-- And with Pakistan finally getting serious about fighting Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists, Congress is dawdling over adoption of the five-year, $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan requested by the White House. Given that it is fourth down in the terror game, will Congress punt?
-- One of the distinguished former residents of Guantanamo - Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul - goes by the name of Mullah Zakir. After five years in Gitmo (where his rights as a detainee were restricted), Zakir was handed over in 2006 to Afghan authorities, who stashed him in the Pul-e-Charkhi prison before releasing him in 2008. Zakir's current job description: senior military honcho for the Taliban.
-- Self-evident truth: By letting their ideological slip show in their comparative media coverage, mainline pressies clearly prefer Sonia Sotomayor to Sarah Palin.
-- In addition to solar, wind, tidal, butterfly, and other "alternative sources" of power generation, does President Obama favor advancing nuclear energy in the U.S.? Hard to say. In his vast sea of inky rhetoric, it's a topic rarely found. But he definitely favors it for Iran. In April, he said he supports "Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections." In June, he told the BBC, "I do believe...Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations." Still, instead of nibbling around the edges with "alternatives" in the U.S., what about increasing the nuclear component for true energy independence?
-- Recall, please, the outrage liberals voiced at Bush administration deficits running to hundreds of billions of dollars. One might have thought they were born-again free-marketeers. Hardly. The deficit is going to come in at oh about $1.9 trillion for this fiscal year - courtesy of Obama, Pelosi, & Co. And the leftist silence about it all just screams.
-- Finally, this: The Senate Armed Services Committee has been hard at work saving money and protecting the citizenry by whacking away at defense spending. It proposes reducing outlays for the Missile Defense Agency by $1.2 billion, cancellation of the Multiple Kill Vehicle program and the Kinetic Energy interceptor, retiring 250 of the oldest Air Force tactical fighter aircraft, and ending production of the C-17 cargolifter. Notes an outraged Sen. John McCain: "It is the rarest occasion when a fully mature weapons system is terminated by the Congress."