McCain Calls on Congress

John McCain is a realist – he has the foresight to look ahead at the nine billion souls who will soon populate this planet, and what they will need. They will need energy in quantities undreamt of, and the only way to solve that dilemma is an “All of the Above” approach. We need every energy source working if we would not have the planet plunged into poverty, misery, filth and despair. The first step on that path is making energy cheaper and more abundant in America so that we may continue to feed the world.

In this video you see Senator McCain call on Congress to come back and work on the energy problem.

Another Journalist is Clueless; Obamaglam Strikes Again

Newsbusters has video here of Bob Herbert of the New York times either displaying vast ignorance, or craftily deciding to try to slip one by the audience, follow the link, you decide, then come back.

As the Time spread above demonstrates with a Barack Obama quote, the crafty pol has made the Paris comparison himself.

Here’s what Newsbusters had to say about the incident:

We’re all familiar with how an Obamania overdose produced strange tingling sensations in Chris Matthews.  A new, virulent strain of the affliction has now emerged, claiming its first victim in the person of Bob Herbert, who on live national TV saw visions of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Washington Monument where none existed.

Obviously the column you see from different angles in the McCain Celeb ad is the Victory Column, or Siegessaule, a monument tainted with some Nazi history. Anyone who’s been following the campaign with the slightest interest knows about the column, and the controversy. The question of why Barack chose to speak at the column was asked by many since he was given a choice of sites, but was stopped from speaking at the Brandenburg Gates.

So now that we know the victory column is a phallic symbol thanks to Bob Herbert’s Freudian insight, is Bob Herbert going to ask Barack Obama why he chose to speak in front of a giant symbolic penis with victory perched atop it?

Although this topic is pregnant for puns and potent for innuendo I will refrain and just reflect that Obama’s glamour once again has seasoned journalists seeing things that simply aren’t there.

Much more at LGF

Kerry is Clueless

Apparently willing and able to talk about an ad he hasn’t even seen. John F’in Kerry – Reporting for duty!

 

Just in case you are not getting this, the original “Celeb” ad is here. You can see that the narrator not only says Obama’s not ready to lead and says no to offshore drilling, but that it’s also in bold text across the screen. John F’in Kerry, clueless again.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn RIP

Soviet Russia’s most famous dissident writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, has passed on. He died of a stroke earlier today. I will always remember him for his courage and the example he set for all. Below is my favorite quote from him, it rings as true today as it was the moment he said it in interview:

The line between good and evil runs through every human heart.

The full paragraph this is condensed from comes from The Gulag Archipelago:

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhlemed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.

Here’s a short biography at Wikipedia.

Zawahiri Rumor Update: Mehsud Letter Likely Forged

This is an update to the previous story from CBS with rumors of Zawahiri’s injury or death from the July 29th strike in Pakistan. WIth help from Pakistan the document has been examined by experts – the letterhead appears too old, one no longer used since Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was consolidated under Baitullah Mehsud, it’s in Pashto instead of Urdu, and doubt was expressed about the signature. More from Dawn:

They noted that the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan no longer used the letterhead. According to them, they now used an Urdu letterhead while the one shown by CBS was in Pashto.

Mehsud’s signature also seemed different from the one he usually uses.

The letter is dated July 29, a day after a US missile strike killed six people, including an Al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert near Azam Warsak village.

A Mehsud spokesman Maulvi Umar, however, rejected the letter and said it was a fake. “We deny it categorically,” he said

The remaining question is whether CBS will take up the “fake but accurate” defense in this case.

UPDATE: US Intelligence: Zawahiri not Believed to be Dead or Injured

Al Zawahiri Injured or Dead? UPDATE: False Report From CBS Based on Flimsy Doc.


FINAL UPDATE:

 Pakistan Taliban Deny Zawahiri’s death. Maulvi Omar is the spokesworm for Baitullah Mehsud, and while he might be lying, it’s not likely. The Taliban are quick to promote the death of leaders on the internet when there are deaths (as they did this week with the real death from the missile strike) as this gains them more recruits at times. Once again CBS news has run with a weak story based on probably fraudulent documents. From Maulvi Omar, Spokesworm:

“Ayman al Zawahri was not present there. Ayman al Zawahri is neither present in Waziristan nor in Bajaur,” Omar said, referring to another Pakistani tribal region known as a sanctuary for al Qaeda militants.

A senior Pakistani intelligence officer also rejected suggestions that Zawahri was present when al-Masri was killed. “It’s absurd,” he told Reuters, adding that the only notable casualty had been al-Masri.

Once again I will mention that if Zawahiri and Bin Laden are in Pakistan it’s more likely that they are in a large walled compound in the exurbs of Peshwar, Lahore, or Islamad. (Remember where they found Kardazic?)

Previous Report:

CBS has an unconfirmed report up that Ayman Al Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s number two but also their strongest master of strategy, might be injured. Judge for yourselves, I’ve seen no mention of this in Pakistani papers, but I’m on my way out to dig now:

CBS News has obtained a copy of an intercepted letter from sources in Pakistan, which urgently requests a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri. He’s believed to be somewhere in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas of Pakistan.

The letter refers to Sheikh Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri by name – and says that he is in “severe pain” and his “injuries are infected.”

It is reportedly written by local Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, whose signature and seal are visible on the letter.

The Taliban logo and the Mehsud’s seal have been confirmed by experts as legitimate.

However, CBS News has not been able to confirm the authenticity of Baitullah Mehsud’s signature and seal.

Stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, the TTP and AQ have shown that they want nothing less than a separate state for themselves carved out of the frontiers of Pakistan. Failing that they will attack Pakistan, and have throughout the negotiations. Baitullah Mehsud’s previously mentioned assassination list of 300 PPP and ANP politicos also sends clear message that Pakistan needs to get the leaders of AQ before AQ gets them. Against that background I could see this happening…

Update: more at the Jawa Report

UPDATE: Bill Roggio is reporting that the information CBS is basing the story on comes from a suspect source. Unfortunately there’s a conflict out there that seems to be between IE and Sitemeter.com, which Bill uses. You can’t get to the site with IE, so use firefox if you want to read.

Update: More from Hot Air and from Lawhawk

Four days later, two reports emerged that stated Zawahiri was either killed or seriously injured in the strike. The first news on Zawahiri’s involvement in the strike came from STRATFOR, which repeated the claim from a Pashtu television station that Zawahiri was killed. The Pakistani station broadcast the report of Zawahiri’s demise on July 29, yet the report was not repeated in Pakistan’s robust, independent media outlets.

Update: AFP writes that there is not yet confirmation.

[Editor: I will back up what Bill is saying – surfing all of the Pakistani major newspapers, blogs, and forums reveals zero stories on this. The factor that’s different about this story is the letter that CBS in theory has. As we know however, they’ve been suckered by fraudulent documents in the past.]

Interesting, but probably unrelated.

Factors for Doubt:

  • Zawahiri has been referenced in missives to the Doctors in Jundullah in the past, along with Bin Laden however they have always been referenced by code names, and vagueness – like “the good doctor in Quetta”.
  • There are active raids, like the one against the Haqqani compound Monday, but so far they seem to have come up dry.
  • So far no secondary confirmation in the Pakistani press, I’m still looking for news that does not circularly reference the CBS article.

In other news from Pakistan the TTP insurection in Swat continues, with the Army using convential tactics to fight against the Taliban. Also note that security forces are swinging into place on the borders of Swat, possible to bottle up the Taliban. NWFP will continue operations in Swat.
The order transferring the sometimes renegade ISI of Pakistan under the Interior Ministry is still standing. [editor: I seem to have lost the four links in the bottom section during my updates, you can see the stories confirming the “other news” section in Saturday editions of The Frontier Post, The International News, The Pakistan Observer, and The Daily Times.]

Republican Drilling Revolt

The Democrats Turn out the lights in Congress like they are across America, the Republicans Refuse to go.

 
More from CBS:

The House adjourned about three hours ago, but GOP lawmakers, outraged that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats went home for five weeks without allowing a vote on offshore drilling, have refused to leave the floor. Even though C-Span can’t show you what’s going on (C-Span is prevented from showing what’s happening on the floor when the House is out of session), Republicans are holding an unprecedented session on the House floor. They have brought in dozens of their members, who are walking up and down the aisles making speeches. They have packed the floors and galleries with staffers. When Capitol Police tried to remove reporters from the gallery, Republicans stopped it from happening. The crowd has repeatedly broken out in chants of “Vote, vote, vote!” There’s several dozen Cub Scouts sitting on the House floor in seats normally occupied by members.

So it goes: you give control of congress to the Democrats, and both Congress and America become … powerless.