Wednesday's a Wrap

Perhaps General Moseley should refresh his memory on the reasons we choose to serve? Hint General - it has to do with FREEDOM and our dedication to preserving - and practicing - it. So their creepy new blog-blocking Cyber Command is not just Orwellian, it's stupid - any site calling itself a blog is blocked - even the Counterterrorism Blog, which is widely recognized as one of the best realtime resources for daily CT (counterterrorism) news and updates. Irony alert: The banned Counterterrorism Blog is referred to in Air Force professional development and CT curricula.

Here's a General who deserves his Stars DIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee today, stated unequivocally that waterboarding is torture and violates Common Article III of the Geneva Conventions.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) asked, "General, do you believe that waterboarding is consistent with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions?"

After pausing a moment to think, Maples replied, "No, sir, I don’t."

"Do you think it’s humane?" Levin asked.

"No, sir, I think it would go beyond that bound."

Sessions (R-Alabama) was unable to abide the honesty and the humanity, and made sure to get on the record that waterboarding had only been used on three suspects, and besides that, it was used before the Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that the Geneva Conventions must apply to detainees. (I would be willing to overlook human rights protections in the case of Sessions if he ever finds himself in custody.)

Running scared? Or just stupid? Coleman has been busted astroturfing in his Minnesota Senate race against Al Franken. Click the link and read the post at Minnesota Publius, then, while you are good and steamed, go make a donation to Al Franken.

Did Someone spike Harry Reid's Wheaties with Calcium? He seems to be growing something that resembles a backbone. He is insisting that the Democrats are not going to back down on a controversial bankruptcy provision in a "housing stimulus" bill. Bush is threatening a veto, Senate Dems seem to be shrugging their shoulders and saying "So?"

Nobel Economics Laureate pegs the cost of the current wars at three Trillion dollars. Economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard researcher Linda Bilmes have teamed up to write The Three Trillion Dollar War. (You can preorder at Amazon by clicking that link.)

If it's Wednesday, it must be time for the weekly Bloomberg denial that he is running for the presidency. By my count, there are 35 Wednesdays standing between us and election day.

About that 'virtual' border fence...Plans have been scaled back and completion of the first phase of the project has been delayed by at least three years. Technical problems in a test program south of Tucson prompted the changes.

If interest rates hit zero, then what? On Wednesday, Bernanke indicated that the Fed would consider cutting interest rates again when they meet next month, and he flatly stated that his number one priority was fighting off a recession, not dealing with inflation, so dig out those old WIN buttons now and beat the rush. Get ready for the return of Stagflation, folks.

Meanwhile in Pakistan...the winning parties from last weeks parliamentary elections are pressing Musharraf to convene the new parliament immediately.

And without a trace of irony...Secretary of Defense Robert Gates urged Turkey to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Turkish forces crossed the border into Iraq a few days ago to hunt down PKK terrorists who have found safe haven in the heavily-subsidized Kurdish area of Iraq.

And that's it for Wednesday. We're over the hump on another week, which means there are only two days left until the news dump.