A quick recap of what caught my eye today…
Regarding Nancy Pelosi’s determination to remove moderate Democrat Jane Harmon as would-be chair the Intel Committee IF the Dems win the House, the best in the blogging business, Captain Ed, had this to say,
The New York Times has this wrong. Just considering Alcee Hastings, who got impeached by a Democratic Congress for bribery and malfeasance, to lead a key national-security committee will confirm Republican charges that Democrats don’t take national security seriously. It also highlights the hypocrisy of their “culture of corruption” theme from earlier this year. They still talk about cleaning corruption out of Congress — and they propose to elevate a judge impeached for bribery to be part of the leadership that will accomplish that.
This shows that the Democrats put petty politics above national security. The only reason Harman has gotten the ouster is because she didn’t participate enthusiastically enough in Bush Derangement Syndrome. Never mind that she focused on her national-security assignment ahead of partisan sniping, and never mind that she still criticized the Bush administration on a number of issues. She didn’t get strident enough for Nancy Pelosi — and so she needs to go.
One of the best columnists in America, Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald,
NYT-ea culpa: Times mouthpiece acknowledges error
What do you call it when the ombudsman of the New York Times admits he made a mistake?
A good start.
New York Times ombudsman Byron Calame has initiated what we can only hope will be a trend in Americaâ??s holier-than-thou media — that overwhelming and influential part of our nationâ??s news business that feigns objectivity, fairness and interest in our national well-being while relentlessly pursuing partisan and destructively anti-American agendas.
Calame, in the throes of some inexplicable crisis of conscience, has admitted his newspaper was wrong to reveal a secret U.S. government program to monitor bank transactions of terrorists, and that he was not only wrong but hypocritical to defend it. He did not mention hopelessly lacking in perspective, but Iâ??ll get to that.
John Podhoretz, in his NY Post column today titled Battling Predictions had this to say,
FOR those who follow political news, there are now two kinds of time: Mainstream Media Time and Blog Time.
October 24, 2006 6:38 pm 
This may actually be the reason that Harman could be removed:
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing whether Congresswoman Jane Harman and the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC improperly cooperated to secure Harman is reelected as the top Democrat member on the House Intelligence Committee, the Time Magazine reports.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3317648,00.html
Yet another example of Israel’s outsized influence over American politics.
Also, Israel is now finally admitting to the use of phosphorus weapons against Lebanon. As usual, innocent civilians were caught in the crosshairs of these insidious and inhuman weapons, just like in Fallujah.
“Israel has acknowledged for the first time that it attacked Hezbollah targets during the second Lebanon war with phosphorus shells. White phosphorus causes very painful and often lethal chemical burns to those hit by it, and until recently Israel maintained that it only uses such bombs to mark targets or territory.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/777549.html
This story will likely never see the light of day in the US mainstream media.