joshua Sparling
Here’s an update on the injured soldier who received that sick death-wish card at Walter Reed Army Hospital. The Port Huron Times Herald reports:
As Joshua Sparling lay in his hospital bed, just a couple of days after being wounded by a bomb in Iraq, he got a letter.
The letter, addressed to “any soldier,” [...]

Here’s what Chicken Little journalism gets you:

Hat tip: Gerard Van der Leun at The American Digest, which you should be reading every day.
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Jason Smith at Generation Why points out some other stock charts that will leave MSM’ers feeling blue.

Do you know what your undergrad is learning? The Young America’s Foundation gives parents a helpful guide with its “Dirty Dozen” list of weirdest courses in America’s institutions of higher (sic) learning, including:
* Occidental College’s “The Unbearable Whiteness of Barbie: Race and Popular Culture in the United States,” in which students explore ways in which [...]

From the sanctimonious world organization that called Western countries “stingy” in the aftermath of the southeast Asian tsunami disaster comes this unsurprising news via the Financial Times: “Little clarity on how aid gets spent.” The intro:
When Jan Egeland, the United Nations top disaster official, announced in March that PwC, the professional services firm, would help [...]

Read Austin Bay’s year-end reflection. Just beautiful.

Amy Welborn’s meditation on the real meaning of Christmas is must-read.

*Attention, last-minute shoppers. Here’s a unique stocking stuffer available on eBay: An 8-Ft One-of-a-Kind LEGO Star Wars Rebel Attack Cruiser. Auction proceeds go to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Bidding ends Christmas Eve. Free shipping. Cool.
*Students in Greenwich, CT performed “A Rainbow Christmas” to teach tolerance and diversity. Because a Christmas play that actually taught about, [...]

John Hinderaker has posted a lengthy analysis of the NSA special collections program over at Power Line.
Update: Paul Mirengoff adds his thoughts.

La Shawn Barber nails it.

*AP names Hurricane Katrina its top story of the year. Can’t argue with that. The rest of the top ten:
2: PAPAL TRANSITION: John Paul II’s death marked the passing of the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and ended a 26-year pontificate, third-longest in history. In a remarkable show of affection, many millions attended services [...]

LOST: Has anyone seen 150 pounds of commercial plastic explosives, 2,500 blasting caps and 20,000 feet of explosive detonation cord?
They went missing in New Mexico sometime between Dec. 13 and Sunday.
More info:
In a written statement, Gov. Bill Richardson said state agencies have been urged to report any suspicious activity.
“There is no specific threat,” Richardson said, [...]

Marc Morano has the scoop.

Earlier this week George Will argued that President Bush should have asked Congress for permission to carry out warrantless eavesdropping of Americans. He is confident that Congress would have changed FISA to approve the program:
Congress, if asked, almost certainly would have made such modifications of law as the president’s plans required.
Just one teensy weensy problem: [...]

The Associated Press continues its long pattern of biased political coverage with this article, which implies that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave 11 times more money to Republicans than Democrats:
This week, President Bush said it seemed to him that Abramoff “was an equal money dispenser, that he was giving money to people in both political [...]

Take time out this weekend to remember the fallen. Thanks to Ace of Spades and Jake
at Freedom Folks for this poignant reminder from Arlington National Cemetery:

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Reader Bruce K. e-mails:
Thanks for posting the photo of the wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery. Your readers may be interested to know that these wreaths — some 5,000 — are [...]

Via Breitbart/AP:
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer
Dec 21 9:17 PM US/Eastern
WASHINGTON - Senators on Wednesday agreed to extend the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act for six months to allow the bill’s critics to continue to seek additional civil liberty safeguards in the anti-terrorism law. The deal, if passed by the GOP-controlled Senate, would [...]

Here’s Cindy Sheehan in Newsweek, biting the MSM hand that has fed her so royally the last six months:
What do you think you achieved in Crawford?
We brought the war into the forefront of American consciousness and started the discussion that should have started before the war. The mood in our country is turning around.
But the [...]

Via Engadget:
Canadian telecom service provider Rogers Communications has been the victim of numerous number-cloning operations by the terrorist group Hezbollah — in which even the phone number of CEO Ted Rogers was “borrowed” — but steadfastly refused to address consumer complaints about the problem, insisting that customers were liable for outsized bills. However, all that [...]

My column today covers the civil liberties absolutists’ hindsight hypocrisy and selective uproar over the NSA’s surveillance of communications between suspected al Qaeda operatives and their contacts.
I note the silence of the New York Times and the privacy crusaders over a report last week that military spy satellites were used to monitor suspects after the [...]

***scroll for updates…12:41pm EST. Cloture fails. Senate votes to block the defense spending bill 56-44..1020pm EST: ANWR provision dropped….***
Just in: “The Republican-controlled Senate passed legislation to cut federal deficits by $39.7 billion on Wednesday by the narrowest of margins, 51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote.”
Unfortunately, the LA Times points out that [...]

Via WaPo:
A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush’s secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John D. [...]

Democrat Rep. Jim McDermott of Seattle, who leaked the contents of an illegally recorded cell phone conversation between former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. John A. Boehner, is complaining about the NSA’s warrantless surveillance progam.
Audio clip here.
Chutzpah.

Suleyman al-Faris, aka Abdul Hamid, aka John Walker Lindh, is asking for mercy. Via the San Francisco Chronicle:
American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh has asked President Bush again to reduce his 20-year prison sentence by an unspecified amount, Lindh’s attorney said Tuesday.
Lindh, now in his early 20s, wrote a first-person account to the Justice Department’s [...]