Expected Failure

The Flag Burning Amendment has failed in the Senate. This isn't really surprising to me, as I figured that it really isn't an issue the two parties want to get into at this time. I think that it was brought up only becuase some politicians wanted to establish their creds, one way or the other. Now that it has been taken care of, they can ignore it until they have to re-establish their creds.

Not Long Now

The expected Israeli incursion into Gaza is not long in coming, I think. Charles has a post up, with links that readers may find beneficial. I will link to one, Vital Perspective, which will apparently live-blog the event. Once again, I happen to think that Hamas, and perhaps other factions, desire this response from Israel. However, that doesn't mean that Israel shouldn't go ahead with it. Rather, it should remind us that many Palestinian leaders see the suffering of their people as a useful tool in their maintaining power.

Crunch Time

It appears thats events in Israel and the Territories is rapidaly approaching a convergence point. I can't help but think that this clash is being actively sought by the Palestinians, Hamas being at the top of the list of supporters. Why? Perhaps because Hamas realizes that the reason why people voted for them as compared to Fatah, corruption, is something that is likely to bring them down, just as it brought down the former party of Arafat. So by bringing the Intifadah back, which looks to be the likely result of all of this, Hamas hopes that it can deflect anger back against Israel.

Update on Siberia

I haven't posted anything on Siberia for a while, but here is an article in Pravda concerning Siberia and Chinese immigration. Russians realize there is a problem, but I don't think they truly comprehend just how big a problem it is, in part becuase (at least, in my view) they don't seem to look that far into the future. Its a crisis that looms a few decades from now, and is thus off most people's radar.

The Fading Impact of 9/11

Courtesy of PowerLine, I direct your attention to this post by pollster Scott Ramussen. While it is worth it to read the whole piece, the most important part is the summation at the end:

Another possibility, suggested by a wealth of polling data, is that Iraq and the War on Terror are no longer the dominant voting issues. For the first time since 9/11, we will have an election decided on issues closer to home. Immigration, the economy, and other domestic topics may ultimately decide the critical election contests this November.

Keep your eyes peeled folks. I have predicted for a while now that the GOP wouldn't do too well in the mid-terms in '08, for many reasons, but among them the fact that the GOP leadership still thinks that national security is important enough that Dem foolishness in that field would be enough to always tip elections their way. This doesn't appear to be good news for the GOP in that regard. The Powerline post about this is also worth reading.

Analyze This!

Recently, I signed my blog up for Google Analytics. For those of you who haven't heard of it before, it advertises itself as:

Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You'll be able to focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI, and improve your site to convert more visitors.

While I don't have ads set up on my blog, and thus don't have quite the incentive to direct traffic to it like some other bloggers, I did find the idea of understanding how people came to my site to be an interesting one. Hence, the decision to sign up for the program. So far, I have found a few interesting things out, although I had known or guessed some parts. Google provides about half of my traffic, at 45% or so. I had known previously most of my hits came from Google, but the fact that it is almost half is interesting. I wonder how that compares to other blogs. C-SPAN, which has a link to my blog, is a number 3, which I had not known before. Direct links were at number 2. What is perhaps most interesting is that TigerHawk is the site, besides C-SPAN, which provides me with the most traffic. I hadn't realized that before, so I suppose I owe the crew over at TH a thank you. I look forward to see how things will change over the summer, in terms of traffic.

Things Fall Apart

I haven't been paying too much attention to it, but apparently the Duke Lacrosse Team Rape Case is falling apart. I am not too terribly surprised, considering how weak it was since the beginning. Speaking of falling apart, that may be the case with the Haditha "incident" as well. One thing about the information age, and something which Serenity fans should understand, is that you "Can't Stop the Signal." Information is becoming increasingly hard to control. The truth will out, in the end. In the past it used to take decades. Now it will only take weeks. Of course, the truth is only as powerful as people's willingness to believe in it, and that I fear is something that technology has yet to change.

Where to spend your time on a Friday evening

Where? Why over at TigerHawk, of course? Lots of good stuff up at the moment, covering things from Z-mans timely demise to soccer-wars.

Grats to them for making Powerline's top blog of the week.

View from the Holy Land

Courtesy of Windsofchange, here is one Palestinian's account of some goings on inside the territories.

Trouble in Somalia

Kim over at Wizbang has more. Unless I am much mistake, a US military expedition to Somalia is now almost a given. It probably will not happen until aftert the Mid-term elections, but I rank it as more than 80% certain. The Bush admin isn't going to wait much longer than that before doing something, they will not want to give Al Qaeda any more time to set things up in Somalia along the lines of Afghanistan, which is what surely will happen.

Gatekeepers

Recently I have been wondering whether or not Rudy Guiliani could be nominated by the GOP as its Presidential candidate. His previous social views are the most often cited reason for his not being accepted. This of course raises a question in my mind: who are the gatekeepers in the Republican and Democratic Parties? What are the key issues to which a candidate must hew to the party orthodoxy in order to get nominated? I would ask for reader input on this, though I will submit my own list later. I also intend to ask several other bloggers what they think.

Update: So far, no responses. Somewhat disappointing, but I guess more incentive for me to create my own list.

Moving Forward

Wretchard has been on a roll, with more posts from him in the past 2 days than I ever remember seeing. So go pay him a visit.

The Price of Peace

I have been searching the Net recently in order to try and find out how many French civilians were killed by the allies during World War 2. So far I have had trouble finding any sources that breakdown who killed French civilians during the war. One site mentions that between 15,000 and 20,000 civilians were killed in the Normandy invasion, mostly by allied bombers. I will update this as I find out more.

Good News from Peru

It appears that the Peruvians have dodged a bullet. This is a good sign, as it indicates that there is real support against Hugo Chavez and his ilk in South America. While some on the right want to focus solely on Radical Islam, they forget that the impact of globalization which is enabling the spread and danger of Islamist Terrorism also impacts non-Muslim parts of the world, and enables similar anti-liberal forces. Chavez and his quasi-nationalist/neo-Marxist beliefs represent another threat to the world, albeit a smaller one at the moment. However, as more nations join the Chavez line, the more dangerous it becomes, which is why the victory of Garcia, a strident anti-Chavez foe, is such good news.

Sometimes...

...the media is just stupid.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday that a breakthrough over Tehran's nuclear program was possible and welcomed unconditional talks with all parties, including the United States.

Note the important part of that segment: unconditional talks. Note what the US has said it would do: only talk with Iran if it halts enrichment. Note just how stupid the media is to label this a "breakthrough." Note also this is Fox, which is assumed by many on the right to be among the better of the media forces out there.