Kay Bailey Hutchinson "Emboldens Al Qaeda"

From Unclaimed Territory, Glenn Greenwald brings us another astonishing case of SRA (Selective Rightwing Amnesia) Syndrome, by pointing out that it was Republicans, including Hutchinson, who were calling for the US to "cut and run" in Somalia. Now would be as good a time as any to hop on over to Barbara Ann Radnofsky's place and give her some love.

Sheer Brass Monkeys

The White House rubs its grubby little hands together with glee at the prospect of political gains from an apparently narrowly-averted brutal terrorist mass-murder. Meanwhile, Big Dick Cheney worries that Connecticut voters are emboldening "the al Qaeda types" by shamelessly refusing to vote for the candidate the White House preferred. One imagines Osama bin Laden in his cave anxiously surfing the blogosphere. "Well, I was gonna call off this whole war against the Great Satan, but now that the Democrats have nominated Ned Lamont, JIHAD!!!"

When Did This Happen?

AmericaBlog has a thoughtful post about morality and war as it relates to the current fighting in Lebanon. What caught my interest though were the bizarre, rabid, over-the-top comments made by readers (one actually referred to Israelis as "Jewzis" and said "Hitler would be proud" of them). So, my question is, when did American liberals become so virulently anti-Israel? The founding of Israel in 1948 was widely supported by progressives all over the world (including the Queen Mother of American Liberalism, Eleanor Roosevelt); the original state was even fairly socialist in its economic organization. Israel's enemies are certainly not "liberal" by any definition--they are either secular, violent and corrupt (such as the Fatah Party in the Palestinian Authority) or theocratic and as contemptuous of Americans and Christians as they are of Israel (Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, etc.). In all other respects, the Left in America is extremely wary of using code-words for racism, yet their most overblown rhetoric against Israel comes close to (and sometimes pole-vaults over) the line into anti-Semitism. So what's the story? When did knee-jerk opposition to Israel (as opposed to legitimate complaints about specific areas of Israeli policy) become such as defining feature of the American (and European) Left?

Port Insecurity, Part VIII

From The Moderate Voice, Al Qaeda claimed THREE YEARS AGO that it had inflitrated the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). And it turns out that, in a rare display of competence, the Department of Homeland Security initially objected to the deal that would turn over operation of 21 American ports to Dubai Ports World. And yet the White House absolutely refuses to reconsider, despite the fact that Thomas Kean, former Republican governor of New Jersey and head of the 9/11 Commission, says the deal "should never have happened."
How, exactly, is the Bush Administration keeping us safe?