THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge—and more.

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it believed Iran's nuclear program was peaceful, and a political dialogue, not sanctions, must be used in talks with Tehran. "We do not have information that would suggest that Iran is carrying out a non-peaceful (nuclear) program," Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov told a news conference in Moscow.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation on Monday that talks over Iran's nuclear dispute were being hindered because the European side did not have enough authority.

"The most important problem in continuing Iran and Europe's negotiations (over the nuclear issue) is the European side's lack of enough authority (to take decisions)," an Iranian television report quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Putin.

In a statement on Monday, the Kremlin said Putin had told the Iranian leader that Moscow favored further talks. European states have prepared a draft sanctions resolution but Russia has voiced misgivings. "Sanctions should not be adopted for their own sake," Ivanov said.

...By peering directly into our brains, [these new machines] aim to set a new gold standard for the recognition of honesty in everyone from politicians to criminals to lovers.... In the pipeline are several cheaper, faster, easier-to-use brain-examining technologies, all intended as major improvements on the unreliable chicken-scratching polygraph we use now. Some seem to identify mental preparations for telling a lie even before the liar opens his mouth -- verging on mind-reading. Another is meant to work from across the room, even if you do not wish to cooperate....

[T]he University of Pennsylvania has licensed the technology developed there -- on which it has applied for a patent -- to the California firm No Lie MRI Inc.... No Lie MRI's Web site has proclaimed that the company hopes to revolutionize truth telling in America, offering "objective, scientific, mental evidence, similar to the role in which DNA biological identification is used," to everyone from the FBI, CIA and NSA to the Department of Homeland Security....

The boundless desire for a way to dig through deception is why political consultant John Zogby, president of Zogby International, expects the new brain scanning devices to be in widespread use in the 2008 presidential election. He can clearly see a demand to discover what voters really think of candidates -- and their commercials.

Down in the polls and with their majorities in Congress at risk, Republicans say they have some good news in early-voting statistics that suggest their voter-turnout machine is providing an edge in some tight races.

If the trend holds, it could mean that early voting is growing -- and continuing to benefit Republicans, who exploited the practice in the 1990s. Experts say early voters could be a bigger factor this year when overall voter turnout could be lower than in 2004, a presidential-election year. ... Early voting has grown in the past 15 years, from around 2% of the national electorate participating to about 20% in 2004, said R. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center in Houston, a nonprofit group. Experts predict this year that 19% to 25% of the electorate will vote early at the polls or by mail-in absentee ballots. That compares with about 14% in 2002, the most recent midterm election.

Republicans have had an advantage with early-voter turnout over Democrats because of better party funding and organization, according to Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon, a state where traditional Election Day polling has been eliminated altogether in favor of voting by mail. "I suspect it will still be their advantage," he said.

Five Israeli-Arabs were arrested Sunday in the Arab village of Um el-Fahm just hours after it was released for publication that a young Israeli-Arab woman was arrested for planning a bombing. The entire Wadi Ara region of north-central Israel, where Um el-Fahm is located, was placed on high alert Sunday due to intelligence information that a terror cell was hiding in the Israeli-Arab villages in the region. Heavy traffic resulted, as police set up checkpoints along major arteries and checked all vehicles leaving the villages.

Another resident of Um el-Fahm, Ahmed Mohammed Mahmid, was arrested in recent weeks for burning vehicles belonging to local Arab residents he suspected of assisting Israeli security forces. Mahmid confessed to the crimes, but claimed the vandalism was not driven by ideological motives, but because he blamed the owners of the cars for the death of his friend.

The Um El-Fahm arrests were announced the same day that Yisrael Beiteinu joined the government coalition. The party's chairman, MK Avigdor Lieberman, has called for the revocation of the citizenship of Israeli-Arabs in Wadi Ara and and the transfer of control of those villages to the PA. In exchange, Israel would annex Jewish populated areas in Judea and Samaria.

It was released on Sunday for publication that a 20-year-old Israeli-Arab female terrorist was arrested before she could place a bomb in a Raanana restaurant. She had been working in an Israeli supermarket in a Jewish neighborhood and her cousin, who was from PA-controlled Shechem (Nablus), had in the past been employed illegally at the very restaurant they sought to bomb.

...this year's Femina prize winner was yesterday announced as the Canadian writer Nancy Huston, for her family saga Lignes de faille, or Fault Lines. Huston, who has lived in Paris for 20 years, is an Anglophone Canadian who writes in both English and French. She is the second winner of north American origin to win a major French literary prize in a week, after Jonathan Littell, an American first-time novelist won the Académie Française prize for his 900-page fictional memoir of a murderous Nazi SS colonel, Les Bienveillantes, or The Kindly Ones. He is also favourite for the prix Goncourt award to be announced next week.

[WashPost:] "The war erased a threat we lived with for years," Greenberg said. "We aren't afraid of snipers or kidnappings anymore. We can breathe." ... The sentiment is echoed in other small farming communities where Israelis have for decades lived with occasional barrages, infiltrations and Israeli army invasions and withdrawals. ...

[Prairie Pundit:] There is more. The Hezballah flags are gone and the Israelis can loft their flag without being in the cross hairs. This may be the most significant evidence yet of the scope of Hezballah's defeat in Lebanon.

A new document translated by Joseph Shahda indicates that the Saddam Hussein regime agreed to allow the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to stage suicide operations within Iraq in the opening days of the American invasion. Document CMPC-2003-015588 is a handwritten memo from the Foreign Ministry's Arabic Department recounting the meeting between PFLP officials and representatives of the Iraqi government. It also makes a reference to a neighboring country as having given permission for the PFLP to make these arrangements. ...

Saddam didn't keep terrorists out of Iraq; in this case, he has a good enough relationship with the PFLP and through them Hamas and Islamic Jihad to call on them for action on his behalf. Supposedly these groups only have Palestinian interests in mind, but here they seem anxious to help rescue a secular Iraqi dictator. Saddam had plenty of connections to terrorists in the region ...

OAXACA, Mexico -- Mexico sent federal riot police to the southern tourist city of Oaxaca yesterday after gunmen killed three persons, including an American journalist, in the latest violence sparked by protests to oust a state governor. Hundreds of federal police arrived in five planes yesterday morning, a Reuters photographer said. Isolated gunshots were heard in the city, famous for its colonial architecture, cuisine and indigenous crafts.

Three persons, including U.S. independent journalist Brad Will, were fatally shot Friday when men in civilian clothes opened fire on the protesters. A Mexican newspaper gave the names of the attackers and said they were local police. About a dozen people, mostly protesters, have been killed since the conflict began five months ago, when striking teachers and leftist activists occupied much of the city, chasing out police and blocking streets in an effort to oust Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz. The crisis has escalated with frequent drive-by shootings on protester barricades.

Critics accuse the governor of corruption and repressive tactics against dissenters, whose hundreds of roadblocks have driven foreign tourists from the city and hurt business. Mexican President Vicente Fox's office declined to say if the federal police would try to take control of Oaxaca or look to negotiate a presence in the city. It is unusual for federal forces to be sent to conflicts in Mexican states, which are the jurisdiction of local police.

A new statewide database of registered voters contains as many as 77,000 dead people on its rolls, and as many as 2,600 of them have cast votes from the grave, according to a Poughkeepsie Journal computer-assisted analysis.

The Journal's analysis of New York's 3-month-old database is the first to determine the potential for errors and fraud in voting. It matched names, dates of birth and ZIP codes in the state's database of 11.7 million voter registration records against the same information in the Social Security Administration's "Death Master File." That database has 77 million records of deaths dating back to 1937. ... Among the Journal's findings:

[*******] - There were dead people on the voter rolls in all of New York's 62 counties and people in as many as 45 counties who had votes recorded after they had died.

[*******] - One Bronx address was listed as the home for as many as 191 registered voters who had died. The address is 5901 Palisade Ave., in Riverdale, site of the Hebrew Home for the Aged.

[*******] - Democrats who cast votes after they died outnumbered Republicans by more than 4 to 1.

There's more to life than war, taxes and politics - and a lot of it's more fun, too! That's why every WEEKEND, here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, we post our opinions on some of the cultural things we're into, things we think you might also find entertaining, enriching, and stimulating. Good for "Rest & Relaxation" - "R&R".

Please check it out every week - and tell your friends. We just might turn you on to something cool. After all, the arts - ALL ARTS, not just fine arts - are a big part of what our liberty is for, and what we're fighting to defend!

A woman in the southern city of Marseille suffered severe burns when vandals set fire to a bus she was traveling on, a police source said on Saturday. ... The police source said an unknown number of people forced their way on to the bus in Marseille at about 9.00 p.m. (1900 GMT) and set fire to it before a 26-year-old woman could escape. "The woman's life is in danger," the source said. Three other people needed treatment for smoke inhalation.

"... drop some charges against 58 Muslims involved in a 2004 protest in the restive far south that led to 78 Muslims dying in army custody, Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtat said on Friday. The move would be a major gesture [APPEASEMENT] by the mainly Buddhist administration [NOW LED BY A MUSLIM GENERAL] in Bangkok to the Muslim majority in the three southernmost provinces, where more than 1,700 people have been killed [MOSTLY BUDDHISTS MURDERED BY MUSLIMS] in nearly three years of separatist violence [JIHAD]. It would also signal a break with the "iron fist" policy of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who refused to censure army, police or government officials after the incident in the town of Tak Bai.

I do not understand, for the life of me, the lack of will in the Israeli people. I can not understand why they are not taking to the streets and storming the Knesset. How have they not overthrown that political hack Olmert and his motley crew? They are selling Israel down the river. Iran is a hair's breath away from going nuclear and these dangerous schmucks are circle jerking to a "peace" process. Iran has been plotting Israel's demise for decades. And Abu Dana has UNIFIL guranteeing Israel's security? How many Jews have to die?

Hamas wants to "liberate the Palestinians," not to destroy Israel, Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.... [In an interview following his talks in Tel Aviv with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.]

Pressed as to whether he was underestimating the fundamentalist religious imperative at the heart of the Hamas ideology, Solana said, "I cannot imagine that the religious imperative, the real religious imperative, can make anybody destroy another country... Therefore that is an abuse of religion...

"I don't think the essence of Hamas is the destruction of Israel. The essence of Hamas is the liberation of the Palestinians," he added. "The liberation of their people, not the destruction of Israel."

Italian opposition politicians yesterday demanded a full inquiry into claims that up to 50,000 people a year die in Italy's hospitals because of medical error. A report presented to a congress organised by the Italian Association of Medical Oncology concluded that even the most conservative estimate pointed to a figure of 14,000 deaths a year, which is twice the death toll on Italy's roads.

Argentine prosecutors asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order the arrest of former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center that killed scores of people. The decision to attack the center ''was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities of the then-government of Iran,'' prosecutor Alberto Nisman said at a news conference. He said the actual attack was entrusted to the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah.

The worst terrorist attack ever on Argentine soil, the bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires killed 85 people and injured more than 200 when an explosive-laden vehicle detonated near the building.

Prosecutors urged the judge to seek international and national arrest orders for Rafsanjani, who was Iran's president between 1989 and 1997. They also were asking the judge to detain several other former Iranian officials, including a former intelligence chief, Ali Fallahijan, and former Foreign Minister Ali Ar Velayati. They also said they were urging the judge to order the arrest of two former commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, two former Iranian diplomats and a former Hezbollah security chief for external affairs.

"We are at war with an alien power with no regard for Western principles; an enemy that seeks nothing less than our submission or destruction. More than larger defense budgets or better intelligence, we must recover a public insistence on rigorous thought. Diplomatic wrangling and debating the minutiae of policy must give way to a candid reassessment of what Islam is, what it has done, and what it stands to do. It is these questions that we must take up if we are to have any serious hope of saving a West currently unaware of the full magnitude of what is as stake."

Three-quarters of Europe's car brands are failing to improve fuel efficiency fast enough to meet a key European emissions target, a study has claimed. ... According to the report commissioned by Transport and Environment (T&E), Nissan, Suzuki, Mazda, Audi, Volvo, BMW and Volkswagen cut their emissions at less than half the rate needed to meet their commitment.

Militia members on parade in Sadr City in August Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has pledged to tackle illegal militias, which are widely blamed for the growing sectarian violence in the country. "We will strike hard at anyone who defies the law," Mr Maliki said.

His comments come a day after the US ambassador said Iraqi leaders had agreed to a timetable for achieving key goals, including tackling the militias. Overnight, Iraqi forces raided Baghdad's Sadr City, a militia bastion, hunting a suspected death squad leader. Iraqi forces came under fire and called for backup from US aircraft, according to a US military statement.

"[T]he caliphate is also esteemed by many ordinary Muslims....Muslims regard themselves as members of the umma, or community of believers, that forms the heart of Islam. And as earthly head of that community, the caliph is cherished both as memory and ideal, interviews indicate."

"It seems that the US is having a hard time winning the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims, but an equally serious problem can be observed in the intellectual circles of America where some have had a difficulty coming to terms with the terminology of the War of Ideas. If the educated elite of the United States is incapable of identifying the ideology and the strategy of the Jihadists five years after 9/11, we not only have a problem with handling the War in Iraq, but also with the future of American national security as a whole.

An article published in Newsweek magazine on October 13, 2006 illustrates this problem...."

Both men separately proved mathematically and physically that the IDF forces on the ground could not see the Duras from their position and that it was physically impossible for their bullets to have killed Muhammad. Then OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen.Yom Tov Samia held a news conference in late November based on their findings at which he said that the probability that the IDF had killed Dura was low.

Yet Samia was the only senior Israeli official to question the veracity of the film. Then chief of General Staff Shaul Mofaz disavowed Samia's investigation. Prime minister Ehud Barak never questioned the veracity of Enderlin's murderous accusation against the IDF. ...

Yet, even as private individuals were dedicating their time and passion to proving that France 2 had purposely broadcast a blood libel against Israel that caused the death and injury of Israelis and Jews throughout the world and marred the honor of the IDF, official Israel remained silent.

The Foreign Ministry never asked France 2 to show its officials the full 27-minute film. Neither the IDF nor the Foreign or Justice Ministries defended the IDF or called into question the veracity of Enderlin's film. As late as this past June 23, IDF spokeswoman Brig.-Gen. Miri Regev told Haaretz, "I cannot determine whether the IDF is or is not responsible for the killing of al-Dura." ...

Over the years Israeli officials have justified their silence by saying that it was a losing proposition to reopen the Dura case. We'll be accused of blaming the victim, they said. This statement is both cowardly and irresponsible. As the French verdict shows, without an Israeli protest, the protests of private individuals, however substantial, ring hollow. When Israel refuses to defend itself from blood libels, it gives silent license to attacks against Israel and world Jewry in the name of those libels.

In 2000, Barak was desperately trying to close a peace deal with Yasser Arafat. The last thing he wanted was to admit that Arafat was promulgating blood libels against Israel. So he was silent. This is unforgivable, but understandable.

Israel's continued silence is a sign that Israeli officialdom has still not understood what the war of images demands of it. The Dura film, like the fictional massacre of Lebanese children at Kafr Kana in Lebanon this summer, shows that victory or defeat in wars is today largely determined on television. To win, Israel must go on the offensive and attack untruthful, distorted images that are used to justify the killing of Israelis and Jews throughout the world.

When Karsenty heard the court's verdict last week, he said, "If this judgment is upheld, Jews should ask themselves questions about their future in France. Justice covers the anti-Semitic lies of a public channel. It's a strong signal, it is very severe."

To this it should be added that if the Israeli government continues to be silent as the good name of the IDF, of Israel and of the Jewish people is dragged through the mud by distorted television images broadcast by foreign news outlets; if the Israeli government does nothing to defend those who are persecuted for fighting against these distortions, then Jews will have to ask themselves some questions about how on earth we are supposed to defend ourselves, let alone win this war against those who seek our destruction.

While in historical terms the recession was mild and actually ended before the election, the resulting job loss (especially among middle managers not yet accustomed to white collar downsizing) fueled strong discontent with Bush, who was successfully portrayed as aloof, out of touch, and overly focused on foreign affairs.).

In Germany, post WWII, we found we needed 200,000 troops to maintain the occupation and rebuilding efforts. We did not hand over full-sovereignty to the German government until 1955; ten years later.

In Japan, post-WWII, we found we needed approximately 300,000 troops. We did not hand over full-sovereignty to the Japanese government until 1953, eight years laters.

If you think about it, our rebuilding efforts in the South took even more time. If it were not so, President Eisenhower would not have had to send 1,200 federal troops into Arkansas to escort nine children to classes at Little Rock High School in 1957.

Ronald Reagan famous declaration that he “did not leave the Democratic Party. It left me” can be made more contemporary. The Democratic Party has not only left behind many of its old principles and ideals, it now seems to be in the process of losing its moorings and leaving America entirely.

"Your comment will be posted once it has been approved."

"From what I've read, some of the incidents reported by CAIR were not confirmed.

"Frankly, Americans showed remarkable restraint following 9/11."

France has been accused by government officials in Rwanda of being complicit in the killing of 800,000 people. A panel of respected Rwandans is hearing claims that French soldiers stationed in Rwanda allowed or even encouraged the massacre of Tutsis. ... The panel is headed by former Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo and its hearings are being broadcast live on local radio. It is hearing from 25 survivors of the genocide, who claim to have witnessed French involvement. ... The panel will determine whether or not to refer the allegations to the International Court of Justice. Its findings are expected within six months.

World Jewish groups began a global campaign yesterday calling for recognition of Jews from Arab countries as refugees in the Middle East conflict. "The world sees the plight of Palestinian refugees, and not withstanding their plight, there must be recognition that Jews from Arab countries are also victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict," said Stanley Urman, executive director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC). JJAC, a U.S.-based coalition of Jewish organizations, is one of the groups coordinating the campaign, which aims to record testimonies of Jews who fled in the face of persecution, list asset losses and lobby foreign governments on their behalf.

Jewish groups have estimated that since 1948 at least 900,000 Jews have been forced to leave their homes in Arab countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

The Israel Air Force destroyed 59 intermediate and long-range missile launchers in the Hezbollah arsenal during the second day of the war in Lebanon, during a raid that lasted 34 minutes, according to research recently published by David Makovsky and Jeffrey White of the Washington Institute of Near East Policy.

The success of the raid was the greatest Israel Defense Forces achievement during the war, and according to Israeli assessments, it prevented Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, from being able to carry out his threats and strike central Israel with missiles.

... executives admitted the corporation is dominated by homosexuals and people from ethnic minorities, deliberately promotes multiculturalism, is anti-American, anti-countryside and more sensitive to the feelings of Muslims than Christians.

the [BBC] executives were given a scenario in which Jewish Comedian Sasha Baron Cohen would participate in a program titled "Room 101", a studio program where guests would be asked for their opinions on different issues, and allowed to symbolically throw things they hated in a garbage bin.

Conservatives are unhappy with the Bush and Congress for many reasons: Harriet Miers; immigration; slow amd weak handling of both Syria and Iran; lack of support for Israel in their war against Hizballah; too much multi-lateralism in regard to North Korea; bad handling of ther Jefferson corruption scandal; and so on.

There's more to life than war, taxes and politics - and a lot of it's more fun, too! That's why every WEEKEND, here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, we post our opinions on some of the cultural things we're into, things we think you might also find entertaining, enriching, and stimulating. Good for "Rest & Relaxation" - "R&R".

Please check it out every week - and tell your friends. We just might turn you on to something cool. After all, the arts - ALL ARTS, not just fine arts - are a big part of what our liberty is for, and what we're fighting to defend!

I'll be RE-memorizing my two favorite poems this weekend. I've put the full poems in the comments section. Here are the first lines:

Matthew Arnold's THE BURIED LIFE

Light flows our war of mocking words, and yet,
Behold, with tears mine eyes are wet!
I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll.

RM Rilke's FOR THE SAKE OF A SINGLE POEM

...Ah, poems amount to so little when you write them too early in your life. You ought to wait and gather sense and sweetness for a whole lifetime, and a long one if possible, and then, at the very end, you might perhaps be able to write ten good lines.

SAN DIEGO -- CNN has become "the publicist for an enemy propaganda film" by broadcasting a video showing an insurgent sniper in Iraq apparently killing an American soldier, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said here Friday.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) called for the Pentagon to oust any CNN reporter embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. "I think Americans like to think we're all in this together," Hunter said. "The average American Marine or soldier has concluded after seeing that film that CNN is not on their side."

CNN said it broadcast the brief video to show the threat that insurgent snipers posed to U.S. troops. "Whether or not you agree with us in this case, our goal, as always, is to present the unvarnished truth as best we can," CNN producer David Doss wrote in a blog on the network's website.

Despite calls for change [in Iraq policy], Bush said, "Our goal has not changed. Our goal is a country that can defend, sustain and govern itself, a country that which will serve as an ally in this war. Our tactics are adjusting." ... Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said that while Bush might change tactics, he would not change his overall strategy. ... Bush, at a political fundraiser in Washington for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, railed against Democrats who criticize the war. Calling the Democrats the party of "cut and run," Bush said voters need to ask: "Which political party has a strategy for victory in this war on terror?'" ... [REPEAT:] Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said that while Bush might change tactics, he would not change his overall strategy.

Diane Sawyer wants you to know that the North Korean puppies are really cute too.

On Thursday's World News on ABC, Diane Sawyer checked in from North Korea, but she proved little more than a conveyor belt for the repressive communist regime's propaganda. Talking to a North Korean Army General, she relayed how “he said to us, 'make it clear to everyone in the United States, if there is another nuclear test, the person responsible is George Bush,' because he said, 'the Bush administration is backing North Korea into a corner with its pressures and its sanctions.'" Sawyer helpfully added that “the General said to us, he does want peace. And he also said, again, reiterated, North Korea will not be the first to use a nuclear weapon.” How reassuring.

In a second segment, Sawyer was taken to a school which she favorably described as “a world away from the unruly individualism of any American school." She gushed: “Ask them about their country, and they can't say enough." A teenage girl declared, in English: “We are the happiest children in the world.” Sawyer ended her piece with video of her and the class singing "Do-Re-Mi" from the Sound of Music. Far from being embarrassed by Sawyer's obsequious approach, anchor Charles Gibson proposed: "A fascinating glimpse of North Korea."

In the remote north-eastern corner of North Korea, close to the border of Russia and China, is Haengyong. Hidden away in the mountains, this remote town is home to Camp 22 - North Korea's largest concentration camp, where thousands of men, women and children accused of political crimes are held. Now, it is claimed, it is also where thousands die each year and where prison guards stamp on the necks of babies born to prisoners to kill them.

Arizona voters will have to present identification at the polls on Nov. 7 after all.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that Arizona can go ahead with requiring voters to present a photo ID, starting with next month's general election, as part of the Proposition 200 that voters passed in 2004. The ruling overturns an Oct. 5 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which put the voter ID rules on hold this election cycle.

The Supreme Court on Friday did not decide whether the new voter ID rules are constitutional. That decision is still pending in federal district court.

Instead, the court decided that the 9th Circuit made a procedural error by granting an injunction to put the new rules on hold without waiting for the district court to explain its reasons for not granting an injunction.

One of the most decorated French geophysicists has converted from a believer in manmade catastrophic global warming to a climate skeptic. This latest defector from the global warming camp caps a year in which numerous scientific studies have bolstered the claims of climate skeptics. Scientific studies that debunk the dire predictions of human-caused global warming have continued to accumulate and many believe the new science is shattering the media-promoted scientific “consensus” on climate alarmism.

Claude Allegre, a former government official and an active member of France’s Socialist Party, wrote an editorial on September 21, 2006 in the French newspaper L'Express titled “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” detailing his newfound skepticism about manmade global warming. ... Allegre wrote that the “cause of climate change remains unknown” and pointed out that Kilimanjaro is not losing snow due to global warming, but to local land use and precipitation changes. Allegre also pointed out that studies show that Antarctic snowfall rate has been stable over the past 30 years and the continent is actually gaining ice.

Republicans have staggered in recent weeks under a barrage of painful publicity ranging from plunging fuel prices, to record stock market closes, to the Bush administration’s failure to produce inflation despite growing employment, reduced tax rates and soaring tax revenues.

Meanwhile, Democrats ride a wave of public adoration due to the party’s clear, positive vision for protecting the civil rights of foreign terrorists, retreating from Iraq so that rival Muslim sects can work out their differences without American interference, and restoring the Clinton era “spirit of cooperation” with North Korea.

The Republican Party will begin airing a hard-hitting ad this weekend that warns of more cataclysmic terror attacks against the U.S. homeland. The ad portrays Osama bin Laden and quotes his threats against America dating to February 1998. "These are the stakes," the ad concludes. "Vote November 7." Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said the ad would run on national cable beginning Sunday, but he declined to discuss specifics of the buy. The commercial tracks with Republican Party strategy to make the war on terrorism a central theme of this election.

... there is enormous discontent among conservatives with this Congress and even with the President. But conservative angst about their performance and translating that dissatisfaction into Election Day pouting absolutely must take a back seat to what the alternative would be. For if the Democrats take control, the blame for such a turn of events will be shared by both Congress itself and those who believe that reforming the party takes precedence over the safety and security of the United States. Those are the stakes. Now quit your griping and go vote.

Already there are signs of a change in policy from that of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The new government has signalled a willingness to talk to the Islamic rebels who are behind the violence - something Mr Thaksin always refused to do.

"Ned Lamont uses it in his Connecticut Senate race. President Clinton is scheduled to speak on the idea in Washington this week. Bob Casey Jr., Pennsylvania candidate for Senate, put it in the title of his talk at The Catholic University of America - then repeated the phrase 29 times. The term is "common good," and it's catching on as a way to describe liberal values and reach religious voters who rejected Democrats in the 2004 election. "It's a core value that we think organizes the entire political agenda for progressives," said John Halpin, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress."

What would Hitler have to say about that? We don't need to guess. The term can be translated into German as "Gemeinnutz" and that lovable German-speaking rogue used the term a lot -- as encapsulating what HE stood for: "Gemeinnutz vor Eigennutz!" was one of his great slogans ("Common use before personal use!", literally). And who preceded Hitler in such ideas? Friedrich Engels (Karl Marx's co-author) at one stage ran a publication called Gemeinnuetziges Wochenblatt ("Common-use Weekly"). The Democrats sure make it clear where they fit into history. [Umph added.]

Sen. Clinton exposed her socialist agenda during a speech Monday in San Francisco (which the Associated Press dubbed the "leftiest big city on the Left Coast"). But don't take our word for it. We'll go straight to the horse's mouth. "Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you," she said at a fund-raiser for radical Sen. Barbara Boxer. "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good," the former first lady admitted.

HAARETZ: ... Egypt threatened Meshal that if an agreement for prisoner release is not reached by the end of Ramadan - the Muslim month of fast that ends October 22 - the Hamas leader would be held responsible for a wide-scale Israeli military attack in the Gaza Strip.

I think this might be a good interim deal - since all deals with jihadists must be considered hudnas. There's lots more to the deal (so RTWT) - and some doubts whether Hamas will even agree to it (since it overtly casts the state of Israel as an entity with rights). Time will tell.

I think the Egyptian timeline is really a DEADLINE from Israel. Stay tuned... [Umph added]

IDF preparing for large-scale incursion into the Gaza Strip

With Kassams still being fired at the western Negev and Hamas claiming to be building up an army, the IDF has set in motion preparations for a massive ground incursion into the Gaza Strip, one that senior officers in the Southern Command claim will be "larger than ever before."

"I see no reason not to be for Bolton," Lieberman told a meeting of the Daily News Editorial Board. "Based on his capabilities - and now based on his performance - I believe Bolton is well-qualified," he said. "I think he's been a good negotiator and a good spokesman. He deserves to have a vote. I think he deserves to be confirmed."

Guatemala, while continuing to lead Venezuela, failed to win enough support in the United Nations General Assembly to secure a Latin American seat on the Security Council after two days and 22 rounds of voting.

Needing 120 votes, or two-thirds of the 179 member governments that cast ballots, Guatemala received 102 votes and Venezuela got 77 in the General Assembly. Twelve of the UN's 192 countries abstained and one didn't vote in the final round today. "There is no way out as of now,'' Indian Ambassador Nirupam Sen said.

"It can only emerge after a few more rounds and we get really sick of it. There is some discussion on the margins of a compromise candidate.''

Three candidates vying for the French Socialist Party's nomination in next year's presidential election are to take part in a televised debate. Former Environment Minister Segolene Royal, the front-runner, will face former Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn and ex-PM Laurent Fabius. Thursday's televised debate will be the first of three between the contenders. The Socialists' candidate, to be chosen in November, is likely to face current Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Mr Sarkozy is the leader of the conservative UMP party.

The Vatican on Monday officially confirmed that Pope Benedict will visit Turkey at the end of November, a trip that had been put into doubt by Muslim anger over controversial comments he made about Islam. ... The main purpose of the visit is to meet in Istanbul -- the former Constantinople -- with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians. ... But the issue of Christian unity -- although still the main topic of the trip -- has been largely overshadowed by the worldwide controversy that followed his September 12 lecture at Regensburg University in his native Germany.

In the lecture, he quoted 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus who spoke of the Prophet Mohammad's "command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". ... Since the speech, the Pope or Vatican officials have said at least a dozen times that it has been misunderstood. ... Some of the strongest criticism of the speech came from Turkey, where Turkish nationalists and Islamic activists have pushed for the trip to be canceled.

I had to get your attention, because I believe the Christian Right is a bigger threat to decent Americans than radical Islam. In fact, to many, the Christian Right is known as the American Taliban. I think that is a fair description.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez on Monday appeared headed for a personal political defeat at the hands of US-backed Guatemala in his long-held goal to win a temporary seat at the United Nations Security Council.

Guatemala, which has never before held a non-permanent seat on the Security Council, beat Venezuela by 109 votes to 76 in a first round of voting at the General Assembly, and extended its lead to 114 votes versus 74 in the second round, and 116-70 in the third.

But in a fourth vote, Guatemala slipped back to 110 votes, while Venezuela rose back up to 75. Further rounds of voting were postponed until the afternoon.

While Guatemala had not yet garnered the two-thirds of votes it needed to win, as of Monday mid-day in New York, its larger-than-expected lead was a serious blow to the Venezuelan government.

Before Americans hand the keys of government over to the Bush-haters and allow:

* Osama to make another fatwa tape on how weak the Americans are for running from Iraq

* Speaker Pelosi to follow through with the 9-11 Commission's recommendations after she voted them down in 2004

* Liberal democrats to spit on our soldiers as they drag them from Iraq

* Total chaos and death if Iraq is left to the militias

* Democrats to rewrite the books on this historic military campaign

Initially, the rationale was specific: to stop Saddam Hussein from using what Bush claimed were the Iraqi leader's weapons of mass destruction or from selling them to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.

If it seems that there have been quite a few rationales for going to war in Iraq, that’s because there have been quite a few – 27, in fact, all floated between Sept. 12, 2001, and Oct. 11, 2002, according to a new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Name a Latin American politician who frequently resorts to anti-American rhetoric and refers to President Bush as a devil. For those tempted to say Hugo Chavez, here's another hint: He's also the frontrunner in Ecuador's presidential election on Sunday.

Economist Rafael Correa, tall, charismatic and youthful at 43, is surging into the lead as a fresh-faced outsider in what could be the latest gain for Latin America's leftward shift. But he faces a strong challenge from Alvaro Noboa, a banana billionaire who is also pushing a populist line, but from the capitalist end.

"We will do away with the lying oligarchy!" Correa shouted Thursday night, getting soaked as he closed his campaign in a drenching downpour with some 3,000 supporters on a blocked-off avenue. "We will take it in the first round, the first round!"

There's more to life than war, taxes and politics - and a lot of it's more fun, too! That's why every WEEKEND, here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, we post our opinions on some of the cultural things we're into, things we think you might also find entertaining, enriching, and stimulating. Good for "Rest & Relaxation" - "R&R".

Please check it out every week - and tell your friends. We just might turn you on to something cool. After all, the arts - ALL ARTS, not just fine arts - are a big part of what our liberty is for, and what we're fighting to defend!

This is a memoir of the liberation of Palestine from imperial British rule and it's ascension to independent Jewish statehood by the brilliant and brave leader of the Irgun - Menachem Begin, (who later became president of Israel and the man who made peace with Egypt). The beginning of the book is especially significant - in terms of contemporary headlines, and because of the stories of Begin's time in Soviet concentration camps: these stories are heart-breaking and incredibly inspiring. And they're why I think everyone should read this book. Begin's rendering of this early part of his sojourn truly reveals the ineffable heart and soul of Zionism. (I will try to post an incredible excerpt later.) Begin dedicates this book - more or less - to a new creature born in the era following WW2 and during the war for Israeli independence - the fighting Jew. May this creature never disappear from the face of the Earth.

The past couple of years, I've really gotten into Trip-Hop which is a electronica or downtempo music that is a combination of jazz, soul, funk, hip-hop and whatever else you want to throw in the stew-pot. Thievery Corporation, Massive Attack, Zero 7 are just a few examples.

Recently, I've been listening to the De-Phazz album Death By Chocolate which features an outstanding track called "Online" that has some poignent lyrics for us Blogger types:

Well you've got to meet me online
Been disconnected for a long time
Well you've got to meet me online
I wanna download you for a lifetime

Your comment ... indirectly illustrates perfectly the mindset of the Air America crowd. You or I might think about starting a radio program devoted to a particular political polarity in, say, Austin. It may do very well in Austin at which time we or someone else might say "lets see how it plays in Muncie, etc." and on and on until we have expanded nationwide into markets where the show does well, like Limbaugh and the like.

The Air America crowd says "we'll build a nationwide network and keep pouring money into it no matter how few people listen and it will thus be a success", just like a government program. What they have found, however, is that, unlike with a government program, the money does not automatically keep pouring in. There are only so many poor childrens' piggy banks that can be raided and even liberal investors want a rate of return eventually.

snowstorm left parts of the Great Lakes and Midwest blanketed with 2 feet of snow Friday morning, prompting widespread blackouts, closing schools and halting traffic. The snow downed scores of tree limbs and toppled power lines, leaving more than 220,000 customers without electricity in western New York.

By early Friday, 14 inches of snow had been recorded at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, with reports of 2 feet elsewhere, said Tom Paone, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The snowfall was expected to continue throughout the morning, he said.

On Thursday, 8.3 inches of heavy snow set the record for the ``snowiest'' October day in Buffalo in the 137-year history of the weather service, said meteorologist Tom Niziol. The previous record of 6 inches was set Oct. 31, 1917.

Wall Street touched another new milestone Thursday, as the Dow industrials passed 11,900 for the first time en route to a new all-time closing high. The blue chip benchmark ended the session within 53 points of the 12,000 mark. Stronger-than-expected earnings reports and the moderate tone of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book report helped cheer investors.

Striking distance. The economy's good. Gas prices are down. The deficit has been halved three years' ahead of Bush's schedule (which the liberals mocked as a fantasy; now they claim it was easy and inevitable). And yet... we're all acting as if the liberal critique of Republcians -- the GOP has destroyed the nation -- is, essentially, true. ...

ACE COMMENTER/SOMEONE: I blame the wierd "taking trolls seriously" phase here.