Transcript: Karl Rove Calls Obama "Arrogant" on O'Reilly Factor

Rove made comment on FOXnews' "O'Reilly Factor." Read the entire transcript.

All right. Newsweek, as we've discussed here, has become a far-left publication. But they did hire you as a columnist, one of two conservatives, as opposed to nine liberal columnists. That sounds fair and balanced to me. But you don't believe this poll, do you, that Obama is up 15 on McCain?

KARL ROVE, FORMER BUSH ADVISER: No, I don't. That's what we call an outlier or an outwriter. If you look at it, the other polls show anything from 1 to 6 or 7 points. My suspicion is he's up 3 or 4 or 5 points today.

O'REILLY: OK, why would Newsweek put out a bogus poll?

ROVE: Well, look, Newsweek's poll, and I say this with great respect for Newsweek, having been hired as a columnist for this year and next, but that poll has habitually been the outlier. That is to say in previous elections, it's been the poll that has been — tended to be more generous to Democrats and less generous to Republicans.

O'REILLY: Do you feel uneasy about writing for that publication now that it is a committed far-left publication? As I said...

ROVE: Well...

O'REILLY: ...two conservatives, you and George Will? Nine, at least, liberals.

ROVE: Well, I like having an opportunity to voice an opinion and give some analysis. And I know I'm among people who don't necessarily think like I do, and I welcome the opportunity to try and educate them straight.

O'REILLY: Very diplomatic, Mr. Rove. ABC News has a report on its Web site that you were at a country club and said Obama is an arrogant guy. Is that true?

ROVE: Well, I wasn't at a country club. I was at the National Republican — the Capitol Hill Club, which is a Republican club on Capitol Hill. Look, I'm not going to get into what I said in an off the record event. But I will say, yes, I do think Barack Obama is arrogant. And I think we saw examples of that last week, at least three or four examples of it.

We saw it when he, you know, earlier on, he made a big thing about he wanted to strengthen the public financing system. He said absolutely he would take taxpayer dollars in the general election if the Republican agreed to take taxpayer dollars and abide by the $85 million limit — spending limit.

And then, you know, that was when he didn't think he could raise money. Now that he knows that he can raise money, he's decided the rules shouldn't apply, and he reversed course on Thursday and said...

Transcript: McCain Las Vegas Speech on Energy

Read the complete transcript:

Political campaigns have a way of settling on a few great questions, with little regard for the expectations of pundits, and even less concern for the carefully crafted strategies of the candidates themselves. These questions are rarely easy. Politicians usually avoid them for just that reason. And so it is good when events intrude on the familiar routine of stale soundbites, staged rallies, and over-managed messages, and turn to the concerns of the people themselves. In this election, the price and security of energy in America is one of those great questions.

It is an urgent question because the rising price of oil has brought hardship to our country, and threatens to bring much more. Gasoline at well over four dollars a gallon is bad enough all by itself, but it also affects the price of everything else. The cost of living is rising. The value of paychecks is falling. Many of our citizens can’t keep up, and we need to think first of them. As a country, we find ourselves caught between the rock of slower growth and the hard place of inflation. All of this, in large part, because the price of oil is too high, the supply of oil is too uncertain, and we depend on oil too much.

Energy security is a vital question because it concerns America’s most fundamental interests, and above all the safety of our citizens from the violence of the world. All the tact of diplomacy cannot conceal a blunt reality. When we buy foreign oil, we are enriching some of our worst enemies. And in the Middle East, Venezuela, and elsewhere, these regimes know how to use the power of that wealth.

In the case of Iran, despite our own sanctions, they use it to pursue nuclear weapons. They use it to threaten Israel and other democracies. Elsewhere, oil wealth allows undemocratic governments to control their own people — to crush dissent and to subjugate women. They use it to finance terrorists around the world and criminal syndicates in our own hemisphere. These are some of the most stagnant and oppressive societies on Earth, held back by oil-rich elites who would not last long if their own people had a choice in the matter. From these elites, we get the oil that fuels our productive economy. From us, they get the money that preserves their unjust power. Moreover, by relying upon oil from the Middle East, we not only provide wealth to the sponsors of terror — we provide high-value targets to the terrorists themselves. Across the world are pipelines, refineries, transit routes, and terminals for the oil we r ely on. And Al Qaeda terrorists know where they are.

Even if these other interests were not in the balance, America would still need to follow the straightest path to energy security, because of a threat literally gathering around the Earth itself. Back when Americans first learned to associate the word “energy” with “crisis,” we didn’t fully understand how fossil fuel emissions retain heat within the atmosphere. We didn’t know that over time these greenhouse gasses could warm the planet. We didn’t know they could melt glaciers and ice sheets, or raise the waters and alter the balance that sustains life. Good stewardship, prudence, and simple common sense demand that we act to meet this challenge, act quickly, and act together.

Energy security requires unity because it is not just one issue among many — another box on the candidate questionnaire. Our country’s need for a safe, clean, and affordable supply of energy is not just one more competitor for attention in Washington, one more special interest in an overcrowded field. The great issue of energy security is the sum total of so many problems that confront our nation. And it demands of us that we shake off old ways, negotiate new hazards, and make hard choices long deferred.

This is a matter that has confounded nearly twenty Congresses and seven presidents. Yet even now our energy debates carry the echoes of ten, twenty, or even thirty years ago. We hear the same calls for new energy taxes, instead of new energy production. We are offered the same agenda of inaction — that long recitation of things we cannot do, energy we cannot produce, refineries we cannot build, plants we cannot approve, coal we cannot use, technologies we cannot master. The timid litany of limitations goes on and on. And it says more about the culture of Washington than it does about the character of America.

Obama FOXNews Interview Transcript (6-26-08)

Obama appeared on FOX's "Your World with Neil Cavuto." Read the entire transcript:

GLICK: Two developments today that I want to get your reaction on. First of all, the Supreme Court decision today, as you know, that struck down the D.C. handgun ban, what's your reaction to that?

OBAMA: Well, you know, I have said consistently that I believe the Second Amendment is an individual right. And that was the essential decision that the Supreme Court came down on. And it also recognized that, even though we have an individual right to bear arms, that — that right can be limited by sensible, reasonable gun laws.

The D.C. law, according to the Supreme Court, went too far. And now the key is going to be, I think, for us to come together and say, people do have an individual right, and there's nothing wrong with common sense gun laws, background checks, keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill, and creating what I think is the common sense belief among people that we can both uphold our traditions with respect to firearms and prevent the senseless killings that we see on the streets of so many American cities.

GLICK: President Bush came out earlier this morning talking about, in essence, lifting the sanctions against North Korea. If you were president, you were in that situation, would you deal with it the same way?

OBAMA: Well, I have not yet had a chance to review the declarations that were made by North Korea. And I think it's important for Congress to review it before Congress lifts these sanctions.

But, assuming that North Korea has fully disclosed its plutonium operations, its enriched uranium operations, as well as some of the issues surrounding proliferation that I think are so important, and it follows through on the additional steps that are already outlined in the agreement, then I think it's a positive development.

And it indicates what can be accomplished when we have direct diplomacy even with our adversaries, that the well-structured — as in the words of Ronald Reagan, we have got to trust, but verify.

But this issue of nuclear nonproliferation is so critical. We let it slip away for too long. Now is the time for us to get back together with other countries around the world and make sure that we do not have the kind of proliferation that could fall into the hands of terrorists.

Hewitt: U.S. will get ‘Blown up by the Islamists under Obama.’

The Republicans have lost their minds. They have nothing to say or offer other than fear. If memory serves me right, it was under a Republican administration that the U.S. was attacked on 9-11.

On his radio show yesterday, conservative talker Hugh Hewitt announced that he was “living for” the Sept. 13 football game between USC and Ohio State, adding that he predicts that it will be the last game played before the United States “gets blown up by the Islamists under Obama.”:

Oil Prices Hit New Record; Some Predict $7-Per-Gallon Gas

This is a full-fledged crisis. We need to wake up. If something isn't done soon we could have either a depression or hyper-inflation on our hands. The markets have to be stabilized. There is panic going on which is causing skyrocketing oil prices. All this talk about offshore drilling is irrelevant and stupid. We don't a new energy policy. We need leadership. That idiot in the White House is obviously not providing it. He is the problem in the first place. Skyrocketing oil prices began with the Iraq War. Mr.Obama or McCain need to start providing leadership here. If they can do it.

Oil prices surged into record territory today, boosted by a report predicting that gas prices will hit $7 a gallon in the United States within two years.

Further compounding the rise in prices were statements by OPEC's president that a barrel of oil could soon be trading for more than $150 and reports that Libya is weighing cutting its oil production.

Investors also grew wary that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates until late this year, leaving little hope that the dollar with strengthen. Oil is traded in dollars and part of the run-up in oil prices has been attributed to the weak dollar.

Oil closed at $139.64 a barrel, a spike of more than $5 over yesterday's close. The intra-day trading high was $140.00.

As oil prices soared, stocks tumbled. The Dow Jones industrial average lost some 300 points by the late afternoon after fresh signs of trouble emerged in the financial, automotive and high-tech industries.

Senator Dodd Transcript on FISA Spy Bill: 'Enough'

This speech should've been made by Barack Obama. I guess the fact that Dodd is not running for President anymore explains the strong words. Read the entire transcript of Dodd's statement.

Mr. President: I rise—once again—to voice my strong opposition to the misguided FISA legislation before us today. I have strong reservations about the so-called improvements made to Title I. But more than that, this legislation includes provisions which would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that apparently have violated the privacy and the trust of millions of Americans by participating in the president’s warrantless wiretapping program. If we pass this legislation, the Senate will ratify a domestic spying regime that has already concentrated far too much unaccountable power in the president’s hands and will place the telecommunications companies above the law.

I am here today to implore my colleagues to vote against cloture in the morning.

And let me make clear, at the outset of this debate, that this is not about domestic surveillance itself. We all recognize the importance of domestic surveillance – in an age of unprecedented threats. This is about illegal, unwarranted, unchecked domestic surveillance.

And that difference—the difference between surveillance that is lawful, warranted and that which is not—is everything.

Mr. President, I had hoped I would not have to return to this floor again under these circumstances – hoped that in these negotiations we would have been able to turn aside retroactive immunity on the grounds that it is bad policy and sets a terrible precedent.

As all of my colleagues know, I have long fought against retroactive immunity, because I believe, quite simply, it is an abandonment of the rule of law. I’ve fought this with everything I had in me—and I haven’t waged this fight alone.

In December, I opposed retroactive immunity on the Senate floor. I spent ten hours on this floor then. In January and February, I came to the floor time and time again to discuss the dangers of granting retroactive immunity. Along with my colleague and friend Russ Feingold, who has shown remarkable leadership on this issue, I offered an amendment that would have stripped retroactive immunity from the Senate bill. Unfortunately, our amendment failed and to my extreme disappointment, the Senate adopted the underlying bill.

Since passage of the Senate bill, there has been extensive negotiations on how to move forward. Today, we are being asked to pass the so-called compromise that was reached by some of our colleagues and approved by the House of Representatives.

I am here today to say that I will not and cannot support this legislation. It goes against everything I have stood for – everything this body ought to stand for.

Bush Wants To Spy On You From The Sky

From Newsweek by way of The Huffington Post:

A Bush administration program to expand domestic use of Pentagon spy satellites has aroused new concerns in Congress about possible civil-liberties abuses.

On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment denying money for the new domestic intelligence operation—cryptically named the "National Applications Office"—until the Homeland Security secretary certifies that any programs undertaken by the center will "comply with all existing laws, including all applicable privacy and civil liberties standards."

Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on intelligence, told Newsweek that majorities in both the House and Senate intend to block all funding for the domestic intelligence center at least until August, when the Government Accountability Office, an investigative agency that works for Congress, completes a report examining civil-liberties and privacy issues related to the domestic use of picture-taking spy satellites.

Harman, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee when Republicans controlled Congress earlier in Bush's tenure, said she still felt burned by the president's secret expansion of domestic electronic spying after 9/11. At the time, she and other intel committee leaders were assured that the increased intelligence activity was legal, only to learn later that the basis for the new surveillance was a set of opinions by administration lawyers that are now widely considered to be legally questionable.

Because of the administration's poor handling of the electronic spying program (mainly conducted by the super-secret National Security Agency, which operates a worldwide web of electronic eavesdropping systems), Harman says she and other members of Congress will be more cautious about accepting civil-liberties assurances from administration officials. "We have to make sure this is not a back door for spying on Americans," Harman told Newsweek.

Harman said that she had discussed the administration's plans for expanding domestic use of picture-taking spy satellites—which are supposedly capable of taking very high-resolution photographs of buildings, vehicles and people—with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. According to Harman, he promised strict procedures to protect the rights of Americans, including obtaining court authorization for law enforcement-related surveillance operations where appropriate. Despite Chertoff's assurances, however, Harman said that Congress probably would not fully approve the program until the administration is more explicit about how it would operate.

Study: Teachers not Being Taught Math Properly

Is it any wonder why we are increasingly becoming a poorly educated nation.
For kids to do better in math, their teachers might have to go back to school.

Elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math, finds a study being released Thursday by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Math relies heavily on cumulative knowledge, making the early years critical.

The study by the nonpartisan research and advocacy group comes a few months after a federal panel reported that U.S. students have widespread difficulty with fractions, a problem that arises in elementary school and prevents kids from mastering more complicated topics like algebra later on.

The report looked at 77 elementary education programs around the country, or roughly 5 percent of the institutions that offer undergraduate elementary teacher certification.

It found the programs, within colleges and universities, spend too little time on elementary math topics.

Report Projects Energy, Fossil Fuel use to Grow

Whatever happened to global warming. Aren't we going backwards? We need reduce oil consumption, in the U.S. especially, not increasing our reliance on this substance.

World energy demand will grow 50 percent over the next two decades, oil prices could rise to $186 a barrel and coal will remain the biggest source of electricity despite its effect on global warming, government experts predict.

The Energy Information Administration's long-range forecast to 2030 said the world is not close to abandoning fossil fuels. They will continue to be at the core of energy production in transportation and electricity generation, according to the report released Wednesday.

It said the steepest increases in energy use will come in China and other developing economies, including some in the Middle East and Africa, where energy demand is expected to be 85 percent greater in 2030 than it is today.

We need alternative solutions.

To save money and support neighboring farms, Scott Dubbelde began mixing gasoline and cheaper, ethanol-based fuel in his cars years ago, driving first to the gasoline pump, and then to the ethanol pump.

It has worked so well that Dubbelde, who manages a local grain elevator, mixes fuels for all three of his family cars, though only one was designed to handle ethanol-heavy blends.

Japanese Shares Slip for 6th Day

Just in case you had forgotten that the financial crisis in the United States is also worldwide.

Japanese stocks edged down Thursday, extending losses for a sixth day as investors traded with caution following the Federal Reserve's mixed assessment of the U.S. economy.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 7.6 points, or 0.05 percent, to 13,822.32.

"Sentiment was sluggish as the Fed's statement on the state of the U.S. economy was ambiguous," said Kazuki Miyazawa, market analyst at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. Ltd.

On Wednesday, the U.S. central bank said after a two-day meeting it was keeping its benchmark federal funds rate at 2 percent in a widely expected move.

The Fed also issued a mixed assessment of the world's largest economy. It said there were a few positive economic signs, including "some firming in household spending," but argued rising energy prices were likely to limit growth.

U.S. to Take North Korea Off Terror List

Does this mean North Korea is no longer a "axis of evil" country? The double standard here is breathtaking. The Bushies want to go to war with Iran but want negotiate with a regime that is even worse threat to us. Could someone ask McCain how he explains the hypocrisy.

North Korea submitted a long-delayed declaration of its nuclear program on Thursday, as the Bush administration said it would remove the country it once described as part of the “axis of evil” from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

“This can be a moment of opportunity for North Korea,” said President Bush, announcing the declaration at the White House. “If it continues to make the right choices it can repair its relationship with the international community.”

Mr. Bush said in the principal of “action for action”, the United States would lift some restrictions on commercial dealings with North Korea and within 45 days end its designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.

US Forces Face Spike in Deadly Violence in Iraq

Bad news for McCain, but more importantly our troops.

Roadside bombs killed four U.S. soldiers in northern Iraq, the military said Wednesday, in a spike of violence that pushed to at least 10 the number of Americans who have died here this week.

In the latest attack, one soldier was killed by an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP, about 9 a.m. Wednesday in the predominantly Shiite eastern half of Baghdad, the military said. The armor piercing bombs are believed to come from Iran and have been used by Shiite extremists to kill hundreds of American forces.

The U.S. military said three other U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed late Tuesday by a roadside bomb in the northern Ninevah province, where al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni extremist groups remain active.

The four U.S. fatalities brought the monthly death toll for American troops in Iraq to at least 26 — well below figures of last year but an increase over the 19 who died in May, the lowest monthly tally of the war.

In all, at least 4,110 U.S. military service members have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

World Condemnation of Zimbabwe Grows

Yeah? And so what. What is being done other than lots of talk and meaningless condemnation. The UN and/or Western Powers might make a deal with Mugabe to leave the country and be given a comfortable life in exile. This monster has slaughtered hundreds if not thousands of his own people and gotten away with it. He should be brought before a world court on human rights violations charges. Instead the entire world just fiddles its' collective fingers.

President Robert Mugabe faced deeper international isolation Wednesday, with African states demanding that a discredited runoff election be postponed and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela rebuking the Zimbabwe leader for the first time.

Tougher sanctions, sporting bans and economic boycotts could be next — and world support may build for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who called Wednesday for talks on power sharing.

Regional heads of state from southern Africa met in Swaziland and said Friday's runoff should be postponed until conditions permitted a free and fair vote.

President Bush said the runoff election appears to be a "sham," joining the international condemnation of Mugabe's actions.

At least 300 Zimbabwean opposition supporters, meanwhile, were seeking refuge at the South African Embassy in Zimbabwe. Ronnie Mamoepa, a spokesman for the South African Foreign Ministry, said the ambassador was talking with the group and that the situation was under control.

In London, Mandela made a carefully worded but pointed attack on Mugabe, saying there has been a "tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe."

The speech, at a fundraiser that included Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former President Bill Clinton, was the first time the former South African president has spoken publicly about the political crisis in Zimbabwe. His words are devastating for Mugabe and will weaken his claim to be a champion of African interests.

Although out of office for nearly a decade, Mandela remains a commanding and respected figure. He uses his influence sparingly, and it is particularly rare for him to publicly differ with South Africa's current president, Thabo Mbeki. South Africans and other Africans have been increasingly questioning Mbeki's leadership on Zimbabwe, so Mandela's brief but sharp comments will have particular resonance.

For Mugabe, they are a rebuke from a leader he sees as a fellow freedom fighter, and will be hard to dismiss or ridicule — so often Mugabe's response to criticism.

Tsvangirai made the call for peacekeepers in a commentary published Wednesday in British newspaper The Guardian. Asked about it at a news conference later in Harare, Tsvangirai said: "What do you do when you don't have guns and the people are being brutalized out there?"

Seizing Laptops and Cameras Without Cause

Pretty scary. We are losing our freedoms before our very eyes. America could be seeing its final days as a great nation. Everything around us is crumbling and we just behave like nothing is happening.

Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Agents searched Hogan's luggage and then popped an unexpected question: Was he carrying any digital media cards or drives in his pockets? "Then they told me that they were impounding my laptop," says Hogan, a freelance investigative reporter whose recent stories have ranged from the origins of the Iraq war to the impact of money in presidential politics.

Shaken by the encounter, Hogan says he left the airport and examined his bags, finding that the agents had also removed and inspected the memory card from his digital camera. "It was fortunate that I didn't use that machine for work or I would have had to call up all my sources and tell them that the government had just seized their information," he said. When customs offered to return the machine nearly two weeks later, Hogan told them to ship it to his lawyer.

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."

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