Special edition of Pundit Review Radio on Saturday

Who is Jack Idema?

Remember a year or so ago when some former special ops soldiers were arrested in Afghanistan for essentially being bounty hunters? Two former soldiers, Jack Idema and Brent Bennett and a video journalist Ed Caraballo, were arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison for running a private prison in Afghanistan.

This is a very interesting case and raises some troubling questions. Was Idema working, as he says, with the full knowledge of the US government? Has the government simply abandoned these men in Afghanistan or do they deserve to be in jail?

To learn about this case, here is a good article from Military.com,
U.S. Bounty Hunter on Trial in Afghanistan
After a Lifetime of Skating on the Edge, Has Keith “Jack” Idema Finally Slid Over?

Robin Moore, author of The Green Berets, intrigued by Idema’s tales, wrote the saga of the Task Force Dagger: The Hunt for bin Laden. This best-selling non-fiction featured Idema as the star in the hunt.

Idema, restless to return to the action, recently showed up again in Afghanistan. He has “been in touch and working with U.S. officials. He corresponds with them and has served as an adviser to Afghan forces through “ongoing contacts with the (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai government,” his defense attorney, John Tiffany of Bloomfield, N.J., said.

Rescue Afghanistan

“He’s been working with their full knowledge and cooperation” Tiffany said.

Idema wanted to “rescue Afghanistan,” Ted Kavanau, former CNN news executive, who was preparing for a journalistic mission to Afghanistan. On 5 July, after three months back on the ground, Idema’s high-profile anti-terrorism adventure came to a grinding halt.

There are a group of bloggers who are trying to rally support for these men and get them out of prison. Check out their site here.

To hear directly from Jack Idema, here is an interview he was allowed to conduct from his Afghanistan prison.

We report, you decide.

Ann Althouse and liberal blogger Atrios are having it out over Ann’s recent post on liberals and feminism. Needless to say, the response from Atrios, and those who comment on his blog, are proving Michelle Malkin’s point about the intolerance of the left. One has to wonder whether Atrios is trying to help Michelle Malkin sell some books, because what more could he do to prove her point?

Here’s Ann,

Democrats have a long, long way to go to convince me that they care about feminism

He doesn’t answer my questions and doesn’t correct his false assumption that I have only recently adopted feminism and only to serve my personal interests. He doesn’t condemn his despicable commenters. He just says I’m missing the “irony.” Yes, yes, I lack an appropriate sense of humor. Sexist jokes galore, and I ought to just learn to laugh about it. He seems to lack a shred of sensibility about how pathetically retro-male chauvinist that is. I’ll say it again: Democrats have a long, long way to go to convince me that they care at all about feminism.

Check out Ann’s recent interview on Pundit Review Radio here.

What in the world are they thinking among the GOP leadership in Congress? The 1994 revolution is dead as doornail right now. The current congressional GOP deserves a beating in the 2006 mid-term elections. I don’t think they’ll get it because of the ineptitude of the opposition and because on the most important issue of our time, Iraq, they are rock solid.

However, on nearly every other issue, they are a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. They have yet to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. They go along with Democrats in a silly PR game to demonize the oil industry, THEY CAN’T REIGN IN THEIR OWN PORK SPENDING, ETC.

And now this

Congress Helps Self to $3,100 Pay Raise

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled Congress helped itself to a $3,100 pay raise on Friday, then postponed work on bills to curb spending on social programs and cut taxes in favor of a two-week vacation.

and this,

House votes to cut $700 mln in food stamps

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to cut $700 million from the food stamp program, despite objections from antihunger groups complaining that estimates show some 235,000 people would lose benefits.

Only the most blinded partisan can feel good about the congressional GOP at this point. What will it take to get our reformers back? What will it take to get back to the principals and positions that won the majority in the first place?