It is against this backdrop that Congressional Republicans, and especially GOP senators, have to prepare for a combined MSM-Democratic activist assault on them, an assault which has already turned two --Hagel and Snowe-- into retreatists.  The ominous word that Senator Warner is circulating a "compromise" draft of a non-binding resolution brings immediately to mind the disastrous "compromise"  resolution of December, 2005 that Senator Warner midwifed, which dealt a huge blow to the Adminstration and divided the president's supporters. Even though the president did his best to put lipstick on that pig, the damage done by the attempt to "compromise" with the anti-war Democrats was doomed, just as this effort would be.

We have quickly arrived at a moment where the sides are going to line up, and Republicans on the wrong side of that line --and that would include so-called "compromises" that are in fact slow motion retreats-- will not only not get support from the GOP base, they will see a revolt in their re-election campaigns like the one which Lincoln Chafee encountered. 

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson intends to take the initial step toward the Democratic nomination, hoping his extensive resume will fuel an insurgent campaign to become the first Hispanic president.

Richardson plans to announce on Sunday that he will soon file the papers to create a presidential exploratory committee, several officials with knowledge of his plans said Friday. The governor is scheduled to appear on ABC's "This Week."

What the House, or at least the Members who voted aye, seem not to understand is that the price of petroleum is completely internationalized because the market is, too. If US oil companies can produce oil wholesale cheaper than its retail, or spot market, price on the international market, then they will sell the oil on the market and make a profit. At least the oil company will sell internationally the oil it produces that is excess to its domestic-retail capacity.

But if the cost of producing domestic oil is greater than its price on the international market, then companies shut down domestic production (never entirely, of course, because the restart costs would be prohibitive when/if the world price rose again and companies need a retained production capacity to surge production in that case). Since federal taxes are a major part of overall production costs for the US oil industry, increasing those taxes by removing subsidies simply raises the costs of domestic production. That makes it more likely that the oil companies will simply cut domestic production and make up the difference in imports.

They could have flattened all of Haret Hreik in a day if that’s what they wanted to do. There is nothing Hezbollah can do to stop that kind of assault.

Hezbollah’s supposed “victory” is a Pyrrhic one, if even that. And it should serve as a warning. Military historian Michael Oren explained it to me this way at the end of the war: “If [Nasrallah] has enough victories like this one, he’s dead.”

If you don’t like to listen to me, find another meteorologist with no tie to grant money for research on the subject. I would not listen to anyone that is a politician, a journalist, or someone in science who is generating revenue from this issue.

Cosgrove: She would say that I should not have an AMS Seal of Approval for radio or television because I do not espouse the global kool-aid line of the American Meteorological Society. Now, I like many people, believe in global warming. You can’t refute that. Temperatures are warming around the globe. But, the question is what’s causing it. Is it purely man made as the American Meteorological Society and Dr. Cullen espouse or is it a combination of events, namely what’s happening on the earth and ’some help’ so to speak, from man kind.

In conversations with Lt Col Mohammed and Major West, they explained the history of the 3/3-1, which they both felt was important in understanding the development of the unit and its place in the fight today. The unit possessed experience and leadership in the officer corps. The officers and many of the enlisted fought against the U.S. in the Gulf War in 1991, during Operation Desert Fox in 1998, and during the Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. The unit was considered to be an elite fighting force, superior to Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard. “This Iraqi Army battalion has a positive, martial attitude,” said Major West.

During the 2003 invasion, the battalion dropped its weapons and faded back into the civilian population, awaiting the call to reform after the fighting was over. “The call never came,” said Major West, which he said was a critical error made by the Coalition Provisional Authority, led by Paul Bremer. The unit maintained its social network and reformed after the failure and collapse of the Iraqi National Guard in 2004. The 3rd Brigade of the 1st Iraqi Army Division was the first unit to form up under General Petreaus' order to reconstitute the Iraqi Army.

The 3/3-1 trained in Taji and fought heavy battles in Mosul during 2004, where they “learned what it was like to fight offensively,” said Major West. “We fought on both the east and west sides of the city, and the fighting was tough,” said LtCol Mohammed, “But it prepared and hardened us.” In Mosul, the 3/3-1 also established what Major West calls “a predator-prey relationship,” an aggressive, offensive mindset which is vital to control security out here in Anbar province. A passive security posture is viewed as weakness by the local population, and serves only to encourage the insurgency. The battalion conducts multiple patrols, raids and security operations on a daily basis, and conducts the intelligence gathering and planning for these missions. They work closely with the Iraqi Police in the region, and conduct joint operations. Like other Iraqi battalions, their weakness lies in their ability to sustain logistics and pay their soldiers on a regular basis.