Quick Roundup 88
Friday, August 18, 2006
Congratulations!
Cox and Forkum have announced that their cartoons will now be featured at Townhall.com: The Funnies!
And they hit the nail on the head with today's cartoon on the recent federal wiretap ruling.
Update: noumenalself, who is back to blogging, weighs in, and makes the following important point:
As long as the President continues to fight this war without a war declaration, his powers are dangerously undefined and unlimited. I believe that warrantless wiretaps would be completely justifiable in the context of a declared war, or in some other finite, declared emergency in which habeas corpus has been suspended. But that is not the case now.I'm glad he made this point. See also Felipe Sediles' comments on this issue.
The Outer Edges of the Solar System
Hannes Hacker writes:
I haven't followed it closely, but there is a debate among astronomers about the definition of a planet. Under a new definition proposed by the International Astronomical Union; the asteroid Ceres, Pluto's moon Charon, and 2003 UB313 (the newly discovered trans-Pluto planet) would become the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth planets in the solar system. [link added]He then points to a political cartoon which uses that controversy to make another, completely unrelated point! (This link will likely not point to the correct cartoon after today.)
US Stopped Missile Shipment to Hezbollah
I found this quite interesting.
The United States blocked an Iranian cargo plane's flight to Syria last month after intelligence analysts concluded it was carrying sophisticated missiles and launchers to resupply Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, two U.S. intelligence officials say.If this is true, it joins the pile of damning evidence against Iran and underscores the urgency of toppling its regime.
Eight days after Hezbollah's war with Israel began, U.S. diplomats persuaded Turkey and Iraq to deny the plane permission to cross their territory to Damascus, a transfer point for arms to Hezbollah, the officials said.
--CAV
Updates
Today: noumenalself is back! Follow the link from my blogroll for more superb blogging in the future.
4 comments:
"...blocked an Iranian cargo plane..." I wonder if it might have been better to let the plane fly, then force it to land (by diverting to Iraq perhaps), to figure out what was on it.
It could have been intercepted over Lebanon and shot down if it disobeyed.
Just a thought.
S-N,
What? Are you crazy? We're not at war with Iran!
You may now have to get some paper towels to clean off the sarcasm dripping off your computer screen.
We'll be making progress when it starts becoming harder to bel;ieve that the first sentence is something our leaders would say to that.
Gus
Unfortunately, both Sediles and noumenalself make great points. Terrorism is disgustingly tough to fight with or without declaration of war, however. We would lose some of our most important allies, if they had to take a public stand to support the U.S. or Islamist terrorists. What if Pakistan, for example, did not help us.
We could not even declare against Afghanistan or Iraq, now. This leads me to believe there must be murky plans afoot with surprising backing for the sudden demise of bad actors like Ahmadinejad (I cheat, I have not even learned to spell Mahmoud's name because he is a short-timer). The madman will soon have a fatal accident. If there were an accident pool for him, I would bet his fatality before George Washington's next birthday anniversary.
Vigilis,
You bring up an interesting point vis-a-vis Pakistan, who are playing the double agent with some help -- while they permit al Qaeda along Afghanistan's border.
I think THAT problem arises from our decades of lkousy foreign policy. We might, perhaps, not be able to just declare war on everyone who deserves it.
But we don't have to. We just have the right to. I think we could start to turn things around with Iran. They and the Saudis the main backers. Knock off Iran in spectacular fashion and watch a few more "Libyas" happen. Then go after the next most important target.
What you propose might happen (and I like the not learning how to spell his name) is more likely, but given our wishy-washy progress in this war even it borders on wishful thinking.
Gus
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