BigT's Daily Roundup

by BigT | September 8, 2007 at 01:56 pm

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BigT scours the Internet and finds the most interesting
stuff around.

From the crazies at Crooks and Liars we find that they no longer believe that
al Qaeda is in Iraq. I guess all of those civilians are getting killed over
there because the Iraqis just want us to leave. Maybe if they kill enough of
themselves we will be forced to leave politically and all of Iraq will be happy
again. To be a liberal you have to suspend all rationality.

[q
url="http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/08/the-myth-of-al-qaeda-in-iraq/"]But
what if official military estimates about the size and impact of al-Qaeda in
Iraq are simply wrong? Indeed, interviews with numerous military and
intelligence analysts, both inside and outside of government, suggest that the
number of strikes the group has directed represent only a fraction of what
official estimates claim. Further, al-Qaeda’s presumed role in leading the
violence through uniquely devastating attacks that catalyze further unrest may
also be overstated.

Having been led astray by flawed prewar intelligence about WMDs, official
Washington wants to believe it takes a more skeptical view of the
administration’s information now. Yet Beltway insiders seem to be making almost
precisely the same mistakes in sizing up al-Qaeda in Iraq.[/q]

And in another story, Steve Fossett is still missing after
his plane disapeared.

Google
has requested imagery from Digital Globe, the satellite imagery firm in
Longmont, Colo., to help in the search for missing Nevada aviator Steve
Fossett.

...

In a previous search, satellite images were used to try to track down the
missing computer scientist Jim Gray, who disappeared in his sailboat off the coast near San Francisco. Digital Globe
images were subdivided into tiles at Johns Hopkins University
and inspected by astronomy faculty and graduate students. The effort proved
that volunteers could identify 40-foot boats in the fuzzy gray images, but
Gray's Tenacious was never found.

Fossett's U.K. financier and partner, Richard Branson, told the San
Francisco Chronicle that he was coordinating the search for Fossett by
working with Google and others interested in finding his missing plane. It was
a blue and white Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon, a plane capable of aerial
aerobatics. It had orange strips on the fuselage and sunburst patterns on the
wings.

I hope they find this man. It is always a sad time when someone who has done
so much good for this world goes missing.

This, from Victor Davis Hanson via the Corner, should be a
shining example of what a clear-headed democrat is. But clear-headed for the
left is Rosie going on the view and saying we blew up WTC 7.

[q
url="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmZmMzIwZmI1MTI1NDYzY2I0MWIwYjIxMDY4MmExMjE="]That
is a taboo subject. But despite the acrimony over the failed intelligence in
Iraq, there is an irony that in 2000 the 4 autocracies thought by the Clinton
administration most likely to be stockpiling either chemical weapons or
infrastructure for future nuclear weapons development were Iran, Iraq, Libya
and North Korea. Whatever the circumstances, it may prove true that by 2008, 3
of the 4 do not any longer have such capability, and the 4th—Iran—is the focus
now of near world efforts to ensure that it doesn't—more encouraging at least
than the fact of Pakistan's nuclear acquisition in the 1990s.[/q]

Or, for that matter, the clear-headed Mos Def promoted the theory that
al Qaeda wasn’t responsible for 9-11. Oh, and they also have a point because we
are colonialists.

Kudlow is arguing for a decrease in the Fed funds target
rate of about 100 basis points (1%) to around 4.00%. America's businesses are
finding it harder to get cash to finance their day-to-day operations. However,
I think that cutting the target so dramatically would signal the market to
increase their appetite for risk and could land us in deeper red ink a couple
of years down the road when everything hits the fan.

That's my opinion, here's Mr. Kudlow's:

[q
url="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/09/now_is_the_time.html"]If
central bankers would come to their analytical senses, they would appreciate
that today's financial panic is itself sufficient reason to slash the Fed funds
target rate by at least a full percentage point from today's 5.25 percent to
something around 4 percent. Such a move would be a much-needed injection of
confidence into a rattled marketplace.

Earlier today, former Fed chair Alan Greenspan compared the current
financial turmoil to that of 1987's stock plunge and the 1998 dislocation of
giant hedge fund Long Term Capital Management. Fortunately, financial panics
don't occur very often. But what we have before us today is a modern version of
the old fashioned run on the bank. The only difference is that the bank today
is the global money market.

The Fed can fix this. But they better get moving.[/q]

Here is a great piece from Mark Finkelstein from NewsBusters
that exposes, once again, the socialist tilt to the New York Times.

NYT:
America's Wealth 'Spoils' to be Redistributed

By Mark Finkelstein

SPOILS

1. a. Goods or property seized from a victim after a conflict, especially
after a military victory. b. Incidental benefits reaped by a winner, especially
political patronage enjoyed by a successful party or candidate.

2. An object of plunder; prey.

3. Refuse material removed from an excavation.

4. Archaic The act of plundering; spoliation.

Something about the weekend seems to bring out the socialist in the New York
Times. Last Saturday and Sunday I described how the Times and its
Beantown-subsidiary Boston Globe published an op-ed and editorial exemplifying
classic liberal-think.

The Gray Lady is back at it again today with its editorial, "The
Employment Tea Leaves." In perhaps the most revealing essay of all, the
Times makes clear its view that the fruits of Americans' labor, risk and
ingenuity are mere "spoils" to be distributed at the whim of
politicians.

Writes the Times:

The Republicans will almost certainly renew their calls for tax cuts on
investments and multimillion-dollar estates, arguing that such cuts would pump
up the economy. But lower taxes for the rich would not benefit the middle class
and would only worsen the budget deficit. Republicans may also continue to
champion financial deregulation as a way to juice the economy. But that led to
the housing bubble — and the current mortgage mess.

Democrats, or some Republicans with a change of heart, must articulate — and
Americans must demand — a program for ensuring that the middle class gets a
bigger share of the economy’s spoils than it has received during the Bush era,
when gains have largely been funneled to the richest Americans.

There it is in black and white. American's don't earn their wealth; they
have no intrinsic right to it.

Among the most horrifying things about liberalism is that they fundamentally
hate capitalism. To them the free market is a system that was created to pilfer
money from the poor and give to the rich. They will never acquiese the logical
point that capitalism has lifted billions of people out of poverty. But
maybe we should take our economic lessons from a company that is gushing
subscribers after over a century of being the world's news leader.

In other news, here is a link from Sweetness & Light chronicling how the
news media is going to deal with the Petraeus Report.

Other than that there are some interesting things like:

Couric is tough on Syria

Syria may have connections to planning of terror plot in Germany

BigT