Month: March 2006

Newsweek’s ‘Periscope’ focuses on a case which will be heard by the Supreme Court this week. It’s a biggie. Justices will consider whether to allow the Bush administration to try Guantanamo detainees in special military tribunals with limited rights for the accused.

One Supreme Court Justice has already spilled the beans as to what his opinion is on the subject. Justice Antonin Scalia made this comment during a talk on March 8th of this year:

“War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts. Give me a break.”

Priceless.

Time Magazine is running a story which focuses on the woes of the Republican party, and how their political doomsday is just around the corner. I think not. While it is true that some moderate GOP’ers up for reelection in November are finding it difficult to balance their campaign message between what they like about Bush policy and what they don’t like, Time paints a picture of treachery for all Republicans. This is not only inaccurate, it’s unfair. (Isn’t it funny how these stories always seem to come out when conservatives control the White House and hold a majority in Congress?)

One could say that a majority of Republicans should just be cautious and do everything possible to keep themselves clean, that is, as long as the Democrats remain message-less. I wouldn’t bring that advice though. Republicans who face a tough campaign should focus on what the positive things they’ve done, what they continue to do right, and how they need to finish the job. I know it’s a cliche, but all politics is local, and Republicans should focus on the needs of their districts, not the Democrats or the MSM’s war on this president.

A court dismissed the case against the man who converted from Islam to Christianity over 14 years ago due to a lack of evidence.

The announcement came as U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai faced mounting foreign pressure to free Abdul Rahman, a move that risked angering Muslim clerics here who have called for him to be killed.

An official closely involved with the case told The Associated Press that it had been returned to the prosecutors for more investigation, but that in the meantime, Rahman would be released.

“The court dismissed today the case against Abdul Rahman for a lack of information and a lot of legal gaps in the case,” the official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

“The decision about his release will be taken possibly tomorrow,” the official added. “They don’t have to keep him in jail while the attorney general is looking into the case.”

So, he’s safe for now, but what about the radicals out there who want him dead no matter what? They’re out there, waiting for Rahman. What kind of life will he lead spending every waking hour looking over his shoulder?

Buck Owens has died.

Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like “Act Naturally” and brought the genre to TV on the long-running “Hee Haw,” died Saturday. He was 76.

Owens died at his home in Bakersfield, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997.

His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than 20 No. 1 records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

I’m not a country music fan by any means, but being a fan of all music, I did listen to Buck a time or two. My favorite song? My Heart Skips a Beat.

We’ll miss you Buck.

Via Ed Morrissey:

If anyone wanted to make an argument that the blogosphere is too immature to be considered partners in information dissemination with traditional media outlets, we’ve provided it in spades this week. We finally had an opportunity to garner a high-profile setting for bloggers at the nation’s premiere newspaper, and what did we do? We tore each other to shreds because we didn’t like the ideological perspective of the first person chosen for the experiment. We engaged in crude character assassination that greatly overshadowed the actual value of the blogosphere to find and correct real transgressions and deficiencies, as demonstrated by the discovery of Domenech’s plagiarism.

Read it all, here.

Moscow says it didn’t provide any secret info to Saddam in the opening days of the war.

In search of the Leprechaun.

      

I had one just like this.

Eating their own – Eleanor Clift on the Democrats’ dilemma.

Via the WaPo:

In the past 24 hours, we learned of allegations that Ben Domenech plagiarized material that appeared under his byline in various publications prior to washingtonpost.com contracting with him to write a blog that launched Tuesday.

An investigation into these allegations was ongoing, and in the interim, Domenech has resigned, effective immediately.

So much for Ben’s 15 minutes.

MORE: Ugh, this is a little hard to defend.

STILL MORE: Jeff Jarvis has it right.