GAO Audit: $6 Billion in Aide To Pakistan Being Wasted or Stolen

Add that to the hundreds of billions already wasted on fighting "terrorists" in Iraq. Does anyone know how much of that sorely needed tax dollars are being pocketed by corrupt businessmen and politicians? You can bet most of it.

The United States has given Pakistan nearly $6 billion to pursue terrorists since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States but with little to no proof that the money has been used for that purpose, an independent audit has found.

The assessment by the Government Accountability Office, released Tuesday, angered members of Congress who say they are concerned that Pakistan - the closest U.S.ally in the war on terrorism - is milking the U.S. government.

GAO found, for example, that the U.S. recently gave Pakistan more than $200 million for air defense radars without bothering to investigate whether the money was needed specifically to go after terrorists. Another example included $45 million for road and bunker construction without evidence they were ever built.

"The U.S. government is being asked to reimburse Pakistan for non-incremental air defense radar maintenance when al Qaeda is not even known to have an air force," said Rep. Howard Berman, a Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The purpose of these funds is to support the fight against extremists, not to boost Pakistan's conventional warfare capability."

Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape

The court has gotten it wrong, again. What is the appropriate punishment for someone who rapes a child? Is it also cruel and unusual if the rapist were sentenced to life in prison? Although this case is not unprecedented, it is an example of political correctness passed off as constitutional protection.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a law that allows the execution of people convicted of a raping a child.

In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

''The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,'' Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.

There has not been an execution in the United States for a crime that did not also involve the death of the victim in 44 years.

Patrick Kennedy, 43, was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter in Louisiana. He is one of two people in the United States, both in Louisiana, who have been condemned to death for a rape that was not also accompanied by a killing.

The Supreme Court banned executions for rape in 1977 in a case in which the victim was an adult woman.

First Obama Attack Book in the Works

It better have something new because it won't sell otherwise:

The same publisher that distributed the 2004 best-seller that took aim at John Kerry’s Vietnam service is planning a summer release of what’s scheduled to be the first critical book on Barack Obama.

Conservative journalist David Freddoso’s “The Case Against Barack Obama” will offer “a comprehensive, factual look at Obama,” according to Regnery Publishing president and publisher Marjory Ross.

But the book’s subtitle makes clear its perspective: “The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate.”

[...]But unlike the Kerry book, which was co-authored by a fellow Swift Boat veteran and focused exclusively on the Massachusetts senator’s actions in Vietnam and immediately after, “The Case Against Barack Obama” aspires to be a full-length political biography.

Freddoso has taken a leave from his job with National Review Online — where he has written posts with titles such as “Obama’s Problem with the Truth” — to write the book, which is scheduled to be published on Aug. 4. A former writer for Human Events, Freddoso learned shoe-leather reporting at the knee of syndicated conservative columnist Robert D. Novak, for whom he worked as a political reporter on the “Evans-Novak Political Report.”

Freddoso’s book is being promoted by the well-connected conservative public relations firm Creative Response Concepts. The firm, headed by former GOP operative Greg Mueller, also handled publicity for “Unfit for Command” and media relations for the 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which in 2004 ran widely covered television advertisements featuring veterans who had served in Vietnam with Kerry, criticizing his conduct and character and claiming he had exaggerated his war record.

Obama Kept Harvard Law Review Balanced

From Politico:

Barack Obama's election in 1990 as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gave him his first moment of national fame, a powerful intellectual credential and a sweet book deal. It was also his first electoral victory, won in part by convincing the conservative minority of law students that he would treat them fairly.

[...]The eight dense volumes produced during his time in charge there — 2,083 pages in all — show the Review to have been a decidedly liberal institution, albeit one in transition as its focus on race and gender was contested by liberals and conservatives alike. Under his tenure, the Review published calls to expand the powers of women, African-Americans and the elderly to sue for discrimination.

But Obama, who this March referred to "identity politics" as "an enormous distraction," was not so easily pinned down. He published a searing attack on affirmative action, written by a former Reagan administration official. And when, in an unusual move, he selected a young woman from a non-Ivy League law school to fill one of the Review’s most prestigious slots, she produced an essay focused as much on individual responsibilities as on liberties, criticizing both conservative judges and feminist scholars.

Children Caught In Brutal Kenyan Crossfire

If nothing is being done to stop the atrocities in Zimbabwe they certainly won't be helped in Kenya.

These children are among hundreds in western Kenya who have been terrorized, many twice over, first by a militia in their villages and then by the army sent to fight it. The militia forced children as young as 10 to become soldiers. In a widespread crackdown, the army then rounded up the children and thousands of adults and tortured them, human rights groups say.

[...]In March, the Kenyan government sent its army to crack down on the Sabaot Land Defense Force militia, which is named after the Sabaot region. But instead of hunting down militia fighters where they hide in the forests of Mount Elgon, the army swept up thousands of men and boys from the surrounding villages.

Since then, so many reports of murder and torture have emerged that Kenya's state-run human rights commission is calling for the prosecution of the defense minister and top army and police officials. There are also calls for the United States and Britain to suspend millions of dollars in aid and training to the Kenyan army.

NYC'S MURDER RATE RISES 8%

"The city's murder rate is up nearly 8 percent this year - with surges in rapes and robberies as well, police statistics show."

read more | digg story