Back Talk: The Troop Surge vs. al Qaeda in Iraq

Back Talk: The Troop Surge vs. al Qaeda in Iraq

Interesting analysis. Leaves out the internecine Shiite conflict, the Kurds, and Iran, though (via Instapundit).

Chrysler For Sale

Chrysler is up for sale.

Who's going to buy the struggling auto company? It would take someone with very deep pockets and an almost altruistic sense of business.

How about Al Gore?

I personally think that's a great idea. Gore has said he doesn't want to run for political office, that he wants to focus full-time on global warming. What better way to achieve his objective than to turn around a half-dead dinosaur of the automotive age, and transform it into the leading eco-friendly industrial business in the world? If nothing else he'd have a dynamite mission statement.

(Hat tip Instapundit.)

Big Government

Was hanging out with the Magic crew last week. In the course of a random bull session, Ken observed that Emory County is one of the most Democratic counties in the state. To which Brandon responded (I'm paraphrasing):

"Hicks hate big government so of course they're not Republican."

I really, really wanted to comment on that. But even now I just can't wrap my brain around it.

Gonzalez Scandal and News Coverage

Here's what I don't get: Leahy and the gang are hounding Gonzalez over Lam, Iglesias, and McKay. Yet from what I'm reading, the Justice Dept. had plausible reasons for firing each of them. Yes there's a lot of gray area, but I don't see anyone actually digging into the facts.

Take Lam for instance. The idea is that Justice (with urging from the White House) fired her because her Cunningham investigation was widening to include other, more important Republicans. Like Rep. Jerry Lewis. Sounds plausible. There are plenty of documents flying around showing that Lam was doing a decent job on immigration crime, thus undercutting the nominal reason she was fired. But there's one thing that's not being covered: what's the current state of the Lewis investigation? Is it ongoing, or has it in fact been killed. Because if it's still ongoing, then you can't very well accuse Gonzalez and/or Rove of firing Lam in order to protect Lewis, can you?

Also look at Iglesias. The idea here is that Iglesias was fired because he didn't investigate voter fraud in New Mexico. Significantly, he was clearly taking political heat from Senator Domenici and Rep. Wilson. Once again, it sounds plausible that Iglesias was ousted for not using his office to pursue political advantage. And yet, no one seems to be asking whether those voter fraud investigations have commenced in New Mexico. Have they? If they haven't, then what would be the point of booting Iglesias?

Same applies to McKay, who supposedly was sent packing because he declined to continue investigating voter fraud in the Washington State governor's election. Is that office now pursuing the investigation further? If not, how could dismissing McKay serve political ends? And from another perspective, the decision to proceed with the investigation is, in the end, a judgment call. McKay saw it his way, it's entirely conceivable that, having reviewed the facts, Sampson, Gonzalez, et. al. saw it a different way.

Of course it's possible that politics motivated the firings, and that Gonzalez and/or Rove were in fact firing USA's in order to effect political gains. But that's still pretty much up in the air, pending more conclusive evidence. If we knew the state of all those investigations, or if journalists were interviewing other members of those USA's offices, we'd have a much better perspective of the possible motivations. Unfortunately Leahy, Schumer, and Waxman, along with the press, seem more intent on bringing perjury charges than on really investigating the causes for those dismissals.