Author: Jason

Last night Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip to try and force the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit who is being held prisoner by a Palestinian militant group. Today Israeli airplanes flew over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s house in an effort to get Syria to put pressure on the Palestinians to release Cpl. Shalit.

The mission was the latest in a dramatic series of events raising tensions in the Middle East, including Israeli military raids into Gaza, where Cpl. Gilad Shalit was believed to be held captive by groups linked with Syria.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that Israeli planes had flown over the Syrian president’s country home and Israeli television reported al-Assad was at home at the time.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres has complained that Syria allowed Hamas political leaders based in Damascus to order Shalit’s kidnapping.

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Army Radio Wednesday that Israel sought to assassinate Hamas’ Syria-based political chief, Khalid Meshaal, according to The Associated Press.

Syria’s response?

Syria says its air defenses fired at Israeli jets flying over the president’s house, forcing them to flee, The Associated Press reports.

How far is this going to go?

If only for a moment. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban commenting on Donald Trump’s upcoming appearance on the Howie Mandel Show:

Howie, if you can get Mr Trump to pull a rubber glove completely over his head and blow it up on your show, not only will I watch it, I will donate 1 million dollars to the charity of your choice.

What could be better than that? Money for a great cause that you love. For the Donald, the thing he loves more than anything, bragging rights. Is there any doubt that by Tuesday afternoon he would be able to say that he was responsible for the most watched television show in the history of TV?

Is it possible that any human being on the planet would be able to resist watching Donald Trump blow up a rubber glove over his head? I dont think so. Combatants around the world would lay down their arms and all enjoy a moment of shared laughter.

I dont have the power to cause the end to wars. If only for a moment. You do Donald.

A small price to pay. If only for a moment.

This thing just keeps going. Via Instapundit, Travis at Rain Storm sees a conspiracy behind the whole thing:

It’s the old guard Dems and a few Ivy League journalists, seeing the times a changing, focusing all their resentments on a handful of insightful bloggers who might have referred to them as “wankers” a time or two.

So they’ve been throwing a swift boat hissy fit, telling stories out of school about those mean bloggers who called them such awful names. What a bunch of whiny ass wankers.

It’s the traditional media using blogging tools to give as good as it gets, if you ask me. Blogs are only relevant in as much as the MSM allows them to be, either by providing fodder by way or article or by picking up on stories that run around the blogosphere. This is what happens when bloggers continuously bite the hands that feed them.

Why is it that last week James Webb’s mum on the Senate’s Iraq War debate yet he’s quick to stand against the Flag Burning amendment the day before the Senate even addresses it? From his press release:

This is yet another example of deliberately divisive politics that distract Americans from the real issues that are facing our country…

So where were you last week, Sec. Webb?

As seen by a Russian tourist. Think China shortly after Mao’s death.

French paper Le Monde continues to try and nail Lance Armstrong on doping:

Seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has admitted he took banned drugs including erythropoietin (EPO) at the time he was being treated for cancer, the French daily Le Monde reported on Friday.

“According to new testimonies gathered from October 2005 to January 2006 by a court in Dallas, the seven-times Tour de France winner told a Indiana University Hospital doctor on October 28, 1996 he had taken performance-enhancing drugs,” Le Monde said.

Jon Henke has a great analysis of the Kosola mix-up:

I’m not particularly concerned about the recent Kos/Armstrong allegations, if only because (1) I fully expect the new wave of political power-players to engage in power-brokering, and (2) I’m not at all convinced that some of the activities are even remotely problematic. The Townhouse email group, for example, is not a “smoke-filled back room”. It’s an email group. Heck, I’ve set up one of those — called Blogosphere — and anybody is welcome to sign up, exchange links, make suggestions or otherwise exert your insidious influence to make the blogger-marionets dance.

That said, the apparent insistence on party and message discipline is worrisome. It indicates that the Progressive Movement has internalized the very flaws that so often characterized the Republican majority, and against which the Democrats have railed.

He also links to a Barack Obama diary at DailyKos that makes a great argument for the sake of the “progressive” movment as well.

With Senate debate this week on Iraq, Kilo shares a George Allen press release that asks a very good question: Why the silence James Webb?